273/365

I think I am going to survive this cold! Yay!

I didn’t get a chance to do the Daily Shoot assignment (vanishing point) today, but I did do some light trails on Main Street (it was still a bit too light for long trails), and I liked this horse trailer one…

(SS 4 seconds; ISO 800 [only because I forgot to check it]; f/22)

I also stopped and used the truck as a tripod to get a shot of the cute bears with all their lights and such…

(SS 5 seconds; ISO 800 (same reason as above); f/22)

I’m not going to push it my “health” – it’s time for some relaxation!

272/365

Okay. I’m about done with this stupid cold. Today’s Daily Shoot theme is “ouch” so my photo is a self-portrait. With the sinus pain, headache, and painful chest congestion, this works perfectly as my “ouch” subject.

271/365

Today's assignment for The Daily Shoot wasn't my favorite, so I made it a bit goofy. The assignment was - "Power plugs are ubiquitous. Can you make a creative photo of such a common thing? Try it today!"
 

I keep saying to myself "when things slow down..." - why do I keep saying that? Why do I think things are going to slow down at any time in the near future? I have no idea. Anyway... When things slow down for me, I'm going to spend more time studying, viewing, and practicing my photography. But for now, my responsibilities with homeschooling, work, kids' appointments, family time, church activities, and housework just seem to have taken over my photography time! How rude!

270/365

This photo won’t hold up to close inspection – I should have used my tripod – but here is another one of the cute, new bears around the corner.

I’m still battling this dumb cold, so this is all you get today. ‘Nite!

269/365

I liked today's assignment - "Fences and walls can divide or demarcate. Make a creative photo of a fence or wall today." I love interesting fences. This one has shown up on my blog before, but this is a different angle. 

There's a pizza place around the corner from us - Kodiak Jax - that has these great carved bears out front. The owner of that restaurant has expanded this collection to a great water feature/display, and here's one shot I took of it today. There's more to see here, but I didn't feel up to crawling around and shooting a hundred shots of it today. When the water is flower in the pool or the lights are on I'll get out there again.
 

 

268/365

Today's Daily Shoot assignment was "Make a photograph that shows an interpretation of your favorite indulgence or guilty pleasure." This isn't necessarily my favorite, but it was yummy. It's peanut butter silk pie from Perkins. Silky peanut butter filling, flaky crust, gooey chocolate ganache...mmmmmmm.

Mom and our friend Elaine and I spent the afternoon in Hamilton today. We found some deals at second hand stores, had some laughs, and ate very well. It was a wonderful afternoon that we finished off with some photos at (again) the Daly Mansion. The sun was just going behind the mountains, but it was so beautiful out there. Here are a couple of the photos I liked.

 

267/365

The Daily Shoot assignment is “Make a photo of an interesting stack of books or magazines. Consider how you handle repeating lines in your composition.” The Friday Challenge over at the Project 365 group is “lines.” I thought the two challenges worked well together, so they get one photo for both.

Caleb was pleased with my “lines” – he helped me line up each book so it would look just right. This was shot outdoors with natural light diffused by a picnic umbrella. In post processing I used a free action from JHP Actions called Everydayboost Vintage (I pulled the opacity back a bit) and then I used CoffeeShop Soft Autmn Glow (also pulled back a bit) to give it the glow and autumnish tone.

266/365

The Daily Shoot assignment today was “symmetry.” Caleb and I went out looking for “symmetry.” We went to the neighbor’s yard and looked at her plants and I told Caleb we were looking for something that was neatly lined up – it showed “symmetry.” He pointed to a birch and said, “is this simma-tree?” I love that kid!

Here’s the “simma-tree”…

Here’s the Daily Shoot photo…

265/365

Only 100 days left in this year!! Crazy!

I wasn’t too thrilled with the topic at The Daily Shoot - “Communicate chaos, disorganization, or messiness…” – so I just went out and shot what I saw. Today it happened to be Sweet Molly Magolly. She’s such a good girl now. She’s definitely my dog, and she goes everywhere with me if I let her (even to the bathroom!). Today she went looking for photos with me, and became the subject. It’s been a while since she showed up here, so here she is.

264/365

I know I just posted a photo of the Daly Mansion driveway last week, but it’s so pretty I had to do it again. This shot is from about halfway down the driveway – I wanted to be sure you could see the mansion entrance in this one.

263/365

"It's just another manic Monday..."

I took some pictures this morning, but none of them are post-worthy, so I'll give you another shot from the party yesterday. I had Kristi hold her new butterfly box in that lovely sunlight - that one shaft of light was just awesome!
 

