June 30: Day 174

Ethan is obsessed with balls. His favorite are basketballs but any ball will do. Tonight I talked him into sitting for some photos for me by asking him to hold a basketball. It did the trick!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 22 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 29: Day 173

I thought I'd practice some with flash since I'm not super comfortable with it quite yet, so I waited until after the kids went to bed to do my photo of the day. I chose the shower curtain rings in the guest bathroom as my subject, and surprisingly enough actually like the non-flash grainy version the best! For your enjoyment I am posting the non-flash version below. I edited both in Adobe Bridge but didn't touch them in Photoshop.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/50 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 45 mm
ISO: 1600
Flash: Off

And the flash version:

June 28: Day 172

My husband actually asked me to take some photos of him which happens about once a blue moon. Of course I obliged! He's super critical of photos of himself and told me he only likes 3 photos I've taken of him in the 10+ years I've known him. Talk about pressure. He wanted photos of himself in his head to toe Dutch soccer garb, this was my favorite out of the bunch.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/500 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 42 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 27: Day 171

I was pretty wiped out after the previous day's wedding and didn't even touch my camera until we got home that evening. Not the greatest photo I've ever taken, but at least I didn't forget!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO: 800
Flash: Off

June 26: Day 170

Here's a sneak peek from the wedding I photographed last Saturday. The bride is a longtime childhood friend and she looked absolutely gorgeous! Look for a blog post on my photography blog in the next few days for more from this beautiful country wedding.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO: 100
Flash: Off

June 25: Day 169

I took my daughter out for a photoshoot this afternoon and we had a lot of fun! To see more pictures see my family blog. I used the 2.8 70-200 lens in an alleyway "downtown". It was a perfect location with great lighting and lots of room for me to maneuver a long zoom. We only had to dodge a car once which wasn't too bad.


Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/400 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 115 mm
ISO: 100
Flash: Off

June 24: Day 168

I don't know what possessed me but since I had some free time with my camera this afternoon I played around with doing a self portrait. I think I deleted 99% of the photos I took because holding the camera at the right angle to compose and not get glare on my glasses is just about impossible. Especially one handed. I did switch to Auto Focus which helped some, I can't imagine trying to focus manually without looking!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 30 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 23: Day 167

I did practice with the 70-200 a bit today but got interrupted and wound up grabbing my trusty standby, the nifty fifty and spending some time in the daisies. These wild daisies popped up in the scrub behind our house and I think they're really pretty. I'm definitely paying a lot more attention to wild flowers and weeds during this Project 365.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 22: Day 166

What is wrong with this picture? My children are both cooperating with me by pretending to actually like each other. Have aliens invaded my children's bodies? Grace is willingly hugging her brother and Ethan is smiling about it? I promise this is not typical. I actually got a few of them both looking at me and smiling at the same time too. The planets must have been aligned just right for that to happen. One of the reasons may be the new trick I discovered to get them to look at me at the same time. We played a game. The game was me telling them not to look at me but to look at the flowers, rocks, sky, trees, birds, etc. and eventually telling them to look at Mommy and it worked! I'm a genius.

This is using the rented 70-200 again by the way. Gorgeous lens but man is it heavy!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/400 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 21: Day 165

Guess what came in the mail on Monday!?! That's right, the Canon 2.8 70-200 IS lens! I have it rented for the week to use at a wedding this weekend and I am pretty excited to get my hands on some L glass. Naturally it arrived after dinner and right before the kids' bedtime but I didn't let that fact bother me. I hauled my pajama clad unhappy subject outside and snapped a few pics. I also took a few of his sister but since I hadn't bothered to do her hair she looked pretty bedraggled. Bad Mommy, I know. I have several smiley photos of Ethan from the 10 minute photo shoot but thought I'd share this one to prove that my happy go lucky "easy" to photograph son is not always cooperative. Of course I kind of think grumpy baby photos are cute so maybe I'm just nuts.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/500 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 100 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 20: Day 164

I'm so glad I had the foresight to take this photo before we spent the entire day driving home. While we were rounding all our gear up that morning I noticed that these glass jars on the coffee table were twinkling in the morning sun. Aren't they pretty?

