365

2010-11-22T22:49:00.004-06:00

Thank you! :) Blog address is amandajouppi.com/blog

My new Website and Blog!

2010-10-30T10:05:00.002-05:00

I've recently made one final move! I would love to see you there! The domain is the same as my previous announcement but the blog is different! http://www.amandajouppi.com/blog

2010-06-29T11:11:00.002-05:00

My current website is located HERE.

www.amandajouppi.com

Abstract

2010-06-01T21:09:00.003-05:00

Here's my abstract for the Friday Fun Challenge....last Friday....I've really missed blogging on here. It just feels like life has been so busy lately! The first photo is my abstract, the next two are just some fun shots in a huge tree on our day at the beach last Saturday.

On a side note, I've really missed all of my blogging friends! I'm trying to simplify and thinking about combining this blog with my other one....http://www.amandajouppiphoto.blogspot.com I'm wondering if you'll follow me over there. :)

Wednesday-Saturday

2010-04-25T08:54:00.002-05:00

nature

I thought this one was cute.

I found this rocking chair at a thrift sale on Friday! I'm trying to decided if I should paint it or do something different with it. Ideas?

my attempt at texture....it looked different before I resized for web.

Tuesday {Aperture}

2010-04-20T13:23:00.001-05:00

I'm not usually one to do quotes, but I thought this photo needed a little something extra. I'm a little confused as to what Henry meant. Does he mean your hair won't gray if you sleep in and/or don't disturb things like dew? Does he mean that you won't live long if you don't get up early? I'm not really sure.... What do you think? Also, is it ok to quote like this on a photo as long as you credit the source? I'm really not sure of the rules with this. If you think I'm infringing , please let me know so I can take it down. Thanks for looking! :)

EDIT TO ADD: (8:52 central)

I found another quote that I like better for this photo. :)

Monochromatic Monday

2010-04-19T13:50:00.002-05:00

I have few tulips this year. They just started blooming. Some years they bloom and other years the rabbits eat them before they have a chance. I took these with color in mind and then tried two different conversions from Pioneerwoman just to see how they would look. Which one is your favorite?

Saturday and Sunday.

2010-04-19T00:06:00.002-05:00

I made this Greek salad today! It looks so good I had to take a photo of it!

The pear tree is already blooming! It seems really early. I took my blossom photos last year around Mother's day.

I had much better luck today with the "make a wish" photos. I used my 55-200mm lens.

Friday {Action}

2010-04-17T09:47:00.002-05:00

In this first one i was trying to show motion by allowing motion blur in the background. I need to work on this technique a little more. Next time I will probably try to freeze his motion with off camera flash and maybe use a tripod for my camera.

The next two are of M swinging. I used OCF on these, set up on the ground directly in front of her. It was fun to try something different; fun challenge!

Thursday {Nature}

2010-04-15T13:49:00.001-05:00

As of today, I have photoshop again!!! I am SO happy!! Now I feel like I'm back in business! :-)

Wednesday.

2010-04-15T00:43:00.003-05:00

We had rain today. I was wishing for a macro lens as I took photos of these drops. I tried, in vain, to capture a reflection of a flower in one of the drops. I'll try again in a more controlled setting. The background is road, grass, fence, house/trees.

Tuesday {Aperture}

2010-04-13T22:33:00.004-05:00

I'm fascinated that the pre-buds (?) are pink even though the flowers are always white. Here is the pear tree again. I'll be documenting the different stages all spring, summer and fall.

Sunday and Monday

2010-04-13T12:00:00.002-05:00

Sorry I have gotten so far behind...actually a full month. I think just jumping in where I am is better than trying to catch up at this point. I have really missed blogging and keeping up with everyone else's blog. If you read this...thanks for not giving up on me! :)

A shot of M at he park. The full sun was a challenge here.

I was hoping this composition, although breaking a few rules would draw attention to M on the shore. What do you think?