 

262/365

Another birthday party! We finally got to celebrate Kristi's birthday with family today. We didn't do a full birthday extravaganza for her - she's just plumb wore out from school - but we had fun. 

This first shot is not particularly exciting, but I wanted my photographer friends to see it. That bright light on Kristi is all sunlight reflected of a tiny, white birthday card. The card - open - is no more than 4x4 inches, but the sunlight was so strong that the little card reflected all that light onto Kristi's face and torso. I wish I could get light like that all the time!

Some of the party decor...

Lighting the candles...

Before the guests had even headed home...

Thanks for stopping by!

261/365

The Daily Shoot assignment for today was "Make a photo of two complementary arranged in a pleasing composition, one large and one small."
 
My darling husband and my youngest son. This just gives me a feeling of security. Caleb never has to think twice about his safety when his hand is nestled in Daddy's. He knows that Daddy's big, strong hands will protect him.

260/365

Today's Friday Challenge was "Colors of Fall." We do have trees changing color, but I wasn't able to take the time to capture any of them today. I did take Fancy out for a mini-session for senior portraits - we plan to do two more locations on a day with better weather - and since she was wearing fall colors, she's my "colors of fall" submission.
 

We went out to the Refuge again - it's such a great place for photos! For this photo she leaned against the fence on the ball of her left foot (so her heel wouldn't dig into the dirt) with her right high heel stuck on the lower fence railing (it actually took her a longish time to get her shoe unstuck!) while I was precariously balanced straddling a metal gate to get a shot of her from slightly above. The things we will do for a good photo. If I'm not mistaken, she was laughing at her stuck shoe when I shot this photo. Fun times.

For those who have wanted to see my neighbor's yard in its entirety - I will post photos of it tomorrow. I took some today, but I don't have them on this computer, and the other computer is uploading Ken's video assignment for school. 

 

259/365

It was another busy day! I thought school would slow things down a bit – with the kids gone all day – but it doesn’t seem to have happened yet. Maybe next week. (I’m “lol”ing at myself.)

I went out looking for something interesting to shoot this evening since I forgot to do the food assignment. My neighbor Vance always has something! I liked the way the weedy things were growing up into this old wheel.

I’m going to bed a bit early tonight – I need to get more sleep if I’m going to kick this dumb old cold!

258/365

Today's photo wasn't very inspired. I wanted to get some good "shadow" stuff for The Daily Shoot but I just didn't. I went to the playground with Caleb and I took this photo of me on the play equipment.

That's all I did with my camera today...I still need to edit those photos from Saturday too! Ergh! 

257/365

Today’s assignment at The Daily Shoot was “Use a door or window as a framing device to contain a smaller scene today.” I really wanted to find a rustic, old window to use to frame a scene, but I never found what I needed in my wanderings. If I had had more time, I would have located one – still might, actually. So instead, I have a photo framed in my rearview mirror, shot through my car window so it would fit the challenge.

The above photo was shot when I stopped at the Daly Mansion to take this photo…

I still have a bunch of work to do for today, and photos to edit from my session last Saturday, so I’m off to work!

256/365

I didn’t have time to search out the subject for The Daily Shoot today, and I sure couldn’t post today’s shot monochrome, so here it is…

I’m not gonna get all wordy tonight. I’m too tired. “See” ya tomorrow!

255/365

Instead of a Daily Shoot photo or a Sunday Snapshot, I went for a photo walk to see what the neighborhood looks like. I haven't strolled around taking pictures in weeks and weeks! Today I found a lot of lovely fall flowers, and some very obvious evidence of the change of seasons...

I am feeling very, very tired this evening, so this is the only photo I edited. I can't believe fall is coming already!

254/365

Today I did a photo session with a fun, energetic trio of kids. They all have a great sense of humor, and find wonder, fascination, and laughter in everything. It was a great morning! Here is just a sneak peek of some of the shots I got while we wandered the Refuge today...
 

Thanks for stopping by!

253/365

I went out scouting locations for a photo session today. I get to shoot some kids from a great family tomorrow, and I'm excited! Caleb and I went on a "field trip" today to find the best places for photos out at Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge and to see some animals. We saw 5 magpies all together - they were perfectly spaced along a fence, but when I stopped they flew off. Bummers. We also saw one shy deer - she didn't want us to see her face. We saw two little squirrels - as cute as could be! They were curious about us too - they got pretty close to us when we stood still and quiet. Caleb had a great time on the field trip, so he was quite willing to pose for me when I saw a likely spot. My favorite one ended up being the same place I shot some holiday family photos a couple years ago - it's better at this time of year because the concrete bench isn't so so so so so cold!

