Another one bites the dust

Looking back on the previous week it always feels like it went by so quickly. While in the middle of that week (or the current one), though, it doesn't really feel like that.

Not a whole lot is going on around here.  I'm working.  The kids are playing video games and reading and watching TV and occasionally bickering with each other.

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Spider that was on the back porch.  I usually leave spiders alone as long as they stay outside because they eat bad bugs...and they're kind of cool to look at (thank you zoom lens).  This guy, though, didn't make it when I had Adam clean up the back porch.


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Just playing with the shaped bokeh kit Robert got me for my birthday this year.


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Light painting with some leftover sparklers.  The kids stood still and Robert went around them.  I wish the sparkler lasted long enough for me to get a second shot because Robert took direction better and you might have been able to see the kids faces.  I was testing out a process because.... I've officially been hired to photograph my first wedding and there is some hope that we can get a few light painting photos at the end of the day.  The wedding is in about 5 weeks - I'm nervous and so very excited.


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Still have a few roses left to photograph... unfortunately, they're on their way out.


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Garden haul for the day (Saturday). Harvested a few more potatoes (which we ate tonight and YUM) and some green beans.  I only have one more potato hill left, my red potato hill. Those are bush beans, which I get a few of each day, but the pole beans are going to start producing any day now.


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I cleaned out my closet a bit and pulled some clothes to give to Goodwill (we usually clean out closets before back to school shopping each year) and Carus tried on a few of my dresses.  The blue one fit her mostly - it was just a bit too long.  The pink one though needed to be clipped in the back.  I told her she could have hte blue one for her first school dance, and now she can't wait.


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I've been watching Doctor Who with the kids - introducing them for the first time (I know, I'm a bad mom for waiting hahaha).  We've started with the new series starting with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper and the 9th Doctor and Rose.


Well, that's it for news around here.  See ya tomorrow... or probably more likely... next week.

Less blah.

And another week has gone by.  I felt less blah, slightly.

I'm trying to get out of the rut I'm in.  I have more ideas about how to do it than I have the oomph to actually do it.

(98/365)

Camellias are such pretty flowers.  Too bad they don't last that long before they drop.

I feel a bit like I'm taking the same pictures over and over, or the same kind of pictures.  Lack of inspiration, or something.


(99/365)

April showers bring rain drops on my windows. Spring in Oregon is gorgeous, even with all the rain showers.  The sky is blue, the clouds are puffy and there is a nice breeze to compliment the warm sun. And things grow and bloom. I feel a bit guilty seeing online friends in other parts of the country (or world) that are still dealing with snow (feet of snow), but all I can do is hope they get their spring soon.  I would share if I could. I'd definitely share some of the rain we get.


(100/365)

I've decided I want to take more portraits and I have two perfect models. It only took a little bit of bribery to get them to dress up and pose for me.  Carus was extremely cooperative, as usual.  Adam, however, not so much.



Computer time was on the line though, so he toughed it out.










The front flower beds are looking lovely.  The flowers make me smile so hard.


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(102/365)


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Blooming trees outside the library.  I want one (or more) of these trees in my yard.


(104/365)

Teaching Carus to knit... A scarf is in the making.

Fernhill Wetlands

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Since I was up early Saturday morning, all the frost we had was gorgeous, and I got the new lens I had ordered for my camera Friday (a Nikkor 35 mm f/1.8G DX)(did not pay that price) that I wanted to play with, I decided to go out to Fernhill Wetlands.

It was very cold! I think about 19 degrees Fahrenheit.

With my sweater, heavy coat and gloves, my upper half was warm, but my jeans didn't cut it and my legs were so cold by the time I climbed back in the car...2 hours later.  I was rewarded with some great photos that I'm very happy with.

When I got home I noticed I lost my lens cap (seriously, brand new lens and I lose the lens cap GAH!) so Sunday Robert went back out with me to look for it.  We didn't find it.

This first image here is from Sunday, which was also frosty but not as cold out.  It was later in the day so the fog had already burned off and some of the ice had melted. on the path (which made things muddy).

The ducks amuse me so much.  I could spend hours watching them swim in circles and wiggle their tails in the air while they dive for food. And when they're out of the water and they waddle around; very cute.

Now, the images I got Saturday.  I love my new lens, I love these images.

Ducks and geese in the fog.

Do you know what these are?

Fuzzy bars

Frozen path

I think this is a crane.

Frosty Queen Anne's Lace

Unknown plant

Waddling away

Gaggle of Geese

Posing the cats....

.... again.

I didn't dress them up though.  I was trying to get a shaped-light bokeh with the Christmas tree with the cat in the foreground, but it wasn't working.


I got one of Simba as well, but it's not as good.  I'd share it, but I'm on limited uploads with the Flickr account right now.  My dues have expired and with holiday season upon us we're watching what we spend and I don't have the funds to renew at the moment.  

Maybe I'll try again another time.

Yay, It's Friday!!

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A boy and a pug.



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Decorating the tree.

Usually after kids decorate a Christmas tree you have to go and redecorate it, spreading out some of the ornaments so they aren't all clumped together.  Adam and Carus have reached the age that they spread the ornaments out on their own; and the height that they don't need help reaching the higher parts of the tree.




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Lookie what I figured out to do!!!  Heart-shaped Christmas tree light bokeh!  (Bokeh - noun - A Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of photographic image. ) (How to do shaped bokeh.)

And then Robert got in on the fun and played with the star-shaped lens hood I made.  It's pretty too!




If you don't want to make your own hood for your camera, you can buy this kit.



Buy the Bokeh Masters Kit at the Photojojo Store!