The girls

I'm off theme I know. But this weekend is a long awaited, much needed break for all of us. School is hard for K., the time away from family is tough on S., and the last two weeks have been extraordinarily intense and emotionally draining for me. So today was about savoring a "family day." we sat, we played, we relaxed, we talked, we ate and we just were. It was amazing. And can I just say, pure momma googles and all, my girls are amazing, talented and beautiful ; 0 )

Here's K: 1/125, 3.2, 800 ISO (manual)
Flash fired, bounced off the mirror behind me. 5D, 100mm lens. CWB on all pics, as well as custom curves in ACR. On both K. pictures. Light screen layer, in addition to defog and conversion. Oh yeah, ran a light dodge on the eyes in all of these.

Here's S: 1/100, 3.2, 800 ISO (manual, I think- might be AV). Bounced flash off ceiling (you can see it in her eye!). PLayed with this in ACR and had to run light screen layer in this one as well. Not sure what I did, can't seem to get my Browser to cooperate with me at the moment.

I couldn't resist making this one black and white. Seriously, my kids are beautiful! Feel free to disagree, just not on my blog ;)
TFL. I shoot for being on theme tomorrow!

I played with macros on our Valentine flowers. This first set is from Dh to me, because I love purple. Isn't he thoughtful? I shot all of these manually with my monopod, 580EX external flash bounced behind me to my right, 100mm and 5D. I ran a custom curve in Adobe RAW, defog and light screen light layer in PS on all of these.

1/20, 5.6, ISO 640.

1/25, 5.6, ISO 640, increased contrast in Adobe RAW

1/25, 5.6, ISO 640, increased contrast in A.RAW

1/20, 5.6, ISO 640

Thanks for looking. I am glad to finally be back up and running!

Day 35 apperture (not on theme)

This is Sammy, the mishchieveous cat. He happened to sit still when I was practicing with my flash, and so had a photo taken of him. He looks full of attitude even when he just sitting around, doesn't he ; )

I bounced the flash off my bookcase and the ceiling behind me. I just super-zoomed into his eye to check- that was kinda cool. Anyway, same settings as yesterday, although I believe I cranked the FEC to +1/3.
TFL!

Day 34~ 2. 5. 08. ~ BFF

This is "My Best Friend Dora" with S. My funny little S. discovered her BFF when grocery shopping- HER FAVORITE THING TO DO!!??!!- when we stumbled across this life size Dora. S. was immediately captivated. Each time we went shopping, we had to "visit" Dora. first, we took her off her shelf, then we pressed her hand to listen to her talk and sing, then S. would hold her hand (through the plastic) and tell her all about our day.
S. decided Santa would of course bring her BFF home to her.
Dora is a little bit scary. She is the same size as S., and she has a GIANT head. S. has largely ignored her.
But within the last few days, we've braided her hair, talked and sang with her, and today S. climbed on her lap to whisper and laugh with her. She even posed for this picture!! I think the difference has been the Dora now sits on the floor. She is much less intimidating that way.

So, I was playing with my flash today. I shot this (manually) at 1/160, 5.6, 1000 ISO. The flash was bounced to the right of me, off blinds and the ceiling. 100mm lens (no, it hasn't come off my camera in a few weeks!).
TFL, and yes, I blew her cheek a little. I had a hard time without metering with the very darks, vrey lights and everything in between. Any advice?

2. 4. 08. Sister secrets

Just a snapshot, but I really like the moment captured. Who knows what the big sisiter is plotting? I've mentioned before that I am grew up as an only child, so moments like this simply light me up inside. I love how they are holding each other close, and grinning. If I wanted to stay sentimental, I'd say something about the love of two sisters, how they can be best of friends and worst of enemies in the span of five minutes... and how I treasure the moments of friendship.

I suspect, however, they were up to no good, plotting against their poor parents ; ) That's what sisters do!

1/15, 2.8, ISO 1000. (100mm, flash fired and bounced off ceiling and a corner of a wall). I love how the little bit of motion blur gave S. a cool skin glow! TFL.

