Favorite photo Friday

This week has been so action packed for me, I have hardly had a moment to sit and look through all of my pictures.  I thought this one was a nice shot for Favorite Photo Friday to show motion.  The purpose is to show technique, and although not the best picture in the world, I thought it was interesting because motion is so evident in this one.  I was trying to stay focused on the little one and move with him to get him in focus and everything else a blur.  It is about half way there and I realized that this technique is quite difficult, so I applaud all of you out there that have perfected this.  Anyway, I wa susing my D50 with a Tamron 28-300 lens.  It is SOOC except for the need to change it from RAW to JPEG to be able to post.  Even though it is fuzzy I love the smile on his face.

Favorite Photo Friday and Written inc.

This week has been crazy busy, and I missed the deadline for Favorite photo Friday last week, so i am making a very conscious effort to get things in this week.  It just happened to work out that the photos i am picking work out well for Written inc this week as well.  The theme at Written inc. is kids.  Specifically, kids and summer.  When I think of summer I think beautiful sunsets, and my kids playing in the grass outside.  I love to just go sit in the shade, enjoy the cool breeze and see what images I can catch as my little one play all around me.  In the first photo my oldest son is at soccer practice.  They had a break to get some water and relax (they are all only 4 years old) and my son just plopped himself in the grass to play and enjoy.  He just looked so happy and innocent in this picture I couldn't resist sharing it.  The second picture is of my youngest a year ago.  He was so little and still a bit unbalanced.  He had been sitting on the edge of the sandbox and fell over into the grass.  He didn't stay down for long, but you can just see the relaxation and contentment as he lies there.  He was truly enjoying the feel of the grass on his body.  Both pictures were taken with my Nikon D50 Tamron lens 28-300mm.  Nothing special was done here, just used the D-lighting feature on my Nikon software.  And I think the color was boosted in the picture of my little guy.  All in all they just gave me the feeling of summer, and I love these two pictures.

Favorite Photo Friday - Dragonfly

I am submitting this dragonfly for Favorite Photo Friday this week for a number of reasons.  I thought the shot was really cool, and I LOVE dragonflies.  They are just amazing animals to me.  I used my Nikon D50 for these, with a Quantaray  70-300mm lens set to it's macro function.  I am pretty sure I had it at 300mm on macro.  The settings were on auto, except my focus which was on manual.  Turned out well in my opinion, I love that you can even see the little hairs on his face.  Post production I boosted the color very slightly and sharpened the image.  Doesn't it look like he is trying not to get blown away?

Favorite Photo Friday

This week I am submitting a picture for Favorite Photo Friday that I just like cause I like it.  Nothing special, no special techniques or tricks, just a mom proud of her little guys.  When my youngest son was born I was so afraid of sibling rivalry.  I thought for sure they would hate each other and it would be like torture trying to get them to play nicely.  I have been in shock to see how well they do actually get along.  My boys are only 2 and 4 but I hope we are helping them to build a lifelong bond.  I love watching them together, especially when my older son is "teaching" his brother.  They are just too much fun.  I felt this picture really emphasized the brotherly love that my boys have for each other.  It was taken with my Nikon D50 and a Tamron 28-300 lens.  No filters, an autoadjust for lighting in my Nikon software.  Other then that, it is what it is.  Point and shoot.

Favorite photo Friday

I have been submitting to Favorite photo Friday for the last couple weeks now.  I like it because I am not necessarily limited to a single subject matter or idea, it is simply getting me to get out there and take pictures and post what I really like form the week.  This week my family made our way up to my husband's favoite place on earth; his boy scout camp!  He worked there for years and calls it home.  A bunch of "the guys" decided to make a trip up there for Friday night campfire so we decided this would be a good time to show our boys this wonderful place.  Our oldest had been a few times, but our youngest had never been.  We wandered the camp's grounds and made a stop by the lake.  The scouts were all at dinner so no one was on the lake.  I couldn't resist this shot of the boats all parked at the dock with the reflection of the water.  The light circles in the corner were intentional, I like them, it is a matter of personal opinion, but I like them.  They add to the feel of this picture for me, reminds me of the intense summer sun.  Anyway.  The picture was taken with my Nikon D50, tamron 28-300 lens.  I had everything on auto for this, and I brought the exposure down a notch in postproduction.  Other then that, it has not been changed.  Hope you all enjoy, leave a comment and then visit Favorite Photo Friday to see other pics form the week.

