Week 31 WELCOME HOME

My two young friends just returned home from a two week missions trip in India.

Week 29

"Always take a picture with someone in it." How many times did I hear that growing up? Growing up in an age of film and film processing my mom always warned us before we went out with our camera to always have someone in the picture. I wish I had heeded her advice when years later our pictures from our trip to Yosemite were 75% squirrels, 10% mountains and water falls, 5% trees and 5% of my family members. 

And than the miracle of digital photography....AAAhhhhhh....do you see the clouds parting? I don't have to repeat my mom's wise words to my daughter when she snaps 500 pictures of our dogs. I do however find myself telling her to stop eating up my hard drive with said pictures and learn to delete =)

My son plays basketball and last year ordered some pretty cool sic shoes. He kept asking me to take pictures of his shoes. I took plenty of him during the season and tried to get some close ups of his shoes while he was on the court but do you know how hard that is since he is a forward and sprints from one side to the other for the whole game? So I decided one morning to do a photoshoot of his shoes. Sorry mom, it's only the shoes, they are the "someone" in the picture.

       

Sunday Snapshots, Sweet Shot Tuesday

My young friend tours the country with her family. This night she was playing all alone at a local fundraiser. She is beautiful, extremely talented and loves her Savior. She is quick to encourage and pray for  my two teens and me. She means so much to us and we love her so much.

Nikon D90 Tamron 28-75mm, ISO 3200 75mm f2.8 1/160. Boosted in iphoto.

Week 26

There is no better way to kick off the summer than surrounded by good friends and music.

My friends are taking a missions trip to Haiti. They held a benefit concert under the stars to help buy the instruments they will use for the music camp and then donate to  the 100 orphans.  The evening was so much fun (despite being 100 degrees at 8pm) good music, yummy goodies at the bake sale, beautiful jewelry, artwork, and corn hole.

Lighting was challenging to say the least. I don't have a prime lens so I had to make due. The string of lights around the stage were the only source of light, besides the moon and another string behind me over the baked goods and art.

Sweet Shot Tuesday

My kids had some friends over for a worship night. My friend reminded me, while we sang along, how blessed we are that this is where are kids were that night, sitting in my house singing, playing and worshiping our Savior.

Week 20, Sweet Shot and Tones on Tuesday,

My friends, the Hunts , organized an open mic night at a local coffee shop to help raise money for their mission trip to Haiti.  http://huntsforhaiti.wordpress.com/

Sweet Shot Tuesday

Picture of my birthday girl. How did she grow up so quickly!

Sweet Shot Tuesday, Shoot, Edit, Submit

Last week, I was babysitting my little friend here. We were cuddling on the couch watching a show. I noticed the light coming in from the windows and wanted to grab a quick photo. He however was more interested in making silly faces and then look at them on the screen. I caught this one in between all the silly ones.

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Sweet Shot Tuesday

During our basketball awards ceremony my son's friend and co-captain honored my son by thanking him for being his teammate, and co-captain, for pulling him and the team up when things looked bad, and for being his best friend. It was a tender moment between these two who have worked hard this past year to lead their team to victory but more importantly worked hard for their friendship.

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Sweet Shot Tuesday

Our JV Boys were playing Ryan's Varsity Boys team. We were down by 12 points in the 4th quarter. It looked grim. Then they started to add points to the scoreboard. A 3 point buzzer beater at the end of the 4th quarter sent them to overtime. Once again they fell behind, but they kept on pushing. Down by 1 point with 4 seconds left in overtime they throw a baseball pass from out of bounds to #15. Phils (#15) has been struggling all year, after finishing last year with a bang, his shots have been missing this season. He has worn out his net at home shooting, trying to get back into the groove. With 3 seconds left Phils sets up to shoot a 3. We all hold our breath as the shot looks like it will bounce off the glass and back out onto the court...then BANG BABY! The ball bounces off the glass and into the basket. The buzzer sounds and COUGARS WIN! The crowd is screaming and the boys are going nuts. They all dog pile on Phils, they are so excited for him.

Sweet Shot Tuesday

taken on the last day of the year after we came home from a wedding. I can't believe how much they have grown over the last year.

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Puppy Love

This past Sunday my daughter and I stated volunteer work for our local Humane Society. We will be taking pictures at events and adoption days.  This pooch was up for adoption. A very sweet male pitbull. He was shy and reserved to most potential adopters pushing into his handlers legs. And then she came. It was love at first sight. You could feel the bond between them. He no longer sought the comfort of his handler but was at ease resting in her arms. 

Sweet Shot Tuesday/Tones on Tuesday

Our friend JJ 

Sweet Shot Tuesday

First time shooting a senior shoot. My nephew Adam class of 2012

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Sweet Shot Tuesday

Back to School 2011

I can't believe my baby is 13.  She is growing into such a sweet young lady. She is always quick to help around the house and serve where she is needed. She loves to be behind the camera so when I asked if I could get a "Back to School" there was the typical, "Oh, Mom..." but thankful she gave me a great smile and a picture I will treasure.

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