Sunday {SOOC}

2010-03-14T20:13:00.003-05:00

M out it the woods, dirty face and all. This is the edited version.

Posing in front of the tree was just to show the size of this tree, to give it scale. Just out of the blue all 3 of my kids smiled and looked at the camera..this might be a first! :)

Here is the SOOC version of the 1st photo. Photos with backlighting are always a challenge to post process for me...I always wonder if I'm doing more harm than good. What do you think?

This is my SOOC post for the day.

Saturday {Out and About}

2010-03-13T22:38:00.003-06:00

Rain, rain, rain!! We haven't seen the sun, even for a few minutes for about a week... Maybe tomorrow. My husband spotted these drops on the bushes.

Here is a snapshot of one of our friends.

Disclaimer: I didn't actually take these today. I spend most of the day cleaning, but I did edit them today. ;)

Friday Foto Fun and Action

2010-03-12T23:11:00.002-06:00

Does this count as green? E was so willing to cooperate when I told her about his project!

2010-03-12T00:25:00.002-06:00

M dipping her cookie in her milk. I didn't really plan this shot, I just happened to be sitting across the room playing with my camera, but I thought it was a fun moment. :)

Here are 2 of our lanterns next to the rainy window. Inspired by Adrienne Mitchell.

Tuesday {Aperture}

2010-03-03T09:08:00.001-06:00

There are just a couple leaves still on the young apple tree in our yard. I'm hoping for some more signs of spring soon though!

Monotone Monday (kind of) A sign of spring!

2010-03-01T18:41:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure if this counts as "monotone." It's more like selective color. The above photo was edited using photoshop, while for the one below I used lightroom.

2010-03-01T13:41:00.001-06:00

Well, I've been a little off track the past few weeks but I haven't given up! Here are some random photos from the past week.

Update

2010-02-17T16:47:00.000-06:00

Saturday {Out and About}

2010-02-06T17:01:00.002-06:00

Friday {Action}

2010-02-06T10:13:00.001-06:00

2010-02-05T14:07:00.002-06:00

{Monochromatic}Not the most interesting subject, but my goal is to work on my black and white conversions. :)

{Bokeh}

{About me}

{Action/candid} Post for last friday

{Nature}

This is my attempt to catch up! Time really got away from me this week. Not all of these were taken on the theme assigned day but this way I can feel like I'm caught up and can start (hopefully) posting each day again.

2010-02-02T00:45:00.003-06:00

Saturday {Out and About}The drive to Marengo was so pretty!

Sunday {SOOC}Well, kind of....I cropped this one. She is getting an impression of her "baby's" foot in the playdoh. Really, when I took this I was playing with my camera in automatic ISO mode.

I hope to get caught up with the rest soon, including my monochromatic shot.

Day 28. {Nature}

2010-01-28T17:07:00.002-06:00

I took this from my front porch. I tried it with different exposures and decided on this one. It was nice to see the sun today even if it was super cold.

Days 26 and 27.

2010-01-28T00:00:00.002-06:00

{Bokeh}This one did really turn out with the bokeh that I was going for. I wasn't close enough to the branch for the sky to be out of focus as I was hoping.

{About me}This turned out really awkward, lol. For some reason I just couldn't get myself to look natural. I'm going to work on this, as painful as it is, because I think I will help me to become a better photographer. I set everything up and my husband took this photo.

Days 24 and 25.

2010-01-26T00:57:00.002-06:00

{SOOC}This was SOOC, but I put my camera into "vivid" mode, and JPG before I took it.

{Monochromatic}Just another shot of M. :)

Day 23.

2010-01-23T22:44:00.002-06:00

Today was supposed to be "out and about" but today the whole family has a bad cold so we just stayed here. I tried a few new things on photoshop and learned how to make collages, all with old photos, but I'm going to count that as my daily photo. :)

The card above is a free template from http://www.sherrimurrilephoto.blogspot.com/

This frame was designed by the talented Jenn, her website is HERE.

