More

Here are few more. Pat, the picture of Braedon and Cam is at the same place you asked about. The leaves are gone from the tops of the trees, but the bottom ones were still there for the most part. The leaves are a very different color, but I thought it was still a great place to take pictures!

Another Photo

Okay, I was finally able to go out and spend some time taking pictures today! It was a lot of fun for me...not for the kids though. They hate getting their pictures taken. :( Maybe because I always have the camera out? Anyway...I took this picture of Braedon while on top of a ladder as I was throwing leaves down at him. I'm sure there are plenty of things technically wrong with this picture, but I just love it. It is so...Braedon. Thanks Pat for inspiring me to go out today and take some pictures, or I would not have this picture! ;) I took tons more, but it will take a while for me to look at them all. I will post a few more later.

Fall

I added the top picture after I had already posted this post. I guess I should clarify that! :) The top one I took very early in the season. Maybe on the 5th? or possibly even before that. I laugh at myself. I usually take my camera with me where ever I go. I was at a stop sign over by the railroad tracks in Snoqualmie. I looked down the street and saw this sidewalk. So I rolled down my window, and took that picture while still sitting in my car. :) I almost forgot I had taken it because it was quite a bit before the fall challenge. I thought the color of the leaves were so beautiful. The leaves in our yard fall down and turn brown so quickly. These leaves were so colorful! I just love autumn!



Well, I have only been able to go out once...well, if that even counts! :) I was waiting for a parking spot at the library, so I saw some trees over by the post office. I drove over there, and while my two youngest were screaming in the car, I got out and took a couple pictures of the leaves...yes, I take my camera with me when I go places just in case! I have seen so many beautiful pictures of the leaves and trees that you all have done. I will have to go out and try again! You have totally inspired me to do better than I have done!

Tummy Shot

Not that great, but there you have it! :)

Depth of Field

Well, I am finally posting a depth-of-field picture. I am a little behind. :) I also included a picture that I took while standing above the candles. Thank you Marci for the inspiration. :) I got a little too close, but I couldn't get back any farther. The ceiling was in the way. I had to climb up onto my entertainment center because I was too lazy to set it up again on the floor. I am trying really hard to take pictures "correctly" in the first place. I am trying to wean (sp) myself away from photoshop. :) I have been trying to pay closer attention to the lighting and the metering on my camera.

angles

Well, I posted two pictures last night, but I thought they were pretty lame so I tried again...not really happy with these either. I did enjoy the challenge though of trying to look at this plant at all possible angles....oh, except I didn't climb on top of something and look down at it. I will have to try that later. My orginal plan was to take a picture of just a single water droplet like I have seen in other photos, but my lense won't get close enough...even with a mulitplier. I will have to do some more research on that.

Here are a few pictures that I have taken over the past week. I am tying to get close-up shots of the kid's hands, feet, ears, and things like that. I'm going to try some more as soon as Nathan comes home with my camera. He went to AZ and took the camera with him. I am having serious withdrawal issues! :) The next best thing is to edit pictures I guess.

Lights

I was messing around the other night with lights. I just thought this one was odd.

Anyways, I was reading something about macro lenses (I want to take more water pictures), and I ran across something that made me laugh. I went out with Rebecca to take those pictures of Seattle at night. My pictures didn't turn out because I didn't have a shutter release cord or what ever those things are called. All of the pictures had different degrees of blurriness. Then I read that you can always set your camera's timer to take macro stills to avoid the blur. I felt like an idiot! I would have never thought of the timer! So anyone who would like to take pictures that require a tripod and should have little to no shake...use the timer! ;) Just thought I would share that.

I also wanted to take another picture of the moon. I would like to get a picture with the sky blue. Has anyone taken pictures like this? The sky looks blue when I take the picture, but then in the picture itself it is black. If I decrease the shutter speed, it overexposes the moon. The only thing I can think of is to find a full moon out right as the sun is setting. Any ideas?

Chair...Couch?

