365 in 2015 - End of Week 44

I'm a couple weeks behind again! It's been so hard to keep up, and this is a hard time of year when everything is so busy. These are from the last week of October and are the completion to my challenge of The Unexpected Everyday. I truly do feel like I learned a good bit about manual mode. I'm still fuzzy on a couple areas, but I hope to be able to read more about them soon! 

Most pictures are:

SS 1/60 | f/5.6 | ISO 800 or 1600

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Tip 25: Telling a Story

Prompt: Head to your child's favorite place to eat and photograph it.

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Well, I did do the "tell a story" tip, but I didn't follow the prompt. Instead I decided to take pictures on our Sunday afternoon trip to Autumn Leaves to see Jon's mom (or Mimi as she's known to the kids). We try to go every Sunday before the evening service to visit her at the memory care center. The residents enjoy seeing the kids, even if they aren't always thrilled to be there (Clayton especially as evidenced in one of the photos above). Watching Mimi change so much has been such a hard and challenging part of life. I'm not sure what God has planned through this challenge, but it can certainly only be for our good! 

SS 1/50 | f/5.0 | ISO 800

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Tip 26: Split Lighting

Prompt: Encourage your child to stare into your lens.

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This prompt was definitely meant to be a little more serious, but after a few pictures, Clayton got quite goofy. I liked this one best!

SS 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 3200

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Tip 27: Self Portrait

Prompt: Get in the picture with your kids.

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I had a hard time getting a self portrait picture to work well. I tried several times, and this was the closest I got to getting something decent. I still didn't get the exposure right on this one, but I like it anyway.

SS 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 3200

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Tip 28: Raise Your ISO

Prompt: Capture your child's first in any type of lighting.

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I raised my ISO for this, and I still didn't get it right. Pictures in the evening or at night in my dark house are still impossible for my to capture correctly. But I loved this of Paige holding baby Patrick! 

SS 1/4 | f/16.0 | ISO 6400

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Tip 29: Narrow Aperture

Prompt: Photograph your child's room with or without them in it.

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Clayton's room at night. It's once again a dark place I have a hard time capturing.

SS 1/60 | f/5.6 | ISO 800

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Tip 30: Negative Space

Prompt: Capture the hands of your child with a parent or grandparent.

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I didn't follow this tip on the 30th, but decided to pull the hand picture I had taken earlier this week with Jon and his mom. I thought it was a good one!

The challenge was only thirty days, and I didn't really get any pictures on Halloween, so this is from earlier in the week. I thought the girls were too funny with their fake teeth!

365 in 2015 - End of Week 43

I'm still following along with The Unexpected Everyday for the remainder of the month of October. I'm actually caught up with this post with my 365 posts! Now to just catch up all my other pictures from summer on.

SS 1/50 | f/10.0 | ISO 6400

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Tip 18: Get Down Low

Prompt: Capture the relationship between your child and their pet. 

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Since we don't have a pet, I decided to try to capture one of my kids with their (stuffed) animal. I'm still having trouble getting the lighting right within my house. I'm not sure I can very well as our house is usually darker,

SS 1/40 | f/10.0 | ISO 200

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Tip 19: Silhouettes

Prompt: Find an area free from distractions and capture your child's silhouette.

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I knew I wouldn't have the time or right location to try for a better silhouette, so I tried this shot on the church playground. It didn't turn out how I hoped it would, and I'm not sure it could have.

SS 1/1000 | f/5.6 | ISO 800

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Tip 20: Different Vantage Points

Prompt: Capture your child's curiosity while exploring.

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Shelby loves the swings! 

SS 1/40 | f/11.0 | ISO 3200

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Tip 21: Manual Focus

Prompt: Photograph something that represents who your child is at this age without them actually being in the frame.

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All my girls love to draw and color. The older two are particularly enjoying taking an art class this year. It's been an inspiration to them doing more drawings at home!

SS 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 800

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Tip 22: Backlighting

Prompt: Photograph your child while they are quietly reading.

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I tried to use a window at church to get some light behind Shelby. But I didn't think about the cars being in the parking lot and in the way. So I moved to the side to avoid getting a car in the picture, but it changed the way the light hit her. Oh well. I do understand what it means to use backlighting, even though I didn't do it well here.

SS 1/30 | f/4.5 | 3200

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Tip 23: Looking Into the Frame

Prompt: Encourage your child to tell you a story and photograph their facial expressions.

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This was about as far as we got trying this prompt. Cheyenne just giggled and giggled and couldn't do anything else after that.

