bokeh attempt

So this year I finally tried the "shaped bokeh" camera trick that you see posted this time of year a lot. Well... my kit lens isn't the most effective at this, but by putting it in manual focus, I was able to manipulate it and get a heart shape to my lights!

Here it is without the heart shape over the lens:

Not bad at a first attempt, but maybe in the future (next year, maybe/hopefully!) I will have better results with a lens with an aperture of greater than 4.0! And maybe I'll get creative with more than just the tree. See what others have done here. There are some very impressive results!

Happy Birthday, Jesus and Merry Christmas, everyone else! May your Christmas be sparkly and bright...

mild fall

This warm weather sure is making this a mild fall... and I confess, I like it! :) I've had several photo sessions lately, with two more next week. The milder temperatures make it easier on my clients, as not many people want to wear outerwear for their photos (although I love a good photo of people all bundled up with hats and scarves - the layers add such dimension and color). 

Not sure what your plans are for Thanksgiving, but I want to wish you a happy holiday weekend! I am going to take some time to celebrate with family, so my time online will be sparse. I'll catch back up with you next week and maybe share a recipe from the weekend that got rave reviews. Always fun to see how the meal comes together with everyone's contributions :)

fedoras on toddlers...

So this little fedora-sporting cutie pie has music in his genetic makeup, or just a strong desire for a good beat :) I headed to a spot downtown one evening, intending to take a few shots of the children. One of those grandparents-are-asking-for-recent-pics type excuses. What we discovered at our location was a steel drum player! Boy did that make Zane happy! He did not stop "be-bopping" the entire time. Lynn found it just as exciting, but at 8 years old, she was a little more shy when it came to dancing with an audience.

snagged in texture

Another newbie-texture-user photo here. A goal of mine for the month of September is to watch the instructional videos for Perfect Layers so that I can really get the most out of this program.

I felt this shot of my Rose of Sharon bloom, with it's rough, imperfect, snagged leaves needed some "roughing up" with a texture (click on image to enlarge). I haven't really been shooting that much lately. This little beauty was being tossed around in the winds that we received courtesy of Hurricane Irene. That's about all we got, seeing as we're a good 250+ miles from where it made landfall in the outer banks of the NC coastline.


I need to do a little more research on Rose of Sharon. We were gifted this as a small plant, and have already gotten several blooms, mere months after putting it in the ground. It's a pretty little thing out my back kitchen window. I enjoy the surprise of the blooms when they come, as the individual flowers themselves don't seem to last too long.

transportation

The kids and I went to my parents for a few days in late July and I had the opportunity to pull out my camera for more than just a few family shots. I've been lackadaisical about taking photographs this summer. My interest hasn't waned, but I just haven't looked for or taken the opportunities to get out and shoot.


I guess, in the past, I had put pressure on myself to "decide" what I'm going to do with photography instead of just purely enjoying it as a hobby and therefore I've almost ended up avoiding it all together. Crazy.

So, when we decided to go to a transportation museum, I got all giddy over what I could photograph. :) No planes, but plenty of trains and automobiles... and a fire truck and old tractor :)

A little bit random in the selection and processing, but I was having fun with my old friend, Lightroom and some random jazz music through iTunes, after the kids were in bed earlier this week.

it's raining...

This summer seemed to bring lots of thunderstorms with some bad lightening and "scary" thunder. There was one gentle, morning shower, though that had no dangerous lightening. After kissing my hubby goodbye for work, I stripped Zane down to a diaper, pulled on his rain boots, and actually gave him the umbrella that he always wants to pull out of the closet. :) I opened the backdoor and plopped him down. He had a ball! Stomping in puddles and eventually ditching the umbrella when he found the gutter downspout, splashing in the water that poured down. A little impromptu fun!

blueberries

Anyone recognize these? They're blueberry bushes! I have spent the last few summers picking strawberries, but I'd never been on a blueberry farm.

Now I have!

When visiting my parents, the kids, my mom, and I went to pick. It was hot, however the kids really got into it, and after a quick lesson on "blue" vs. "green," Zane was mostly on board with picking only the ripe ones.


Mmmm... fresh blueberries. Oddly enough, I prefer them as ingredients rather than a snack by themselves, so the blueberry muffins and pancakes we had the following mornings were delicious!


What types of fruit have you ever picked fresh?

here ducky, ducky...