Favaorite Photo Friday

I just could not choose this week so you are getting two of my photos on this post.  I took these one evening this week while my boys were watching a movie.  The light coming in through the giant living room window was perfect and I just had to capture it.  My boys are so used to me sitting there with a camera in their face that they didn't even budge.  Too funny.  Anyway, these were once again shot with my Nikon D50, with a Tamron 28-300 lens.  I had a fairly slow shutter speed, around 1/15 or so, and yes I used a tripod cause there was no way I can hold my camera still for that.  I did brighten them up a little and then set the black point for these.  I don't know photoshop terms for that, I use nikon software.  Hope you all enjoy, and if you wanna check other favorite photos from the week, check out Favorite Photo Friday.

Favorite Photo Friday

So here is the cliche 4th of July photo, but I love fireworks.  I take photos every year at one of our local fireworks displays.  This year was no exception.  This photo was semi planned, I knew I was taking pics of the fireworks, but I set up the camera, take about 100 pictures and then wait to see what turns out well.  This was one of my favorites.  I shot it with my Nikon D50 tamron 28-300 lens.  My shutterspeed was about 3 seconds.  I edited out a lightpost that was distracting from the photo.  I hope you enjoy, and to see other's favorite photos for the week check out Favorite Photo Friday.

Favorite Photo Friday

Favorite Photo Friday has been a tough one for me this week.  I haven't really picked up my camera much this week and that makes me a little sad.  So I dug through the files this week to find something I liked.  I took this picture at the beach, my sister was digging up sand crabs for my oldest son to look at.  He really wanted to hold one, but if she just plopped it in his hands they would run away so she cupped his hands for the next one.  It was just picture perfect and I couldn't pass the moment up.  Funny looking little creatures, but my son loved them.  The picture was taken with my Nikon D50 28-300 zoom Tamron lens.  I was pretty close to my subject, but also zoomed in a little.  I don't recall whatI did in post processing, looks like I probably turned up the brightness and sharpened it up a little, but I have to admit I did this weeks ago so I am not 100% sure I remember, the original is below, not too big of a difference.  Enjoy!

The pic below sets the scene a little bit better for you too.

Favorite Photo Friday

I am revisiting my fair photos this week because I really did have a good time getting shots while I was there.  This one is of the ferris whell in the kids section of the fair.  I was trying to capture the movement of the ride.  I think I did a pretty good job of this.  I took this with my Nikon D50 with a slow shutter speed and large aperature.  No tripod, just handheld.  I brought up the color just a bit in post processing.  Take a look at other photos from the week at Favorite Photo Friday.

Moody Monday - Fatherly

Moody monday's theme this week is fatherly.  I have been fortuneate in my life to be surrounded by excellent fathers.  My grandfather was a wonderful father to my mother who in turn married my father, one of the greatest men I know.  He is the best father I could have ever asked for.  I married my husband with the knowledge that he would someday be an excellent father to our children, and I was right.  He is an amazing man, I could not have asked for a better father for my children.  I think this photo epitomizes the adventerous spirit of my husband and how he is passing that along to our sons.  They are exploring the local tide pools in this picture and loving every minute of it.

