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

---------------

Tip 25: Telling a Story

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

----------

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

---------------

Tip 26: Split Lighting

Prompt: Encourage your child to stare into your lens.

----------

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

---------------

Tip 27: Self Portrait

Prompt: Get in the picture with your kids.

----------

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

---------------

Tip 28: Raise Your ISO

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

----------

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

---------------

Tip 29: Narrow Aperture

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

----------

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

---------------

Tip 30: Negative Space

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

----------

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 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

---------------

Tip 04: Window Lighting

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

----------

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

---------------

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

---------------

Tip 05: Aperture - Shooting Wide Open

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

----------

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

---------------

Shelby's little foot on her bike.

SS 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 400

---------------

Tip 06: Metering Mode

Prompt: Capture your kids favorite outdoor activity.

----------

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

---------------

Tip 07: Focus on the Eyes

Prompt: Capture your child laughing.

----------

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

---------------

Tip 08: Limb Chopping

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

----------

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

---------------

Tip 09: Custom White Balance

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

----------

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

---------------

Tip 10: Reading a histogram

Prompt: Photograph your kids hands at work. 

----------

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. :-)

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 6

This month, I decided to try a 28 day photography challenge instead of just trying to come up with and figure out pictures all on my own. After the first week, I'm not sure if I like this approach better or worse. I guess we'll wait and see. I am combining several different challenges and using the theme I like the best for any given day. Guess that kinda defeats the purpose? Anyway, it's a start! 

Day 1: Laughter

I actually don't remember why Paige was laughing, but it had something to do with me pulling my camera out and trying to take her picture.

Day 2: Faceless self-portrait

Not sure if this really counts, but I did take it myself of the necklace I was wearing.

Day 3: Friendship

Shelby wasn't feeling well, so Paige sat down to talk to her. It was the sweetest thing!

Day 4: Something blue

This came in the mail Wednesday! It's getting closer to Jon's trip and we're all excited for the opportunity he has! 

Day 5: Hands

I took the top two without any mention of what I was trying to do. The bottom two, I asked the girls to show me their hands and that is how they responded.

Day 6: From a low angle

Paige up in a tree - a regular activity on a pretty afternoon!

Day 7: After dark

The weather was so wonderful today, we decided to have a fire in the fire pit after dinner. Shelby started snapping twigs and throwing them in the fire.