Day #31 - Orange

Boy #1 wearing his 2nd favorite color- orange :)
ISO 400 - f/2 - 1/100

Day #30 - Tubby Time

Played w/the custom exposure and white balance while the kids took a bath. Their bathroom is VERY yellow- like rubber duckie yellow, so the color cast in their is always awful. Doing the custom exposure/WB helped- but since it's a white tub anyway- I liked it better in b+w :)
It is amazing how much less noise their is w/the custom settings. THANKS again Tara for your histogram lesson w/b+ws and high ISOs :)
ISO- 1600
SS- 1/160
Ap- 2.0

Day #29 -Basillica at Night

Coming home late I realized I hadn't taken a photo yet! So being the geek that I am now, I had my camera in my bag, so I snapped this while driving down the interstate. lol

Needless to say it wasn't all that in focus since it was so dark- so I ran a filter on it- watercolor filter. I like how it turned out, despite the boring composition.

ISO 1600 - f/1.8- 1/25

Oh- and it's the Basillica in Minneapolis :)

I've been tagged by Gina :)

The rules are to list 6 weird things about myself and then tag 6 people to do the same.
1-I HATE the smell of bleach- it makes me gag.
2-I am in my 30s but yet love teen-targeted TV (Degrassi, The Hills, old 90120 reruns, etc)
3-I didn't need braces and I've never had a cavity :D
4- But I have a reoccuring nightmare about loose teeth falling out.
5- I have horrible balance- I fall down if I stand with my eyes closed :)
6- I hate olives, but love pickles. My DH is the exact opposite. Our kids love both.

I am tagging Adrielle Ali Alissa Allison Amanda and Ariana :D

Day #28 - Circles

My picture for the "Weekly Challenge" which is "Circles" this week. So...anyone know what it is?! :) I'll give a hint- the last number on this "thing" is 25. :) I like how his turned out- I once again used my grey card to set the exposure and CWB. And I focused on my lucky number for the photo :) ISO 100 ; f/2 ; SS 1/400

THE ANSWER : Ariana you were right- it is a Christmas countdown thing...it's called an Advent Box. It's numbered 1-25. Each knob is for a little door- each door is like 2"x2" and about 2" deep. In the month of December each day I stick a little note in the door telling what we'll be doing special that day. Things like "Bake cookies" "Read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas'" etc. Every morning the kids look forward to opening the next door to see what's in store for us that day :) I've always had a version of this throughout my childhood, my old one was hand painted w/little pictures on each door. As a kid it was a wall chart w/pockets. I found this at Target 2yrs ago and fell in love w/the look and design.

Louisa your guess made me giggle :)

Day #27 - Car Sleeping

Busy day- Boy #1 fell asleep in the car, and since I brought my camera along... :)

Day #26 - Grey Card Exposure

I finally decided to break out the gray card I bought a few weeks back. I used it to both set the exposure AND the CWB. WOW...... the color and skin tone is SPOT on!! All 3 of these pics are SOOC except for cropping/border. I didn't sharpen for the web, so they are flatter than IRL.

My kids weren't much in a photo mood- as Boy #2 and The Girl both had some 24hr flu bug today :( Thankfully at age 4 they are pretty good about being sick though- all they want is a cozy place to watch TV and snuggle in :)

I'll be playing more with this idea- one thing about our house is that we LOVE color, so our rooms are all painted different and bright/dark colors- so color casting is an issue in several of the rooms. So now I'll have to try the grey card thing in all the rooms and see what difference it makes :)

Still on an all natural light- no flash- kick. This month being forced to mess with ISOs has been rather liberating. I'm no longer afraid of high ISOs! :)

Day #25 -Toe anyone?

When sucking your thumb just isn't enough.

Gross I know.

She also bites her toenails (and her fingernails)

She thinks this picture is VERY funny :)

Thankfully- this is a RARE occasion.

The thumbsucking however, is not.