Summer is for... relaxing, playing, chilling, getting hyper,
& having mega patience (ok, ok, that's for the mommies and daddies)...

and for doing non-scheduled things like simply feeding some ducks and swans at the park!

queen anne

Queen Anne's Lace... I'm not sure what it is about these intricate, colorless beauties, but I have always been intrigued with these flowers. They always seem to beckon me from overgrown roadsides. My romantic hubby pulled the car over randomly one time when we were driving alone together and picked one, then handing it to me. (If this was illegal, I promise, it was the only time I've ever picked one, er, well... except for the one time I wanted to see if you could put food coloring in the water to change its color... I digress... p.s. it does work ;)


The tiny flowers give it such depth, yet it's really pretty surprisingly flat across. I think it's texture that makes it so interesting to me... especially in monotone...


p.s. I had no idea, until surfing around about Queen Anne's Lace, but apparently they can be used as a contraceptive (like a morning-after pill type). Anyways, if that makes you curious, here is one source and another.

watching, waiting

It's so fun (& sometimes mouth-wateringly painful) to watch this...

... turn into this!



linking up with Foto Friday's theme of red, white and/or blue,
as well as here:

lantanas

My mother in law has a green thumb. She knows all sorts of information regarding flowers, their ease of growing, and has a beautiful display of container gardens on her back deck to prove it. I, on the other hand, fumble bumble and can get most things to grow, but don't have a desire or passion for it like she does. All that to say, I would much rather get my camera out and photograph her little beauties in action - growing and blooming their little heads off.


These flowers are called lantanas. Dave's Garden has a great little synopsis about them. They bloom repeatedly throughout the summer, come in a TON of colors, and take full sun.

A couple of things I didn't know...
"Danger: All parts of plant are poisonous if ingested." (source) -- yikes!

"If you have ever watched a lantana for a period of time, then you are aware that each little floret of the flower cluster changes colors during the day. If you were able to remember which floret you were looking at and went back three hours later, you would already start to see a change. This trait only holds true for the lantanas with multiple colors." (source) -- If I only knew! Next time I visit, I will have to see if this holds true! How fun!

fathers

Since this past weekend was Father's Day, I thought I'd use a photo of my hubs "in action" as a daddy. The photo was actually taken over Memorial Day weekend, when we stopped at an historic shot tower, circa mid-1800's. As evidence of all the shadows and light, it was mid-afternoon when we sweated our way around down the trail (that didn't lead to anything having to do with the Shot Tower, but I digress...).
It was a sweet time, exploring a new area. ;)

My fantastic hubby took Lynn camping this past weekend, just the two of them. I'll have to post a photo he took sometime of the area, but it was sooo fun seeing the sparkle in Lynn's eye and hearing her talk about all that they did together. It was a little bit of work to make it all come together, but even when a storm threatened to send them home, they stuck it out and made some wonderful memories together. Precious!

textures

Textures, textures... they have always been something that I have been intrigued with. Not having Photoshop, I never thought I'd get the chance to "play" with textures. Well, good thing Scott Kelby tweeted otherwise! Weeks(?) Months(?) ago he tweeted about a new program called Perfect Layers, designed to work hand in hand with Lightroom (& Aperture) to allow users to layer (aka use textures!) I downloaded the free trial and then just got caught up in life/stuff. I finally took some time yesterday to play around with several photos and here are a few of my beginner-results (click on each photo to enlarge):




Free textures used in layering for the above photos can be found here. I'm linking up with Foto Friday using the above photo of my son for "action." We took a walk around some new botanical gardens in my area and he was quite taken with... the gravel on the ground and the bugs he found (boys!).

In this photo, I actually layered another photo I had taken of this plant, however only of just the leaves. It turned out kind of busy, maybe, but I thought it was neat, especially after taking it brown and white.

My free trial of the program ends at the end of this month, so now I need to decide whether I want to invest in it! (Not that I get any kick-backs for mentioning, but they are running a pre-release special price now, before it releases on the 17th of June).

web

Waterdrops and spiderwebs. This was my first attempt at capturing this popular macro subject and I must admit, I am hooked. Very fun. The water drops just accentuate the intricacy of the web.

"just" weeds

Because some days I'm overly optimistic and the "weeds" in life are embraced with color...




And other days I still look for the beauty, but find they're more appropriate in muted tones...



What kind of day is it for you today?