My New Shirt

This is the new shirt I received today for giving blood. I was putting it away when I realized it was perfect for this week's theme. So what do I do outside the world of photography? I save lives!

(Western Kentucky Regional Blood Center)

My "Other" Job

I work part time from home for my Brother-In-Law's Crop Insurance Business. Can you imagine me talking about corn and soybeans? It is a blessing for me to be able to stay home with my son and still be able to work and bring in a little extra income. The people I work for/with are great and that is always so important in a job so I am very happy!

Church Lady

Yeah, I'm a Church Lady. LOL

I do a lot with my church. It's kind of hard not to get involved when it's such a good cause, there's lots of nice people, lots to do, and yeah, DH being the pastor may have something to do with it! My fave thing about church is the teens. I love those crazy kids! I help out during youth meetings but I also teach the Youth Sunday School class. This is the book we are currently using...

Playtime!

This week's theme is "What You Do Outside The World Of Photography". The first thing that came to mind is playing with my son! We laugh at ourselves because all the cool toys we see that we would have loved as kids, we think our little guy has to have them too! Many days it looks like Toys R Us exploded in our yard (and in the house!). The other day, we spent the afternoon chalking up the driveway and had a blast. I love spending time with my favorite little boy!

(The writing you see is mine, I wrote it to show him what the chalk was all about! It says, "Mommy (heart)'s Jeremiah!")

Great!

My Grandmother blessed me with an amazing gift the last time I went to visit. She presented me with her mother's wedding ring. It's small and simple. The band is warped from age and hardworking hands. I look at this ring and wonder what her life was like. I wonder what she was like. I have a copy of their wedding picture, the only picture I have of her. It's funny to look at such a young, beautiful woman and try to picture her as someone's grandmother, let alone a great grandmother! I will cherish this ring from deep in my heart. It is a treasure that I will one day pass along... {SS 1/250, F5.6, ISO 400, Manual Mode, Natural Light}

Something old...

My DH grew up here so I asked him what the oldest thing in town was. He told me about this tree so we drove over there to take some pics. It is just a few feet from one of the busiest streets in town, in front of an insurance agency! So I wasn't going to get many "natural looking" shots! I hated all the shots from across the street (where I had to go to get a full top-to-bottom shot). Too many cars, signs and wires! Here are a few from that big old sassafras tree...

Emotions

I won't be here next week - out of town with no internet - pray for me! LOL But I wanted to post once more before I left and wanted to participate in next week's so I am a little early...

I love this kid! So many emotions come to mind when I see this sweet little face. There's just nothing like it!

(Just got a new lens - 50mm f/18. II - I am loving it! Now I just need to really practice with it!)

POTD #15 Sun! Sun? Sun.

Cozy rainy day. So glad I didn't have to go anywhere, I could enjoy this day in my PJ's! Ahh the joys of working from home! When J lay down for his nap I stepped outside to capture the beautiful fluffy clouds hiding the sun. I haven't been on theme for this challenge forever! I came back in after shooting #1 and it poured! So I peeked out the back window and shot #2. I came back to my desk to look at the shots, it stopped raining so I went to get the complete set of shots: Before, After, and After That!
SS 1/4000, F 5.6, ISO 800 (?), Manual mode with natural light!


SS 1/200, F 5.6, ISO 800, Manual (from the safety of the window)

SS 1/4000, F 5.6, ISO 100, manual

Turning 31 Today...

Oh do I feel old! Had to update my self-portrait...

You can see it here: http://capturingeverydaylife.blogspot.com/2007/04/over-30.html

Thanks for visiting!

POTD #13Cookies

My hubby doesn't understand why I like these Trefoils out of all the other Girl Scout cookie choices. He says they are boring! I like Thin Mints and Samoas... but I seem to like these the best. It's almost a comfort food to me! Yummy!

POTD#13 Pizza Party!

If you promise a bunch of hungry teens pizza, you'd better deliver! (Um, no pun intended there) When I saw this stack of pizza boxes waiting to be devoured, I thought of this week's theme so *snap* went the camera with a bunch of satiating onlookers giving me strange looks. If you've ever seen a bunch of teens inhale pizza, you'll know why I didn't want to share pics of them eating!

SS 1/20, F/5, ISO 800, Av mode

Bubble-licious!

We have spent so much time outside playing with bubbles lately! I love the fun yummy bright colors of the little wands. I am loving this warm weather and being outside in the sunshine! More fun days ahead!

POTD #12

This toy has been through it. It is Jeremiah's favorite. Actually we've gone through two of this exact one and several other doodle boards. This Elmo & Cookie Monster one seems to be his fave of them all. Maybe because it's his first (design)? Maybe it's the size? It's easy to carry and fits perfectly in his lap. Either way, no matter how many others we've gone through, this one is a permanent fixture around here. He calls it his "draw" and it even made it into our family Christmas picture 2 years ago! I think it's time for another one...

The ISO is up really high, I know. It seemed so dark! I also couldn't seem to get a brighter white without blowing it. These were taken last night under my dining room light with no flash. Any ideas? HHCC always appreciated!

POTD # 12 Household Items

I started collecting Willow Tree Figurines about five years ago. I have never been a collector of anything but something about these carved figures intrigued me. I have several now so I decided to use one of my favorites. Thanks for looking, CC appreciated!

POTD #11 Mmmmmmm...

Don't you just love M&M's? It's hard to resist these cute little M's! I will always remember the old commercial where the kid said the green ones were the home runs - anyone remember this? Green was my fave until they came out with blue - my favorite color! So now guess which color makes me smile when I open up a bag? My son loves these too and one day he asked for some "M's" and I told him no. He thought for a moment then asked me for some "W's"! LOL He was watching me look through the M&M shots and drew me some pictures. Check them out here: http://capturingeverydaylife.blogspot.com/2007/03/artistic-kid.html


Thanks for looking!

