Jan 27-29th

One of the things that we covered in my photography class was composition. I realized that all of the pics I take are of people and I need to shake things up a bit. Here is a series of photos of "stuff" in my house.

Jan 27- the little fountain in our entryway













Jan 28th-Our chandelier in our entry, I hate it so much!













Jan 29th-A basket of potpourri balls on the bookshelves in the living room.

Jan 26th

Here is Brendan with the "dragon" he made for the Chinese New Year.

Jan 25th

Here it is....my extreme office makeover!

Jan 24th

Ahhhh.... much better.

Jan 23rd

I have been doing a million loads of laundry, but I still have all of this left!

Jan 22nd

Here is some slight progress on my office redo. I originally just bought a new desk. But when faced with prospect of having to dismantle everything anyway, I went ahead and painted too! When we moved in a year and a half ago. The entire house (yes, I mean the ENTIRE house) was painted in that pinky beige. We painted all but two of the rooms when we moved in. But the office was left behind. I am so glad to be one step closer to never seeing that paint color again. Just the guest bedroom left to go!

Jan 21st

These images are from another assignment for my photography class. We had to line up several objects, focus on the 2nd one and change out aperture. Notice how blurred the background is in the 2nd one since it has a shallow depth of field!

Jan 20th

Holy smokes, whatever illness I had, it really did a number on me. Feeling so much better and ready to show you my pics from the last few days. These are two pics of candles I had to take for my photography class. The point was to show how awful the flash can be and how it is better to haul out the tripod and use a long shutter speed. Obviously the first one is with a flash and the second without. I think it was worth the tripod. The 1st one is awful!!

jan 19th

This is my horribly inefficient work area. It is just one big surface along with a weird amalgamation of cast off side tables and book shelves. No matter how I try it is so hard to keep the space organized. That all ends today!! I just found a killer deal on a desk and hutch at Office Depot and I will be picking it up tonight. Can't wait to really get organized!!

jan 18th

Still sick, still tired. Took the day off!

Jan 17th

Here is my son at his birthday party. As you can see, the gift opening became a communal affair!

jan 16th- my baby's 5th birthday

Here is my sweet Brendan at preschool wearing the birthday hat. Ridiculous huh? Back tomorrow with pics from his b-day party. It should be great fun!

Jan 13-15th

I have been really sick, so I have gotten really far behind. As you can tell my subject matter has not varied much either! It has been all I could do to just grab some shots of my men as they go about the serious business of Star Wars Lego on the Playstation! I am beginning to feel a little better, so I pledge to get back on track!

jan 12th

I'm hungry, so I snuck down to the fridge! How is it that we can have a refrigerator and freezer with this much food and still nothing looks good. ?

Jan 11th

The object of my affection tonight is my bed. I am bone tired and can't wait to snuggle in! Please ignore the pile of laundry on the floor!

Jan 10th

I said earlier that I would be posting a picture from dinner with my family. Trust me when I say I learned there is NOTHING photogenic about an infant, a toddler, a preschooler, two frantic mothers, and an exhausted grandmother that had to wait almost 45 minutes to be seated at The Olive Garden! So, instead I bring you a picture of my poor, sick hubby's dinner. Nothing like grilled cheese sandwiches when you are feeling bad!

Jan 9th

I have a bad cold that sent me bed straight away last night so there was no time to post. Here is DS at Tae Kwan Do. I am playing with shutter speed and really needed a faster one. My lens is not a fast one so I was having trouble getting the correct exposure. But, I thought this one turned out OK. This whole journey is about my photography skills and I already feel like I have learned so much. Now, to put it to practive!! Back tonights with today's pic that I will take at dinner with my family.

Jan 8th

Let me introduce you to some old friends. I despise coffee, but it is a rough day when I don't have my tea! My mug carries me through thick and thin and my newer friend is this yummy pomegranate tea! I ran Pioneer Woman's soft and faded action for fun!

Jan 7th

Since we are going to be spending a whole year together, I might as well get all of my faults and failings out there so you can really know me. This is a picture of my kitchen sink. I would like to tell you that it looks like this because I have been out late the last two nights, but really, it usually looks like this. If you do not want to be my blog buddy anymore I completely understand. If, on the other hand, you are a slob like me, then we will get along just fine for the next 358 days!!

Jan 6th- sorry I am late!!

January is my hell month at work with enrollment and the natives getting restless!! So, my normally organized desk looks like a train wreck. So, I thought I would share it! Sorry, I am late with my post, I fell asleep with my son last night while putting him to bed!

Jan 5th

What do all moms do when they don't know what they would like to take a picture of? They resort to the good old bath time photo shoot!! Here is my little one fresh from the tub.

I am exhausted and heading for bed soon. I will steal some minutes tomorrow to comment on what everyone else shot today!

Jan 4th

Today was a terrible day filled with one plumbing disaster after another. One bright spot was when my son grabbed some tools and tried to help. I grabbed my camera and knew I had my shot of the day. It was too crazy to shoot in manual so I threw it into auto (or so I thought) and clicked away. Well, I was not in auto, I was in program mode and still on some of the settings for yesterdays pic!! :( Picture is noisy and the colors are way off. Oh well, you win some and you lose some. Regardless, I love the subject matter!!

Jan 3rd

With many thanks to Loop Skywalker and his Light Saver!! My 4, almost 5, year old is obsessed with Star Wars. I have no idea how this obsession has come about because we dont let him watch that stuff, clearly he does not have the pronunciation down either. Nonetheless, he got a light saber for Christmas and he was very excited to let me take pictures of him waving it around in the dark!

shutter speed 12.9 sec
f-stop 5
ISO 1600

January 2nd

Oh the difference 24 hours can make! Yesterday I posted a picture of my Christmas tree. Today I am doing the same! Here is my tree now. Can I say how glad I am that it is out of my living room and things are back to some semblance of normal!

shutter speed: 1/13
f stop 3.5
iso 1600

I have to figure how to get that ISO down so I don't have so much noise.

January 1st

Here is my first photo. I wanted to try to do some low light photography. These settings don't mean much to me yet, but I hope they will soon.

Shutter 1/6 s
F-stop 5.6
ISO 1600