Day 27 winter berries (not on theme)

Just for fun... shot in macro, yesterday in my parents' front yard. This looks Eastern to me. Excuse the small crop, I was chopping for a set of frames I'm finally filling :)

Day 24- words-

I trying something a little different today, out of my box a little. I used the theme of words loosley, as I like this shot. It is my favorite snack mix at the moment. Wasabi peas, raw cashews, raw pistacios, Brazilian nuts and a few dried cherries too (I've since nixed the cherries- I like the spicy wasabi instead!).

I felt like it was boring, and just stumbled onto one of my brushes. So, I played. It's something different, not anything I'd do to a picture I actually liked, but for fun this just kind of hit me.

Anyway, if anyone is actually seeing this today...I'm not linking to the 2Ps challenge thread today as I know I won't have the time to comment on a whole lot of blogs myself. So, this is a "free" day :)

I was trying to play with my macro settings. I read with my lens manual to set the camera to 5.6 and focus and adjust from there. I wanted to see if I oculd play with my apperture just a little.
Settings: 1/60, 4.0, 800 ISO. 5D, 100 mm. (NR filter used in PS, also brightened with a screen light layer at a low opacity, and defog and resize. TFL (If you were here, say hello!)

Day 23- words

Let me say, I am not by nature a morning person. It is unhealthy for me to have human contact until after I have been in bed for twenty to thirty minutes, washed up, and at the very least started brewing my coffee.

It is my great fortune to have a coffee maker that brews one cup at a time, in the most lovely brands and flavors. There is something about the smell of coffee brewing that immediately provokes a sense of energy and contentment. Is it that I can remember the smell from my youth? Or perhaps it is more that I am conditioned as Pavlov's dogs. Either way, "Green Mountain Coffee" (especially yummy Breakfast blend), at least for me, has a whole lot of happy association with it.

:)
TFL. As has become my habit, this was taken with my 5D, (which I am loving, thanks, Heather!) and 100mm lens on macro setting. I strongly suspect most of my posts this week will be with the same setup- I am enjoying this experiment.
CWB. 1/160, 5.6, 1000 ISO. defog, sized for web. The background, by the way, is white paper :)

Day 22- words

These are responsible for the most miraculous change in my oldest daughter, K. She has always been the baby, child, girl who got sick. I used to say if someone in the grocery store sneezed five ailes away, K would have strep or broncitis before we checked out. When she was a baby, we would say, "well, when she gets to school her immune system will be strong."
Then she was sick for two years of preschool. "Well, she'll be healthy when she gets to kindergaten."
Not.
Enter our wonderful family allergist, who in August diagnosed K with asthma, as well as finding some underlying allergies.

I wasn't crazy about the idea of pumping a little girl's body with medication, I have to tell you. He asked me to committ to trying them for one month.
We noticed an immediate difference.
She has not been on antibiotics once this school year.
Last year, she was on antibiotics 12 times.
She has missed 6 days this year. Two of those were for a family wedding. One of those was because I was too sick to get her to school.
Last year, in total, she missed over 20.

Her postnasal drip is gone. Her snoring is gone. Her constant throat clearing is gone. Her occassional mild runny nose no longer develops into psnemonia, strep or some other chest involved infection.

I cannot say enough for how much these two medications have helped my girl. Thank you, Doctor S!

CWB, 5D, 100 macro setting.
Veramyst: 1/400, 5.6, ISO 1000 (um, should have checked that!)
Singulair: 1/125, 5.6, ISO 1000
defog and resized both.
TFL!

Day 21- words- (not on theme!)

Not on theme, but an important tradition was documented. Every Sunday am, DH makes cinnamon rolls for the girls. They love every bit of it: taking out the special baking tray, seperating the rolls, placing them ever so carefully, and then the waiting. S especiallyloves the part when they spread the frosting and watch it melt, dripping down the sides.

This is Poppy's tradition: Dunkin Donuts. Every Sunday, whenever we are together he goes out and picks up a dozen from DnD's. There has to be at least two Boston Creme's, several Chocolate frosted, and a few French Crullers. None of the adults are sweets the the morning kind of folks, but we all join in for this fun tradition.

