Day 60/365 Creative use

I know I've posted pictures of my daughter playing with her dollhouse before -(click here to see another) however, I wanted to show what they did on the inside. This is one of our Christmas ornaments - the girls thought it looked like a crystal chandelier, so they hung it in the "master bedroom".

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Metadata:50mm, ISO1250, 1/500, F2.8

Day 60/365 Afghan for Oldest

For Christmas, I crocheted both my daughters an afghan. Well, almost got the 2nd one done, but the store ran out of yarn, so I have to finish it yet. This is the one I made for my oldest in her favorite colors.

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Metadata: 50mm, ISO 1000, 1/125, F2.8

Day 59/365 Icicles

Honestly, I forgot to take a picture today, so this is from the other day when I was taking photos of the beautiful sun and icicles.

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Metadata: 50mm,ISO100, 1/250, F22

Day 58/365 Oh to be young

I remember when I was a kid and loved to play in the snow. Building snow forts for hours until my mom came to see if I was still alive or frozen. My girls LOVE playing in the snow. I'm glad I have the opportunity to catch them in all their silliness. The pretend so many different stories. They have their grumpy/fighting times as well...but I love to see the smiles on their faces.

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Metadata: 50mm, ISO160, 1/250, F6.3

Day 57/365 Kudu

A while back, my father-in-law traveled with some men to Africa for a hunting safari. The meat went to local villages, the head, after being processed was shipped to him here in the states. This is a kudu bull.

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Metadata:50mm, ISO2500, 1/100, F2.2

Day 56/365 Beautiful and Sparkly

Here in Michigan its an amazing day when you have snow AND sun at the same time. Today is one of those days and after having an ice storm, the trees are beautiful and sparkling! My goal was to get the photo to look as sparkly as it appears in real life. Here is my attempt. I have more pictures if you are interested, let me know and I will post more.

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Metadata: 50mm, ISO 100, 1/4000, F2.8

Day55/365 - Christmas Wreath and bokeh

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Unfortunately, this picture does not do my mother-in-law's wreath justice. They have a spotlight on it at night and it has golden sparkles in it. Does anyone know how to make sparkle show up in pictures? I'd love to know.

I had to add the Friendship figurine as well just because its Christmas and I love the bokeh.

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Metadata: 50mm, ISO2000, 1/160, F1.8

Metadata: 105mm, ISO1600, 1/80, F/3.3

Day 54/365 Christmas Beam

I decided to try the Christmas beam lights as suggested on Click it up a notch (click here). I tried zooming in slow as well as fast. I think the lights came out brighter when I did the zooming slowly. Try zooming out vs. in and see if it makes a difference. It is pretty fun. I found that the tree shows up much clearer with blurred lights if you zoom and then end up on the tree for a bit longer. I hope that makes sense. You should try it!

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Metadata:17mm, ISO400, 4 Second Shutter, F/14

Day 53/365 - Photo Coasters

I love reading posts from Click it Up a Notch - this one explained the DIY photo coasters (click here to see the post). I made some for some dear friends of ours of pictures that I took to San Francisco area as well as coasters for my parents with all the grandkids on them. I think they turned out really nicely. One change I made, however, was that I did NOT use 2 part epoxy. I used a 2 part resin that home depot sold for a MUCH better deal, so you might want to shop around.

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Metadata:50mm, ISO800, 1/160, F4

Day 52/365 ICE storm

SO, if you haven't seen or heard - Mid-Michigan was slammed with an ice storm last night. Trees down, power outages, generators going and hotels filling up. We had planned to leave town for the holidays and decided to post-pone it due to the conditions. Since we had a late departure, I took the opportunity to take photos around my house. I can't just pick one - so here are a few of my favorites.

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Metadata: 105mm, ISO500, F/4, 1/400

Day 51/365 A New Type of Growth Chart

To all those people out there ready to have babies. I must say, this was one of the things that I am most glad I did with my girls. A new type of growth chart. My hubby and I had just purchased a new recliner and thought to use it to see how our daughter would change in the years to come. For the first year of my daughter's life, I took a picture of her every month. Then, after a year, took a picture every 6 months until she was 3. From then on, I take a picture of them on, or around their birthday and it has been fun to see the changes. My template didn't have enough room to do the whole year plus the current picture, but it should give you a good idea of how I did it. I hope you like it and think to do something like this for your new one(s) to come. Unfortunately, the picture is pretty small - on each of the pictures, I used the Text tool and typed in the age of my daughter at the time. Hope you like it!

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Metadata - NONE

Day 50/365 - Perspective

Here is another perspective on my daughter playing with her dollhouse. To see the previous dollhouse perspective, click here.