SS 1/25 | f/14.0 | ISO 100

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Tip 24: Slow Shutter Speed

Prompt: Capture your kids running past you, around you, or on a bike or scooter.

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This challenge was supposed to create motion blur within a picture. While I'm starting to understand how to do that better (which I would have liked to know better for when the fair was here), I don't care for it with pictures like this. I'd rather have Cheyenne in focus.

365 in 2015 - End of Week 42

Wow! I'm getting closer and closer to end of this 365! I'm still working through The Unexpected Everyday. Here's my pictures from the week of October 11th - 17th.

SS 1/100 | f/4.0 | ISO 200

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Tip 11: Clear the Clutter

Prompt: Capture the routines as your child ends the day.

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I didn't follow the prompt, or get this on the right day. This is from later in the week, and is the only picture that I actually remember moving stuff out of the way before taking the picture. There were a lot of books, papers, and crayons on the table that I moved before taking a picture of Shelby with her "collection". She gathered a bunch of leaves, sticks, berries, and other stuff from around the church and put it in a piece of foil.

SS 1/125 | f/8.0 | ISO 800

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Tip 12: Open Shade

Prompt: Capture your child as they walk away.

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My attempt at getting a picture in the shade.

SS 1/60 | f/4.0 | ISO 3200

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Tip 13: Framing

Prompt: Capture a moment in another room through the crack in the door.

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This crack is a little bigger than some I've seen, and not as sharp as I would've liked. I like the idea though!

SS 1/60 | f/5.6 | ISO 800

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Tip 14: Leading Lines

Prompt: Capture your child staring out the window.

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I didn't follow this prompt well at all. I didn't want to go in the church and try something with the window (as I've had trouble getting that to work before). And my ability to find leading lines outside wasn't so good. So I decided to use this picture I took instead! 

SS 1/125 | f/9.0 | ISO 1600

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Tip 15: Dramatic Light

Prompt: Use an iPad, open refrigerator, candles, a single lamp, or window to create dramatic light.

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This was from the same day as the framing challenge (obviously). I thought the lighting on this one was much better and I actually like this one better where you don't see the actual "frame" as well. 

SS 1/1000 | f/8.0 | ISO 1600

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Tip 16: Freezing Motion

Prompt: Letting your child do something they're not usually allowed to do - like jumping on the bed - gives opportunity to capture excitement and joy.

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I decided not to try an indoor shot with the kids jumping on the bed. So I asked them to run instead. They love running down the street and back! 

Clockwise from top left:

SS 1/25 | f/4.0 | ISO 800

SS 1/30 | f/3.5 | ISO 1600

SS 1/30 | f/3.5 | ISO 1600

SS 1/25 | f/3.5 | ISO 800

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Tip 17: Fill the Frame

Prompt: Capture your child with their favorite "lovie".

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All the kiddos with their favorites: Shelby with her blankie (more recently named Susan) and her bear named Myna, Clayton with his big dog Rainjull, Cheyenne's blankie with a bear head (I can't remember the name as she has three each with different names), and Paige with her face blankie (recently named Anna).

365 in 2015 - End of Week 41

I'm finally getting around to posting last week's pictures when I should be working on this week's instead. Oops. Anyway, I am still working through The Unexpected Everyday. None of these pictures have had any editing done to them. I wanted y'all to see them them straight out of the camera. 

SS 1/125 | f/4.5 | ISO 6400

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Tip 04: Window Lighting

Prompt: Besides candid moments, it's nice to have a portrait of your child at each age.

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This was my first attempt with window lighting (well, our front door actually). I totally blew it out with too high an ISO, but I LOVE Shelby's silly face here! 

SS 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

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I decided to retry the window lighting challenge a couple days later. I didn't count these in my 365 challenge, but wanted to go ahead and show them here anyway. These were taken inside with the blinds all the way up and close to the window. Paige wouldn't give me a normal smile, so I tried to make her laugh by saying "don't pick your nose" - and she proceeded to stick her finger right there! It made us both laugh!

SS 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

SS 1/80 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

SS 1/80 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

SS 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 200

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Tip 05: Aperture - Shooting Wide Open

Prompt: Capture little details that showcase who your kids are at this age.

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This was my first attempt with Mercy's hands. I used my 18-55mm, and it only goes down to f/3.5. I didn't get that low in this picture because I had zoomed in a little. So I retried with picture below. 

SS 1/100 | f/3.5 | ISO 200

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Shelby's little foot on her bike.

SS 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

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Tip 06: Metering Mode

Prompt: Capture your kids favorite outdoor activity.