ISO 100

SS 1/50

F/2.2

Day #24 Still Lifes

Icky day today- so took some pics of things around my house. These 2 were my favorite- the 1st was taken outside and b+w converted. I love the bokeh on the 1st and something about the angle on the 2nd- I was laying down, shooting from under it.

1st one: ISO 100, f/2 , 1/200 2nd: ISO 400, f/2.2, 1/80

Day #23 Hanna Girl

Nothing too exciting- it was the end of a busy day. I scored some good deals at Hanna and The Girl loves her new hat and mittens. ISO 1600.

Day #22 - Surrender

This is what happens when it's 11:50pm and you realize you forgot to pick up your camera that day cause you were so busy! This is how he spends the majority of his day. We surrendered the furniture downstairs to him a long time ago :)
I think my theme this month should be no flash and high ISO! ISO 1600, with custom WB. I'm really digging the difference a CWB can make!

Day #21- Fresh snow!

Fresh snow! Some pics of my furbaby and Boy#1.

Super cloudy day, since it was SNOWING :) lol

Hmmmm they look much more red here than they did in PS.... color is SOOC, so the WB must have been off.

Day #20 - Little D :)

The face for the baby feet in Day #10. Isn't he cute? Again high ISO- 1600. Taken at night with no flash of course :)

Day #19 - Glow Sticks

Okay- bizarre photo I know. My kids got some of those gel light things- the ones you crack and shake and they glow? Well- they were playing with them in the dark living room- so I set the camera to 'bulb' to capture them spinning them around. I thought it was kinda cool - esp since you can't see them holding them at all. I'd never used the bulb shutterspeed before.

Day #18 - Zebra Girl

Still playing w/my 50mm on a daily basis to adjust to winter light.
This is the twin sister to Day #11 :) She has the most gorgeous eyelashes!

Day #17 - Grover

My favorite Sesame Street character was my model late tonight. :)
In my continued attempt to tackle my fear of high ISOs... ISO was 1600, ss 1/50 and f/1.8. (50mm)
All I have to say is HOLY SMOKES what a difference setting the WB to custom makes!! Not only is the color better but the noise is way less noticeable.
Color's not great- since I used my not-really-white computer desk/counter for my custom set- (yes I had white paper right next to it but DUH it didn't occur to me) but even so, it was SO much better than any of the presets for WB. (and yes I tried them all 1st to see what would cure the reddish tone)
My DH thought I was on something as he came downstairs to find me reclining back in my desk chair w/Grover held in one hand over my head, and my camera smashed to to my eye in the other hand, while swiveling my chair around to get the crappy light from the ceiling to hit right :) "WHAT are you doing with that muppet?!"

Day #16 - 20 Little Piggies

I love when something for a photo just happens naturally and I NOTICE!
Not to mention get the camera in time! :) lol
My boys laying on our coffee table watching Magic School Bus :)
I love that their feet are dirty and the symmetry- esp how they both have big toes touching....

Day #15 - Mmmm snow!

We finally got the snow that my children have been HOPING for :) So we spent 3hrs outside- it was GORGEOUS- a perfectly sunny day, no wind, COLD- but lots of fun!
Here's one pic from the day. Boy #2 eating some snow :)

Day #14 - C is for....

My friend gave us one of those "cookies in a jar" gifts- you know, where all you have to do is add the butter and egg. My kids love to cook- so this was our project on Sunday.
Since I've been using my 50mm 99% of the time these days- I've been irritated by the auto-focus on it at times, esp at close range- so I've been starting to use it more in manual focus- with better results, and at the very least no more of that annoying "searching for focus" sound.
Lesson learned with this pic? Taking a picture of brown cookies on a brown table...not so good :)

But I like thecomposition on this one.

Day #13 (for real)

Ok- here some pics actually from Saturday :)
Every other week we make homemade pizza for dinner- it's a favorite food AND activity for the kids. They love kneading the dough, and esp love picking their own toppings and creating their own little 'zas- usually loaded with tons of olives and pepperoni.
Working in high ISOs again. Need to learn to set my white balance to custom- the pics were all sort of reddish toned. I ran a little USM on the top pic.