(Geeky photo stuff - this shot was taken at almost noon, but it was quite overcast, so we got this wonderful, even light. Love it!)

We're already getting some fall colors...why don't I feel ready for that yet?

This one was taken for The Daily Shoot assignment - "Find a strong series of horizontal lines or elements and make a photograph of it today."

We actually spent an hour and a half at the refuge, and enjoyed all of it. It was quite a successful field trip! 

252/365

TDS-building
Originally uploaded by snaphappee.elli

It's a very busy day, so I'm making this a quick post. The Daily Shoot assigment is "Make a photograph of the front of a building today. Could be your house, the bank, or city hall." Here is my submission for that assignment - this is my neighbor's house, and I just think it looks lovely with all the green surrounding her front door. You can see fall approaching, but there's still fabulous summer color. A wonderful combination!
(Please click the photo to see it larger.)

251/365

I hate to force you to view yet another shot of one of my kids (okay – that’s not true), but here is my little man after his first day of Kindergarten! I didn’t take the normal “first day of school” picture of him – we just did our school work at the dining table, so there was no big-boy-walk-down-the-sidewalk-with-the-huge-backpack thing. This picture was taken at the Muzeview Ice Cream Social at the local park. (Muzeview is the company I work for.)

250/365

Today was the first day of school for our kiddos. This year will be interesting - they start 15 minutes earlier and go 15 minutes later so they can finish up by May 6th. There are construction project going on at the school that must be finished by November 2011, so they have to shorten the school year to get the work done in time. The kids don't mind the longer days, and it will certainly make this school year fly by!

Today's Daily Shoot assignment - "make a photograph with either a 9 or a 6 represented in some way" fit right into my other shooting for the day - here is my 9-year-old.
 

Here are a couple other first day photos...both 6th graders (so they would also qualify for the assignment the way I figure it)...
 

I wanted to do a photo of my 6 younger children, but one of them is off helping his big sister babysit (I wonder how helpful a 5yo actually is), so that didn't work out. 

It's getting to be the time of year when some of us must use some type of light source for our portrait photography. My flashes are currently out of commission, so I'm halfheartedly in the market for another one. David Hobby had a pretty decent review of this Yongnuo flash on his blog - have any of you tried this one? I'd love to hear some opinions of it!

249/365

My Naterbean has the most awesome eyes! I just love the blue and green in them, and the mischief that sparks out of them. He's an imp, for sure - a funny, energetic, engaging imp. The Daily Shoot assignment was to take a bright, cheery photo outdoors...so here it is.
 

248/365

The Daily Shoot assignment for today is “A person's hands can tell a story. Take a picture of someone's hands today. (@houkazan)” Here is one of my husband’s hands – he’s working towards his bachelor’s degree, so he spends most of his non-working time studying. I believe this one a Biology course.

This shot was taken at 800 ISO because it was a bit on the dark side in the dining room. I also had to open the aperture up as much as the lens would go (for this shot it was 5.6), so his fingertips are slightly out of focus…oh well…if I’d tried to go higher with the ISO the grain would have been much worse than the fuzzy fingers.

I must say – I love these hard-working hands. My husband’s hands work hard to provide for our family, they tenderly comfort a heartbroken child, they fix anything and everything that breaks, they reach out to meet the needs of the community, and they fit perfectly around my hands…these are very special hands.

247/365

I finally made the promised trip to the park with Caleb and Austin to play with Caleb's new spinner toy. It's a great toy, but we don't have the space for it in our yard. Those spinners really sail! Every time I did it the wind caught the spinner and sent it into the road, so I just let the boys do it. They had a great time with a simple toy.
 

I took several different shots, but I liked the perspective of these because they included the grass and the sky. Most of the others had busier backgrounds, too. 

Thanks for stopping by!

246/365

I had grand plans for working on photos today, but I didn't get to most of it. The only thing I really did was my Friday Challenge for the 365 Project group. Today's theme was "Shine" so here's a bit of shine from this end-of-summer day.

I wanted to work on the Daily Shoot photo (the "least expensive thing that I cherish" - hard one!), and "freelensing," but I just didn't have the energy. I'm fighting off a cold, and I spent all my extra energy doing nothing so the cold would go away. 

245/365

I love the concept of The Daily Shoot assignment today - “Make a beautiful photograph of something commonly thought of as ugly.” Here’s my take on it…

Caleb found today’s subject for me. I did go walking around the neighborhood a bit, but Caleb found this right in my own petunia planter! Good eye, Dubby!

244/365

The Daily Shoot for today is monochrome, but I just couldn’t do this shot in monochrome. I loved the variety of shades in this big, dark sky. Even the stormy skies are big in Big Sky Country!