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!

Park Hopping: Lawrenceville Lawn

On June 29th, as one of our park hopping trips, Bethany and I took the kids to Lawrenceville Lawn. Even though we went earlier in the morning, it was quite hot as the playground is not shaded. The kids still had a great time though!

Shelby on the merry-go-round.

Cheyenne climbing on the outside of the playground.

Paige on the merry-go-round.

Shelby on the spiderweb climb.

All the kiddos (except Patrick of course) on the spiderweb climb.

Paige on the top of the spiderweb climb.

Paige

Peek-a-boo! (Cheyenne)

Clayton taking a short rest on the slide.

Cheyenne climbing up the slide.

Mercy going down the slide!

Silly Shelby!

Patrick

Mercy holding "Day-den's" hand.

The whole crowd...

...getting wet!

Bethany re-enacting getting my keys out of the water. I had thrown my keychain over my shoulder and when I bent over near the fountain, it fell in. Sadly it was a partially damaged keyless entry, that was fully damaged after it's contact with the water! 

Park Hopping: Zoo Atlanta (June)

Our second park adventure for June was going to Zoo Atlanta. Our families have memberships to the zoo and so we try to go once a month. This month was our sixth which was a big deal because we have passport to adventure memberships and the kids get prizes for coming monthly. Once you get to six stamps everyone gets a rides wristband for their ride section. Since this was the first time in six months they've gotten to do those things, they were very excited! I took the older kids to figure out zoo's clues first, then we just hung out at the rides and splash pad.

Cheyenne and Keira on the merry-go-round which was our first stop.

Paige and Kyle holding hands on the merry-go-round.

Bethany checking out her pictures.

Then we all headed to the train!

Then we headed to the splash pad! Paige loved standing over the fountain.

Clayton kept trying to chop the water.

Cheyenne loved splashing herself and anyone else with the water!

And loved when the fountains shot up high!

Shelby enjoyed standing on top of the water even when it came back on and splashed around her feet.

After the splash pad, we dried off and headed to the climbing wall. This is a favorite to do at the zoo.

Clayton made it to the top twice!

Shelby was too small to go rock climbing, so she went to the canopy climber instead and had fun climbing up that and going down the big slide!

Cheyenne enjoyed climbing as well, but only wanted to go about halfway up.

This was Paige's first time being big enough to climb. She was excited to try and made it over halfway up the wall!

Sweet little Mercy playing near the fence while everyone else was busy!

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Click here to check out Bethany's post about this trip!

Park Hopping: Lullwater Park (Part 1)

For our third park hopping adventure, we decided to go somewhere we'd never been before: Lullwater Park. Bethany and I first saw it mentioned on the 365 Atlanta Family blog. It's a really neat blog - she posts about many different places and things her family does all over the state of Georgia! I took far too many pictures, so there will be a couple posts about this park. 

This kids at the beginning of the trail. 

Hiking along the Chattahoochee.

Kyle taking a picture of Bethany.

Clayton took this picture of Mom, myself, and Bethany.

Clayton on the suspension bridge.

All the kids in graffitied ruins. 

Bethany taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. :-)

And again! 

Clayton holding Mercy's hand while walking with Avalyn.

My kiddos right before we ate lunch.

Mom making Patrick smile! 

Shelby and Sophia playing with their veggie straws.

Mom and Patrick.

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Click here for part 2
or
Click here for part 3
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Click here to see Bethany's post about this trip!