#31

My husband did not like this picture b/c he thought it was all about his a**.

#30 More cookies

#29 Naptime

#28 Lily and her friends

Lily loves her stuffed animals these days. She arranges them on either side of her when she goes to sleep and insists that the covers don't cover there faces. She picks a "line leader" to sleep next to her on each side. Today she arranged all her little friends on the edge of my bed. They didn't all make it into this picture, but Lily just looks so cute!

#27 Doggie project

This is one of my daughter's preschool project. One of my projects this year is to take photos of my kids' school art projects this year (or longer until I have sufficient quantity) and make a photo book of them. This will prevent me from having to save all the doggies and pictures that come home. Don't get me home, I love preschool projects, but what do you do with them once their in a plastic storage container? In a photo book, we'll be able to look at them.

#26 Mommy's little helper

Not THAT kind of helper. The really helpful kind! I love the total concentration and focus on the carrot. Not only that - look at the long peel! Pretty good for a 3 year old!

#25 Watching karate

I was planning to post a picture of Ben receiving his purple belt. Unfortunately, those pictures did not turn out very well. I only had my 50mm lens and was kind of far away. Instead I have this. Lily and her friend (who's brother is also in the class) entertained themselves during class by decorating themselves and Lily's baby with a sheet of stickers. They then sat her down with her head turned just like she was actually watching the class.

Lily didn't want her picture taken tonight, so she was covering her face. I told her I had taken the picture and caught her as soon as she moved her hands away. After that, she started hamming it up for the camera and continued all the way through her bath.

Please excuse the remains of dinner in the background!

#23 The Dragon

Yesterday we attended the Chinese New Year party of our local Families with Children from China. The highlight of the event are when the lion and the dragon parade through the room. After spending the morning doing a fairly challenging family photo shoot (challenging because of the lighting and room situation), I only took about five pictures at the entire event. Here's the best of them.

#22 - Using off-camera flash

I was asked yesterday to take some family pictures for a family where the mom is about to lose her hair from chemotheraphy. The clincher was that she's going to lose her hair any day, so I have to do the pictures today! How could I say no? I explained that I am a hobbyist and I will do my best to get some good pictures. I also realized that with it being winter in Michigan I couldn't really count on taking a family portrait outdoors AND I couldn't rely on having good indoor natural light. So I opened up my camera manual, figuree out how to use my camera as a master for an off camera flash, and practiced a little while the kids were watching television.

The picture below was taken with the flash to my left, bounced off a reflector that was about 4-5 feet from the subject. Of course, its a little grainy as I forgot to turn down my ISO, so its set at 2000 - bummer! I'll fix that this morning!

#21 Yum

Today Lily and I made brownies. I came very close to using a picture of her stirring (see it here), but I decided to go a little outside the box for me and try to take a decent food picture.

Usually, I take pictures of food and you can see my very distracting counter tops and the rest of the usually disheveled room around it. This time, I tried to give it a very simple background. Unfortunately, I ended up making the brownie look a little bit like it was floating in air. I made the white background using by putting the brownie on a white paper plate. I cut off one edge of the paper plate and pushed it up against a piece of white foam board. I think next time I need to leave a little more space between the plate and the foam board so there is more of a shadow.

#20 - D up close

Dylan still didn't have school today, so while Lily was taking a nap we did an quick, impromptu photo shoot in my bedroom where I have huge south facing windows. Amazingly, he was somewhat cooperative.

#19 A mess and its maker

We go through a lot of freeze dried strawberries around here. Often, the bottom of the can is filled with strawberry dust. Today Ms. Lily had a great time filling up measuring cups with this strawberry dust. Of course, strawberry dust isn't easily contained. It ended up all over Lily, the table, the floor - everywhere! She was entertained for about 20 minutes, though, and I had to tear her away from it b/c I was nervous the dog was going to get sick from eating too much strawberry dust!

#18 - Karate, take 2

I tried taking pictures again during karate today. I checked out my camera model to figure out how to use dynamic focusing to focus on and follow a moving target. Overall, it seemed to work. Due to the use of my zoom lens and mediocre lighting, I had to use ISO 3200 and the picture is a little grainy, but I'm very happy that my son is in focus and that the kid behind him are not!

On a side note, he passed his belt test and will be getting his purple belt next week!!!

#17 - Focus

I love the tongue sticking out!

Another day of a not so great image, but my choices today were taken either in the basement or at a glow golf place. Neither places with ANY natural light!

#16 High Kick

Today my son had his belt test at Karate. He seemed to have done pretty well, earning a "great" from the head of the school, Mr. Malota. We'll find out if he passed this week. While not the clearest shot, I love how high he appears to be and the expression on his face. He looks like he's ready to pull a Karate Kid move!

I now realize, my focus was in the wrong place - the kids waiting are very clear while Ben is a bit blurry. I was trying to figure out on my camera how to focus on a moving object. I know there is a setting, but couldn't remember what it was. I guess I'm already learning from my project - I will go look up the camera setting now!

If you would like to see more pictures from his karate today (he had class and his belt test), go check them out here

#15 Self portrait

Last night, dh and I went to a black tie event. I got my hair and make up done (I rarely wear any makeup) and in Lily's words "looked fancy", so I decided to try to take a picture of myself. Not a easy as it seems. Yes, I've take pictures of myself by holding my camera with my arms straight out, but this time I tried to do it in the mirror. I tried a picture in a full length mirror, but couldn't get the focus right. This is the best I got!

#14 The Joy of Homework

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#12

#11 - Bubbles

#10 2 kids and a dog

I wanted to use a different picture, but my husband convinced me to use this one b/c its such a nice picture of 2 out of 3 kids together. Here's the other picture I was thinking about using.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91801398@N00/4264834196/in/photostream/

What do you think?

#9 The Haircut

I had slim pickings for pictures today. My younger son needed a haircut and didn't want to go to the barbershop. We had an idea that to contain the mess Dad would give him a haircut in the bathtub. Not a great idea. All I need to say is that next time he'll be going to the barbershop!

#8

#7 - Sk*ter G*rl

This picture does not demonstrate any photographic skills, but I love it! Our friends' sons got skateboards and pads for Christmas. We went over there for dinner and Lily showed off some real skills!

#6

#5

#4

#3

In this single digit weather, my Gerbera daisies remind me that spring IS coming!

#2

#1

Project 365

As part of my New Year's goals (not resolutions) for 2010, I have decided to attempt a project 365. This means I will try to take at least one picture each day of the year and select one picture each day for my project 365. So, without further ado, I will begin!