More practice shots

I really like the way Emily turned out in the following pictures...but I overexposed them.

Nature Center Practice

After dropping Hannah off at volleyball practice, Emily and I went to the Nature Center so I can practice taking pictures. I'm having trouble with focusing and exposure. Today's goal was to get Emily's face--specifically her eyes--in focus and nail exposure while trying to make the picture look cute (as far as her posing goes). We didn't exactly dress right for the weather (I didn't expect there to be so much snow still left on the trails), so we only stayed for an hour, but I did get a couple of cute shots...but I also got several over and under exposed shots. Shooting in the snow was harder than I thought...

On the website I belong to, they have a creative exercise where you need to take headless pictures...I was thinking of submitting this one...

This next one is a bit overexposed...

And this next one is waaayyy over exposed...

And this one is underexposed...

But this one is kinda okay...

Of course, I tried to take one that was just purely creative...

And these aren't too bad...

(I made it into an 8 x 10)

I have a few landscape ones I'll share next, but right now I'm off to pick Emily up from her volleyball practice!

Christmas Summary

So, because I uploaded my pictures backward, my summary is backward...starting with this morning...

First up is the screaming face of Emily...when she got her ipod...(funny story I'll share later)



when she opened her moon shoes...



and when she opened her Phiten necklace...



Whe was so into Christmas this year. It's the first year we really had trouble getting her to go to sleep. At one o'clock this morning, she was still awake!




Hannah asked for alot of Polly Pocket and Barbie stuff, and since I figured I don't have too many more years of her wanting to play with dolls, I obliged...

She was also very excited when she opened her ipod...



For Christmas Eve we went to 3 o'clock mass and then hung out at Mom's (as you all know)

At the start of the evening Mya and Aaron climbed into bed together...

And Mya closed her eyes as if she were sleeping!!

They are so cute!!!!

Today, we spent 9 hours at the Durbin house hanging out, opening gifts, and eating lots of junk. The last 2 days have been so full of family and shopping and running to and fro that I'm kind of glad that Christmas is over, but I'm also sad...there is just something special about this time of year and I'm sad to have it go. It leaves behind it a little lonely feeling...

Any way, I'm looking forward to this upcoming week of rest and relaxation!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas stuff

Getting ready...



Looking forward to tomorrow and the day after that!

Facebook

is addicting...I'm now using my account, not really sure why, but I'm posting comments and pictures so if you want to be my friend...just send me a request!! :-)

A before and after

I've been reading some tutorials this morning and edited Hannah's picture to go from this:

to this:

I think her skin is a bit too pink, but I think the exposure is waaayyy better and her eyes sparkle a bit more...

Oh, and I just signed up for another online photography workshop with a different professional photographer. It begins in the middle of January and it's another beginner class (not very confident in my skills right now), so you can look forward to seeing more picture assignments from me in the future!! (exciting, I know!)

Final assignment

Today marks the end of my photography workshop. :-(

I'm sad to see it go...kind of. On the one hand, I enjoyed increasing my knowledge and having excuses to take lots of pictures. But, on the other hand, it was hard to practice and grade and run the kids everywhere they had to go.

I'm definitely a better photographer than I was before taking the workshop, but I still have much to learn.

So, without further ado, here's my last picture:



Our assignment this time was to "wow them." I'm afraid I didn't because I think this picture, like the last ones I took, is a bit underexposed. But, it was the best I could do. With the sun going down so early and bad weather this weekend, it was hard to get good light. I had visions of taking them to the Nature Center and shooting away, but it was too cold and time was limited.

But it's still cute, and her eyes are tack sharp, and I have catch lights in her eyes, so I at least did some things right!!

First batch of snow

With Saturday bringing our first dose of accumulating snow, Hannah and Emily couldn't wait to sled on Sunday.

(please excuse my underxposed pics...I should have upped my iso...no time for photoshop right now...)

Her comment when she got out of the creek was, "Did my hair get dirty?"

The snow wasn't very deep, but they seemed to enjoy themselves anyway!

A few pictures to share

I don't think I will post them all (Jo Ann probably wants to keep some as a surprise), but I will share a few...



I thought she could make this one into a card...



And here's a cropped version of them sitting by the fireplace...



That's all for now...

Getting Trophies

We spent some time today at an awards ceremony for Hannah and Emily who received their soccer trophies: Hannah for winnng the losing bracket of the tournament, and Emily for coming in first in her league.

It's funny, but I think Ray was a bit nervous announcing the team...

Then, walking outside in the frigid temps reminded me how glad I am that soccer is over!