I’m superdy-duperdy tired tonight. I didn’t take food photos again. Oops. Instead, I guess it’s Fellowship Friday. We had our Ladies’ Fellowship meeting this evening. We did a plant exchange… 
…and we played some games and laughed a lot! 
Now I’m going to bed. Blog friends, I will get around to the blogs tomorrow – sorry I haven’t been on it this week!
It’s Thankful Thursday, and today I’m thankful that I didn’t have to be outside very long! It was so so so windy and cold today! Yuck! I got to go for refreshment with my mother and Felice – always a fun time. After our treats we stopped at the hardware store/florist, and I saw this wonderful bowl of lilies. I want to grow these year-round! 
Instead of reading and perusing photography sites today, I actually cleaned up my kitchen and living room. I also spent time out with Mom and Felice, and took a nap while Caleb watched a movie. Overall, a successful day!
It was too cold and windy for wimpy ol’ me to get out and about on this Walkabout Wednesday, so instead, I participated in the Prop Junkie contest over at Prop Insanity. The contest theme is “baskets” so I took a shot of a “baby” in my favorite prop basket. The blanket was used on my sweet babies when they were little… ::sigh:: …time goes by so fast! 
The baby doll is Fancy’s Sugar Britches. She was a very well-behaved model – not a peep the whole time. For those who pay attention to such things, the light is very uneven because I didn’t take the time to get my gear out and set up a mini studio. I didn’t even get my reflector out, so the camera side of the photo was considerably darker than the window side. I lightened it a bit in Photoshop, but I didn’t mess too much. The shadows give it a bit of depth, and the darkness hides some of the dirty floor. :-)
I spent some time looking at photos from the Prop Insanity contest, and the Tasra Tweeps, and I read this post on bokeh at Digital Photography School.
Photogs, what did you do today to hone your craft?
Sorry – no texture as such today. Today is last-minute-photo Tuesday. The heavy rain clouds were causing it to get dark a bit early when I went out for this photo. My neighbor always has lovely flowers and plants in her yard. I’m so glad she does, because I don’t have any!
Photographers, what is your favorite subject to shoot? I think I get good photos of flowers, but my favorite subject is toddlers/young children. I love the activity and animation, and the carefree spirit of young children.
Zowie, this year is going fast! I can’t believe it’s almost the end of April!
For my Monochrome Monday shot I took my Kristi-girl over to the local park and took some shots of her swinging. The swingset isn’t in a good place for unobstructed photos, so I had trees no matter which way I went, but I kinda liked this anyway.
If you’re doing a 365 (or 52) project, what is your purpose for it? What do you hope/expect to accomplish over the course of the year?
It’s Snapshot Sunday! My snaps today are not of my own kids – they are of a cutie patootie that came to our church today. He is the grandson of one of my friends, and he couldn’t get any cuter! Not only is he absolutely adorable, he’s sweet! I never heard him fuss and he was very easily redirected when he was headed for trouble. Precious little man!
He was too fast for me when I was on the ground at his level – I couldn’t keep up! Several of my shots have terrible motion blur, and they aren’t from his eye level (as I like them to be), but his grandma will love them anyway!
I also took a few pictures of this robin’s nest. The robin built it above our neighbor’s back door and laid her eggs. Then she got trapped inside their house, and when they finally got her out of the house she left and never came back to her nest. That was more than a week ago. Too bad. But the eggs are really pretty! 
(I boosted the color just a bit because I love the colors of the nest, and they were a bit lost in the original photo.)
It’s coldish and windy outside, so the scenery I shot today is my new necklace. One of the wonderful gifts I received last weekend for my birthday was this necklace from my friend Nancy. She said, “I hope this little trinket makes you smile. Its purpose is…to celebrate your blessings, but also to remind you of the many, many lives that you have blessed…and I knew those little wooden shoes were meant to be yours.” Thank you, Nancy! I love it, and it has been such a blessing to me this week. The shoes have helped me remember that Holland is a beautiful place!
Today is Floral Friday instead of Friday Food. These lovely blossoms completely cover some of the branches – what kind of tree/shrub is this? It looks like some sort of rose, but the leaves come out after the flowers. Hmmm. 