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Metadata: 28mm, ISO500, 1/60, f4

Day 49/365 Christmas Tree Lights

After I read this article from Click it up a Notch (click on link), I decided to try bumping up my ISO and taking a crack at the same picture as her. Here I'm posting color and BW - which do you prefer? Normally I'm partial to color - but here, I think both work.

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Metadata:50mm, ISO3200, 1/80, F2.2

Day48/365 Snowflake

Ok, after looking at SNOWFLAKES - I had to try it myself. Can't BEGIN to be this good w/out the rig this guy created. Here's my 1st attempt, I did have to sharpen it a little, not quite perfect focus. I also switched to BW for more contrast. Hopefully I'll be better at it by the end of the winter, the goal being SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera)

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Metadata: 105mm, ISO800, 1/100, F4.5

Day 47/365 Choices

We have so many choices and freedoms in this country, right down to the wrapping paper. I was amazed to see so many options as well as the quantity at the store yesterday!

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No Metadata - iphone

Day 46/365 Focus

My dog LOVES to play tug of war with her animals. Here, she is sitting patiently waiting for the "OK" command from me. You have to love her focus. Pretty much SOOC. Just a little crop.

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Metadata: ISO640, 1/160, F2.8, 22mm

Day 45/365 Christmas Card

This year I thought for my family Christmas picture, we would do something "out of the box". Seems like everyone dresses up and smiles at the camera with the tree behind them. SO this is what my family came up with this year....KIDS TAKE OVER!

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Metadata: 35m, ISO1600, 1/200, F2.8

Day 44/365 Mini-tree

This is our miniature tree we have in our entry way. It was given to me by a co-worker many years ago before I had children. I took this SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera/no-editing). Which pic do you like best? Horizontal, BW, or Vertical? (The black and white was taken directly from the camera -just changed the setting to take it that way - not processed after the fact.)

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Metadata: 35mm, ISO1250, F2.8, 1/50

Day 43/365 Pines

I love evergreens. I don't currently have snow, but this was taken for this project after our first snow. The challenge of the day was hand-held macro.

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Metadata:105mm, ISO200, 1/160, F7.1

Day 42/365 - The history behind the lights

The story starts with a little girl who's initials were M.A.M (me) - thus, M&M became a nickname for her and her mother collecting all types of M&M paraphernalia (tins, watches, & of course chocolate).

....fast forward years down the road when she starting dating Michael. M&M now standing for Michael and Molly (to whom I'm now married). After my hubby and I were engaged and decided on a color scheme for the wedding, I got the bright idea of writing Mars Corporation to see if they would be willing to donate M&M candies for my wedding reception. I sent the request to two places. The first, which I expected, was I'm sorry we can't do this, but here are some stickers and thank you for being a great customer. The other response, however, took my family and I by surprise. Written by the CEO - he told me they would be happy to complete this request to such a great consumer of their products and to please call his secretary to set up the details. WOW! Seriously?!

I called the number he had provided and the secretary had all kinds of questions - How many guests are you expecting? Where do you intend to use the M&Ms? As party favors? Bowls? On the table? What color/s would I like? Good grief lady - I just got engaged! I had NO CLUE what to do with them. I told her plain & Easter colored would be fine (our wedding was in May and spring colored wedding). Approximately a month before the wedding 125 lbs of M&Ms showed up at my parents home...FREE! UNBELIEVABLE!

My first child's room was decorated in primary colors (didn't know her gender), and we used many of the M&M tins and such for her brightly colored room. Since then, I have weeded out these items and moved on. This is one of the last items of M&Ms I have remaining - a small string of M&M lights strung on my daughters' dollhouse.

Aren't stories fun?!

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Metadata: 50mm, ISO1600, F3.5, 1/125

Day 41/365 Fish?

Not feeling too creative today with a fever. My family is late putting up Christmas lights this year, so a picture that I'm pretty sure not many people will get was taken today. On our mantle, like many people hang our stockings. However, I'm willing to bet, not many people have TROUT lights hanging right along side of said stockings. My hubby LOVES to fly fish. I'm sure I'll have more pictures of that in the remaining 365 days. This was a gift to himself for Christmas a couple years ago, now a tradition to hang where all can see. Coming soon...what his front plate says on this truck and my own set of Christmas lights. :)

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Metadata: 50mm, ISO1600, 1/200, F1.8

Day 40/365 Healthy

Before Christmas and New Years arrives, I have decided that my family is going to focus on eating healthier. Less sugar, less junk food. SO, last night when I was making soup, I realized what great color red onion has and great shape that the base of celery has. Added a little carrots for more color and that became my photo for today. I brightened it a little and got rid of a light switch to fix this photo.