Favorite Photo Friday

We went to the local fair this week and had a really great time.  The fair always has so many great picture opportunities as well.  I just loved the texture of this picture, it is actually a sleeping chicken's back, but I loved how the soft and fluffy the feather's looked.  I took this pick with my Nikon D50, 28-300mm tamron lens.  No special effects, just zoomed through the bars of the chicken pen and found the angle that I liked.  The lighting was pretty low so I had a hard time seeing what I was focused on.  If I could have changed on thing it would have been to focus on the foreground instead of something in the middle, but I still liked it.  Check out other people's favorite photos at  Favorite Photo Friday.

Lensday - bubble

Lensday has a theme of bubble this week.  This is one of my favoite bubble pics I have.

And here is another...

Photo Tuesday - Countryside

This week's theme for Photo Tuesday is countryside and I couldn't think of anything better then my Aunt's little barn that my Uncle built by hand in backwoods Georgia.  I hope you all agree with me this week.

Ellipsis - Faces

The theme for Ellipsis this week is faces.  When my oldest son was born we noticed right away that he had the most expressive face.  He still does, but it is so fun to look back at his cute little mug.  Here is one of MANY shots I have of his amazing little face. 

Favorite Photo Friday

I took this shot hoping it would turn out specifically for Favorite Photo Friday this week.  We went to the Wild Animal Park for the Curator Club night and had a great time.  We had the park almost to ourselves since it was after closing time.  Now the San Diego Zoological Society has one of the largest (if not the largest) collection of plants in the world (most people don't know this).  They are committed to protecting not only animals, but plant species as well.  With that said, there is an amazing number of strange plants to take pictures of which is always fun.  This beauty was a rather large bush with this type of flower all over it.  I took the shot with my Nikon D50, 28-300mm zoom lens.  It was early evening here, no idea what the camera setting were.  I wanted to focus on the flowers in the foreground but still be able to see the wonderufl orange in the background too.  I got as close as I could to the foreground flowers while still being able to focus on them to help blur the background (using the zoom function can be helpful for this).  Overall I think it turned out pretty nice, I hope you all agree.  I did a little light adjustment to this pic, but cannot post my original as it is shot in RAW and the file format is not recognized here.

Favorite Photo Friday

Trying a new photoblog, Favorite Photo Friday.  They ask you to submit your favorite photo every week with all the details of the shot.  I have always found it interesting that photographers would want all of the lens and shot details.  The beauty of photography is that every shot is unique and the reality is that even if you went to the same place to take the same shot it will never be the same or need the same camera settings.  With that said I did take this photo with my Nikon D50, I have  28-300 zoom lens on it.  Other then that I have few details.  My younger son was looking at the fish in an aquarium at sea world and since it was dark inside the aquarium, and inside the room we were in, adding flash allowed his reflection to show up quite nicely on the glass.  I wish I had captured his entire reflection, but with how quickly 2 year olds move I felt fortunate to get this shot.

Photo Tuesday - Beach

Photo Tuesday's theme this week is beach.  Since I reside here in SD I have MANY pictures of our amazing beaches, especially at sunset.  This is down in la Jolla, beautiful evening which happened to be our youngest son's first trip to the beach.

Moody Monday - tree-huggy

The theme for Moody Monday this week is tree huggy.  I have lots of pics of trees, but not too many of people with trees.  This is one of my older shots of my dad with Patrick taking him to explore the "wilderness" of Georgia.  Teaching the appreciation of the outdoors at early age can be considered tree huggy right?

Photo Tuesday - Fire

Photo Tuesday is another new photo challenge site I have come across.  Their theme this week is fire.  I have always found it strange that we celebrate birthdays with burning candles on a cake.  Where does this tradition come from?  I guess I could look it up, but I just haven't been that inspired to have the information.  This picture was taken at a friend's daughter's third birthday party.  Not much fire, but just enough to fit the theme I think. 

Wordless Wednesday

New site I have found...Wordless Wednesday.  The point, no explanations.  Enjoy.

Lensday - Clouds

The theme for lensday this week is clouds.  I have so many sunset pics and sky pics it was hard to choose, but this has always been one of my favorites, even though it is a poor quality cell phone pic.  It just is a little whimsical to me. 

