The Bulb Farm

I still haven't worked on my Easter pictures because I went to a bulb farm with friends and worked on those pictures first.  The husbands of the two ladies I went with are deployed so I wanted them to have the photos to share quickly.  Of course I spent some of the time taking pictures of Sunflower...she is, at least for now, my favorite model.

Yes...this is her Easter dress.  She had to wait a whole week to wear it after we bought it; she insisted on wearing it two days in a row.  Who am I to complain?  She looks so beautiful in it.

This or That Thursday

Thank you for your kind and helpful comments on my Scavenger Hunt Post.  I sent the basketball hoop and the fence into class and got a lot of positive, useful feedback.  I must be missing Shoot and Edit, because I feel a need to share that feedback with you.

Everyone felt the fence had a lot of potential, but they didn't like how over-saturated it was.  Said it looked fake.  That doesn't bother me since it totally did.  I was so tired of the gray weather and dull light I went a little overboard in post work.  So in class we played with black and white and desaturation and crop and ended up with this photo about.

I still didn't think it screamed "print me" so I came home and added some textures and a frame and tried other crops.

This is my "final" version, but I might just like the first version that reminds me of Gilligan's Island or a stage in a play best.  No worries.  It is my dad's fence.  I can keep trying.

Now the basketball hoop everyone really liked and my teacher was amazed that this "child photographer" took it, so that all felt really good.  They said often if you have a bright, white rectangle in a picture it can be really distracting, but because this one was not too bright and out of focus it added to the photo in terms of square with a circle of the basket.  Some people liked that I wasn't directly underneath the basket--said it gave the basket movement and others wished I was (though then the light would have been behind the shot and not so great.)  We did boost the black slider in lightroom in order to get all the other details that were not basket or light in the shot to drop out.

I agree it is much better.  My teacher did wonder why I titled the photo 5 baskets because he could not see the "10" in the photo.

It was a great class.  We all talked about a lot of great pictures and said what we did or did not like about it.  By explaining why we felt the way we did it became easier to see how that critique could be applied to future shots.

Now I'm working on my Black and Whites for tonight's class.  It is my last one and a makeup of the one we missed the week of snow.  Should be fun!

Seriously this girl has some looks!

Have a fantastic Thursday!  I am.  We got an update on our future daughter...though no pictures...the orphanage answered 10 questions that are a treasure for us now and for her in the future.

This or That Snow

I apologize for all the snow shots, but this is pretty unusual weather for us so I did go outside with the kids to take pictures of them in the snow.

I think the last time we had this much snow was the week SnapDragon was born (8 years ago) so I figured I had better take pictures while I can. 

This is Wednesday right before the kids ran outside.  I was glad there was more snow this time.  On Monday SnapDragon asked me to walk only in the footprints already made so I wouldn't waste the snow.

Sure he looks sweet, but he was very serious about it.

On Monday Huckleberry stored as much snow as he could under the play equipment.  It really is a precious commodity in this area (though not completely unusual like for those of you further South.)

Notice the grass on the ground while they enjoy the stockpile on Tuesday?

It made a nice snack for Sunflower...not terribly recommended.

While we went to sleep Tuesday night with the roads bare but school canceled on Wednesday there was enough snow to build some forts/snowmen and to justify the missed school.

Sunflower helped Oak while the boys built their own fort.  But it was soon too tall for her to see over.

They are both standing.  Oh wait, let me show you from their eye level.

After the above shots I did run into the house for Sunflower's coat.  Apparently she thinks a snowsuit IS a coat.

She really loves the snow...so very much.

But so did the boys.

Especially once the fort? was done and it was time for the snowball fight.

Maybe it is a snowman?  But still there was a snowball fight.

Though SnapDragon chose the hide behind the tree method of participating.

 (No one threw snowballs at me...I was holding the most expensive thing we own--my camera.)

I did try a group shot...but we had some technical difficulties.

Huckleberry slid out of the shot because of the plastic bags on his feet.  It really is fairly rare to get this much snow, so we were a little unprepared.  Too bad for Sunflower.  She thinks this snow is the best thing in the world.

She is always the first one to want to go out and the last to want to go in, even though she did get stuck in the deep snow a few times.

This or That at the Zoo

Monday I went to the zoo with a friend and her little girl.  She is also really into photography and has already started her own business.  It is great to hang out with her and her daughter who is almost only a year older than Sunflower.

Which meant they did fight over pushing the stroller occasionally, but mostly they played great (and sometimes pushed each other in the stroller.)

We saw very few animals but...

...did ride the carousel.  The person made me stand next to her, so when it was done I got down to take the picture, but she wouldn't look at me.  What?  I'm sitting still waiting for you to take the picture when I really, really want to get down and play!

We went to the petting tank, but Sunflower didn't actually put her finger in.  She did enjoy washing her hands 3 times.

The girls got to go into a wind tunnel...I thought it would scare them.

I was wrong.

They also made otter puppets.

Though Sunflower's looked nothing like the otter since she cut her template into shapes and glued them on upside down.  Abby girl had some help.

Thanks, Mama!

We did see one animal that was my absolute favorite...

Sunflower enjoyed pretending to be a shark and a caged animal.

My friend and I took lots of pictures of each other's children...and our own.  This is my favorite of her daughter.

I cannot wait to see the ones she took of Sunflower.  Sunflower already saw them on the back of the camera.

 We will be going back again soon.  In fact, my family is going Saturday with some other friends, but we'll be back again with Julie and Abby girl, too.  Zoo passes are awesome!

(Oh, and I am not intending to watermark my pictures in general, though I am planning to start using my real name soon.  It is just that I had exported these and others for facebook where I do watermark and I was too lazy to export them again.)

Week 49 good to WOW Edit Bokeh Lights

So...I am a little bit busy, as are most people during this season, and I should be doing something else, but to not participate in Shoot and Edit this week when we only have a few more weeks left...that would make me sad.  Just looking at the thumbnails over at Ashley's I know there is some gorgeous bokeh light shots out there.  I cannot wait to look at them...though I will.

I have not had much time to experiment with bokeh myself, though we do have our tree up, but as is typical for a Thursday morning I had a half hour at our church while waiting for a meeting to start...kid free and camera in hand.  Only one tree to play with, but still fun.  Oh, and I had a can of coke with me.

Original:

1/200  f/1.8   ISO 200   50mm  (Most of the 30 min. I thought I had my 35mm, and was wondering why I couldn't get as close.)

Clean Edit:

Straighten a little, crop, remove pine needle, boost clarity and contrast.

Fun Edit:

A retro preset I got from Adobe Lightroom Share

So the coke in the white cans might not have a reputation for tasting very good (I found the first sip of the first can really did taste and feel different) but they sure are pretty...and still get me the caffeine I crave.  One tip, though, they balance a lot better on cotton batting when they still have something in them.

And I think there should always be an ornament self-portrait:

And then a left over from our Holiday photos a few weeks ago:

I told her I just wanted 5 more photos...and all 5 have her with her hand held up counting down.  She always makes us laugh.  The doctor takes her staples out tomorrow.