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 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!

Rainjull's Surgery

Clayton has had a giant blue stuffed dog since he was a baby. He finally picked a name for her a few years ago. I think he was aiming for Rachel, but it ended up being Rainjull. (I don't know how best to spell that, but that's how it sounds.) Well, over the course of time, she lost most of her stuffing. Clayton asked me if we could do "surgery" and fill her back up. So we did! 

Clayton with Rainjull in September 2006.

Poor Rainjull is missing so much stuffing! 

Fixed up, good as new! 

365 in 2015 - End of Week 14

This week was a full one for me. A good portion of it was spent working on things in my kitchen. We had a new doorway added which opened up the kitchen so much! I spent one day working on staining that new trim. Then I tackled repainting the refrigerator (with much help from my mom getting it cleaned and holding things so I could paint them without it shutting back). I wanted a black refrigerator since all our other appliances are black, but there was no reason to purchase a new one for aesthetic reasons only. So I bought some chalkboard paint to try on it! It took longer than I expected - only because I had other things to do between coats of paint. It ended up looking great though! I still don't have any chalk to try out on it, and I really wanted to do that before I took some pictures, so I don't have any of refrigerator on here. Maybe next week! 

Paige's first (partial) cup of bullet proof coffee. She wanted to try it because Cheyenne drinks some, but she didn't care for it as much. 

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(Notice the wall behind Paige? It is no longer there!)

 

Here I am standing in the new doorway between the kitchen and the foyer. Previously when you entered the house, you had to walk into the living room and around to the kitchen. Now you can go straight into the kitchen! It's been wonderful, and I still can't get over the difference it makes in the house! 

Clayton was really proud of himself for completely another part of a new programming lesson on Khan Academy. He's really learned a lot on there! 

For April, I decided to follow in my sister's footsteps and take pictures of one item all month long. It just so happened that while I was out at an antique store, I found several of the cast iron animals like what she used in her pictures. I had wanted to get one anyway, and my girls voted to get the dog. When I told them it was a Scotty dog, they insisted that's what we call him (original, I know!). So, the next month will feature the adventures of Scotty!

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Scotty is contemplating why two one dollar bills were attached to a junk letter that came in the mail.

Scotty took control of the remote when we all gathered round to watch a movie.

Scotty enjoyed his first (and probably last) day at Classical Conversations.

Scotty cuddled up for the night with his big pal, Bear (again, so original). 

365 in 2015 - End of Week 8

This week was a crazy, crazy one! We had an ice storm Monday night into Tuesday. My kids had finally gotten over the lingering colds they had had only to get a stomach virus as well. We had a pipe freeze (but thankfully thaw out and not burst), our heat kept not working properly thanks to low gas pressure (Jon thinks it's a city problem since nothing he's tried to fix it has worked), and we got to meet with our lawyer and the City of Lawrenceville for mediation because of ongoing storm water runoff issues. And I only missed one day! Needless to say, I made what pictures I took fit into another random assortment of topics from multiple photo challenges. 

Day 15: (Stuffed) Animal

Shelby couldn't get any of her siblings to play her in a game of chess, so she set up the game with her bear, Myna. I must say I was impressed she completely knew how to set up the board correctly! I didn't see the complete game, so I'm not sure how much she remembers of how to move each piece, but her brother has taught her well! 

Day 16: Growing Up

Our regular Monday plans got cancelled because of the coming storm, so we finally let Clayton watch Jurassic Park. He'd been wanting to see it for a long time and he was thrilled to finally be allowed. I remember being terrified watching that movie in the theater when it came out, but he got up thinking it wasn't scary at all! (The girls were watching a girly movie on our computer instead.)

Day 17: Ice

We woke up Tuesday to lots of ice and no power! We headed to mom's house for a little while since we couldn't make anything to eat at home and she still had power. I took a bunch of pictures which are in a couple other posts. These two were my favorites by far though, so I saved them for my 365 post! 

Day 18: Sunset

The sky was absolutely gorgeous Wednesday evening! I had to run out to the store and made a detour to get the best view of this sky (while still staying relatively close to the house).

Day 19: Freedom

Shelby was the first to get sick this week, and she was also the first to get better. Her sisters went down, and she took advantage of the situation to go play with their toys in their bed. I don't know how long she sat up in Paige's bed playing with her ponies and dolls. She was quite content playing happily by herself! 

Day 20: Someone you love

My sweet Chey (say it "shy") letting me take her picture after she was feeling better! 

Day 21: Colorful

This is Shelby's favorite toy! It plays each instrument's sound and you can add multiple instruments to the middle to hear them together. It's a really neat toy, and one all the kids actually enjoy!