There's something about a Sunday morning treat, isn't there?

TFL. All shot macro mode, 5D, 100mm.

DnD: 1/20, 5.6, 500 ISO (no tripod, leaned on napkin holder).

Cinn. roll pic: 1/80, 5.6, 1250 ISO .

Day 19- photoshop before and after

I wanted a snapshot of a goal of mine- to organize and have a place for the kids' stuff. We live in a nice townhouse, but our space is really fairly small.

My oldest is a prolific artist. She can create 15 sheets of "art" in a sitting. We are buried under all the art and accompanying supplies.
I decided she needed A Spot. I found these cubes at Target, sold for organizing scrapbooking things. It's perfect! Stickers, oil pastels, crayons, markers, glue, scissors, projects that have already been created as well as paper for making something new: it all has a place. Hurray for a little piece of sanity!

1/160, 3.5, 1250 ISO, Flash, bounced off ceiling, no FEC.





NOT a huge difference. I cropped a little, did a little color correction and noise reduction, as well as defog.
It takes so little to make life just a little bit easier, doesn't it? :)

Day 18- photoshop before and after

The girls had me giggling tonight as they turned the trampoline and climbing station into a ship- a pirate ship to be exact!
They were "hoisting the sails" and saving each other with a "rope" when they fell overboard into the rug- um, sea :)
It's amazing what my girls can come up with. The little yellow papers are pirate treasure they colored and cut out. They had just found it with their treasure map. The bright blue thing in the background, behind S's arm is a "talking parrot"- every pirate needs one, right?

Settings: 1/160, 2.8, 1250 ISO. Flash, FEC 0. I toned down the saturation- in the jpeg it is just too much, but in the raw it looks great. Unfortunately, I still can't access my RAW files in my PS. Anyway, I ran noise reduction in Photoshop, reduce saturation in layers, and I think made that layer a "screen light" blend at a fairly high %; maybe as high as in the 50-60 range? I ran defog and resized for web.

Day 17- photoshop before and after

This was a nothing special snapshot. but I loved how she had wrapped herself in toole and the expreession on her face. I decided to play with it. It's fairly soft, but that's okay.

Still a snapshot, but her sweet self is the focus of it now.

1/160, 3.5, iso 400. 5D, 100 mm lens. TFL!

Day 15- PhotoShop before and after

Before- with resizing and frame, only. 1/500, 4.5, ISO 200. 5D, 100mm lens.

After. In layers, I lightened, added a screen light layer at a low opacity, and ran defog at 20, 60, 3.

I wish I could edit my Raw file, the exposure is better than the jpeg version. Waiting for DH to help me download the plugin for PS to recognize my new camera. Oh, well.

TFL, and as always, thank you for all the feedback!

Day 14

Before and after. Please click to see larger!

Just a simple conversion... nothing fancy today. This pic, along with a couple of others I snapped of this same, are all I took today. Tomorrow is my day off, and we're hoping for snow. So I am waiting for some great shots then. Till then, happy Monday, everyone!

1/320, 5.0, 200 ISO. 5D, 70-200 lens. I have a hard time metering for my blcak and white cat! I almost always get it wrong!

Day 13

Focus on 2008: The Madonna

4. I choose to focus on: my religion and my role in my family.

The Madonna became a powerful sybol and source of strength for me following a conversation with my grandmother. During the most difficult struggle as a mother, an aquaintence gave her a carving of the madonna and child. A simple note said, "she knows your pain."

That thought has been a source of comfort to me. I try to meditate on that when my reserves are low. It provides an accessibility to my spirituality that is just very real for me. I especially love this particular Madonna, cracks, dirt and all.

I want to focus on the power and comfort and strength of religion, and restrengthen my relationship with my God. And I want to be a role model for my family, especially my children. It is important to me for my daughters to grow up knowing the love of their God. It is part of their roots.

TFL. This photo is of a 3/4 life size Madonna, part of a manger that a local church displays each year. It is amazing. It has the three kings, shephard, farmer and animals, as well as angel. My daughters and I look foward to visiting it each year! It makes Christmas so real. I wish my photo wasn't so dark, but I really didn't have a lot of time- I had K. with me, and it was cold. And, I wanted to enjoy the moments of prayer and wonder with her.
Tech: 1/160, 5.0, 250 ISO. 5D, 70-200.

