12 "Days" to Better Photographs--Day 8 On the Go

This is an important lesson for me, especially with my little munchkins always moving around!

Here were my assignment photos:

Fast Shutter speed:

Playing with panning

The dog in action...looking for some petting

Embracing indoor blurring

12 "Days" to Better Photographs--Day 7 Shooting Outdoors

Cool readings with shooting outdoors, looking for shadows and hard/soft light.  After reading about overcast days and the lights that they create, I probably won't put as much when they happen.  Probably.

Here are some macro shots from my assignment.

Someone put this bug on my cactus quite a while ago.  I will have to leave it on there until she graduates I think...

12 "Days" to Better Photographs--Day 6 Shooting Indoors

So I took some time to rock out some of my lessons today.  Hope to read another one or two tonight, but ready to post 3 lessons right now.

First was indoor shooting.  I caught some cool shots of K2 and K3 playing together in the blueish morning light

Then Catching the catchlight in K3's eyes, never noticed that before...

 Then some playing with some parallel shooting

Then later on metering to different parts of the shot

December 22nd

Rachelle and I have come to an agreement on something.

There should not be a full week of vacation before Christmas.  The anticipation with these kids is killing them, and our patience as parents...they are so excited and full of energy that today we had K2's first "He is so annoying, why can't he just be normal" talk...oh boy.

As a remedy, I took the kids to the library. Separately.

I played a little with a photo that I took of Ryan on my Droid.  Continuing to have fun, learning about this photography stuff...

Don't Be Surprised

Of course, you should not be surprised that I couldn't wait until the end of the month to change the name of the blog.  It's been bouncing around in my head for a while and we settled on Don't Be Surprised.  Hebrews 10:23.  We should never be surprised by God and what He does in our lives, and we continue to be blessed by all that he does in our lives, through the trials and the tribulations.

It also doesn't hurt that we live in Surprise.

That LIST

So, the last few days have been rather productive for me.  I've been motivated to get that list done so that I can better enjoy the time I have with family that is coming up.  Rachelle had compiled quite the list over the semester and I've attacked it with vigor.

The garage is now reorganized, extra storage space added, plants planted, yards trimmed, doors painted, letters sent, fliers created (then edited and edited again), among many other things.

I'm happy to say that the only thing left is washing the cars, which the only reason I have not done that is the rain.  Why the motivation do you ask?

Well, come Friday, Rachelle's brother arrives with his family and the fun meter goes way up with awesome activities.  Then when they leave, 3 days later I have the 2 plates and 14 screws removed from my leg, so I'm going to be out of commission for a little bit before heading into another season of classes, trainings, coaching and all the other things that bless my life.

So That LIST, I scoff at you...until March or so....

December 21st

Today was overcast, but that didn't stop K3 and I from having a lovely Father/Daughter Day and enjoying some time together outside.