I don't have chairs...well, besides the ugly fold up kind so I used the couch. Hopefully that counts. We have benches to eat on instead of chairs...anyways! The kids had a few moments before their first day of school so I took some pictures of them on the couch. They are by the window which was not producing very much light. The majority of pictures were very dark and blurry, but a few turned out.

20 ft

Well, I tried out some new things this week. I tried to stay within the rules of this week's challenge. I have really been wanting to practice taking pictures of fire. I was a big time pyro. I tried taking pictures of matches, but that didn't work so I resorted to candles.

I saw a cool picture a few weeks ago of a drop of water. I tried and tried to take a similar shot, but I couldn't quite do it like they did. I do like the water drop pictures, but I haven't figured out how to get rid of the grain. I must have taken nearly 300 pictures to get those three water shots. It was pretty hard to get the drop in focus and the timing right. My poor kids took turns dropping the water out of a dropper! :)

I also tried looking around at things in the house. I had Cameron put on that hat, and then I took some pictures of the chess board.

Seattle Skyline

Well, here are the pictures I took the other night with Rebecca. Unfortunately, I don't have a shutter release cable for my camera, and these were the only ones that "turned out". The are still a bit blurry, but that is the best I could do. I learned that in order to take pictures at such a low shutter speed, I have to have more than just a tripod...need remote! :) It was a blast going and taking these though! Maybe we should all go take night shots sometime. Anyone is more than welcome to use my camera if you don't have Shutter Priority mode.

Too Much Fun!!!

Whether my pictures turn out or not, I can honestly say that I have never had so much fun taking pictures of just stuff! This has really helped me reach out and take pictures of things I wouldn't normally take pictures of.

That yellow picture is of a Kiwi. Maybe it is a bit too close.

I am into making things look old, so I tried to make the baseball picture and the cowboy boot pictures look rustic. I am into film grain these days too. :)

Yellows

I spent quite a while outside the other night trying to get a decent picture of the moon. I had a hard time getting the exposure right.

With the trucks, I was messing with the aperature to see if I could get all the trucks in focus. I have a hard time with that. One is usually in focus while the rest are blurred. I took that one today while I was waiting to take pictures at scout camp.

My Cheating Yellow

This is way cheating, but I was messing around with this picture last night in Photoshop and decided to try and use it for the yellow challenge. I totally cheated by not taking a picture that was actually yellow, but I will try and take a real picture in the next few days. I think Cami looks so funny with the hat and goggles on. :)

Here is the original photo.

Here are a couple of summer fun pictures. Preston's picture was under exposed a lot, but I was trying different croppings with the picture.

Ky just makes me laugh...he looks so silly.

I LOVE taking pictures of Bryce. He is a fun kid to take pictures of.

Blue Eye

This picture almost turned out kind of gross! I can't stare (sp) at it too long. Looks weird to me. :) I did alter the photo a bit in Photoshop. I used a macro lense. That is why I was able to get up so close. That was as close as I could get with the lense I have.

I was getting some pictures ready to print out for some friends of mine that I hadn't seen in a while, and I ran across this picture I had taken last October. I didn't like the picture in color, and I didn't like it in normal B&W. Then just recently, I came across this professional photographer's B&W conversion. He made it into a Photoshop action. Anyways, I decided to try turning this picture B&W using his conversion. There was such a difference! If anyone has Photoshop and would like to try this action out, I can email it to you. Oh, the one on the left if the one using the professional's conversion action, and the one on the right is the normal B&W conversion that Photoshop does. I also added a little bit of a sepia look to the picture.

Here is one blue picture I guess. I tried taking a picture of the lightning, but it is very hard to know when it is going to strike. So I would just push the button and hope there would be lightning! :) I think this will have to do for my blue picture. I have been trying to take a picture of just my son's blue eyeball, but so far I haven't gotten it to work.

Glasses

Just a funny little candid picture I took of my daughter. She loves those Mr. Potato Head glasses! Thought I would share it because I thought you might get a little chuckle out of it. :)

Red Fireworks

Well, here is my red picture. I wish that I could have zoomed out a little bit, but that was all I could do with the lense I had. :)