Belief and love and friendship make me grow.

Look what is coming in the mail soon.


A real live camera bag.
I will explain more tomorrow...need sleep.

Yes I took pictures today.
No I haven't looked at them, and won't today.

I must go fold laundry before bed. Really!

Maybe things will slow down next week....

Okay, I am editing this post to include those pictures.
I am still shooting with my new lens
a. because it is really heavy and I need the workout
and
b. because I need to learn it.
My only option was to hurriedly snap off some shots on our way to Bible Class last night.
The clouds were gathering...



....the wind was whipping,


and we were very hopeful that this meant rain.


Thank the Lord, we got a gully washer!
And ya know what? It rained again this morning.
I feel like it must be my birthday with so much rain!

Even more busy

I went to get my driver's license renewed today.
Wow!
Four hours from start to finish.
Three hours of standing, and then finally a seat.
Four hours fighting my human nature to grumble with the rest of the people unhappy to be there.
I only had a few fleeting moments when I felt like my human side got the best of me!

I then raced home, did more Mommy homework, got everyone settled, headed to the school again for a second grade meeting, back home for 20 minutes to cram down some veggies that were cut up and left over from Saturday, then off to drive my oldest to his Taekwondo lesson, then rushed back home to get my youngest in bed.
Uhhhh what is funny is that I did manage to get some pictures taken.
I was sorely tempted at the dmv, but my husband was with me and talked me out of it.
My only option was to snap a few shots before the meeting began at the school.
It was another perfectly bad opportunity to try out my new lens.
Huge room, badly lit.
I only took my ISO up to 1600, though it has the capacity to get double that.
I wanted to push it hard with the few shots I was willing to take with this ginourmous lens at a Tuesday night school meeting.
I think the lady beside me was trying hard not to melt into her chair. hee hee
Here is one close up


and here is one out as far as it would go.


Okay
now let's crop that and see how the quality is...

I mean the image quality not the composition or wow factor quality.

For what it is, I am pleased.
I am thinking wedding shots here...and want to know if my camera can handle it, and this proves that it can!!
The church building where I will be shooting has quite a bit of natural light and is half the size of this room.

I have had a headache for hours now and must get to bed.
I didn't think I was going to make it to the computer,but a little prompt from Jessica made me believe that I could do it.
Thanks Jess.
Oh I forgot to tell you, what I meant to tell you about waiting at the dmv.
Only one lady gave up her chair for another with no prompting or cause. She seemed to be waiting for an opportunity to do it. They traded off over the course of the next 3 hours so that neither of them had to stand the whole time.
That really touched me.
I wish someone had done that with me.
My knees, they sure can give me fits.
I shared with my husband.
He was good to lean my head against.

First day of school 11

Wowza 6a.m. came too, too soon this morning.
I could not for the life of me get my camera set for any good images.
Here is my blurry backpack shot made at approximately 6:15.

Hey, it was still dark outside and my coffee wasn't kickin' yet.

I had an extremely well paced morning getting my three munchkins out the door for school today. They are at three different schools this year which means each one of them gets their own individual wake up call and time with me.
I wake one, get him gone, wake the next and get her gone, wake the next and get him gone.
Sure it means two and a half hours of my morning dedicated to this job; then again it is my JOB!!
It was a very enjoyable way to encourage each one to begin this school year.
I know rough mornings will come, but I will be able to deal with the drama one child at a time anyway!!

I was going to make chocolate chocolate chip cookies, but in my afternoon haste decided that brownies would be a more sensible use of my last hour before the first arrived home.
This is a King Arthur flour recipe that I clipped from the bag of flour, and it is a keeper!
Of course you know I used my organic cane sugar (thank you Costco for saving me money on this item and my friend Angela who drives me there!!) and half white wheat flour...of and dark chocolate chips, so they are practically healthy!!!

Healthy love that is!
I am sorry but nothing says I love you like the smell of warm chocolate when you walk in the door.
Am I right??? Well for this house that is true.


My oldest, knowing my homemade ways remarked that this looked like a boxed mix. He just knew that couldn't be the case, but must have been impressed at the similarity! Ha haha.
He already has his packed for his lunch box treat tomorrow!

I tried to meet each of my children coming home from school today outside...because standing in 100 degree heat says I love you like chocolate can't!