Day #13 - Calendar Pics

Okay- so these aren't REALLY pics from today...I DID take pics today- but this is what I spent most of my day on- the calendar I do for the kids g'parents. YES I realize that 2007 has already started....what can I say- I'm late! Plus for some reason my CS2 is acting up- it's SO slow! Time to de-frag maybe....Anyways-I have 3 more pages to go to finish the calendars- so hopefully I'll have it done soon! So you get a little peek BACK at some of my pics from 2006. Tomorrow I'll see if I got anything post-worthy from today. :)

Day #12 - The #1 Baby

This is our beloved 1st baby :) He's an Australian Shepherd and is impossible to photograph!
His eye on the left is 1/2 blue, plus he has cornea distrophy which are little cloudy spots in his eyes. He HATES having his photo taken. Most of my pics of him are of him barking at me! This was a "I give up" moment on his part :)

Day #11 - Little Lion

In the summer I mostly have my zoom lens on my camera- since we're outside. But now that winter has arrived, I'm becoming reaccquainted with my 50mm. :)
This is one of my kids playmates. It was a cloudy day, but she was right in front of her window. In her lion costume :) lol
I really love this photo!

I just wish her other eye was in focus too, I was shooting at 1/60, f/2. so I suspect that's why. I have trouble doing handheld slower than 1/80. I'm too spazzy :)

Day 10 - Sweet Baby Feet

Several of my friends are expecting babies around the same time, (Dec-Apr) which of course makes ME happy because I can take some baby pics! :) 2 had their babies in Dec. The 1st you saw in my Day #1 pic- this is the 2nd. 4 more are due in March+April! :)
I went to visit this little guy today and snapped a few pics- this was one of my favorites- I love baby feet!

Day 9 - Brotherly Love

Click on it to see it larger :)

Nothing like catching them in the act! Pics are SOOC (straight out of camera) except for cropping. It's my 1st storyboard!

Day 8 - The Girl

In my continued effort to try out the lighting in different rooms in my home, this is The Girl in our entryway. We have pale-gold paint on the walls, so it gives a sort of golden cast which is kind of nice I think. We have a huge window/glassdoor unit here which is great for light, but the space is very small so only works for ind. head shots.

Day 7 - Boy #2

Okay this photo just made me laugh. The "Home Alone" look aside :) lol I love that I was able to capture the blueness in his eyes. I LOVE his eye color and struggle with getting it to show accurately in photos.

Thanks for your comment Betty- you were right- his skin is too red. Must be the pink walls or else the white balance. :)

Anyways- I re-edited it and used curves to lighten the whole thing, and then another layer of curves to turn down the red, and then erased it around his eyes and shirt. Thanks! I like it much better.

Day 6 - Quiet moment

More work on b+w conversion. I really like the softness in this one.

Day 5 - Expression

My kids have mastered the cheesey photo smile- so I'm trying to capture more of their true expressions. This would be a classic furrowed brow look for Boy #2.

Day 4 - Goofy Boy

Since winter has hit MN, I'm pretty confined to indoor photos. I have decent light in my living room, but want to break out of that pattern and see what's available in other rooms. SO this is from The Girl's room, mid-morning. I was pleasantly surprised by the good light! The downside is her room walls are very PINK so they do a little color casting. This expression is SO Boy #1 it cracks me up :)

Day 3 - Little Man

Still with the high ISO- 1600. This had a lot more noise- so I think is better in b+w, and since I need to work on my conversions, why not! :) I know the composition in it sucks, lol, but there's something about his eyes that I liked. Boy #2 also not thrilled with my photo taking today :)

Day 2 - Boy #1 and his tongue

One of the things I hope to overcome is my fear of high ISOs! So this pic is one I took at an ISO of 1600. SS around 1/60 I think, and f/1.8 or 2. Boy #1 was not thrilled with my picture taking as you can tell :)

Day One!

Day One: One thing I'm going to be working on is my b+w conversions. This is a pic of my g/f's adorable little boy, 1wk old :) I used Brenda's B+W Action with the adjustment layers set to around 50%.

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