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 19: Day 163

We were watching the kids play in the back yard from the deck when the storm clouds came rolling over us. One minute it was bright and sunny, the next it was dark and raining. Where'd that rain come from?

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 18: Day 162

Tried out some more ghetto macro. This time on a dandelion. I think weeds can be fascinating subjects for photography, especially macro photography!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/16.0
Focal Length: 54 mm
ISO: 400
Flash: Off

June 17: Day 161

Grace loves to sit on the ottoman next to the window in Oma's living room. She especially loves to read on that ottoman. I can't blame her, that particular spot gets some awesome north facing light!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 33 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 16: Day 160

My mother in law was busy sewing the week we visited. She made Grace a princess dress and a super cute Mary Engelbreit patchwork jumper! She's working on the patchwork jumper in this photo.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO: 800
Flash: Off

June 15: Day 159

I chased Ethan down in my inlaws spacious back yard for this photo. We're under some fir trees on a bright afternoon.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 60 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 14: Day 158

What? I like macro photography. This is a small iris bud I found hiding in my inlaws back yard. Doesn't it look dreamy? I barely touched this, just a smidgen of sharpening and that's all.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 54 mm
ISO: 400
Flash: Off

June 13: Day 157

This photo was taken after a long trip to Idaho from Sisters, OR. I have to say that inspiration is hard to come by when traveling long distances with small children. Good thing I spotted this bud in my inlaws back yard!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 12: Day 156

Landscape photography is probably my least favorite genre of photography. I enjoy details which is probably why I like macro photography so well. I'm rarely inspired to photograph a landscape but spending quality time on Jim and Jane's deck in Sisters, OR looking at this view for a few days made me give it a try. For the record, this photo does NOT do this view justice. It's absolutely beautiful! Friday night featured a gorgeous pink sunset but unfortunately I was stuck inside trying to get restless and excited kids to go to sleep in a sleeping bags in a strange place. Thus, the daytime photo.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f/18.0
Focal Length: 47 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 11: Day 155

This was the day we arrived in Sisters and we were gearing up for the next day's rodeo. Ethan loved his cowboy hat but kept holding it on his head sideways which made him look like a hillbilly. Goofy boy!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/500 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 45 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 10: Day 154

Today the kids and I bought my husband's Father's Day presents and wrapped them. I'm ahead of the game because we leave for the Sisters Rodeo tomorrow and will be in Idaho next week. Grace made her own wrapping paper (hey, she told me she wanted to be just like me the other day and once upon a time before I had children I did actually make my own wrapping paper!). She colored kraft paper and it turned out super cute. Check out my family blog for more about her homemade wrapping paper.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 45 mm
ISO: 800
Flash: Off

June 9: Day 153

I didn't take a photo until it was dark outside so I decided to play with my flash. Since David was wiped out from his day trip to Seattle our poor dog was my subject. I chased Zoe around the living room and flashed her. I liked this photo the best because she's giving me the wary "what are you trying to do to me" look at the same time as licking her chops.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/50 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 40 mm
ISO: 1600
Flash: On, Fired

June 8: Day 152

We had a picnic on the patio for dinner before getting chased inside by raindrops. Grace had chicken nuggets and Ethan had a peanut butter and honey sandwich. Both of them had strawberry banana yogurt that I made money buying this week. It expires on June 11th but they'll eat it before then. What they won't eat I put in the freezer for a frozen yogurt treat!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 60 mm
ISO: 100
Flash: Off

June 7: Day 151

I was doing some more reading about the ghetto macro technique and thought I'd give a different lens combo a try. I used my 75-300mm zoom lens with my 50mm reversed and got this extreme close up of this familiar logo I found in a magazine. You can even see the individual pixels of ink! Do you know which logo it is?

