Day 9

Yesterday's picture is kind of a silly one ... my son's army guys. But those army guys were a pretty big part of their day. In our basement, they set up a huge plastic toy battle ... there were lego fortresses, blue plastic storage bin lids as swamps and lakes, plastic children's chairs were caves and hiding spots and of course the army guys were set up amidst it all.

They kept begging me all day to come down and take pictures of their set up, but admittedly, I kept putting them off. I thought for sure I could come up with something more creative for my project 365 shot than toys scattered across my basement floor. In the end, though, they dragged me down there with camera in hand and now I see that there was nothing more creative than the imagination of two boys and their toys.

And thankfully they so kindly removed the one army guy that had somewhere along the lines lost his head in battle before I took the picture!

Project 365 - Days 6, 7, and 8

Day 6 [taken 1/6/11] - I've been working on guitar pictures all week ... this one is my favorite! I like the angle of the guitar the black and white edit and the solid black frame. I also like that my son and husband are going to start taking guitar lessons together starting in February. Yay for music and pictures of musical instruments!




Day 7 [taken 1/7/11] - Normally I would never publish an out-of-focus picture but this one intrigues me. My flash didn't fire but I think I'm liking this picture better than I would've with the flash. It was taken at the Fire & Ice First Friday festival (wow...that's a lot of f's!) in the city where my parents live. They had ice sculptures and this station set up where anyone could come and roast marshmallows. The night was perfect for such an event ... it was snowing but not windy and the streets were crowded with families enjoying a fun, winter evening in January!

Day 8 [taken today-1/8/11] - Joel and I treated ourselves to one of our favorite treats for lunch ... Crunchy Asparagus sushi and three delicious sides ... all from one of the best restaurants in town. It was incredibly delicious!

Day 5 - Celebrating Color!

These bright, new pieces of chalk just make me happy today. We all need a little color in our lives, don't you think? What kinds of things will bring color into your day today? For me?

Lunch with my mom

Taking my son out for ice cream after school

Hearing about everyone's day when they come home after work and school

Piles of brightly colored, clean laundry

A dusting of freshly fallen snow

An encouraging word from a friend

And who knows what else...

I'm on the lookout for color today and I bet if I look hard enough, I'll find it all around me!

Project 365 - Day 4

One of my goals for the new year is to get better at taking face shots. I tend to gravitate towards taking picture of inanimate objects like flowers and plants, mainly because they don't have a mind of their own and are very easy to work with, but also because I feel I can do more with them creatively in the editing process.

But, I do have three cutie-pie children who, generally, are willing models for me to practice on. Today's shot (actually taken yesterday - I'm posting a day behind for p365) is of my daughter, Katelyn. She looked so cute yesterday morning all dressed and ready for school that I had to grab a few shots before she left.

I am so in love with this precious girl - my almost nine year old baby. She's spunky and sensitive all at the same time and I am thankful that God brought her into our family!

Sweet Shot Tuesday & Project 365 - Day 3

Canon Rebel xti ... ISO 200 ... Shutter Speed: 1/400 ... f1/5.6 ... 100mm 2.8L Macro lens ... PSE9

After running several adjustment layers (layers and brightness/contrast), I used to MCP's Touch of Light/Touch of Darkness and added one photo veil and one photo texture, both from Love That Shot.

To view more sweet shots:

365 - Day 2

The challenge with a project such as 365 is to make everyday things come to life through pictures. There are many days in the course of a year where nothing exciting happens and so it's difficult to find something interesting to capture. My goal is to not worry about capturing something exciting, but to capture our life as it is ... interesting or not.

Day two's picture (which was actually taken yesterday) is of a K'nex set that my middle son, Matthew, is building. He has always been the builder in our family and he constantly amazes me with his ability to look at a picture of something and figure out how it's put together. He definitely has an engineering mind - something he got from his Daddy and not me!

And because I know myself, I've decided to also take part in p52, a less ambitious one photo a week project sponsored by Darcy at Life With My 3 Boybarians, the same site that sponsors the weekly Sweet Shot Tuesday challenges that I like to participate in. I have no grand illusions that I will actually be able to post one picture a day for an entire year (although I'm going to at least try and take one picture a day), but I should be able to at least post one picture a week. We shall see...

Project 365 - Day 1

I've decided to attempt a Project 365 this year - a project where I will try and take at least one picture a day. Right from the beginning I'll admit that there will be days that I miss, but I'm going to do my best to get as many days done as I can. My hope is by the end, not only will I have a photographic journal of our year, but that I will also learn to be more creative and improve my photography skills.

Picture #1 was taken yesterday at my husband's family Christmas. We always gather the weekend after Christmas either in our hometown or in Ohio and are joined by two generations of cousins, my husbands aunts & uncles, siblings and parents as well as his precious 95 year old Grandma. She is the center of this family and the reason so many in the family make the effort to attend this annual Christmas celebration. We don't know how many more years we have with Grandma, which is why I cherish this special picture of my husband and his Grandma holding hands.