Day 211

Just playing outside this evening with Pickle's new giant, oversized badminton set. Dominic was sitting in the grass and he looked up at me with this smirky little smile and his big blue eyes. He likes being 6 years old!



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Day 210

Today was Dominic's 6th birthday! It was one of the best birthdays ever for our family! I'll blog about it tomorrow on Elusive Tranquility and share tons of piccies, but for now I'll share a great capture that I got (and yep, the camera was on manual!)... Anna jumping off the diving board with the sun setting behind her. Pure joy, pure childhood. Love.



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Day 209

We have a king-size bed and our comforter doesn't fit in our washing machine, so it was time for a trip to the laundromat. This was Dominic's first experience there and he wanted to load the quarters into the machines. Contrary to this scowling face, he did have a good time. I honestly don't know what was crossing his mind at this particular moment but I love his expression! I can almost glimpse a peek of him ten years from now.



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Day 208

I was trying to take some pictures of Jenny and Dominic insisted on crashing our little "session." This is such a typical face for him that I had to include it in this year's photo project... all boy, all Dominic. Love it!

ISO~400
SS~1/1250
f-stop~1.8
35mm prime

Processed with Florabella's Luxe action Mademoiselle.



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Day 207

Today was the first day of my photography class and this is the first real picture I've taken in manual where I actually knew what I was doing!

Settings:
35mm prime with my D40
ISO ~ 200
SS ~ 1/500
f-stop ~ 3.2

It's been the metering part that I've been missing and when that lightbulb went off, it exploded. I get it! It all makes sense now and I'm so excited. What a great feeling to know that I nailed exposure. Woot!



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Day 206

Jenny won tickets to see Lady Gaga in concert in Houston and she choose me to accompany her. We stayed at the Hotel Icon in downtown Houston (road trip, baby! yeah!) and we had a BLAST! I already wrote about our amazing experience on Facebook but I wanted to say thank you to my angel for sharing this with me. I love you!



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Day 205

Anna and I went to the rec center, then to the duck pond this afternoon. It was pretty hot so we didn't stay long but Anna had fun feeding the ducks some bread. My eye kept getting pulled to this duck sitting on the picnic bench. He was grooming himself and just chilling so I slowly approached him. I tossed a piece of bread to him but he wasn't interested in eating it (and I'm guessing by the show he gave us in just a bit that he was already full). I got just a few feet away from him and got some pretty cool photos (though I still had my ISO set at 800 from being inside the gym at the rec center, d'oh!). Right after I took this picture, he turned around and went SPLAT!!! Oh goodness, there was a large amount of duck goo all over the picnic table, ewwww!!! I will never eat at another picnic table again without a tablecloth. Gross!



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Day 204

Jenny was getting ready to go out this evening and I grabbed her and asked if she'd be willing to let me take a few shots. I'm so happy with the clarity I'm getting with this lens! Isn't she pretty? I *heart* her freckles!



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Day 203

Today was one of the best days of the year for me personally and one of the hardest days of the year for me as a mommy (I'm going to try to blog about that mommy part on Elusive Tranquility later). Today I registered for the Rock Your Camera 101 class offered on one of my photography forums, Clickin' Moms. The class sold out within 15 minutes and I am so happy I got a spot! This class will teach me how to truly use my camera on full manual, not just on Programmed Auto or Aperture Priority which is where I've been shooting most of the year. The class requires the use of a prime lens, preferably the 50mm f/1.8 lens (which I have) but it doesn't autofocus on my D40. The instructor suggested the 35mm f/1.8 lens as an alternative. I tried to sell my 50mm to get half of the money for the 35mm but no one bought it. Well... my mom purchased the 35mm for me today! It was an early birthday present. Thank you, mom!!! I'm so so so excited!

This photo was taken with my new lens and it is tack-sharp! I only cropped and adjusted levels on this photo... that's it! I LOVE IT! I feel very, very blessed to have discovered another new hobby for which I have soul-infusing passion. I have loved learning Photoshop these last few years and making special digital and printable mementos with other people's pictures. Discovering this artistic side has really made me happy. Now learning about photography marries this artistic side with my technical loving side too... there is so much more to taking a good picture than having a good camera!



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Day 202

I have regular doctor's appointments for my own medical issues and I've had to take Anna with me this summer. She is so patient while we are waiting. Today she brought along George, her favorite baby. The nurse brought Anna a syringe which she then used on the baby doll... so of course she had to comfort him. So sweet!



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Day 201

Jenny took Dominic with her today as she ran some errands. They went to the outlet mall and my lucky boy got a new pair of shades! Yep, he was thinking that he's a rock star with these on. I'm so glad he let me take his picture tonight. I was having trouble with my D40 so Jenny let me use her camera... thanks, Jen!



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Day 200

I've been noticing this hawk for months now in the mornings, hanging out on our neighbor's fence. On of these days, I'm going to drag myself outside early and set up my zoom lens on my tripod and see if I can get a really good picture. Yesterday morning, I heard this very loud caw and it sounded right outside our window. Sure enough, I pulled open the curtains to our sliding glass doors in the living room and there was the hawk, sitting on our deck railing just six feet away from me! I grabbed Jenny's D90 and snapped a few pictures through the glass before he flew away. The quality is terrible… the glass put a nasty haze on the image but I tried to clean it up as best I could. Wow, that was so cool!