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Metadata: Natural window light, 50mm, ISO640, 1/125, F2.8

Day 39 What is this?

The MACRO challenge for myself today - no tripod, Manual focus. What do you think this is?

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Metadata: 105mm, 1/125, F4, ISO500

Day 38/365 So proud

Today is dedicated to my girls. I am SO proud of them for many reasons, but today, because they conquered their nerves and got up on stage to perform. Claire (10) has done this before and now enjoys performing. She played piano and sang "Jar of Hearts" (Adele) and did really well. Kate (8) has been playing drums for a year now and is already playing well enough to play while her sister accompanies and sings Taylor Swift's "I Knew You were Trouble". Their duet is what I asked for from them for Christmas. If you knew Kate, you'd understand why this is such a huge deal. She is NOT one who chooses to be the center of attention. I was anticipating a fight to get her up there...but she owned it! HUUUUUGGGGE success for her. Proud mama tonight. I especially love the teacher's expression in the background.

I'm still amazed that the ISO can be so high, yet free from noise.

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Metadata: 50mm, ISO1250, 1/60, F.2.2 (1st pic)
50mm, ISO2000, 1/100, F2.2 (2nd pic)

Day 37/365 Party time

Today we had my youngest daughter's 8th bday party. Being a winter party, and very cold outside, we decided to have it at the bowling alley instead of our house this year. The first time we've ever done this. I think we may have to do it again. Pizza, pop, cookie, 2 games and shoes (including plates, decorations) for a very reasonable price. The girls all seemed to have a great time.
I'm still amazed at how high I could have the ISO set with no grain.

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Metadata: ISO1250, 35mm, 1/50, F/4

Day 36/365 Food coloring

Kudos to my mom...again. She's so creative with ideas for me. Hi key photo with water and a little food coloring, makes for an interesting picture. I recruited my daughter to add the coloring so I could get ready to take the photo quickly.

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Metadata: 105mm, F8, 1/125, ISO500 - Light box with 2 table lamps with daylight bulbs

Day 35/365 Scenes

As I learn the new menus and features of my new camera, I ran across scenes. Now, my D80 had this feature, but not to this extent. On the D610, it has many more options. One, of which is a candle lit scene, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Turns out, the camera does the work. You can change the aperature, but the camera sets the ISO as well as the shutter speed. Ended up looking pretty nice...here are a couple shots SOOC. (these are orange candles, so the WB is correct)

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Metadata: reflection pic - 35mm, ISO720, F4, 1/60
3candles - 35mm, ISO400, F4.5, 1/80

Day 34/365 Last D80 post

I'm happy to say, this is the last blog post that comes from my Nikon D80. It has officially been named "backup" from now on. I know a lot of people have been doing Christmas lights, but I just couldn't help myself. I just LOVE the colors and bokeh. This was taken outside at a neighbor's house.

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Metadata: 50mm, F1.8, ISO1000, 1/200

Day 33/365 -Full Frame (FX) vs. Crop Frame (DX) Camera

I just got my new camera in the mail today. Its a full-frame body, the Nikon D610. I did have the Crop frame sensor in the Nikon D80 so I thought I'd do a little comparison to show the difference between the two. These are both SOOC taken with the same settings and taken from the exact spot on the floor so you can see the difference in low-light and what the crop sensor difference is. These may be too small to see the grain, so here's my experiement.

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Metadata: 50mm, ISO1600, F1.8, 1/60

Day 32/365 Good times

While we were away for Thanksgiving, we had a chance to have a little fun with a snowmobile pulling our girls on sleds. This is one of my favorite pictures from that day of my hubby and nephew. My hubby was explaining to the almost 2 year old that he should NOT touch the red button (stops the snowmobile). The 2 year old then fixated on the red button and attempted to press it multiple times, each time told no, before he got the idea that his only job was to hold on. Good times.

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Metadata: 30mm, ISO125,F4, 1/400

Day 30, 31/365

Being gone for Thanksgiving has made it difficult to keep my blog up to date. I missed yesterday, so here is a pic for yesterday and today.
First, the Dog nose. Messing around with my 105mm macro - an amazingly patient dog with young children. He was laying there on the floor when the little toddler decided to walk across him, including stepping on his head. He didn't move a muscle, growl, or even look at the 2 year old. The 2nd picture is of said two year old with her favorite blanket.

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Metadata: Dog pic - 105mm, ISO250, 1/200, F3.2
Girl - 30mm, ISO200, 1/125, F2.8

Day 29/365 I'll drink to that

Still working on SOOC. The only thing I did to this photo was to clean up a couple spots on the table that I didn't notice as I took the picture. A couple of gin and tonics with ice-cycles.