The last bus was 35 minutes late, but I was not giving up.
I did end up sitting down on the hike and bike path which intersects the road where the bus stops, and taking off a couple of pictures.




I sat until my hiney began to feel like it was going to catch on fire.....ahhhhh ha haha.

I wish I was joking, but it really was that hot!

Finally the bus pulled around and I was able to walk my last little darlin home!
Each of them gave me a hearty dose of the high points of their day and were in good spirits, even with the new strict after school schedule in place.
I bragged long and hard to their daddy at supper, making sure he knew how well they did.
He pulled back and gave me a crazy look at one point and remarked quickly to the children...
"Oh boy, watch out Mom is gonna start crying again!"
It could be because of my track record and that in the previous evenings prayer time I may or may not have had a little mommy crying time as I asked the Lord to be with our children and go before them in the steps they would take today.
I mean...one little thing and I get a reputation!!! seriously!

I am so stinkin' proud of my kids today!!!
I am proud of us as a family.
I am blessed.
I am about to fall asleep....ahhhh ha ha ha!
Day two tomorrow, and for me...the DMV!

Testing 123

When I left here on Friday I was really doubting myself and my new lens.
I am aware that there is a learning curve on most things, but was feeling pretty stumped.

My dear friend from over at Frugal Fotography, agreed to let me head over to her place and shoot a few images with it to really get a feel for if I can use it for what I want.

We agreed on the absolute most terrible environment for a shoot...low light with fast moving subjects...PERFECT to test both myself and the lens!!!

Not only do I want to capture pretty moments, I also want to capture story telling moments!

That is what I set out to do with her kids who set to busily arranging an intricate "tea party"!

They slowly but surely carried every. single. item. from the tea party bucket (across the room) to the table, carefully placing each item without a word.








While I really love the color, I truly love the look of it all in black and white!





When all of the items were on the table, both of the children promptly climbed under the table and began giggling.
It didn't make sense to me at all, but they were having a blast!
I wanted them to come and peek out from under the front table cloth, in hopes that I could get their giggles.

Her little girl jumped out from under the table and very seriously said that they could not do that, the only entrance was from the back.



Mom leaned over, pulling up the cloth to show her the possibility!


Then something happened which once again threw them into fits of laughter!


I cannot remember what it was in the least, but I snapped away!

I truly do love this series of shots.
They captured the moments and did it with clarity despite the less than perfect conditions.
Yeah, I will be keeping that lens!

Oh, btw...no scavenger hunt today.
The list was crazy hard for me to fit into my day today, just look at it.
Geometry
Brush Strokes
Hanging by a Thread
Collage
On the dotted line

Wowza, if I get a break before Tuesday I will try to work it in...but don't count on it.

Oh and btwx2, school starts for us here tomorrow.
Ughhh!
5:55 is my new wake up call time.
Blech!
My last munchkin gets on the bus at 8:16 and then the quiet will begin.
I am going to stay really busy this week; I sure am going to miss them.

Learning again!

I know I haven't told you yet...but I made a plunge and got a new lens.
It is a Sigma 24-70mm F2.8.
The next thing I am going to do today is check on Youtube to see if there is a... how to use this beast video.
It is so unlike my other lenses, so as you can imagine the frustration level is high.

I have 4 more days to try it out and see if it is going to be a good thing for me, and if not then I can return it to its previous owner. (ebay)

I must say the first day with it has been quite torturous, and I don't want to make my decision based on that.

I did learn something very, very valuable today.
Check this out...


See the haze effect there? That is just natural sunlight in through a window.

Look at the next one...I shielded the lens with my hand.

Hmmm, huge difference. I suppose the effect is nice if you are wanting it to look like that, and I can see where it could be an effective tool, but not for always.
I must invest in the lens shield if I stay with this guy.

I did take some time on another hazy one in my editing arena and was able to get rid of most of that.

I am pleased with the outcome for the work required.

I will say that a good thing about this lens is its ability to zoom fairly close.

I am limited right now by my 50mm lens, this gives me that much more on the shorter end.

It is supposed to be a wonderful portrait lens, but I have yet to practice that particular thing yet.
Any surprise that no one around here really cares to be my model???


I will keep working and report back to you.