SPS with flare

I absolutely love all of the portraits I've been seeing lately that utilize flare. I know you can add it after the fact in PhotoShop, but I really am striving to get my shots right in camera. I'd much rather be behind the camera than behind the computer!

Anyway, here's my latest attempt. Still not quite where I want it, but a fun photo none the less.

Wildlife Photography is for the BIRDS

This morning I woke up to birdsong. I did my morning routine with a smile on my face, for my lawn (which I can mostly see now) was host to some kind of robin convention. I fed the kids and came to the computer to do my usual routine. I checked in with HSMSHS to see the prompt for the day: BIRD.

PIECE OF CAKE!

I smiled to myself, looking out the window at all those robins. Then I picked up the camera, walked to the door....and they all flew away. I wasn't worried though. It was still early, and I had all day to photograph just one bird.

The joke was on me though, for every time I picked up the camera, they all flew away. I swear it was not a robin convention on the lawn, it was a robin conspiracy. Those birds are serious about their privacy!

All day I tried, and all day they mocked me, flitting merrily about when I watched from the windows, but making themselves scare the second I picked up the camera.

Obviously, wildlife photography is not my niche.

But then, a call from the kids: "Mama! The deer are here!"

I did the fastest lense change ever and ran to the kitchen windows. We hadn't seen our deer pals yet since fall, and I had no idea whether or not they'd be in cahoots with the birds. They weren't. They were actually quite pleased to have their photos taken.

Hubby arrived from work just after I'd snapped the first few photos, and I was sure the car would have them running for the woods, but they carried on as if he wasn't there.

Inspired by my success, I went out to see if I could track down a bird. No luck. Perhaps it was because of my assistant:

Did you say bird? Let me help!

I finally managed to ditch my assistant and tramped around, following the sounds of birdsong and peering into the trees. What I ended up with was a whole lot of this:

I eventually found a robin way up in the top of the tree and managed to tiptoe under it for this shot:

But WOW! Those birds really made me work for it!

Next time I'm photographing the Boy's Webkinz.

Twilight

One of my favourite times of day, yet a rather exhaustive search of my photos reveals that I almost never take photos during this time. I was going to take one today just for the prompt, but got wound up in Parent-Teacher interviews and didn't get out until full dark. I don't want to fall behind again, so here's one I actually took the other day as I realized that I didn't have any photos for my Project 365.

The neighbour kid on his ATV. A sure sign of spring (last week it was his snowmobile!).

Coming up Roses

I forgot to blog yesterday! Yes, the sky has fallen! I cannot believe it!

I've been busy doing online classes and webinars and editing up a storm. (When I'm not melting snow to do dishes or bathe. Still no water!) Our church had Shandee and I do photos at a Valentine's dance as a fundraiser. We took over one of the classrooms, set up two different backdrops, a couple of lamps, and went crazy. Everyone really got into the spirit with fun poses and props, but when we got home--disaster! The room has that slightly yellow-tinted paint and the lights just reflected it. Everyone has this horrible, horrible yellow cast to their skin. Picasa and I could do nothing. I really thought I was going to have to make every single photo black and white or sepia just to have anything.

BUT!

The Photo Editing course opened up at jessicasprague.com and right there in Lesson One was my solution--and then it was made even simpler in Lesson Two. An answer to prayer! Now instead of gross yellow people, we have nice rosy complexions!

Incidently, "rosy" was the HSMSHS prompt for yesterday. It must be a sign!

Today's prompt is "beads". These ones are a keychain the kids made for Hubby last year for Father's Day at church. Funny thing is, they each made one, so he now has 3 different homemade keychains to tell him he's the "Best Dad Ever" (in case he should ever forget!)

Back to the edits! Thanks for playing!

Discovery

First of all, thanks for all the well-wishes in the comments. I'm fortunate in my depression that I've been through it enough times to know what's happening and to know, even at my worst, that it will lift. I can even roughly predict when. It's just a matter of getting through it, one day at a time. Part of that is making myself get up and do things, like blog!

The last couple days have been about delighted discovery, thanks to the prompts at HSMSHS.

Yesterday's prompt was "handle", and before I could start I had to "get a handle" on myself. I was so discouraged at first, thinking that I surely didn't have any good handles in my space (whatever a good handle is!). I just live in a boring house in the country! No fun handles here! I had the vague idea that if I waited for the girls to get home from school I could pose one of them with the shovel to get an interesting handle, but they were totally uncooperative with that idea.

Kids these days!

So I stayed indoors and started searching. Much to my delight, I started finding all kinds of handles! Besides the obvious door handles, there were all kinds of handles on briefcases and bags, shovels, sleds, appliances, the piano lid, the wood stove, the grandfather clock. I spent a good hour quite happily snapping photos of handles at different angles and settings. I now have a fun little file of handles and a new way of looking at my space. Here's my favourite:


These are the handles on our fireplace tools. Usually I hate them. The holder takes up a lot of space and wood, though economical, is a very dirty way to heat. But just now I'm appreciating their curves and lines and this particular angle (which cleverly disguises the mess!).

Then this morning I did it again! Went to HSMSHS and saw that the prompt was "sport" and immediately started having a little fit in my head, as we're none of us into sports at all. I thought I was going to have to dig into the summer photos, but remembered the experience of yesterday. I asked the kids at breakfast: "what could I photograph for sports?" and they had a ton of ideas. Once they got me started, I began remembering more and more sports equipment we have (and use!). I took a few shots and decided I like this one the best:

These are Sweetpea's new skates, still in the box, waiting for her skating term to start at school (next week!). She's got weak ankles like her mom, and the one time I took her skating last year was a disaster, so I tried to talk her into hockey skates (they have a lot more ankle support) but she wasn't having it. Nothing would do but the pretty white figure skates. So they're sitting waiting for her to discover hidden talents, while her mom discovers there's more in her space than she ever dreamed!

Choosing Favourites

Irene at Shutter Sisters has challenged us to choose a favourite photo of 2008 and this is definitely mine, for a ton of reasons.

First, I love my little boy and his Blue Teddy. I love how much HE loves his Blue Teddy. Blue Teddy used to be his constant companion, his voice, his courage, his best friend. Now that he's four though, Blue Teddy doesn't get out the way he used to. He's quieter and content to play with the other stuffies while his Boy is off exploring the world without him. Because I see Blue Teddy less, I know my Boy is growing more, and I'm so happy to have this photo that captures a bit of that to look back on in a few years when Blue Teddy is no longer a major part of our lives.

On this sunny fall day the Boy wasn't feeling so hot. He had a bit of a cold and it was no surprise that Blue Teddy would decide to come with us when we drove Hubby to work. On the way home I was struck so much by the way the sun was hitting this tree that I just had to stop and see if I could capture it. It was the last tree with any leaves on it in our village and all the more striking because of it. I dragged the Boy (and his Teddy) out and started playing. When I was done with the tree I couldn't help getting some of my Boy. I had just finished my first (I hope there will be more!) photography course and was confident for the first time picking my own settings, getting out of the presets and doing what I wanted to do. So there's a bit of pride in the technical aspects as well as the emotional aspects.

Finally, Fall is my absolute favourite season and I'm going to love just about any fall photo anyway. Just look at those colours! I love the blanket of leaves glittering in the background and the way all the colours just pop. This day was the first we had had a really heavy frost that prompted us to pull out the winter gear, so we have the anticipation of winter there as well.

What's your favourite photo of 2008? I can't wait to see!