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I totally didn't get metering mode at all. The Unexpected Everyday said to check your camera's manual to see how to change/set it, and I couldn't find mine. I'll have to read up on that more another time. I went ahead and took some pictures of my kids playing outside. This one was one of my favorites!

SS 1/60 | f/5.6 | ISO 200

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Tip 07: Focus on the Eyes

Prompt: Capture your child laughing.

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Paige wasn't feeling great, so she certainly wasn't in the mood to laugh. But I wanted to take a picture of my brown eyed girl anyway.

SS 1/125 | f/13.0 | ISO 200

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Tip 08: Limb Chopping

Prompt: Play peek-a-boo to capture true excitement and joy.

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Paige in the spiderweb climb at Lawrenceville Lawn. I didn't follow the prompt at all, but made sure to not chop off the body at any weird point.

SS 1/30 | f/3.5 | ISO 200

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Tip 09: Custom White Balance

Prompt: Capture the quiet peaceful moments while your child sleeps.

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Once again I didn't follow the prompts. I also didn't quite get how to adjust my white balance as well as I hope to. My missing manual would help me figure it out, but I need to find it first. I did take it off auto, and changed it to the different settings I was in. This and metering mode are two I'm going to wait to read more about later (after this challenge is over).

SS 1/30 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

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Tip 10: Reading a histogram

Prompt: Photograph your kids hands at work. 

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Cheyenne at Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland. I picked this picture as my one for October 10th because of the histogram. I didn't know how to show it on here without taking a picture of it on my computer and I didn't feel like doing that. But it was in the good range described in The Unexpected Everyday, and I liked the way it looked. :-)

365 in 2015 - End of Week 40

This week has been an interesting one! My grandma is here visiting from Arizona, so we've been doing a lot more than normal. I also decided to start reading through The Unexpected Everyday and trying my hand at the challenges within it to start using manual mode on my camera. Obviously that's been my goal all along, but I've been scared to try especially with the thought of messing up chances to get pictures I really want. So, it's taken me this long in this 365 project to actually step out and give it a try. I'm pleased to say my camera has remained in manual mode for the majority of this month so far! (I did take it off to get some family pictures with G'ma as I didn't want to try to figure it out with those.) The first four pictures are from the last of September, with the final three being the beginning of my October challenge (keeping up with the book and the 30 days of prompts they give).

I missed Sunday, so this from our trip to the zoo on Monday. I forget what these are called, but they are so pretty!

Bethany and her kids and all mine went down to Zoo Atlanta with mom and G'ma. We had a great time!

On Tuesday it was raining (again) and so we went to see a neat - and free - Lego exhibit at North Point Mall. They had ten large displays plus a few extra smaller ones and a build and play area. This was the Lego model of the White House (a close up of part of it anyway).

Shelby being silly waiting for Clayton to read the Bible with her. 

SS 1/125 | f/5.0 | ISO 3200

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Tip 01: Focal Point

Prompt: Change your focal point to focus solely on your child's feet. 

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Okay.....here goes the beginning of manual mode pictures. For those of you that have been doing this longer and want to offer some advice, I'll gladly take any you can give me! This was taken indoors on a rainy day. I actually did this prompt the same day as prompt two (as you'll be able to tell), trying to redo the one I didn't really like that I took the day before. Both days were rainy, but I waited too late in the evening the first day for it to turn out even remotely well. 

SS 1/125 | f/5.6 | ISO 6400

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Tip 02: Catchlights

Prompt: Capture your child in their favorite dress-up costume or playing pretend.

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While Cheyenne is in her costume, you can't really tell in this picture. And if those are considered catchlights in her eyes, I don't honestly know. Plus I completely blew this out with a far too high ISO (which thankfully Bethany shared with me that a high ISO, while allowing more light, will also produce too much grain). I'm still not sure what caused the funky coloring. The lighting in my house is poor - even more so on a rainy day, but I don't know what exactly I could have changed. 

SS 1/125 | f/16.0 | ISO 6400

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Tip 03: Rule of Thirds

Prompt: Capture the things your child does early in the morning.

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This was one tip I actually already knew about. I know this isn't the best of pictures to show it, but I was trying to follow the prompt too, on yet another rainy day, and I ended up using the flash as well. That must be how my aperture got so high, because I know I didn't set it at that! But then I'm still completely new to all this, so I don't know much about how it all works together. Anyway, I couldn't get the lighting right for Shelby's bottom bunk bed, hence the flash. She was in the process of making her bed and I asked her to get dressed first so I could take a picture. She wanted me to take one like that though - covered up with Pinkie Pie!