365: October 14-28, 2013 Day 287-301

YAY!!! I'm into the 300's! Whoo hoo! Never thought I would make it this far. A couple of pictures have been taken by my daughter Hannah or Shannen and too many pictures were taken with my ipod/ipad especially since my broken foot and recovery. I'm still in recovery mode and can hardly wait to be 100%.
I was excited to see on ClickitUp that they were starting a 365 project! I'm needing some inspiration and encouragement. I'm not sure if I'll continue after the new year as 365 or change to a project 52 but I'm looking forward to seeing all the links of the different projects.

287/365

Quilt made by my mother in law when we were newly married

288/365

Put some new pictures on the wall. Are two year old pics still new?

289/365

The owner of Carrot Tree (which is located on federal land) stayed open despite the government shut down. We decided to show our support by having lunch there.

290/365

New Uniforms

291/365

Dinner with the birthday boy

292/365

All day air soft with the guys for Isaac's Birthday

293/365

Happy Anniversary!

294/365

Finally able to have two shoes on!

Xray in 6 weeks due to lack of new bone growth

295/365

Happy 16th Birthday Bryce!

296/365

My beautiful Hannah

297/365

Hannah made some amazing cupcakes from scratch

298/365

Meet and Greet with Terry Virgo

299/365

Isaac co-leading at 316

300/365

Guest Speaker Terry Virgo

301/365 (ipad)

Finally "Facebook official" so happy for these two!

Click it Up a Notch October

After spraining both ankles the Saturday before labor day, I was praying my momma would  birth her baby later than earlier. When I got the phone call I was still using a cane, having a hard time standing for hours and not very steady on my feet. Thankful momma labored mostly at home and had the baby with in the hour once we arrived to the hospital. Because of some minor complications the room was packed with extra people and because of my ankles I had to pick a spot and stay there. Momma wanted me to focus on dad's reaction so once I felt he wasn't going to move anymore I picked my spot and hoped he stayed there. Normally dad is a funny jokester always ready to make the room laugh, watching his wife as she labored through birthing their third child caught up with him.  

Click It Up a Notch~ March

March is Madness at our house. My son plays JV Basketball for a homeschool program that was originally started by our church. This year we became an independent program and I stepped in to be one of the two volunteer Athletic Directors for the program. I ended up putting in a lot more hours than I ever thought I would and when my son was out for six weeks due to a broken fibula it wasn't easy to keep working and pouring into the program. 

In March we packed our vans full of boys, fans, food and basketballs and headed to the HSPN East Coast Homeschool Basketball Tournament. Five games played over three days, 3-point shooting contests, over 4000 pictures taken, 5 hours of video, heartbreak, never give up attitudes and  seeing our boys become men over those three days was definitely worth all of the hours from the last 6 months.  Our boys ended up winning third over all JV Boys teams from the East Coast. 

This is my favorite picture. #10, my son's best friend, was announced for the First All Tournament team. I was sitting in the row in front of the team and literally just threw my camera over my shoulder and snapped a picture. How grateful I am for the gift of this picture. My son grasping his best friends hand. He is so proud of him. This year has been a challenging one for them. They have been trying to figure out what their relationship looks like now that they are getting older. Working together as co-captains in basketball has really knitted their hearts together.  All those hours have definitely been worth it =) 

Top 11 of 2011

 Hannah's 13th birthday. Love how they still laugh together

After saving for 2 years of saving she finally has her AE violin

Isaac passed his driving test for his permit

Sweet moment between Hannah and Clark

Isaac and cousin Nate surfing in CA

Hannah and Oliver

Surprise Super Hero Party for our friend Justin

Hannah made a quilt for her violin teacher's first baby

Isaac led worship for the first time at youth group

After working hard all summer the boys bought new uniforms. Isaac (white #11) winning the tip

My favorite taken on the last day of the year.  I can't believe how much they have grown.

30 Day Challenge Days 1-7

Day 1: Self Portrait

Day 2: What I wore today

I'm sure I don't have to much longer to wear these.

Day 3: Clouds

Day 4: Green

Day 5: High Angle

My favorite coffee mug

Day 6: Low Angle

I had planned a daytime shot with him doing some crazy jumps or something.  Those plans went down the tube when he got a concussion on Sunday. He wasn't feeling well all day so I just snapped one when we came home from his birthday dinner.

Day 7: Fruit

Time to make some banana bread

SOCC

It took me 12 days to shoot 7 days! Pathetic. Hopefully it won't take me that long to do the next 7 =)

30 DAY PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE

I saw this on Click it Up a Notch (originally posted on White Peach Photography) and I decided to take the plunge. Funny thing is I totally failed after day one! I totally had planned out days 2 and 3 in my head but then completely forgot! So I'm going to pick up where I left off and move forward =)

I learned 9-22-11

My nephew asked if I would take his senior pictures. I have never done this before but I was up for the challenge. 

I only have iphoto for editing. I've been holding off on purchasing photoshop because I want to get as much practice getting great pics with my camera before I purchase such a powerful editing tool. Fortunately (or so I thought) I had a trial version of photoshop. So I thought I would try and get rid of the words on the fence.

I very quickly learned that I need more than 15 out of 30 days to master this program. I don't have a ton of time currently to spend on practicing with PS so I ended up getting extremely frustrated.  As you can see by the picture below. I did get rid of the words but ended up having a hard time making the fence line up. I also learned that I may need to take a photo shop class in order to understand how to use it effectively. I tried to add some texture and different lighting to this photo but couldn't get it to work how I wanted it to.

I learned

 

At Click It Up A Notch she challenged us to show our progress by showing one of our first photos shot in manual and than  show a more recent photo shot in manual.

I took this picture during the alumni game at the beginning of the season in November 2010. This was the first time I decided to shoot in manual other than the two or three pics that I had taken of some apples just to see the difference when I changed ISO, f stop, etc.  I had started taking some basketball pictures during my son's games that summer so I was just starting to become familiar with taking sports pictures.

NOVEMBER 2010

Camera model:NIKON D40

Focal length:18 mm

Focal length (35mm):27 mm

Max lens aperture:f/3.5

Exposure:1/100 at f/5.6

Flash:Not fired

Exposure bias:0 EV

Exposure mode:Manual

Exposure prog.:Manual

ISO speed:ISO 1600

Metering mode:Pattern

I took this picture during the final tournament of the season.


MARCH 2011

Camera model:NIKON D40

Focal length:18 mm

Focal length (35mm):27 mm

Max lens aperture:f/3.5

Exposure:1/100 at f/3.5

Flash:Not fired

Exposure bias:0 EV

Exposure mode:Manual

Exposure prog.:Manual

ISO speed:ISO 1600

Metering mode:Pattern

Some of the things I learned during the basketball season:

1. Take pictures during warm up to check lighting
2. Frame pictures more carefully.  
3. Look to tell a story. Even though most of the pictures are action shots look for those shots that tell a story of the individual or team.

Things I would like to improve

1.  Frame pictures more carefully
2. Take more pictures with a purpose.  Instead of just shooting with a continuous high shutter release and going through hundreds of photos after the game, I would like to capture the one great picture in the sequence.
3. Learn how to get more light into my less with less noise.

I recently upgraded to a Nikon D90 and I'm hoping I can get the 85mm 1.4 lens within the next year.  Photoshop is also on my wish list, but for now I will be happy with iphoto.