This collage and my "green collage" are from coffee shop.

Friday Foto Fun

2010-01-23T15:04:00.002-06:00

GREEN

Thank you so much, Elli, for your help with this!!

Day 22. {Candid}

2010-01-23T00:39:00.002-06:00

Here's a candid shot of M taking a nap with her Dad. I'm also working on a collage for Fun Foto Friday, but I'm new to this version of photoshop so I'm still working on getting the photos into the collage.

Big update! I have photoshop again! :)

2010-01-21T20:56:00.005-06:00

{nature}

It finally did it!! I took this long exposure shot tonight. It was light enough for me to focus but just barely. My settings were f-stop 10, shutter speed 25 seconds, ISO 1000, focal length 55mm. It was fun and I can't wait to try it again!

{bokeh}

We had a beauiful frost earlier this week. Here it is on the grape vine in our yard.

{about me}

well, my kids anyway

"I" celebrated his birthday this week! Unfortunately he was sick, but here is one photo of him having fun. His sisters were blowing out his candles. The reason he has a small section of cake is because I didn't want him blowing all over the cake...he had a bad cough. He's starting to feel better now.

{Monochromatic Monday}

{SOOC Sunday}

(Straight out of camera = no editing)

{Out and about}

Day 15. {Friday Fun)

2010-01-16T00:46:00.003-06:00

Kara and Tommee Tippee. As you can see they were well loved. Also, they both just happened to be right here in our den today. Today I waited until everyone was asleep to take my photo so I joined in with the "friday fun foto." It's also I great time to document some childhood favorites.

Day 14. {Nature}

2010-01-14T16:25:00.002-06:00

Today was really cloudy, and almost dark at 4:00 when I took this! This was on a tree in our yard.

Day 13. {About me}

2010-01-13T23:47:00.001-06:00

We made homemade turtles tonight and he was thrilled to get the spoon at the end! Doesn't he look like such a happy chef?! lol

Day 12. {Bokeh}

2010-01-13T23:35:00.003-06:00

I posted two from yesterday. The first was taken with a curtain in my den and an end table. For the 2nd I set up a desk lamp to shine through a kitchen colander, if only the colander would have been a little bigger. ;)

Day 11. {Monochromatic Monday}

2010-01-11T23:23:00.002-06:00

Here's a quick shot of M just as she was beginning to get frustrated with the zipper of the bag containing some of her toys. I tried a new method of black and white conversion today....the jury is still out on that. ;)

Days 9 and 10

2010-01-10T22:23:00.002-06:00

Saturday {Out and about} I thought the branches of this tree would make an interesting silhouette.

Sunday {Free day: macro fun}I tried macro today...lots of fun! I don't have an actual "macro" lens so I held an old lens up to my camera backwards. The first photo is part of my 'spider' plant. The second is a drop coming out of our kitchen faucet. It was much harder to focus than I expected. I tried to capture falling drops of water but was amazed at how many times I missed! The ones I did capture were not in focus. I'll be trying again. Thanks for looking. :)

Day 8 {Candid}

2010-01-09T11:13:00.002-06:00

I'm trying to get better at taking candid shots. Looking at this now, I probably should have used a little flash fill. Back to the content, I LOVE K'nex and as you can see he does too! Also, they are made in the USA which is rare. The only down side is the hundreds of tiny pieces.

Day 7 {Nature}

2010-01-08T10:35:00.002-06:00

Today was more of a learning day. I tried long exposure night shots for the first time. The first was taken from our living room window but I wasn't happy with the brush at the bottom so I moved my camera, with tripod, outside. But, it was so dark I couldn't focus, even manually. It was also very, very cold. I'll try this again some other time and maybe get a result that I'm happy with but I thought I'd post what I did anyway. :)

Day 6. {About me}

2010-01-06T15:57:00.003-06:00

This morning was beautiful; bright sun and frost on the trees. I was headed to "town" and had to go back to get my camera. The "about me" part is my tracks in the snow, along with tracks from an animal. I tried to narrow it down, but I posted 4. You can see the rest here.

