Light Painting

I had a light-painting assignment which turned out to be quite fun for our family.  The challenge wasn't so much as to controlling the camera, as it was to figuring out how to make awesome images in the dark, but finally we succeeded and we light-painted for a solid hour!  Fun night for all!

These are the first couple of attempts with Collin and Mackenzie playing around with the glow sticks.

We started realizing it looks very messy with a slow shutter speed, unless you have a pattern to your movements, so we tried to do repeated patterns.  Most of these though I did on only a shutter speed of 10-15 seconds.  Thirty seconds is way too long to do this.

Then Tyson came in to help us and was an instant expert at writing our names in the air which was pretty darn cool!

There were some tricky parts to this project.  You can't see where your camera lens is focusing or its range, so as you are writing your name across a room, you are guessing in the dark as to how far to the left and right you can move, plus how how or low.  The other problem I had with my particular camera was that I couldn't make the self-timer go off at all, and it was extremely hard to make my camera start taking the shot.  I found that I had to start with having the glowsticks held just a couple feet out from the center of the camera lens for the camera to recognize and pick up on them.   Then I would hear the shutter go off and quickly jump over to the left of the room to start writing with the glowsticks.  Even doing that, you had to hold down the shutter button a long while for the camera to 'do its thing' and start the shutter. 

I never did give the flashlight idea a try, but I loved the You Tube video where the guy used the flashlight on the barn.  Definitely want to try something like that!

Photography- Glitter Blowing

This assignment is super hard for me: trying to capture tiny pieces of glitter blowing in mid-air.  I was not good at this at all!  I'm sure this is deserving of a big fat F!  Thank goodness I don't want to take pictures like this in real life!

Tv: 1/500, ISO 1600

Tv: 1/1000, ISO 1600

Tv: 1/1250, ISO 1600

Tv: 1/100, ISO 1600

The biggest problem I had with this assignment is that I could not see the glitter while looking through the lens.  And then when viewing my picture in Playback mode, I couldn't see that I'd captured any glitter at all, so I didn't know which way to adjust the camera.  It was frustrating, but to my surprise I actually did capture some glitter falling!  I did realize that if I am trying to take a picture of something so small, I need to have a contrasting and CLOSE background for my camera to even pick up the glitter.  I took many shots where the faraway grass was the background, or a fence, and the cameras focus was so far out that it never captured any glitter at all.

Photography - Silky Smooth Water

Another photography assignment, this time taking pictures of our little waterfall in the backyard.

Tv: 1/500, ISO 1600 - I like this one the best!  I love seeing the water droplets stopped in mid-air!

Tv: 1/40, ISO 1600 - Water is looking smoother, and it is a lighter picture!

Tv: 1 second, ISO 200 - this is the smoothest I could get it, but it also kind of makes the water look transparent, or almost disappearing.

My Beginnings of Photography

I am finally taking a photography class that I've only been able to dream about for 5 years now.  This one is great because its a friend of mine teaching out of her home once a month, and its very basic...just for me! There is homework, which is what I know I need if I'm ever going to get it.  So my homework assignments are now going to be posted on the blog to make it easier for me and for her to check my awesome work.  Blah, blah!

Here goes...

Ceiling Fan Stop:

ISO 1600, Tv 1/1000.  Blades are stopped, but its quite dark in the room.

ISO 1600, Tv 1/500.  Blades are still stopped, but not quite as crisp, and room is lighter. 

 ISO 1600, Tv 1/250.  Blades are starting to get blurry.

 ISO 1600, Tv 1/100.  Blades are blurring, room is even lighter.

 ISO 1600, Tv 1/25.  Blades are blurred completely!  Looks awesome!

Mr. Turtle

Well the first day of school was great.  Kids came home happy, everything went well.  All until Mackenzie went in the backyard to check on her critters.  She is the biggest animal lover their is, or should I say animal obsessor???  After school she went and checked on Mr. Turtle, her pet turtle that lives in the pond with the koi fish.  I knew she was outside, and then I heard screaming and crying and she came running in to me.  I took one look at her and saw that her nose had a chunk of flesh taken right off the tip.  She was able to calm down enough to tell me that Mr. Turtle bit her nose!!!  That darn thing!  Ok, it was hilarious, but at the time I couldn't laugh at her. :)  She was able to tell me that she was looking in his shell because he wouldn't come out, and then he just snapped out and bit her.  So she let go of him, and he hung on!  Finally he must have let go and she came screaming.  So this is what she looked like, and I wish I would have taken a better photo to capture it.  

The next day her friend came to her at the bus stop and told her she had chocolate on the tip of her nose.  No, its just a scab from my turtle biting my nose!  What a story!  

And here she is with her pet turtle that she fully forgave and loves to pieces!!

Back-To-School Days

Summer flew by fast and school started too early!  This was a big year for Collin because he finally started Kindergarten and got to ride the bus, and Mackenzie started 2nd grade.  They were excited to see friends, make new friends, and just for their new adventure.  They both got great teachers and so far, it has been a great year.  

Ready for their first day of school!

The long awaited first ride on the school bus!

Anniversary Time Spent in Aspen

In between the hustle and bustle at the end of the summer, we managed to fit in a trip to Aspen for our anniversary.  It was beautiful up there!  We were able to hike up to the Maroon Bells, go up to Independence Pass, and just explore around Aspen.  Such a fun getaway!

The Maroon Bells

The Road to Independence Pass

The drive out of Aspen to Independence Pass is amazing!!!

I can't remember the name of this little stop-off, but it is very cool.

Before I could even say something, the kid in Tyson came out and he hiked over to the rocks where you can see the crack where the water flows through, and he jumped across the river there!  He's crazy!

Hiking around Aspen

 Hiking up one of the canyons in Aspen was just beautiful.  It was full of Aspen trees of course…

 …butterflies everywhere

…pesky begging birds that wouldn’t leave us alone when stopped for a snack :)

…and just pure beauty.

Summer Camping in the Beaver Mountains

It's been a few years, but we were finally excited to take the kids camping now that they are a bit older. They thought it was such a novel idea...asking where are we going to go get breakfast?  How are we going to sleep?  And the big concern about bears!  Oh my!  They quickly figured out this camping idea and loved it!

Loving their new living quarters, along with their awesome cousin Ty!

Marshmallow QUEEN!  I think she ate 2 bags all by herself!  Yes, I'm the awesome mom who let her. :)

The boys!

Carter showing off his jump roping skills!

The Milne boys - thanks for coming along with us camping!

Nanette and Courtney looking way to pretty to be up camping.  Thanks for coming up!

Having a little baseball fun

She's caught in the act!

Spending our morning over at Puffer's trying to catch some fish, or just have a fun raft ride.