It's My Life

The short one in our household went on a one day trip with her Nana and Papa this morning. Even though I entered this mini-separation from her with a lot of trepidation (I am gone 5 days on business next week and will already be away from her) I decided to check my attitude and do some things I really can't do while she is here. She left about 8:00 this morning. By 8:30 I was out the door heading to KCPT's Antique Appraisal Show with my girlfriend. She had three items she wanted appraised. I have never seen anything like that before and it was a bit exciting. I saw lots of guns. Lots of Victorian paintings. My friend got some really good news on one of her items and just okay news on the other two. After that, I stopped by baseball practice. I am sorry to say it was more to soak up some of the fantastic sunshine we had today and not for the baseball. But, I will say, it was fun to see the team's progress and see them looking like a team. I cleaned out my car. I...

My favorite thing to try and catch with my camera is baseball. My son has played for years and one of the reasons I ultimately got the DSLR was so I could take better shots of him playing baseball.  Baseball season starts the end of March/first of April so we have already been playing this year. Here are a few of my favorites. One of my favorites, I call this photo Relief Pitcher. ISO 1600, 1/500, f: 8.0 ISO 1600, 1/2500, f: 11.0 I love that you can see the seams of the baseball and how twisted his body is to get the power up. okay, this one is not my son, but I love first base action! ISO: 160, 1/2500, f: 11.0 Again, another player who is not my son, but more first base action. I love that you can see the seams on that baseball as it is whizzing into to first base. No chance this one was a close call. ISO: 1600, 1/3200, f: 8.0

Lesson 10 was about zooming out or backing up. Sometimes it is helpful to capture a little bit of background in the shot. I am posting a photo I took last summer at Dogwood Canyon south of Branson, Missouri. The entire park is picturesque and absolutely worth stopping by to see. We walked the entire thing, which ended up being 10K. As a side note, this is about 1 month before my big diagnosis. I can't stand to look at pictures of myself from that vacation because all I can see is my tumor. The bridge is very significant to me, because I had not idea at that time what kinds of bridges I would be crossing. ISO: 400, 1/500, f: 10.0 Even before the photography class, I felt this zoomed in photo of the bridge did not do it justice.  So I regrouped and came up with this one, which I like much better. I wanted every detail of this bridge to stay focused in so you could see the detailing of each stone. ISO: 400, 1/200, f: 7.1

My Daddy was a mushroom hunter. He took me once. A snake ran across my foot. I yelled so loud, I scared everything in the near vacinity! He never took me again! Last year, on a spring Sunday, we were sitting around talking about mushroom hunting. We got in the truck and drove to Weston and attempted it. We found 1 mushroom. We found a half dozen ticks. Not a successful trip. Tonight, we drove back out to Ford Man and the Sister-in-Law's place and they took us mushroom hunting.There were eight of us, 4 adults, 4 young ones. Everyone in Ford Man's family has a special siren noise they make when they find mushrooms. It took no time before the wooded area we were in was screaming with siren noises. In less than two hours we found almost 100 morels. They were some of the fattest morels I have ever seen! I am so looking forward to our next hunting trip! I asked the husband if we could go out again tomorrow. The elusive Morel Mushroom! Yep, I picked him! My sister-in-law w...

  This is one of my favorite days of the year. I love that the tomb was empty. I love to sing "He Lives" to myself all day long (I really do!) I love pretty dresses on little girls. I love Easter Egg hunts. I love that everything is new and fresh. And chocolate...What is there not to love about Easter? We started celebrating as soon as we woke up.  My friend Melissa told me about Resurrection Biscuits. So I decided to make them part of our morning breakfast. In addition to the Resurrection Biscuits, I made up a family tradition of Wild Onions and Scrambled Eggs. Truly wonderful food! To make Resurrection Biscuits, you begin with simply a can of Grand Biscuits. Roll them out  with a rolling pin.  Brush them with butter, add some Cinnamon and sugar. And 1 large white marshmallow. There are lots of significance to the spices and the white marshmallow but they were pretty hard to explain to a 3 year old. Then you fold up the biscuit around the ma...

We have sunshine here! Hip Hip Horray! The added bonus, the day of sunshine was on Easter! A glorious day for a glorious holiday. So, I begged the Short Chic to pose for me. I set my camera for Partial Metering and came up with this shot of her. I actually love it. ISO 100, 1/125, f: 5.6

Yes, I know how to count and Yes, I skipped number 8. I have practiced number 8, which is Light. But we have only had one afternoon of light and I under-exposed my subject. I am not admitting defeat, but I am waiting on some sun to practice again. Tonight's lesson could not have come at a better time! My husband has started making his own flies. He is very proud of them and has asked me to take a few photos of them, mostly so he can post them on Facebook and show his fishing buddies. I enjoy making up silly names for the new flies. Tonight's lesson was about using manual focus points. This is the second lesson in a row that required me to pull out the owners manual and actually read. But oh the difference in the photos! I took this photo last night. I named this fly The Bennett , after my husband's most perfect date ever with me (his story, not mine). We took a day trip to Bennett Springs State Park and went fly fishing. Well, he fished, I sat on the bank and read a ...

