Happy New Year!

This is how I spent my New Year's.  Watching my youngest grandson so his parents could go partay!!!  Such a cutie.... missed his sister, tho'.  She's in CA enjoying some quality time with her CA grandparents.. We miss you, Mar!  Here's the little man blowin' raspberries at me. 

Love the Blue

I loved the way the sky looked this morning...

Aperture Priority & DOF

Still working on the '31 Days to a Better Photo'.  Assignment..  take several pictures at various aperture settings.  I set up a little stage for some little knick knacks I had and thought that would do for demonstration.  It actually did work but not in the way I thought.  The subjects were so small they were in total focus but the background is what changed..

Aperture Priority

Ok, so I'm not quite following the '31 Days to a Better Photo' but that's only because not every day, in the beginning, has a photo project.  So I did my reading and playing around with ISO and aperture/depth of field.  I was working on getting a photo for today and my battery ran out and I can't find even one of my two spares.  Sheesh! 

Oh well, hopefully, I can try again tomorrow. 

Day 28 - LOL

I was hesitant to post this picture but in the end I just had to.  This picture was actually taken yesterday but since I didn't get a good shot today I had to post it.  Surprisingly, one of the biggest hits with the grandkids this Christmas were the power toothbrushes I put in their stockings.  Who knew??  I was informed later I had missed a prime photo opportunity when all but one of them were in my little half bath brushing their teeth at the same time.  That's 5 little munchkins in one little half bath.  It would turn out to be one of the many times they would brush that evening.  They left my house with the cleanest mouths they've ever had. Yesterday, when I was cleaning my house from all the festivities, I found the following.  Too funny...

Day 27 - Clean!!

I love a clean kitchen!  Things have been so hectic these last few days.  It felt good to get the house cleaned up and now I can actually see the whole countertop.  Yay!

On a side note.  I recently bought a new D700.  I started this blog about the same time mainly to improve my creativity.  (Not that I don't need improvement all around. As a matter of fact, most of the recent holiday posts were taken w/my not so old, sometimes malfunctioning D90....  on AUTO no less.  Argh!  And, of course, I hate the way most of those shots look...)  Anyway, the reason I resorted to my D90 was I didn't want to screw up holiday shots I would never be able to recapture.  My point.... I need TONS of help mastering the indoor shots.  I don't feel they are nearly as clear or sharp as they should be.  Help!  I can't seem to grasp what it is I need to do to make them as sharp as my outdoor shots (aside from setting up a tripod but how do you get candids with a tripod)  So, I've decided to add another challenge within this challenge.  I saw this on my3boybarians.com and it's called "31 Days to a Better Photo"  Today's photo was shot in Shutter Priority.   

Day 26 - Explosion!

Every year we go to my mom's for Christmas.  It's the final party of the holiday.  One year some friends of Mom's were in town from Holland and got to witness all of us opening our presents.  From the outside looking in, it looked like an explosion.  lol  We have since embraced the term.  This year my dad was so on top of things that I wasn't fast enough to capture the 'true' explosion.   

Day 25 - Peek a Boo

So, I didn't take too many photos tonight.  I am still struggling with indoor shots w/my new camera.  I didn't like any of the photos I took today.  Same goes for this one.  It's terrible, but I thought it was funny.  She never likes pics taken of her so this was apropos.. 

Day 24 - Family Pt 1

Today was the start of 4 family get togethers planned for this weekend.  First up, our kids and grandkids.  Didn't get very many shots since I was hosting.  (Gonna need to teach my husband to take pictures...  )  Just about the whole night, my oldest grandson was carrying around one or both of the twins.  Usually over the shoulder.  It was pretty wild.  And as I mentioned, someone else needs to help me capture these moments. 

Day 23 - Re-energized

It took most of the day but I now feel so much better.  But I still have so much to do.  Decided to re-energize with a fresh cup of coffee.  Ahhhh....

Day 22 - Feeling Miserable

Woke up this morning and started to get ready for work and BAM!! I was hit with chills, body aches and even a belly ache.  This is NOT the time to be getting sick!!  Grrr!  All I've done all day was lay around, nap, lay around....  well, you get the picture...

Day 21 - Kneaders!!

My new FAVORITE restaurant (turkey cranberry croissant).  YUM!!



Day 19 - Wrapping Up

Not my favorite thing to do.. 

Day 18 - Cool Sunshine

Day 16 - Shopping

Did a little Christmas shopping for papa at Lowes w/my daughter and granddaughter.  She was a little bored to say the least.  Pic(s) taken w/my phone.

I also had to take a shot of the stockings she and her mother made... sooo cute.  Love the pigtails and the backwards J...

