Starting a class

I'll be taking a mini photography e-class this month. I'm so excited!! Here is the link, if you too would like to take the class.

Snow!

With my new part-time job, I'm finding less and less time to take pictures, edit pictures, or post pictures. Ever feel like all your responsibilities are weighing you down so much that you are having a harder and harder time making time for the things that bring you joy? Things like spending an hour, in the evening, with your husband. Or playing in the snow with your kids. Or knitting/crocheting. Or doing photography. Sounds like I have a lot of things that bring me joy. Sometimes I could combine them, so they each didn't take up so much time. Now, I feel like I have to cram every minute I have doing something productive (work) and it makes me cranky, stressed, and not enjoying the times I could be. Serious attitude adjustment needs to happen here.

The snow was beautiful, and I didn't mind (too much) having to shovel so much of it. My husband estimates we got somewhere between 6-8 inches (and he was at work and didn't shovel much at all). Good exercise, right? And the girls enjoyed playing outside/eating the snow while I shoveled. Today, since I couldn't go to work, we worked on a snow fort and went sledding. It was GREAT! Yesterday I let the girls bring some bowls outside, we caught some snow (or scooped it in), brought it inside, and poured maple syrup on it. Poor Peanut was shivering after she ate hers, and she insisted she wanted more. Instead I gave her some tea, popped some popcorn, and the girls watch a movie while I made a chicken pot pie. All was right after my husband arrived home from work - his normally 15 minute drive lasted 2.75 hours. A co-worker had to drive him home since the little Honda Civic made it only 100 feet before my husband gave up. The snow was just too deep.

Kisses that miss...

...are still just as sweet. Here's Peanut trying to wake up Daddy with a good morning kiss.

Depressing

Yesterday I had two hour long drives. One to a point out West, and one back home from said location. I was in the car all by myself. Alone. Just my thoughts and me. Yes, I was actually able to have complete thoughts. And I discovered something. I have really depressing thoughts. It was one of those days where I just could not get depressing thoughts out of my head. I tried desperately to find a song on the radio that I could sing along to, just to drown out all the bleaks reflections that kept creeping in. Nope, there were no songs with which I could actually sing along, and just to boot, I got to hear a few songs that reminded me of my dead high school boyfriend. Awesome.

I gave up, sort of. I figured, perhaps I kept having reminders of my departed high school comrade because he needed prayers. I spent the rest of the time in the car saying my rosary, which seemed to help.

Next time I'm in the car, alone, I'll make sure my CDs are within reach. And I'm going to try to kick the funk I seem to be in.

Daddy's Hands

I just love this! I love the relationship my girls have with their daddy. I hope it stays strong forever.

One for today

I have one picture that I took today, and one from the day that Popper was just doing so many fun poses at lunch while the light was just right.

I love this picture of Peanut. This is such a Peanut look.



Popper was having fun pretending that her glass of water was a camera. So she'd look through it and say "click" and act like she was pushing a button.

Epiphany Party

My family started a tradition of everyone getting together for an Epiphany party rather than having all of us gather on Christmas. This way, all the families get to have their own traditions for how they do Christmas at their homes, but we still get the extended family together as well. I was so happy, my brother and his new bride flew over from Wisconsin to celebrate, so we actually had the whole family together!

While these pictures aren't "artsy", they are kind of in the "happy snaps" (as my Australian friend calls them) category, they did allow me to practice with my manual settings and my manual 50mm lens.

Just Having Fun

Life has gotten busy all of a sudden and I found I had need of creating my first resume. I haven't had time to take pictures the past two days due to the resume urgency. I did, however, have time to quickly edit another picture of Popper from the pictures I took of her during lunch a few days ago.

Regarding Project 365

I'm about ready to quit Project 356 due to lack of inspiration, time, and patience. While I want to take pictures like crazy and work on my photography skills, I don't want to feel as though I am documenting life rather than living it. When my girls wanted to go outside to play today, my first thought was, "Great. Lots of natural light! Which lens shall I use?" Instead of actually interacting with my children, I felt like I needed to document. That's not good parenting. Now, there is nothing wrong with taking pictures all the time, I just worry that my interaction with my kids will involve me getting angry with them because they won't look at the camera if their life depended on it. I'd rather play chase with them, or build a "fire" with leaves and sticks with them. Honestly, I take tons of pictures without the needed added pressure of "need to take a good picture today." So, after my bread finished baking, I took the girls out to the "forest" and left my camera at home. Sure, there were quite a few moments when I thought, "Oh, that's so cute. I wish I had my camera," but I'm sure the girls had a better time with the camera out of sight.

That being said, I did snap a picture for Jan 3rd and today. For today's picture, I can't decide if I like it best in color or black and white. Here they are:

Project 365

A friend has asked me to participate in Project 365 with her. It's kind of what I've been doing already, so agreeing to do it along with her wasn't too hard a commitment. Basically, you take at least one picture every day and try to document your year. It goes along with what I've been doing with this blog, the purpose is to improve your photography skills and look at objects, people, places in a different way.

This first post isn't because of that project. It's because I like the picture. :)



Jan 1 picture:


I believe that the year (as well as each day) should start with God. You should offer your sufferings, joys, thoughts, and actions up to God.

Jan 2 picture:


I desperately needed to get out of the house and do something to try to keep my mind of the fact that someone who was very dear to me in high school just died, so my family and I went to Old Town Alexandria. It was nice to see all the Christmas decorations up, and we had a good time in a store called "Why Not."

Still on the Mend

The girls and my husband are now coughing as well as suffering from the sniffles, but at least the weather has warmed up. We got the girls outside to soak up some Vitamin D and get some fresh air. I think all of us were happy to be outside playing rather than stuck indoors.





I'm starting to get more and more frustrated with attempting to focus my 50mm lens with just my eyes. Even though the subject looks in focus, after I upload the images to my computer I'm finding that the focus is ever so slightly off. When you're taking pictures of someone's face, even slightly out of focus can ruin the entire picture.

Today I'm going to the viewing for my high school boyfriend. He died at the age of 35 from a heart attack. Please, please, take a minute to say a prayer for him.