Day 5 {Bokeh}

2010-01-05T18:55:00.001-06:00

This is fun! I'm so glad we're doing this! I'm excited about the coming year. I think we're all going to learn a lot.

Day 4.

2010-01-04T23:05:00.002-06:00

Monochromatic monday. This is one of my favorite Christmas decorations. It's a wooden light that hangs in the window.

Days 1, 2 and 3

2010-01-04T19:11:00.002-06:00

Friday (Candid/action) Day 1. This year I want to make an effort to take more candid shots. Here M is opening a birthday gift from her aunt.

Saturday (?) Day 2. I'm not sure yet what Saturdays will be for me as far as a theme, but I wanted to include this shot so I'm tempted to come up with a category that will fit this photo. Maybe "abstract" or "out and about". This is a watering cup for the cows on my parents' farm.

Sunday (Free day) Day 3. Here is where I was tempted to already cheat on this project, lol. I took so many photos on Friday and Saturday that I liked, but Sunday was the day we traveled home so this is as good as it gets. This is a shot of the cloud created by a power plant. Usually it goes right up but because of the extreme cold (I'm assuming) the cloud stayed close to the ground.

Frosty morning

2009-12-18T09:36:00.001-06:00

The first photo was taken yesterday afternoon.

I'm finally updating this! I can't wait to get back into blogging now that things are settled with my computer. I went out this morning to take some random photos. It was fun. Once again I had trouble narrowing it down so I decided to post a lot of them.

A few recent photos

2009-11-26T09:37:00.002-06:00

This is the photo that I used for my first floating wrap. It came yesterday! I'm really happy with how it turned out....I'll post pictures soon!

The next 3 are me experimenting with some new CoffeeShop actions. I'm not too much of an actions person, but these were fun to play with.
Creamy Coffee Latte

Hot Cocoa

Coffee with Cream

If only he would have smiled....sigh....

My cute little nephew! It was fun to see you both!!

I have a lot more catching up to do with this blog!! Hopefully in the days to come, I'll get caught up.

Pioneer Woman

2009-11-24T12:27:00.003-06:00

On Saturday, Pioneer Woman visited the Mall of America! My husband was hunting in northern Wisconsin so the kids and I traveled to the cities for the day! There was a huge turn out! It was fun and really exciting. I really wanted to meet her, but I didn't dare get in line with my kids, maybe next time. I did manage to take a few pictures. Here are a couple.

This is the view from the 3rd floor. This is just part of the line!

This is as close as we got! We also saw 2 of her adorable smiley boys there with Marlboro Man.

Sunday.

2009-10-28T14:32:00.001-05:00

On Sunday I traveled to Lacrosse and got together with 4 other photographers and 5 models to do a TTD (trash the dress) session. It was lots of fun! I took this on the way home.

Saturday. Posted on time!

2009-10-24T16:43:00.001-05:00

I took these with bounced flash. M just happened to be in the mood for a picture! :)

All caught up!

2009-10-24T14:26:00.002-05:00

I actually ended up trimming M's hair in the back today. I gets pretty wild back there. What happened is, that area is where she wore all of the hair off of the back of her head when she was a baby and it hasn't caught up with the rest.

This is a lighting check. Missing is a background! All window light. It looks like a may be able to do some portraits this winter after all.

The chalk board upstairs has been keeping all three of them busy this week.

I'm going to try to retake this, with she same sweater, but her bangs back and maybe a smile. :)

W. made this great snack last week. It was delicious! I'm not sure of the recipe, he made it up as he went along, but it had cheese, tomato and mushroom.

Another week.