Day 16 - Doctor's Office

Had a doctor's appt today to get the results of an MRI I had done a few weeks ago.  (Had to have one because of my frequent headaches.  Everything came out clear, just a little arthritis in my neck) 

Day 13 - Foyer

I so wish I could take my camera to work so I could maybe get some shots outside of my house.  But, I'm just not comfortable leaving it in the car all day.  sigh...  This is what I call my Grandkid showoff wall in the foyer.  I try to keep the most recent pictures up in here.  This is the first time I had all seven of them up.  Of course, the little 'bubs' at the bottom right has already changed SO much.  But I just LOVE that picture.  I'm also trying to rethink how to redo this wall.  This layout seems so boring to me....

Day 12 - Decorating Pt 3

Finally got my lights figured out and my tree decorated.  Whew!  Now on to the rest of the house. 

Day 11 - Bowls

I love my new Crate & Barrel bowls.....  Need to put some goodies in them...

Day 10 - Nothing

Once again I have no photo.  I could take one now but ...  We had our Annual family Christmas party (the in-laws) and I had too many last minute details to attend to before the party to bother with my daily photo. Now I'm exhausted.  Sooo, will start again tomorrow. This is hard, you know?  Hope I can do better and keep it up for the rest of the year.

Day 9 - Yummy

Spent the day with my best friends (i.e., sisters and daughter) for my daughter's 33rd!!!! birthday.  First up...  some Christmas shopping at the new H&M (not that impressed, I might add) and Crate and Barrel (LOVED it!!)  Then lunch at the Cheese Factory which was YUMMY!!!  This picture was taken with my phone.  Pretty good for not being used to taking pictures thru the LED.  Later that night it was my first experience at a sushi restaurant.  Not at all what I thought.  It was a great day!!!

Day 8 - Christmas Cards

I know, I know...  I've been a slacker.  Missed a few days.  I have no real excuse.  So.. I promise to do better.  (Not that anyone is even looking at this blog.  lol)  So, here's my picture for today.  It's the chore I MUST get done tonight.

Day 5 - Decorating Pt 2

So, we're supposed to have another wind storm tonight.  Not as bad as Thursday's, but still dangerous.  My husband flew some hunters up to So Dakota for pheasant hunting over the weekend and came home today.  Was a little worried because it was snowing with a 70% chance of more snow all day.  While I anxiously awaited his safe return, I decided to get the big tree and the rest of the house decorated.  Thought it'd keep me busy till he got home.  First, tho', I had to cart all the scrapbooking stuff from yesterday back down to my craft room.  Man, we made such a mess!  With that done it was on to the tree... to start with, I turned it on and 2 strands were unlit.  Tried to fix one of them and now I have 3 strands unlit!  Grrr!  Needless to say.....

Day 4 - Scrapbooking

Had the girls over today for scrapbooking.  So fun.  Didn't get as much done as I wanted (mostly laughing, till our bellies ached, at old pictures and LOTS of eating) but did learn how to use my Cricut.  Yay!  Always fun hanging out with my family!

Day 3 - Decorating

I'm having a hard time making this challenge a habit.  I keep forgetting until it's rather late.  Maybe that's a good thing because I have the most trouble getting my images to come out when the lighting is so dark.  I don't want to have to use the flash so instead my images come out dark as well.  Hopefully, one day I'll get it right. 

My goal for today was to get at least one tree up and decorated.  My littlest granddaughter 'helped' me decorate the little tree.  She's 4 1/2 so you can imagine where all the decorations ended up.  =]  This picture was taken of her mother when she was 3 1/2.  My daughter made the ornament when she was 6.  My granddaughter wanted it prominantly displayed toward the top of the tree.

Day 2 - Lights Out

I almost didn't get a picture at all for day 2 (which was yesterday).  First of all I can't take a camera into my work... that means my phone as well.  And at home, our power was out for 12+ hrs so by the time I got home it was pitch black up here.  (And if I'm honest, there was so much going on yesterday that I really forgot until after I'd gotten home  :/)  We had some crazy, crazy hurricane force winds yesterday.  The drive home was interesting to say the least.  Stop and go all the way.  Huge trees totally uprooted.  Saw a car that was completely smashed by one.  In retrospect there were several opportunities to take a picture with my phone but really.. I just wanted to get home and out of the wind.  So this is all I was able to come up with. 

Day 1 - Starting Out

So, I'm still trying to figure out this photography obsession of mine.  I think I'm getting better but feel I'm sorely lacking in the creativity department.  So I googled 'sparking my creativity' (seeing as I'm the google queen according to my daughter - I google EVERYTHING!)  And while I think I'm not creative at all, I did come across an article that said otherwise.  I tried to find it again so I could post a link here, but alas, I couldn't.  Anyway, it made me think maybe my creativity is hidden somewhere deep inside me and is just waiting to come out.  So I decided to try one of the challenges I found during my google search.  I'm going to try to take one photo a day for 365 days!  Augh!!  Can I do it?  Well, I'm going to try.  These first ones will probably be so boring but I hope to improve each day... after all, that is the point, isn't it?

This is a picture of the tree in the lot next to us.  I thought it looked interesting against the cloudy/hazy skies to the west of us.