POTD#11 More Blue!

I looked for blue things while we were out of town and found this fire hydrant! In honor of UK team spirit, they painted all of their hydrants blue across the city. I only had enough time to shoot while we waited for the light to change. I wish I would have taken more shots from other angles.

While we waited for my husband to get out of his meeting, we found these tiny little blue "flowers" hidden in the shade. I have no idea what they are, but they were cute!

POTD #11 Woo hoo it's BLUE!!!

Actually, the theme is "your favorite color." So that means you'll be seeing blue this week! I love it! But then when I tried to find something to shoot, nothing seemed interesting! Oh well. Here is my son's huge blue ball. It is almost as big as him but I couldn't get a decent shot of him with it so you just get the ball. LOL Here it is in the yard and a close-up of the swirls: {ss 1/640, F/4 ISO 200, Av mode, natural light}

{ss 1/1250 (!?), F/5.6 ISO 200, Av mode, natural light}

POTD#10 - DVD Player

I was hesitant to purchase this for our son. I didn't want to encourage more TV watching! Turned out to make life easier when we took long road trips. After the books, songs and scenery wear off, life is hard for a toddler stuck in a carseat for hours! That is when we break out some Blue's Clues or Veggietales. It has been wonderful to have this available for the last leg of the long drive. Gives him something to zone out with just long enough for us to get there! As you can see in the close-up of the buttons, Little Man has also figured out how to work it! (See the fingermarks and crayon bits?)

I tried taking it from several angles and used black foamcore just to try that out too. Took these in my living room with lamp lighting and flash but sometimes it came out a bit yellow-y. Guess I'll keep playing with my WB settings! Thanks in advance for CC!

{ISO - 800, ss 1/5, F/4, Av mode}

{ISO - 800, ss 1/8, F/5, Av mode}

{ISO - 800, ss 1/5, F/5, Av mode}

{ISO - 800, ss 1/4, F/4, Av mode}

Also, I was distracted for a moment by my son while shooting and accidentally clicked the * button. Didn't really know what that did but it sent out some flickering and then I got this weird shot! Crazy what your camera will do it you are not watching! I had to reset my camera's default setting to get back to normal! I re-read my manual and still don't know what I did. The second is the original shot (right before the funky one!) Just thought I'd share this for fun. Anyone know what happened? I'd love to understand!

{ISO - 800, ss 1/10, F/5.6, Av mode}

{ISO - 800, ss 1/4, F/4.5, Av mode}

POTD #10 - Kid Viewer

I love that my minivan came with a kid viewer mirror! Being obsessed with my little guy, it only made sense for me to see what he is doing back there but not so good for me to be turning around while driving! When my van was in the shop last year, the rental car drove me nuts because we were missing this feature. I would look up only to be frustrated that I couldn't see him! It's a little thing but it makes my life easier to know what the little guy is doing and if his screaming is because he's dying or just dropped his toy. It helps me to interact with him by knowing what he's doing and he knows I am right there with him, even if he can't really see me. And that makes life easier for the both of us.

{ss 1/100, F/13. ISO 1600, 43 mm, natural light, Av mode}

POTD #10 - Remote!

We seem to have a million things with remotes... to alieviate the perpetual search for the right remote, my hubby bought this Universal Remote to use for three of our electronic devices! It saves time switching back and forth and saves on the clutter problem. So I deem it as something that makes our lives easier! That and we don't have to get off our lazy bums to change the channel! TFL! CC welcomed!

[SOOC, ss 1/60, F/5.6, 49mm, ISO 400, natural light, Macro setting}

**UPDATED! You asked for a view of the whole remote - so here it is! I had a hard time getting the remote to give me a decent pose! LOL

{SOOC but cropped, ss 1/10, F/5.6, 55mm, ISO 400, natural light}

POTD #10 Stepping Stool

This makes life easier for my son! Little Shorty can't reach the sink to brush his teeth witout a little help. I thought it was a cute shot but couldn't seem to get it right. Below is the original (except I turned it vertical). I took a ton of shots (he made a mess in the sink - water everywhere!), and used a ton of different settings (WB, SS...) couldn't get the yellow to go away! And the ones taken with flash were just horrible. So I ended up just choosing one that came out in focus and PSed it! I know the lighting was bad, was there anything I could have done differently? Oh yeah, and I know, the stinkin' rug should have been out of sight! I was too busy trying to get the color right! Oh well... TFL! CC Please so I can learn from my mistakes!
{ss 1/16, F/4.5 34 mm, ISO 400, available light}

POTD Week #10

One of my favorite things in the whole world? To see the word "Washable" on the side of my toddler's markers. He loves to draw and markers seem to be his favorite medium for now. Do I fret? Nope! I've come to trust Crayola when they print this word on their product. It sure makes life easier to clean up in this house!

{ss 1/125, F/5.6, 46mm ISO - 400, natural light}

POTD #9 - I'm learning

"You're never too old to learn!" Have you ever heard that? Here I am in my thirties (ACK! When did THAT happen?!), trying to learn something new - photography. It's so fun! But no matter how much I try, I see that I still have so much to learn! Sometimes I get so frustrated with myself I wonder if I'm just a lost cause with this new hobby of mine. But then I'm just stubborn enough to keep trying my hand at it. It's good to be a student and to never stop trying to learn something new... so I guess you're stuck with me!

Thanks for looking!

CC always appreciated!

{ss 1/50, F/5, ISO 800, 34mm}