2009-10-23T15:58:00.002-05:00

Tuesday (last week). It is what it looks like. He has a dust pan on his head while he's watching something on TV. {Tuesday}

"Get together of a picture" lol {Wednesday}

Riding his bike. {Thursday} I think

Here is my photo display at Camille's restaurant, I finally got there to see it and take a quick picture! {Friday}

I spent a few hours at the park with E. We did a little session. You can see the rest here. {Saturday}

A corn field on the way to my Mother-in-law's house. {Sunday}

It was M's turn for a little session. Here she his at the very end! Time to go! :) You can see the rest here. {Monday}

It's a start...

2009-10-23T12:26:00.002-05:00

He's not really miserable, in fact I took a bunch of photos of them and in half he looks like that and she's smiling. In the other half she looks uncomfortable and he's smiling! lol

I can't believe it's been so long since I've updated! I've been taking 100's of photos and well, the farther behind you get the harder it is to catch up! Here's the Saturday, Sunday, Monday photos, 1st weekend with my new camera! I hope to be updating again later today. :)

Time flies!

2009-10-09T17:34:00.002-05:00

We temporarily have this huge dirt pile in our yard!

I took this from the window so it was totally candid!

Another one with the dirt pile. I causes some dirty clothes but they have a lot of fun with it!

Bread flour......double labeled!

Isaiah cut his lip on the end of his handle bars. He went to the emergency room and had 3 stitches put in.

Getting dressed!

Tuesday.

2009-09-22T23:22:00.002-05:00

It is definitely looking like fall here, but still feels like summer!

Now that I've discovered that M will sit still if she has something to sit in, I have lots of ideas! lol

Another week!

2009-09-22T12:26:00.002-05:00

M posed herself for this one. The pot was her idea and she even said "cheese" lol! I'm just glad she didn't get stuck in there!

Here's the cheerleaders! ;)

Having fun on the "big girl swing".

A wagon full of onions at the orchard.

"I"

Having too much fun!

This one makes me laugh!

Out of control post!

2009-09-13T23:27:00.003-05:00

Today we went out in the woods so my husband could set up his tree stand for bow hunting. Here he is in his tree stand!

E set up this shot. She decided where she would sit and requested black and white, so this was actually shot in black and white (I usually do that with photoshop) Once again she just happened to be wearing her favorite "peace, love, bananas" shirt!

Here's one of M looking innocent!

More mushrooms!

Just a general shot of the woods.

I'm not sure what these are. Does anyone know? W found them and thought they would be great for a photo. The really are this colorful....it's not just the processing.

Here he ("I") is looking at some onions in the grainery. I really like the lighting and the floor.

A huge spider web! It's really facinating to me the spiders can make something like this!I guess I went a little overboard today.....and this is just a few of them!

Minneapolis

2009-09-13T01:14:00.000-05:00

I spent the day in the twin cities today. It was a fun day! I had 15 minutes to take these as I didn't plan ahead for the meters and only had one quarter, so I had to be quick! I can't wait to go back again! :)

The new Highway 35W Bridge over the Mississippi.

The Stone Arch Bridge

An interesting scene.

By the lake...

2009-09-11T21:58:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed taking these shots today at a near by lake and pond. They all look a little crooked but it may just be because the shore is not an equal distance away on the left and right. On the way home I was wishing I would've had the kids, at least the older two sit on the end of the dock. W did not think that would have been a good idea, because the dock is in such rough shape so I guess it's alright that I didn't! The shot of M is my favorite of the bunch. That's 2 days in a row! :)

Wild flowers and a wild girl....

2009-09-10T22:54:00.000-05:00

When I saw this area near an alley by a vacant home in our town, I couldn't help but think of this outfit that M has! With some help from my husband I was able to get a few candid (because I couldn't get her to pose if I tried ;) shots that I like! I'm open to cropping suggestions on the 1st one, I couldn't decide so I left it with the in-camera crop. I'm happy to be posting the same day I took these photos! Maybe I'm getting back on track! :)

It's starting to look like fall!

