May --- A Day in the Life

May's Blog Circle was "A Day in the Life."

I am a big proponent of grabbing your camera and taking pictures of everyday life. Everyday life happens and it happens fast. When you're in the moment it seems like a life time (think bringing a newborn home, sleep deprivation, the terrible twos, teething, tantrums, etc...), but we all know that they really happen in the blink of eye.

"A Day in the Life" was a great theme to exemplify the importance of documenting the little things.

Here are some highlights from a random Saturday in our life.

Jack loves to play Minecraft when he first wakes up.

Jack's latest favorite breakfast... I used to love this when I was younger, too.

Addie asked why I was taking pictures in the morning.

She's not too sure about my documentary of our day!

One of my favorite morning activities is walking around the garden to see what has grown overnight!

It had rained the night before, leaving pretty raindrops on the hosta leaves.

This guy is waiting to bloom.

Morning, cloudy, grass needs cutting.

Iris about ready to pop in the pond.

One of my annual baskets.

I have a love/hate relationship with the pond. It is so pretty, but brings me so much angst... mosquito haven, tons of debris falls in it, high maitenance.... oh, what to do with it? Fill it in? Ugh.

I love hydrangea and buy a new one from the nursery every year so I can enjoy beautiful blooms (they aren't particularly hardy in Upstate NY)

As I return to the front yard, Jack has started playing ball by himself.

Note the size of our front yard. My kids prefer to play here than the large back yard. Weird.

Frances' invisible fence line doesn't allow her off the front porch and she HATES that she can't get at the ball that Jack is about to throw into the net.

Onto A's soccer game at noon.

She's loving soccer (hasn't played in several years)

Home from soccer and Daddy is cutting the grass. Love freshly cut grass.

Franny loves to be outside.

All she needed was a little sunshine to bloom....

Fence in the foreground is to keep dog and kids out of really wet area of yard. Daddy working hard.

It is not yardwork day without a cool beverage.

It is not a Saturday without friends popping in to play.

yard work done, time to relax on back deck.

Noshing

It is typical for some friend to stop over for a play/cocktail hour.

We laughed about really odd maternity photos that we saw on Pinterest... so we created our own.

The funny thing is... she had the baby that night!

Contractions started on our deck!

Kids were worn out and opted to chill inside for a bit.

Addie painted her nails.

And then said "no more pictures!"

dancing with frances

I adore the light in this picture. Not sure what she was doing, but it is cute!

Somehow we started talking about how strong Addie is.

My legs aren't that big in real life. :)

Love her.

Our friends went home (and went to the hospital a few hours later to have a baby!), the kids went to bed and I sat and enjoyed a couple more minutes of a wonderful day.

I challenge you to do your own "Day in the Life" -- it really makes you stop and think about all that goes into who you are and what you do. There was so much I didn't capture in our "typical Saturday" -- for example, Jack had a soccer game at the same time as Addie, so Daddy took him and I couldn't take pics of his game that day (rest assured, I have pictures of him sporting!).  I'm so excited to see what the other ladies posted.... start circling around with Amy's blog at http://paynduo.blogspot.com/

April Blog Circle

Motion Blur was the topic for the Blog Circle this month.

I distinctly remember working on this topic during a photography class at BU when I lived in Boston. We had to "pan" a subject to try to get the subject in focus but the background blurry, to evoke movement. Here is my photo that I submitted (and got an A- ).

Here are two recent attempts... my BIL's dog "orbitting" (tucking the butt and running like a maniac!).  Not bad, but probably not an A-!!

Circle around and see what the other gals came up with for the topic "motion blur".
Amy's blog is next at www.paynduo.blogspot.com

March Blog Circle

I will admit that wasn't too keen on the topic for our blog circle this month. The topic was "toys"and at first I wasn't feeling the inspiration. However, when I started playing around with it, it was kinda fun! Definitely out of the box for me.
There is no shortage of toys around our house - when I saw these football guys I thought they'd make a fun choice.  It's March and there is still snow on the ground in some spots, so these athletes had to play in the snow!

After I took some shots with these guys I got sidetracked and almost forgot about the assignment. We have a "toy" cabinet in our kitchen that is in desperate need of cleaning/organizing (playdoh from about 5 years ago!). I found this cute couple hanging out - forgotten about -- so I gave them their own session. Hehe...

So there you go... March's Blog Circle post! Don't forget to circle around and see what everyone else did. I am anxious to see! Head over to Amy's blog  - http://paynduo.blogspot.com/

February Blog Circle

I'm so proud of myself! I'm sitting here at my computer writing this post about a week before our Blog Circle post is due - yippeee!!!

The topic this month is shooting with a shallow DOF (Depth of Field). I am not so good at describing camera functions in technical terms, but basically a shallow DOF will isolate the subject from the background and create a really lovely background. The focus range is very small - which can also be tricky if you're trying to get a certain part of the image in focus.

I find that I often shoot wide open as I love the results - it can make for a more interesting picture and is a very useful technique when the background is distracting.  Here are some examples from this month's blog circle topic... don't forget to click on Amy's blog at http://www.paynduo.blogspot.com/ and circle through to see what everyone else did for Shallow DOF! 

This pic was from a client session I had in Feb and I thought it was a good example of shallow DOF. She was so cute and sassy!