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Metadata: Flash, ISO 200, F2.8, 1/200, 35mm

Day 28/365 SOOC

Happy Thanksgiving!

I decided I need to start practicing SOOC. Get the exposure and focus right, in the camera. Taking a picture of a cozy, wood burning fire, is something I haven't done yet. As I approached the fire, I realized just how hot the huge flames were. I had my 17-35mm on, so I went with it. The screen was across the opening, so I focused on the slit where the screen wasn't, then down on the coals. I'm not sure how to make a person's eye go toward that. Any suggestions are welcome.

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Metadata: 35mm, ISO500, F2.8, 1/100

Day 27/365 Surprise visit

Visiting some friends and low and behold, some deer friends came by for a surprise visit. Well, a surprise to me. This is when I wish I had a good telephoto lens instead of short and wide angle. Bummer. It was dusk, and not very bright out, so it has a lot of noise. You can tell the lower one was shot 2nd as it was darker out and looks a little colder and more blue for white balance. I was just thrilled to be so close to these pretty does.

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Metadata:105mm, ISO1600, F3.5, 1/40

Day 26/365 Reflection

This was taken a couple months ago, but I had to share since I won't be able to get a shot today. One of my favorite reflection shots of this little girl at her 5th bday with Rapunzel/Tangled as the special guest of honor. The little girl had just gotten her face painted and Rapunzel showed her what she now looked like. By the look in the mirror, I'd say she loved it. What do you think?

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Metadata:30mm, ISO640, f4.5, 1/50

Day 25/365 Bubble

This was my mom's idea. I was trying to use my daughter's bubbles, but alas, I was unable to find where they stash their supply. This was from dish soap and the focal point was the colors that bubbles have on them. Amazing how it swirls as the bubbles get ready to pop. Once the girls get home, I'll be sure to ask and hopefully try this again.

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Metadata: 105mm, ISO640, 1/80, F4.2

Day 24/365 -Technology

Prov. 3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart...
No matter if you read it from the Bible or newer technology, the Bible app. It's something I need to remind myself on a daily basis.

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Metadata: Bible - 105mm, ISO400, F3.2, 1/200
iPhone - 105mm, ISO400, F3.2, 1/100

Day 23/365 - What do you think?

I finally bought some incense - who knew that Kroger has it in the candle isle? If you try this, DEFINITELY do it in a place that has ventilation. I set up mine in the garage (door down) and ended up with an enormous headache. Please learn from my mistake :)

SO, this was created by two photos of incense smoke. I have had fun creating images from smoke. I'll share my favorite creation another day. Let's see what your guesses are to what I created it to be. The shapes reminded me of something...what do you think? Hint: the horizontal smoke is water

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Metadata: 26mm, ISO 160, F8, 1/200

Day 22/365 - Negative space

Normally, I have people as my subject and use the environment for negative space. This is actually SOOC. The vignetting was created by using a toilet paper roll placed on the lens. Looks almost like a spotlight, which is why I centered it. What do you think? Centered or not?

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Metadata: 26mm, ISO 160, F2.8, 1/800

Day 21/365 - Star Bokeh

It took me a while to set up for this one. I created both the heart and star cover for the lens. I was unable to get the heart to produce the bokeh - I may try that again a different day. The star, however, was much more successful - although I found that the shape automatically creates a dark vignette and so I had to make sure to leave plenty of space on the edges so the subject wasn't too dark. Being at home while the kids are at school, means that I don't have a model for my 365 challenge...oh, wait! The dog! Zoe was happy to comply, especially when she saw the dog treat bag come out. This is her "shame on you" command, where she puts her chin on the ground like she's in trouble/pouting.
Click here for the setup

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Metadata: 50mm, F2.2, ISO800, 1/40

Day 20/365 Erase it

This isn't exactly a photo challenge pic - but a Photoshop challenge instead. Pretty cool in the digital world, that you can change or erase anything you choose. Here's a selfie to show it.
Check out the Photoshop disasters, they are pretty fun to look through and many sites that show more.

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Metadata: 20mm, ISO-200, F9, 1/200 (with flash)

Day 19/365 - Light Focal point

I took this the other day when I posted "Smoke Creature" - I intended to get the cigarette as it fizzed out in the Sunkist, but didn't get it. This was taken before it was dropped.
For this pic, I was working on focusing the light on one clear object, the glass of liquid. In order to do this, I used my speedlight off camera and taped a piece of construction paper around it so the flash would be concentrated and not light up the black backdrop as well. I like how the lighting came out on the cup, but not happy with the overexposed cigarette...what do you think?
I still need to find some incense to try the smoke again.

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Metadata: 35mm, ISO 500, F8, 1/200