The Friday Challenge was Texture. I used Gary Calicott’s recent post as inspiration for my texture photo… 
Today I spent more time outside than in reading about photography. :-)
I’m so thankful for spring greens!! Yay!! The trees are finally starting to look like spring!
I just love this fresh, new green!!
I love the dramatic differences in weather here – even from north to south.
I know I did the same sort of thing just a couple weeks ago from my front yard, but I had to do it again because the sky was so awesome this evening! Here’s a view to the north (with a bit of topaz-like effect just for fun)… 
And here’s the view to the south. I just missed a bolt of lightning with this shot… 
I didn’t have a tripod with me and the wind was awful, so this is really not a great shot. But the storm clouds look stormy anyway.
This week has been a doozy…one thing after another – kids left behind at school; baseball all over the place with both parents running to and fro, hither and yon; multiple children with discipline issues at school; my dad’s/brother’s visit canceled because my brother is hospitalized; kids getting booboos that keep them from sleeping…fun times.
I think I’m going to go to bed early!
Look at the texture on this guy’s legs!! He’s working hard! 
My neighbor’s daffodils are up! 
I’m loving this new lens!!
Snapshot Sunday – practicing with my new Canon 28-135 IS lens.
(Camera on Auto while setting up for Ken/Fancy to shoot)
(This is one of my “Birthday Sisters” – Ken or Fancy took this shot.)
This is another shot of To Know Joy. I like the extreme sunflare on this. Caleb was appreciating the statue – walking around it, touching, trailing his hand along her skirt – and he told me she’s “God’s Honey.”
Happy birthday to me a day early! My sweet husband had a bunch of my online friends shower me with birthday gifts! I got to open present after present after present today! Zowie! What a wonderful surprise! Here’s a peek at one photo… 
Here’s a link to the album on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55697&id=1128907594&l=ddc063268c
It’s Friday! That means Friday Challenge and Friday Food. This week’s challenge was “movement.” I thought I’d have a chance to capture some fun movement with my kids, but that didn’t work out, so I went for stopping the movement of water instead… 
Here’s a bonus “movement” series. These shots were taken just for fun. Felice was having a great time playing with one particular bubble – she kept catching it on the wand and sending it on its way again…until Caleb couldn’t stand it anymore! 
(Click on it if you want to see it larger.)
And here’s Friday Food. You may have seen this on Facebook – the photos I did for The Burger Shack are on display, and they look awesome!
I’m so so so thankful for spring weather! We finally have evidence that it is spring! Yay!!
Here was my inspiration today - http://plportraiture.com/portraits/2010/04/103365-my-flowering-plum-tree/ . I don’t have that awesome lens (or the Canon equivalent), but I tried to make do with my 18-55 at 5.6. Pam, I just loved your blossom photo!
For this Walkabout Wednesday I walked about in Walmart! Oh, and my mom’s house. I loved the colors of the footwear at Walmart!
Here’s my mom’s west-facing window. It has such lovely late afternoon light!
All of these were taken with my Palm Pre Plus. The last one was processed with the Soft Autumn Glow action from CoffeeShop. I loved the way it accentuated the shaft of light coming in through the left pane.
I didn’t have time for any study or reading today. I will probably get to that after the kids go to bed tonight. Thanks for stopping by. Drop a line if you have thoughts on my photos!
Texture Tuesday – the texture of rain. We had plenty of raindrops to shoot today! It has been a very rainy, drizzly, cold spring day. If we had flowers around I could have tried for a flower reflection in a raindrop – but we’re short on flowers at the moment. Hmph. So instead, you get the reflection of my beloved trailer in the raindrop. 
Lots of Flickr looking today…I saw some great shots of horses, but I didn’t have a chance to try any of that today. I might see if I can get out and find horses tomorrow.
Monochrome Monday again! These Mondays are coming around very fast! I was browsing through Flickr this afternoon and saw this photo. I used it as inspiration for my Monochrome Monday photo… 
Snapshot Sunday! Here are a few snaps of the things my family was doing this afternoon. Playing, watching movies, doing schoolwork…a pretty mellow afternoon in Scrivnerburg. 
I’ve been playing on Photovotr.com – it’s a Flickr app, and it’s fun to see the different photos and vote on your favorite.