Day 12

Just for fun... K is floating in air! Or actually, sailing through the air, jumping on the trampoline. I thought this was such a cool capture. I broke out of my box and brought my 70-200 with me to a bday party today. It sure does attract attention. But I'm glad I did, because it made me acknowledge that I take my hobby seriously. And, it was good practice in lousy conditions- low light, fast action.

TFL!

1/80, 2.8, 1600 ISO, no flash. 5D, 70-200 lens.

Day 11

Focus on 2008: South Beach

3. I choose to focus on why I went on the diet to begin with. I began my weight loss when I realized my family history and my age were risk factors enough in heart disease. I choose to not contribute to the risk by making poor choices for my health.

I got tired of dieting last spring, after nine months. I decided to go into "maintenance" mode, where I would simply maintain the loss I had achieved.
I found it very difficult to do through the summer, wedding, and birthdays. I have regained ten pounds that I worked hard to get off in the first place.

I lost thirty, and was half way done. Now, I have to lose 40 pounds. But, it is time. I want to be healthy, I wan to respect my health and my body, and I want to be an appropriate role model for my daughters.

Most of all, I choose not to contribute to heart disease!
1/125, 2.8, 500. FEC, +2/3 (main light source). I should have pumped it to +1, it was a bit underexposed and needed tweakin gin Picasa.
TFL.

Day 10

Okay, please use your imagination. pretend my PS was up and working, and that the pics above were actually in a storyborad. They would be the same size, and each would have a narrow white border, then a thicker, grey border. White background, with the date, maybe. the whole would have a black border, then the same grey border again. >sigh<>

Focus into 2008: POTD.

2. I want to focus on: POTD, and what that means to me.
I joined POTD as a lark. Something fun to do, I figured it would give me good practice, and some insight into what areas of photography I want to develop and learn more about. Get those skills developed.

I met some great friends, and found that creating an online journal, although never that personal was still quite revealing. I found that while in most of my life I am non competitive almost to the point of disability, in POTD I became competitive.
When I became competitive about wanting the responses, I had to stop and reflect. It isn't about that.
When I became competitive again with myself, and using POTD and inspiration and a measure for pushing my skills, I jumped in again.

I am doing POTD for me. I am making a commitment to make time for myself, for my sanity and my pleasure, and that is a great thing. So, I choose to focus on POTD!

Taken with my macro, but cropped in a little to make the shots a little more uniform, and all vertical. 1/125, 5.6, 500. Flash bounced off ceiling, FEC +1/3.

Day 9

LOL, this is W A Y off topic. Jordan's thread about "wrapping babies" inspired these shots. K came home from school today with the dreaded stomach virus- it has now gone through the entire family- and is wrapped up on the sofa in a sheet. When I saw her, I started laughing, and told her about what I just read.

"Mom, you can take a picture of me, and show your friends!"

So, here she is. (manual, settings same for both) 1/100, 3.5, 500, FEC +1/3, bounced off the wall/ceiling to camera right. TFL!

Edits: cropped, lightened, sharpened in Picasa.

Day 8

Focus into 2008: Play.

2. I want to focus on: playing with the kids.
It has become a little too easy to get lax about playing. With an added day of work, added exra-curricular activities, and the little one in preschool now too, life's pace has become much faster. Add in the homework thing, and time just runs on by.

I need to make time to play and/or have fun with both of my kids each day. Not sitting with them, but playing. I really enjoy it, and so do they. We will all be happier, and let's face it- there's not a lot of time left that they will want me to play with them. I gotta jump in there while the getting is good.

This is a "swan princess" my daughter made out of Sculpey. She asked me to help her with the pond. I only made the rocks and tree stump, she did the rest. The purple thing in the water is a fish, and the green is seaweed. Isn't she creative?

TFL. AV mode (being a little lazy with my snapshots) 1/60 (the closer crop) and 1/80, 4.0, 500 ISO. Flash, no FEC, bounced off of the ceiling.

