POTD 10-16-2008

My daughter turns 5 at the end of the month so I am trying to get her out and take a variety of pictures. In the past I have only really done pumpkin patch photos, a few on her birthday and then of her in her costume. Now that she is getting better at following directions and helping out I want to start practicing some more.

These two are from today, processed with indie jane's grunge action. Have a few more shoots in mind but want to break them up over a few days.

I want to come back to this building but not sure who owns it. There is a house behind it but no one came out to bother us today.

POTD 5-6-2008

A few from today. Emma wants to play hockey. Ever since seeing one of her daddy's classmates playing about this time last year, she has wanted to play. So we got her on the ice, and last fall into skating lessons.

When we moved, I was going to just move her up to the next class but then I saw they had a pre-hockey class. In Denver, in order to go into the hockey classes, you had to pass the basic classes. Here she had a shorter way in. Her last lesson was today for pre-hockey and she is moving up to Hockey1 next session! She is technically too young to play but they say if she is doing good, they will let her play as a older 4 instead of being 5. If she is at that point come registration in August, I am not sure if we will let her or just wait until Dec for the next registration.

POTD 4/27/2008

Tonight we went to SuperCross. It was a pretty awesome show. Mostly kids/young adults from around Colorado from what I can tell. The highlights had to be the little ones (under 10) and the jump competition, each for its own reasons of course!


There was this one little kid that my husband and his friend named "little dude." He looked so tiny out there and was being lapped by the other kids. Was pretty awesome when he came across for his finish (before the kid in first place), the guy at the finish was waving the checkered flag for "little dude." I missed most of that race due to standing in line for cookies for Emma but I heard it was quite the show for him.


From the little kids races... (For some reason "little dude" was not in this fun race but in the actual heats). This was the only girl that I noticed out there. Alot of the kids had trouble staying on their bikes going up the hill... Lots of spills. Lots of parents helping to get kids up the hills and to get the bikes under control.







The jumps.... pretty awesome... pretty grainy but I was shooting mostly by this time with 3200ISO and the widest I could go is 5.6... made due and had fun. They were shoot on my 70-300, most of them at 300.




Yes he is upside down!

POTD 4-21-2008

Here are two I was going to use for Friday but did not get them both edited in time. I was going to use them yesterday and life interferred (more on that in a minute).

Remember Raider? My pup who had me really frustrated just last post? (Thurs)

We went from happy puppy (who had just been to the vet Friday morning for routine check-up) to very sick puppy in a matter of 24 hours. The vet was closed Sat so we ended up calling the Emergency Vet office and they said to bring him right in. After a couple x-rays, the vet said she could not see anything that showed for sure he had a blockage. This was the main concern with his symptoms. She said she could send us home with meds and see what happens but since he just got off a round of meds for vomiting the week before, she said it might be worth doing some intensive testing. We went that route because we did not want to risk him getting really worse over night or even loosing him. He was very close to dehydration if not there already by the time we got to the ER vet.

So we left him there over night for blood work and barium tests. Thankfully there is no sign of blockage but the blood tests show some concern which the vet thinks could be caused by whatever is going on, she think bacteria infection. So he is on meds and we are to follow up with his vet this week. He is back home but not his happy full of energy self yet. Was actually glad when he attempted nipping my heel but that was very short lived.

Am hoping we are in the clear because what this set us back I could have gone out and bought the 40D. Ouch. Don't get me wrong, I do not regret it at all and I really think if he had not gotten help, he would be alot worse today.

POTD 4-18-2008

Meet Raider. He was the source of all my frustration today. We got him from Animal Control just over a month ago and over all he is a great dog. He was picked up as a stray and they figure him to be about 4 months now. My biggest issue is he seems to have a bit of an aggressive streak that I am pretty sure is not normal puppy behavior.

Again, played around with different edits after taking this shot today.

SOOC


version 1

version 2

POTD 4-17-2008

Thank you for all the comments lately :)

A couple pictures from soccer tonight.

POTD 4-16-2006

Considering we hit low 80s today, this is not a recent picture! This is from Jan when we drove out here from Denver to check the area out. It was a cold, icy morning and I noticed the trees off the road. Took a few quick shots out the window and we were on our way.

