Day 185

The 4th of July brings an annual neighborhood parade that we always attend. I love this shot of Dominic seeing the fire engine coming. Anna has her hands over her ears, she struggled today, but overall everyone had a great time. I have TONS more pictures and hope to process them tomorrow and blog about it too. Happy 4th of July!!!



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Day 184

Testing aperture and exposure today, Jenny very sweetly agreed to be my sit-in model for a natural light session with me. She is soooo beautiful!!! Wow! I love this shot of her. My lighting is a little off around her nose (I still have SO much to learn!) but I'm very pleased with my 2.8 aperture focus. Not bad for having to manually focus, eh?



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Day 183

I've been studying about aperture and wanted to test some settings so Pickle was my very unwilling test subject. I kept promising him a Starburst and here he was pleading for it. I got about a dozen shots before caving and I liked his expression on this one though the 1.8 was just too soft for my taste.



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Day 182

It's been raining all week because of the hurricane in the Gulf. Jenny decided to take Dominic out to play in the rain. He was skeptical but after just a few minutes he was whooping and splashing. I went out with my camera under an umbrella and since it was dusk, I used my Speedlite to get a little light on my boy. He was sopping wet! After this adventure, he's decided to take showers now instead of baths!



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Day 181

Oh wow, it's the last day of June! I'm so glad I started this project though it has taken waaaay more time than I anticipated. One good thing is how much I've learned about photography. I have a new-found passion (like I needed any more, lol) and I've joined i heart faces and Clickin' Moms to learn even more. My photog wishlist has grown by leaps and bounds and I'm now much more critical of my photos (and others too!).

So today was a good day. Since Anna had her surgery last Friday, it's been rough and we've been stuck in the house. She was really feeling a lot better today so I took all the kids (thanks for coming with us, Jenny) to run some errands, then go to the library and rec center. Dominic loves the library and I love watching him pull book after book off the shelf and read to himself. The natural light at the library is terrible so I ended up having to lay on the floor to get a good shot without blurring. I thought it might look neat to make the photo look like it was on canvas but I'm not loving it now that it's done.



There is still so much for me to learn! Thanks for looking!

Day 180

No piccie today!

Day 179

Stormy skies blew through about 8 p.m. this evening. There was enough distant thunder to make Rocky, our old lab, shake and cry, but we got no rain. I did get a good picture of the clouds though!



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Day 178

Anna was feeling a little bit better this afternoon so I let her take her doll outside for just a few minutes. We have a baby swing in the backyard installed just for Anna's dolls and getting this shy, sideways smile from her was a wonderful gift today.



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Day 177

I bought a prime lens in mid-May, a 50 mm, f1.8 D AF, not really knowing exactly how to use it before purchasing. But I'm a hands-on learner and I've been trying to shoot with it almost every day. Unfortunately, most of my shots have been too blurry to use. Here's a big d'oh moment... are you ready? The AF (autofocus) feature doesn't work on my D40 camera body! UGH!!! So I popped it onto Jenny's D90 today and got this shot of Charlie using the autofocus. Wow, look at that DOF!!! Sigh, I may have to think about re-prioritizing my wishlist from a Macbook Pro to a D90. Manually focusing, especially on fast-moving small children, just isn't working out that great!

Charlie is so cute, isn't he???



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Day 176

Anna had surgery today. She had PE tubes put in both ears due to chronic middle ear fluid (but no ear infections) and she had her adenoids removed. She was terribly brave and very scared. It has been a really, really rough day. I hate that she has to go through so much, it breaks my mommy heart.



Thanks for looking and for keeping her in your prayers today.

Day 175

No photo today! I didn't even pick up my camera today!

Day 174

A rare sweet, genuine moment between Anna and Dominic. This photo may be my favorite of the year!



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Day 173

Okay... would you believe that this little guy came literally knocking on my front door this afternoon? What am I? Dr. Doolittle??? He was huuuuuge, at least 3 feet long and quite curious about me. I thought it was very nice of him to strike a post when I pulled out my camera. ;)



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Day 172

Today was Anna's first visit with the new child psychiatrist. He was very nice and was really pleased with how stable she now is on the Abilify. I took this picture in his waiting room. Anna spends so much of her time in doctor's waiting rooms, doesn't she?



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Day 171

I could not get a good picture on Father's Day, grrr. I'm trying to learn more about going manual, shooting in RAW, using my prime lens... but the more I learn, the worse my pictures look. Ha. So I had to use Pioneer Woman's Lovely and Ethereal and Black and White Beauty on this shot to even have a hope of making it salvageable. Eventually I'll get there.



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Day 170

The kids were invited down the street for a kid's bingo night at a neighbor's house. This was shot in their front room on a bean bag chair in front of the window. I did very little editing, the sunlight was so strong. Dominic was so happy to be included in all the fun and Anna did surprisingly well!



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Day 169

Today I took the kids to Zilker Park and as we were sitting in the snack area feeding popcorn to the pigeons, this was our view! Barton Springs. Simply breathtaking!



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Day 168

I took Anna to the rec center yesterday for a little basketball time. She looked so tiny in this huge gymnasium and she kept making shot after shot. She is amazing!



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Day 167

Today I organized a nature walk with some of the neighborhood kids. We have a small stream in our backyard that is full of minnows (three of which are living in a flower vase on my kitchen counter at the moment!) and about 1/2 mile away, there is a beautiful man-made pond. Dominic was so excited to be going, though it was very hot and he was getting tired in this picture. We had such a good time and it helped create more bonding between my kids and the neighborhood kids. What a great childhood memory!



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Day 166

Walking the neighborhood with Anna late this afternoon and I was looking through my lens at common objects. I love how the light way playing across the front of this fire hydrant and snapped a picture. Something about this just grips me... I don't know what it is exactly. Maybe the fact that we overlook it everyday, taking for granted that if we had a fire, it would be there. My daughter's boyfriend is a firefighter and today, I take a moment to say thank you to him and all firefighters.



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