I have been so excited about this fun assignment. But since it was made, we have had 1 day of sunlight and it was a day I was not really around my favorite subjects.  Since that one day we have had clouds and rain! I was so excited on the way home from work today to find it was actually sunny and I could see shadows everywhere!  Thankfully, I have been dragging my camera with me everyday, just waiting for the sun to break through the gloom! I have titled my photo: Flowers for Nana. ISO 400, 1/2000, f/ 7.1

I debated long and hard about the loud things in my life. The Boy is very loud! His activities are loud.  The Short Chic is loud, she has not learned an indoor voice yet. In the end, she won out. Here are two photos of her that show how loud she can be! So, not only are we suppose to be photographing loud, but also to play with our white balance settings. I normally keep that one on Auto, so it has been fun playing with that setting. I can not believe how many photos I have taken in "M". ISO 1600, 1/2000, f/ 8.0 So not only is she loud but everyone on that playground is loud. Taken under cloud cover, but right at noon. I love this photo. I think the lines lead the eyes and I am trying very hard to remember the rule of thirds. ISO 1600, 1/640, f/ 7.1 This little meltdown was not because Mommy made her leave the playground. Rather because Mommy would not sit in the backseat with her. She cried for 1/2 hour until she fell asleep. All the time yelling, "I wa...

The Boy and his Team are playing in a baseball tournament in Kansas this weekend. I say that like Kansas is so far away, and it is not. The weather was very suspect all morning. Rainy. Cold. Windy. Thankfully, the organizers of the tournament pushed the start times back and while it was still chilly, we got to play some good ball today. Our second game started around five with The Boy on the Mound pitching. He pitched the last inning of the first game and did very well, so his confidence was soaring high as we started the second game. First inning our team went up 5 to 1. I think I might have seen the other teams confidence crack as we scored those five runs in the first. But if I did, it was momentarily because they came back and nearly evened that score 5 to 4. Shortly there after, they capitalized on the momentum switch and took that score all the way up to 11 to 5. Their third baseman fielded anything near him and effectively shut our team down. Our boys confidence did crack. Y...

I appreciate the suggestions, I even ended up taking some of the advice. I attempted to take a photo of an empty playground but the perspective was just off. So, I am posting a photo of a library isle. ISO 400, 1/13, f/ 5.6 I got up too early this morning to get a photo of either one of my kiddo's sleeping. There was no light available to grab a shot. I was up and out the door by 7:15 a.m. this morning as I have been working an hour away this week. And by the time I got back home, nap time was over. Other quiet moments today: ISO 1600, 1/16, f/ 5.0 The clock in my kitchen showing that my quiet time is almost over. Soon alarms will sound, showers will begin, fighting will occur and the day will officially start in the same chaotic way it always does. The sun was not even up at this time. ISO 100, 1/250, f/ 3.5 The swing set in my back yard. It is quiet today, as the weather is chilly and rain is expected.  Normally, this swing set is packed with all the neighbor ki...

The next assignment for the photography class is Quiet. If Quiet is today's lesson, then I already know that Friday's is going to be LOUD, and I am so much better with Loud. But Quiet, I hardly get to spend time with so we do not know each other very well.  I would love to hear your suggestions on how to capture Quiet on my camera.

The assignment is to take your camera outside and snap photos in full light. The goal is to use "open shade" and try and catch the catchlight in my subjects eyes. Unfortunately, my work schedule is crazy this week and I could not get outside till after 4:00 p.m. today. That time of the day did provide a nice "open shade" as the sun was behind the house and left a nice shade on the front yard. I selected The Boy as my subject, he is 14 and does not move when I ask him to hold still. ISO 100, 1/13, f/ 11.0 I can see the catchlight in his eyes in this one. Not sure if it is as good as I would have gotten earlier in the day. But I am trying. I did play around and took photos all over the yard and these two photos were by far the best of the batch. The "open shade" really does make a difference! ISO 100, 1/40, f/ 7.1 You can barely see the catchlight but I like the photo. Tomorrow is a guest teacher and I am so excited!! UPDATE: I was able to get ...

I am so thankful Tracy suggested we skip going to CKC in St. Louis and go to her lake house instead! So, Friday, I headed south of the city with three girlfriends to visit my friends lake home. Tracy is so use to having a lot of house company but she has never had a scrapbooking retreat at her home. Swimsuits, sunblock, and beer made way for paper piercers, cricuts, cropping, and embellishments. She deemed our weekend Craft Weekend! The neighbors even checked in on us to see how our Craft Weekend was going. Tracy's hubby was there, we knick named him CB (That stood for craft then a word for female dog). CB was so helpful. He got us drinks, fixed us steak, fixed our album extenders, helped drill holes in projects. CB even made us a late night fire and took us for a sunny boat ride!  Every girls craft/scrapbook weekend should have a CB!! I won a party from House Party, The Ultimate Sandwich Make Over from Kraft foods. So Saturday for lunch, we all enjoyed a break from crafting an...