This evening I was editing pictures of babies for parents from the child care center I used to work at and I came across this and wanted to try out a couple different actions on it.

SOOC

version 1

version 2

POTD 4-14-2008

Thanks for all the comments yesterday! I am going to try to get to blogs tomorrow!

A picture from last week. Fun in the rain!

POTD 4-13-2008

We spent most of today working out in the yard. We have only been in the house 1.5 months and there is so much to get done outside. Thankfully it was warm and sunny and we managed to make a huge dent. Towards the end DH put Emma to work watering the plants... I think she ended up wetter than the plants!

POTD 3-24-2008

Back after an absence. We moved, are settling in and finally back with an internet connection. Only took them 3 weeks from the time we put the order in.




Here is one picture to get back in the game. This is from today and is Emma's second fish she has caught. I did not take my camera last time (did not this time either, this is after we got home). We would have released it but he swallowed the hook :(

POTD 2-16-2008

Just a fun picture I took yesterday. A mom brought in doughnuts for the teachers and as soon as I saw them, I grabbed my camera since they fit the theme for the week. And yes, they were yummy :)

Aside from the fun part of the photo it reminds me what good parents I had at work. It was my last day and leaving the kids and their parents is going to be the hardest part.

POTD 2-13-2008

Thanks for all the comments lately. I promise to be better at commenting back once we get settled after the move. Will have more free time then. I have been having fun shooting again :)

My idea for tonight was ruined when my daughter's favorite truck drove off as we were coming back from getting the mail. I have permission from the owner to get some pics of her with it (and let her climb all over it) but he took off before I could today.

So instead we went inside and went with the old love standby. I have seen this before but seeing that she signed a bit as a baby (plan on teaching her more as well) and it is our little code when we see each other across the cafeteria at school, it is fitting!



Shot in Raw, edited in ACR
ISO 200
F1.8 1/15sec
85mm
flash used

POTD 2-12-08

A couple quick shots from tonight. Was past bedtime for her so we rushed. I like the results but would really like to see the heart candy in the first shot instead of the candy corn. May play around more with the hearts at a later time.

ETA - based on first couple comments.. jammies (Carter's footies) were a fluke, was aiming to be closer to candy but was not willing to crop in the end, at least not yet... but I love what they add! Also, candy corn is from Walmart for those interested.



Both shot in RAW, some pping with ACR
f/4.0 1/60s (for both)
85mm (candy corn)
28-70mm @ 42mm (hearts)
flashed bounce off a reflector

POTD 2-11-08

This past Friday, my daughter's preschool had their annual Valentine's dance. I took a ton of pics (for myself and for the school's use) and realized when I got home, they are going to be tough to edit due to the red lights the DJ used. This one just makes me smile. It is a picture of my daughter (red shirt) and one of her best friends. At the same time it make me cry because of how sweet it is. This coming Friday will be her last day at school and it tears me apart that she will have to move away from her two closest friends. This was the easiest to share because her friend's face is not visible.

Shot RAW

ISO 800

f/4 1/60s

28-70 @ 51 mm

PPing

played around with settings in ACR

Added a black vignette through Rens presets

POTD 2-6-2008

Another old picture. This was the perfect way to spend Christmas eve. Walking on the beach in 70 degree weather! Not bad coming from Colorado. Emma had a blast. Although she had been to the beach/ocean a couple years back, it was pretty much a cool new thing for her!





Shot in RAW edited in ACR
ISO 100
f/8 1/500s
28-70 @ 70mm

POTD 2-5-2008

This is an older picture from July I believe. I shot in RAW and played around with pp-ing tonight. I used to shoot ghost towns and had a couple gallery showing years ago when I shot film and am hoping to get back to that some day.

f/16 1/90s

ISO100 28 to 70 @ 33mm

POTD 2-4-2008

In the coming months, once life settles, I hope to be able to contribute more to POTD. For now, I will just post as I can. Here is shot from today. I am trying to get a feel for post processing and it is not going well most of the time. Anything done to this photo was done with ACR and Ren's presets. CC is more than welcome!


Canon 10D
85mm 1.8
f4.5 1/1000sec