Last Day of 2014

I can hardly believe the year is nearly done.  Whoa!  2015 is going to be a wild one.  Hubby is gone and we will welcome baby girl in March.  Really hoping the Air Force is going to let him come home after she's born, so please everyone cross your fingers with me!!

Just a few recent snaps of us and my big boy.  He's growing up so fast.  He's having a hard time with Daddy gone, so I've been doubling up on the love and hugs to try to make up for it.  He's pretty adorable, so it's not too hard :-)

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe new years with those that you love!

Where does the time go??

It's now September and I realize I haven't posted anything since February.  Whoops!  Things have gotten crazy with hubby getting back from deployment, finding out we're expecting again (yay!) and then finding out hubby will be leaving again....this time for an entire year (BOO!)

It's definitely time to find my way back to the loving arms of my craft room, and behind the lens of my camera.

Just for fun, and to see how big my boy has gotten...here are a few recent snapshots from our crazy life.  I'm also getting ready to transition him into his new "big boy" bed so pics of my race car room crafts are to follow.

It's good to be back :-)

Challenge Day 23: Looking into Frame

I squeezed in a few quick photos today while Eli was playing in his room.  You can see, he's quite the snoop.  The last picture probably is more "looking out of frame" than looking in, but I couldn't resist documenting the Tongue-Of-Concentration.

It makes its appearance pretty frequently these days :-)

Challenge Day 22: Backlighting

We've had a lot of company recently and are now getting ready to head to Atlanta to see my Mom on Saturday.  Eli and I are taking our first flight on our own :-0  I flew with him at 8 weeks, but had my husband with me, and I'm pretty sure we had a giant sign over our heads that said "FIRST TIME PARENTS".  Hoping to be a little more cool and calm this go around.  Lucky for me the flight is only an hour and Eli loves people and being out-and-about, so fingers crossed!

I did manage to sneak in a couple of photos today since our 30 day challenge looks like it may turn into a 90 day challenge....whoops!

Today's focus was using back lighting and spot metering to keep the subject bright even against a bright background.  I also took the plunge and shot in RAW format for the first time.  I really like how much control you have over your image in the post-processing phase so may switch permanently!

UnstampaBelles Challenge: Dare to Get Dirty

This is a very fun challenge this month over at the UnstampaBelles Challenge :-)  You can get creative and get messy while documenting the process!  For my take on this month's challenge, I inked up a piece of transparency paper, dabbed it with water and then flipped it over to transfer it to a piece of white card stock.  I then trimmed up the sheet and used it in two pieces on this "Celebrate" card.

Being that it is UnstampaBelles, no stamps were used!  My images are stickers and my sentiment is a rub on.  Here are the pics of my "dirty" process :-)

Getting out the ink pads.

Inking and transferring from the transparency onto the card stock.

Adding a little more color...why not!

Mixing the green ink with water for a new look.

Adding that to the previous inked page.

Cut up and used for background design.  Now my little bee and flowers have a colorful place to play :-)

Please stop by the UnstampaBelles Challenge to see what other wonderful creative projects the designers have to show you, and please, jump in on the fun and show us how you Dare to Get Dirty (and remember....no stamps)!!

Challenge Day 21: Manual Focus

Today we were pushed to capture an image using the manual focus feature on the lens.  I will admit that I try to use the manual focus as much as I can because it's hard for the auto focus to capture Eli when he is moving so quickly!  He is crawling and pulling up on everything these days, so it's getting harder and harder to catch him.  Forget about posing!  The kitties are getting easier to capture :-)

I'm lucky if I can catch him anywhere near me. :-)  He's fast!  In these photos, he's demonstrating another new trick, "look mom...one hand!"

Challenge Day 20: Multiple Perspectives

This was a fun and quick exercise.  You get your camera set and then just snap away from all angles of your subject.  Eli was having fun with his Very Hungry Caterpillar, so it was a cute one to capture.

Challenge Day 19: Silhouettes

Well, today I determined it is impossible to get a good silhouette of an 8 month old without someone else to physically slow him down.  Luckily, our kitty obliged me and stood VERY still for me to get many good snaps.   Such a good girl :-)

Instead of silhouettes for Eli, I instead tried a back lighting effect that I've seen tutorials for on Pinterest.  I love the super washed out look of sun drenched pics. To get the ideal lighting, I should have taken them later in the day, but with trying to get my little guy on a better nap and sleep schedule, we took what we could get :-)  Here are our pics for the day!

Challenge Day 18: Getting Low

This was a pretty easy one for me, since I usually take my photos of Eli from down on the ground....that's where he is, after all!  I'm typically covered in cat hair for most of the day.  :-)  Our newest kitty, Gwen, even makes an appearance in this challenge.  She loves Eli and is never too far away!

Challenge Day 17: Fill the Frame

This is another challenge that I seem to do anyways.  I'm stuck getting up close and personal with my little guy since I have a fixed lens and our house it pretty tiny (and we're stuck inside with the cold weather!)  So, I usually take pretty extreme close ups of my little one.  I'm excited for it to warm up a bit so that we can do a bit more outside.

So, for today's challenge...here are a few of my favs.  I will say, the more I'm practicing getting good shots, the less time I'm taking in photoshop on the tail end.  That it very good news for me since my nap time/free time is pretty limited these days!

Challenge Day 16: Stopping Motion

I feel like every photo shoot with my (now mobile) 7 month old involves stopping motion.  As soon as I sit him down, he's off and crawling towards me, ready to eat the camera strap.  He's a man on fire these days!!

We were able to catch a couple of funny ones today.  I think the motto of the moment is "if I see it, I taste it."

Challenge Day 15: Dramatic Light

This one kind of speaks for itself and was another tough one for me.  It's hard to get dramatic light in my house and to keep my squirmy little man in it!  :-)  Here are my pics for today's challenge.

Challenge Day 14: Leading Lines

For some reason, leading lines really stump me.  I totally get the purpose and love how it looks, but for some reason, getting them in my photos and having them look great is a problem for me.  A squirmy 7 month old is also an added challenge :-)

After what felt like a billion shots, I finally was able to get a few that look OK and actually feature leading lines.  This is something I am excited about improving in the future, and possibly when I have a subject who will actually sit in one place!  :-)

  

Challenge Day 13: Framing

I didn't get as creative with framing this photo session as I had hoped, but instead just used the randomness of my backyard.  We got home from our ski trip just in time for the sun to start setting so I grabbed the camera and propped up E outside.  He was such a great trooper after 5 hours in the car!  I think he was just as excited to get outside and stretch as I was.

Here are our pics for the day (after a few days off!)