It’s day 100! I’m so pleased that I have made it all the way to day 100 and I haven’t forgotten a single day! This project (and this year!) are passing so quickly!Today we celebrated Nathan’s 7th birthday. I can’t believe my first birth baby is 7! Seven years ago right now I was in labor and just hoping this baby would come OUT! He was turned sideways and making me much more miserable than he had to. But all that misery was well worth it. Nathan is an amazing, funny, clever, adorable kid (no bias here). It was a 14-year wait to have my first birth baby, and it’s incredible to think that it’s already been 7 years since then! Happy birthday, Beanboy. I love you! 
1. Nathan didn’t appreciate our version of the birthday song.
2. This beanbag toss game was hard! The holes are so small!
3. I loved how the row of goodie boxes looked.
4. The tire roll was a challenge for the smaller kids, but they all had fun.
5. This game was the Tire Toss – the kids tried to toss their beanbags through the tire as it passed by them. Only 3 or 4 made it.
6. Nathan got some great gifts, including Madagascar Kartz for the Wii.
7. Yummy chocolate cake with Boston Cream filling.
8. Happy Speed Racer Birthday Nathan!
(This fun storyboard template is from CoffeeShop.)
I’m veering off the theme for today – again. The theme is supposed to be food, but I haven’t shot any food today, so I’m going to share my Friday Challenge photo. The challenge in our 365 group this week is “Shadows.” Here is my shadow photo with the DRI processing.
It’s my first real cheat day! I spent the day doing some serious, deep cleaning (kitchen, my closet), and I never got my camera out. I did practice some post processing during one of my breaks, and that was fun. I love learning how to use Photoshop. But for today’s photo, I’m posting a shot I took yesterday at the dollar store. My two boys were having a good time goofing off…I am so thankful for these little men (and all of their cohorts)! 
(I love the belly sticking out of the almost-too-small sweater!)
Hey photogs! I just played with this fun Photoshop tutorial, and I wanted to show my before and after.
Here’s a shot of the barn from yesterday, SOOC…
And here’s how it ended up…
Here’s a link to the tutorial I used - http://tutvid.com/tutorials/photoshop/tutorials/vividSkiesGreenGrass.php
Fun stuff!
Walkabout Wednesday! I got out and about a bit today. I had to take Austin to Missoula for an appointment, and on the way home I stopped to take some photos of this old barn. 
(Processed with onOne free plugin for Photoshop – HDR look, then Chrome.)
(My own processing – mostly in Adobe Camera Raw)
(I used so many different things in playing with this that I don’t even know what ended up staying in the final product.)
I think my sweetie loves me! Look what was delivered for me today!
Here’s a funkified version for Texture Tuesday… 
(In this case, “funkified” means over processed following that DRI tutorial I linked to in yesterday’s post, and then overdoing the Smart Sharpen.)
I’ve been spending some time browsing around CreativePro.com. Information overload!!
These photos were taken with only window light with heavy clouds as a huge softbox. I think the light might have been further modified by the falling snowflakes.
It’s not monochrome Monday! It’s Manipulated Monday! I took this shot of a frosty crocus this morning, and I liked it, so I decided to play with it. I used a tutorial I found on an “hdr” technique to make it over-the-top saturated and textured. I didn’t go as far as he does in the tutorial though – don’t like the cartoony look. Here’s my Frosty Crocus.
Hey photography friends! Don’t miss out on this awesome giveaway over at PhatStraps.com! The item being given away is a Belle camera bag by Epiphanie, and it looks fabulous!
What a great Easter Sunday! Everything went well today! The kids weren’t even terribly disappointed that we didn’t hunt for eggs. We decided to take the focus off male rabbits that lay eggs and put it on Jesus’ resurrection. It was a good day, and everyone has been happy all day! Yay!
Here are a few photos from our afternoon at Nana’s house…
Ken and Fancy shared the story of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection with a set of Resurrection Eggs. Ken also prepared some delicious deviled eggs for us.
We had a great time with bubbles and kites (representing rising from the grave). The tulips are from Nana’s happy centerpiece. Tulips are such joyful flowers!
I hope it was a wonderful Sunday for you, too!
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