2009-09-10T15:17:00.000-05:00

This is the 1st tree in our yard to change color! The weather is still very much summer here this week although that will probably be changing soon. I took so many more photos of him with this leaf! The new rounded corners action is from http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/. They really do have some great stuff! I'll be posting more leaf pictures on my other blog hopefully soon.

1st week of school....

2009-09-09T14:58:00.000-05:00

Heading to school!

All by herself.....for a few hours anyway!

First day of school!! Can you tell he's a little nervous!?

His first day, her second day...... Two tired, nervous kids! :) They're used to it now! (Any tips for getting rid of the color cast on this one?)

Yesterday....

2009-09-08T22:30:00.000-05:00

It seems he's always willing to do this when he finds a HUGE dandelion.

My sister-in-law has a beautiful garden! Here are just a few of the shots I took while we were there.

This is one of my nieces!

I have so many more photos to post! I'm going to try to keep up with this a little more now that school has started.

Catching up!

2009-09-03T20:29:00.000-05:00

These few photos were taken using bounced flash. It's amazing how different post processing is when flash is used as far as white balance and skin tones in particular. Later, hopefully tonight, I'll be posting some 1st week of school photos. :)

The zoo.

2009-08-26T21:52:00.000-05:00

Here are few shots from my trip to the zoo on Monday!

Here's one shot of my nieces. I'll be posting more on my other blog soon!

This week.

2009-08-22T14:54:00.000-05:00

I took this shot at the Children's museum. It was fun, but not a great place to take pictures. I ended up leaving my camera at the front desk so I could do more with the kids. In this shot Maria was on the 2nd story of a 4 story structure. She did make it all the way to the top with a little help from E.

Our pears are starting to ripen!

We've had a lot of rain lately, which is good, we needed it. It was already getting pretty dark when I took this one.

I took this to get a little practice doing product shots and also to get an opinion. I'm not too sure of this purse yet. I picked it up at a thrift sale, it really caught my eye there and the price was right, but it's probably not something I would pick out in the store. Anyway, the question is, what age group do you think this purse is designed for? (not that there are set rules on that) I have a little bit of an identity crisis when it comes to this purse, lol!! :)

E wanted her picture taken today. Even though it was her idea, she wasn't able to come up with a real smile. She did pose herself and pick out the location though. Below is a photo I took of her a few years ago with my sony point and shoot. I still really like this shot. I really didn't know much about photography at the time, so basically it was just luck! :) Same boiler pot, some of the same flowers and close to the same location.

Sunday.

2009-08-17T07:47:00.000-05:00

My aunt and uncle visited us this weekend. It was a lot of fun! My uncle is very musical. The kids were really fancinated with his harmonica playing.

A lady bug in the garden.

Last week.

2009-08-16T18:21:00.000-05:00

Conjoined tomatos!

A close up of M. Lots of shots of her in this post.

She has her mouth full of green beans and she's going for more!!

Moments later she pulled the curtain and curtain rod down on herself! No injuries though. :o) I have more photos to post but they're still on my camera. I thought I'd post these before I get too far behind.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

2009-08-11T09:25:00.000-05:00

Here E is posed in front of a flower garden at the fish museum in Hayward, Wisconsin.

We visited my Mom and Dad's this weekend. My mom has a lot of beautiful flowers. Here's one of my favorites shots of them.

On Sunday, I had a chance to photograph my cousin and her family. Here's one I took when we were getting ready for family photos. I'll be posting more on my other blog soon.

Fill flash.

2009-08-06T23:31:00.000-05:00

I have lots of catching up to do! Yesterday I spent some time practicing fill flash. It was fun, even though I prefer natural light. This definitely is a different look.

Saturday and Sunday.