Macroday - Sphere

This is for Macroday's theme of sphere.  Bubbles are such wonderful things, I always love playing with them.  Enjoy

Moody Monday - Close

The theme for Moody Monday this week is close.  I recently went to the Wild Animal Park during their butterfly exhibit and was able to get some really amazing photos of these beautiful creatures.  Here is one of my favorites for submission this week.

Moody monday - High

The theme for Moody monday this week is high.  So the first ic that popped into my head was this one of Ian tossing Patrick into the air.  Don't worry folks no babies were hurt in the making of this photograph, he was actually thrilled by this and kept asking for more.  If you look really close you can see the smile on his face.

Macroday - Stuffed Animal

This week on macroday the theme is stuffed animal.  We have so many stufed animals in our house that the decision should have been difficult to make, but I am always so sentimental and the first animal that came to mind was my old bear, Daewoo.  Wierd name I know, but when I was a kid I used to name my stuffed animals based on the tags.  I would take the animal to my mom or dad and ask them what the animals name was while holding the tag up for them to see (those darn things had to be the name tags right?!).  This bear happened to be manufactured by Daewoo, so that is the name he received.  He is well loved, as you can all see, and still has a very special place in my heart.  He may be missing his nose, have scratched eyes and be downright ugly, but he is one of the best old friends I can think of.

Shutterday - boats

I wanted to go with a not so typical boat picture for Shutterday's boat theme.  My husband and I honeymooned in Maui and as we were driving through town we saw this boat that had obviously been stranded on the reef.  It was just an amusing site to see this boat sitting sideways on the water with all the other boats in the background sitting upright and knowing that it was not safe to come that close to shore. 

Written Inc. - Goodbye Winter

Winter is such a strange season for me here in Southern California.  We don't really have a typical winter.  No snow, very little rain, and the weather is pretty mild.  All in all it is actually quite pleasant.  That is why I found this theme for Written Inc. quite difficult.  Goodbye winter for me is not something I really feel the need for most of the time.  It is enjoyable to wear pants a few months out of the year and fun to wear sweaters every now and then.  SO in looking through all of my pictures I felt that this one best typified the winters I am so used to, naked trees with beautiful skies.

Moody Monday - Watery

This week's Moody Monday theme is watery.  So since I am a true southern Californian water is something that my world revolves around.  I had a hard time deciding which photo to use, so although I know the rules say one submission, I am posting two here and you all can decide which you like the best.  Both are kids and water, two of my most favorite things.

Thursday Challenge - Small Animals

I don't usually do the Thursday Challenge but the theme Small animals caught my eye this week.  I have always loved taking pictures of small living things, and although this one is quite large for a bee, it is quite small in the rest of the world.  I loved the vibrant color of his wings, I just had to have his picture.

Written Inc./Lensday - Colorful

This week is full of fun themes.  For instance both Written Inc. and Lensday are doign the theme colorful.  Color is such an amazing thing, and so hard to get right in a photograph (I won't go into all of the scientific reasons why it is hard to get, especially in digital photography, but believe me it is!).  Anyway, becuase I love color this theme sang to me.  Since it is the Easter time of year, and I do love Easter, we have been partaking in some usual Easter customs in my household, mainly dying eggs.  Patrick just loves to dye eggs, and I think he did a pretty awesome job with these.  I couldn't help but capture the beautiful colors all in a row, it worked out quite nicely for the theme colorful this week.

Macroday/Shutterday - Floral/Pink

The theme for macroday this week is floral.  We have recently been doing some gardening.  I have always loved lilies, especially calla lilies, so I finally talked Ian into getting some for the yard.  I adore the white ones, but can't help love all the colors they come in.  This was one Ian picked out, and I just love the color.  Pink calla lilies are just not something you see everyday, which made me want to also use these for Shutterday this week since the theme is pink.  Always nice when you can use one shot for two great themes.