Day 7

Focus into 2008: Projects.

1. I want to focus on: Make time to make.

I got away from pulling out the fun stuff. Cooking and baking for fun is one.

This sauce was made from some frozen tomatos from the garden, "special super secret ingrediants" and time. The kids love that I have super secret ingrediants. Me, too.

All shots AV mode, ISO 500, bounced flash. TFL.

Day 6

This is Sammy, our kitten. Caught him taking a snooze under the Christmas tree.

He's our troublemaker. I'm not particularly fond of cats. I conceeded when my oldest had a sit down with me, explaining that although fish are pretty, she can't talk to or play with them. Realizing the time had come, and that with our current lifestyle and where we live isn't conducive or fair to a dog, I agreed.

We got Rocky and his brother Sammy in September. Although I am glad for the girls we got them, they are a pain. They pick me to sit and snuggle with. They harass me in the morning until I sit down and give them a pet. They meow when I ignore them.

Sammy is lucky to be with us after having: knocked over my rubber tree plant and breakin gthe planter, jumping over our gate and barging into the kids' room in the middle of the night, jumping up on our kitchen table and other acts of mayhem. It's a good thing my kids love him!

Day 5

First of all, thanks for the crazy number of responses yesterday. You guys really made me feel better. I was feeling a bit at witt's end. So, thank you.

I'm down with the flu again... I had a whole five days of relative health. Ugh. So, again, a simple snapshot. I just snapped it twenty minutes ago, while they were waiting for pizza.

This pic of K makes me laugh. It's just so her. Yes, that is the trampoline she is sitting on. As she colors, LOL.

And the sweet girl is drawing a picture of me and her together- "to cheer you up Mom. I thought if we dressed up in pretty dresses it would make you feel better."

No wonder I think this kid is amazing, huh?

Also, it explains my more-than-usual grumpiness last night.

Technical: 1/200, 2.8, ISO 640. No FEC, (or set to 0, not sure how to write that, actually). It's a little underexposed- her dress and pants all became a big ol' shadow. But when I had the flash dialed up, I blew her face. I tried a slower shutter speed, but I didn't notice a discernable difference. Of course, I feel awful, so really my attention to detail tonight is lacking.

Thanks again for all the feedback!

Day 4

When K gets home from school- after I've picked up S, and picked K up from the after school program, it's homework time.

Now, I'm an incredibly patient person.

I work with children- difficult children are my area of specialty- all day long.

But homework time? It's my albatross.

K is a wonderful, intelligent child who is naturally curious and imaginative.

But school is a struggle for her. And I totally get that it is difficult for her.

It doesn't stop homework from being a frustrating experience. I feel badly for her, and wish that it could be easier. Not easy, but easier.

I also wish I could sip some wine while she works (just kidding, really).

Egazooks, bless her teachers!

So, hats off to teachers, hats off to my kid who struggles to learn, and hats off to Moms who spend 30-45 minutes at night pulling their kids through homework (Ishudder to think- it's only first grade!)

Day 3

Just a silly little picture. S was jumping on our mini trampoline last night and I decided to try to capture her using my flash. It's okay, but the light was absorbed by her dark pants. I want to try this again.

I shot this in "P" mode, not sure of my settings- I think 1/200, 2.8; FEC +1/3. I decreased the saturation a little, this outfit is very colorful :) and saved a copy as JPEG (working with Picassa here!). Otherwise, uneditted.

Thanks for looking.

Day 2

I caught an angel praying next to our Christmas tree... or at least that's what it looked like to me.


Except for the cinnamon roll crumbs all over her face, that is... :)
Taken with my new 5D, 100mm lens (which is quickly becoming my favorite, I think) and flash bounced off the ceiling. I think I was using Theresa's magic 1/125, 5.6 combo, but I'm not sure and can't access my EXIF at the moment. PS is down in my house at the moment. All editting done in Picassa- crop and "glow"- I couldn't resist, it looked too perfect here. I can't really color correct, so yellow it is. Hey, it's "warm" ;)
TFL.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!
No great art, just fun at home with the kids. Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2008!