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/13.0
Focal Length: 130 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 6: Day 150

Can you believe I'm on Day 150?!? Me either. I had planned on taking a photo of a board game since we played Kingsburg with our friends Pat & Katie but of course I got wrapped up in playing and totally forgot to bust out my camera. Oops. Since it was 10pm when I realized I forgot to take a photo yet today I threw my coat on and headed outside to see if I could find a subject for some night photography. Unfortunately our neighborhood is super uninteresting at night. As I walked back home I noticed that the neighbor's lights were reflecting on our car's hood in the driveway and I thought I might be able to get some fun light bokeh shots. One thing I like about this Project 365 is that it's got me trying out new types of photography and subjects as I get bored with taking photos of the same old thing. I think light bokeh (the blurry spots of light) is kind of pretty and I wish it was Christmas time to experiment with Christmas lights. I think I'm looking forward to December!

I didn't use a tripod for this shot. Instead the camera was resting on the car hood which kept it stable enough for a fairly slow 1/10 shutter speed.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/10 sec
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 1600
Flash: Off

June 5: Day 149

I don't know why but I really like this photo of Grace. I took it while we were finishing dinner at the table because I loved the light streaming in from the sliding glass door backlighting her hair and the chocolate cookie crumbs on her face! I love this girl!

On the technical side, this is technically a snapshot since it wasn't a posed photo of any sort. Even though it was a snapshot I still grabbed my reflector (it's the back of the laminated calendar on the fridge...so high tech). The light was behind her and otherwise her face would have been dark, plus it gave me that nice catchlight.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

June 4: Day 148

Technically perfect this photo is not. But it does make me happy. I think it's because I caught this rare moment of sunshine filtering through the trees this evening after dinner and noticed the cool pea pods glowing. Isn't it cool? I was outside playing with some ghetto macro shots again (I'm addicted, what can I say!) when I spotted this drama happening. I didn't even bother to switch my lenses around and used my kit 18-55 lens which I *never* use except for wide indoor shots. So here's proving that you can take a semi-ok photo with the kit lens. I do have some blown out areas but how on earth do you prevent that with sunflare? I thought it turned out pretty good considering it was a spur of the moment shot taken while holding my precious 50mm in one hand and the camera in the other!

I barely edited it. Just some cropping and sharpening.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 52 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

And the best macro I got this evening...

June 3: Day 147

I sweet talked my daughter into modeling for me this afternoon. I used my trusty Ikea step stool in the middle of the wet grass. Then I asked Grace to sing me a song about the color purple. I can't wait for Grace's eye surgery in August because I'm having a really hard time getting a photo of her with both her eyes open. She's been mentioning that her eye hurts which I kind of think means she's finally getting bothered by her droopy eyelid. It's so hard to get photos of her pretty eyes open and I can only imagine how hard it is for her to have one eye that doesn't open up the way she wants it to.

Even though this was taken exactly at 50mm I was using my Tamron 28-75mm zoom lens. Don't want to confuse you if you're watching my exif data!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100
Flash: Off

June 2: Day 146

I took today's photo after dinner on a gray day. Not great light. I felt a rain drop or two. I wasn't feeling super inspired by our yard but I did have a hankering to play with capturing waterdrops with my ghetto macro technique. So I did!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/10
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO: 1600
Flash: Off

I thought I'd share a photo of my backyard where I take most of my nature/macro shots. It's nothing extraordinary, just a normal small backyard with a lot of scrubby brush/poison oak/black berries behind it. Today's photo is of a weed in the mud. Not exactly most people's first choice for a photo subject, but the colors and water drops make it interesting! So be creative and really look at your surroundings to find beauty in the mundane. It's easier then you think.

June 1: Day 145

I got the email from the library that the newest Charlaine Harris book that I put on hold 3 months ago was finally waiting for me to pick up yesterday afternoon and I promptly picked it up and read it from cover to cover. I finished by 9pm. I love to read!

This photo was taken late at night (after I finished reading it!) so there was no natural light to speak of. Hence the high ISO and slow shutter speed.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/60 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 44 mm
ISO: 1600
Flash: Off