Shutterday - Playing

I know that I am constantly posting pictures of my boys, but I just can't help it, I find them irresistable.  This week for shutterday I once again find myself including pictures of my kids, but I am adding Patrick's best friend in the world into the mix.  These two have been buddies since they met and I just adore the two of them together, they play so well together, there is never a worry about them getting violent with each other.  I took this picture as they were taking turns playing baseball, or golf ball as the case may be (our tee was broken at the time).  My favorite part of this picture was how chivalrous my son appeared, setting up the ball for Abby to hit.  We have apparently been successful in the teaching of sharing.

Moody monday - Risk-taking

I haven't done Moody Monday in a few weeks, I just wasn't feeling the themes.  This week however is risk-taking, and with two boys in my house there is constantly some sort of risk-taking going on.  Little things like saying no to mom or sneaking fruit snacks out of the cupboard, all the way up to big things like the one in this picture.  Now it may not look like too big of a risk until you realize that Reilly is only 13 months old here, that's right, 13 months.  Then take into account the fact that he is wet and the playstructure is about five feet tall, I would say that this is pretty risky business.  How about you?  He made it to the top and since this time has not made any attempt to stop climbing this structure, even with a few seriously flawed attempts.

Macroday - Optical

Macroday's theme this week is optical.  Most people seem to have entered things like camera lenses and glasses, but why not something as beautiful as an eye?  I guess I will be the first.  These are the stunning blue eyes of my one year old boy, amazing I know.  The scarry thing is when I look at this picture I see my eyes.  This is the first time I have actually seen that, I think it is simply the angle, but I will take it. 

Shutterday - Mobile Device

It is always fun to see what kind of pictures you get off of your camera phone, so I liked the challenge from shutterday this week. The theme is mobile device with specific directions that say the photo should be taken with one of your mobile devices like phone (although many people seemed to miss this part of the challenge). I took this picture at Mission Bay a couple weeks ago. Just a relaxing evening at the coast with the boys and an amazing sunset.

Written Inc. - At Rest

This is one of those very rare moments in time when Reilly is actually sleeping. (I say that knowing full well that he is actually a very good sleeper) We had been out on an excursion all day and the poor little guy was just pooped, he never falls asleep on other people, he like shis own bed. But I was happy because I made a great pillow that day and was able to hold out my arm and get this precious shot while we were on our way back to the ship. This was the first image that popped into my mind for Written Inc.'s theme of At rest.

Macroday - Love

OK , I know this photo is not of things that many people love, but I love MANY things about this photo. Bugs interest me, especially snails, something about them has always caught my interest (wierd I know). This one happened to be sliming its way up our front window at night and I just had to snap some pictures of it. When I downloaded the photos I realized that the way the snail was sitting you could see an amazing little heart right in the middle of it. I love finding hearts in nature, anytime I see one I have to take a picture and usually wind up using the photo for valentines the next year. I did not use this picture this year (I thought too many people would be grosed out by it), but maybe I should have. Heart's are associated with love so that is why this gets my pick for macroday's theme of love.

Lensday - Eyes

I have been missing my weekly photo blogs, and since I have had a kinda rough week I felt that this may get me in better spirits for the weekend. Lensday has Eyes as their theme this week, and I love it. I have to admit that eyes are probably my most favoite feature on people and animals, they are just beautiful. So here is a picture of my oldest son playing peek a boo with me through the slats of his play structure. I have to say that I think my boys have some of the most amazing eyes I have ever seen. Ian always says that the boys eyes are so intense that he feels like they are trying to steal his soul. I don't know about all of that, but they sure have captured me.

Lensday - blossom

This was much harder then I thought it would be, i have so many amazing flower shots that it was hard to narrow it down. These happened to be two of my favorites though, and I thought they would be great for the lensday theme - blossom.

Shutterday - Poverty

The theme for shutterday today was Poverty. This was a little town we visited in Mexico and I felt it fit the theme nicely.