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Day 199

Sunday was an intense but good day. I had a tough adult discussion with Jenny about college and it went very well. After our respite aide, Emily, came to play with Anna, I took Jenny, Dominic and my mom out to lunch at our neighborhood Mexican restaurant to unwind. Of course Dominic brought his DS. As we were waiting for our food, I was captured by the colors of the restaurant and Dominic's intensity on his game while drinking his tea. I love this photo.



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Day 198

I took Anna with me for my very first visit to a local camera store. I wanted to check out a 35mm f/1.8 D AF lens for my Nikon D40. I'm hoping to take a class at the end of the month to learn how to go full manual all the time. This was taken with a 35mm prime and I was pretty pleased with the result. (Anna is such a cutie too, isn't she?) I think the focus fell on her glasses frame instead of her eyes but I'll learn how to better nail that. Now I need to sell my 50mm f1.8 and I'll be good to go!



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Day 197

Today we went to Morgan's Wonderland, an amusement park built for children with special needs and their families. We had an AMAZING time! I blogged about the whole experience on Elusive Tranquility but I wanted to share this wonderful image I got of Dominic. He was playing in the music park and got so absorbed in the xylophones that he didn't notice me snapping photos. I love his expression on this one, his intent and focus, as well as the composition.



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Day 196

When was the last time you laid down in the grass and looked up?

For me, it was today. :)



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Day 195

Yesterday brought a day with the kids just put to bed and no photo ops! So I went out front and started looking at my world through my lens. I thought Anna might appreciate seeing a shot of our beat-up basketball hoop... a neighbor gave it to us last year and she loves playing on it. Years from now, when Anna is a famous basketball star, we can say, "It all started when..."



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Day 194

It feels like all I've been doing lately is studying photography. I had no idea how much I didn't know.

Today I wanted to achieve a creamy background. I used my zoom lens out behind my house and captured this beautiful wildflower. I also challenged myself to do my initial edits in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) on the raw file. I was having some banding issues after importing into Photoshop when I tried to manipulate the curves so back to Google I go and find that I should edit in 16-bit mode. That helped a tremendous amount.

So here's a pretty flower, lol.



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Day 193

No photo today!

Day 192

Today the entire family went to a very cool fundraiser at the YMCA. It was for a little girl named Mimi, just one year older than Anna, who also has epilepsy. They are trying to raise money to get Mimi a seizure alert dog. We were very proud to have donated some money to this cause and get to meet this sweet little girl and her family. Anna and Mimi connected immediately and Mimi wants to have a playdate with Anna! Dominic asked if we could come back next year because he had so much fun. Isn't this a sweet picture of him running around in the park?



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Day 191

My mom got her hair cut and professionally colored yesterday and what's more, straightened too (it's naturally very curly)! OMG! She looks stunning! Charlie agreed with me and jumped up to give her kissies. I'm so proud of her!



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Day 190

I wasn't going to post a photo for Friday... I actually didn't even pick up my camera until well after the kids were in bed. But I got a gift from my mom (thanks, Mom!!!)... a book I've been wanting called Understanding Exposure. I'm *this* close to understanding how to shoot in manual all the time. I've managed two shots earlier in the year but I have to admit the lighting was near perfect so it wasn't super challenging.

So anyway, it's like 11:15 p.m. on Friday and I'm reading this book and I pick up my camera. Now I've never before been able to get anything to show up when shooting in the dark unless I set the camera on my tripod and do a remote shutter release and wait and wait and wait. But I was determined. The first two shots were black, just a black screen. I kept bumping the ISO, then finally I got this shot.

Okay, okay... it's boring, OOF, and unedited... and I wasn't even going to post it. But this is a year of memories that I'm trying to record and preserve and part of this year is that I'm really trying to learn more about photography. So here it is, my very first manual shot in the dark. (And ha, ha! You can see my two ultra-light beers I was consuming whilst reading. Only 1 point each on Weight Watchers!)



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Day 189

Dominic was sitting in the morning light today and my breath caught in my throat. I hurriedly put my prime lens on Jenny's D90 so I could autofocus on him without disturbing him too much. Today also brought me some yummy goodies in the form of Florabella's new Luxe action set. I used Sapphire and Light Haze on this photo and love the effect. Of course, right after I snapped the picture, he started making goofy faces so I'm glad the first one turned out well!



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Day 188

My adorable pickle-pie. He wanted to wear his Hawaiian shirt today and I think he's so stinkin' cute! Today we played outside, played with the neighborhood kids, went to the rec center. A typical summer day!



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Day 187

Anna has been working so so hard on her chore chart, getting stickers for working around the house and making good decisions. What do you think she wanted to get when she got it filled up? Yes, you're right! A baby doll!!!



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Day 186

We've been going to the rec center nearly every day. Anna loves playing basketball and she is darn good at it! She will throw basket after basket endlessly without getting frustrated. I just love her so much!



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