2009-08-02T23:12:00.000-05:00

This is a candid shot of M. This shot breaks many rules, yet I like it! :) She is sitting on her Dad's shoulders so what you see in front of her is the top of his head.

My parents came this weekend! It was great having them over.

They brought their dog Jolly with them! It was fun to have a dog for a day; the kids especially loved it! He refused to look at the camera, I think it made him a little uneasy.

Friday.

2009-07-31T23:14:00.000-05:00

I took some shots today of M using window light. Here's my favorite shot for the day.

Thursday.

2009-07-30T23:44:00.000-05:00

After months of waiting, my tomatoes are starting to get ripe!! It rained for just a few minutes this evening; then the sun came out again.

2009-07-30T08:48:00.000-05:00

Here they are checking out the ducks at the park. More of just a snap shot, but I thought it called for a little desaturation. The inspiration for my previous post can be found on facebook. Let me know if you want me to suggest you as a friend for her. :)

Red.

2009-07-29T10:38:00.000-05:00

Here is a collage of all the red in my life! I got this idea from my friend Julie Trout who posted several beautiful collages yesterday. I had to give it a try. I felt like it was time for something fun! I really wanted to post this yesterday, but it got too late and my computer wasn't cooperating. Click on it to see a larger size.

Time to update!

2009-07-28T02:36:00.000-05:00

Has it really been a week already!?! Time has gone so fast! I have been busy working on my website http://www.amandajouppiphotography.com/ and getting ready for a photo display at a local restaurant starting August 1st. (and all of the procrastinating that both of those involve, lol)

Here I am with E. She took several photos of me that day. We had the camera on a tripod and she stood on a sturdy stepladder. Thanks E!

We had a major rain storm eariler in the week. In just minutes that streets were covered with water. Here's a few shots of the drama! :)

We went out to my in-law's to pick berries one night. Here's another shot of E.

My husband took this one. It's one of many shots he took that evening. I wanted one for my new website. It is so different being on that side of the camera!

Sorry I haven't been keeping up! I really miss the 365 project when I don't do it! Now that I'm caught up (sort of), I'm hope to keep updating it each day.

Friday, Sunday

2009-07-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

The first 2 are from today: 'I' pretending to play volleyball, and 'M' got a ride on this toy at the playground. She wants to do everything that her brother and sister do.

On friday I attempted to get some good sh0ts of E and M. Here are a couple fo my favorites.

Wednesday.

2009-07-16T08:36:00.000-05:00

The asparagus plant is in bloom!! My husband has had this plant for at least 8 years. He bought it to spruce up his bachelor pad when we were dating, lol! We actually found it in a photo taken in his apartment. Getting this to bloom has been a long term goal of his. He was SO excited!! Here it is. The first 2 images are the same photo and the 3rd to show it's size. It went through a rough stage a few years ago when it was in our kitchen and not getting enough sunlight. I wanted to get rid of it at the time....glad we didn't. :)

Tuesday.

2009-07-14T23:49:00.000-05:00

His turn....I noticed is has been a while, so today it's all "I". :)

Friday, Sunday, Monday.

2009-07-13T22:57:00.000-05:00

M really enjoyed picking blackberries today. I know they look like raspberries, but they are blackberries that aren't quite ripe yet.

Having fun at the sprinkler. It's a feature at a local park.

Here are the girls with my birthday cake (Sunday). M is never allowed to go on the table, not sure why I made an exception for this!

The kids had lots of fun at the fair on Friday. This is one of my favorites.

On friday I took pictures of our local library for a project that one of my friends is working on for the "Friends of the Library". It was a great learning experience. Here's the experior picture. I didn't post any of the inside ones, as I don't have permission to use the photos for that purpose.

Wednesday.

2009-07-08T22:31:00.000-05:00

Here E is with one of her many art projects from school. The uneven lighting on her face is from the sunlight shining off of the floor (that's what we concluded anyway). I was mostly trying to document the project just in case it ends up in the garbage. ;) It's chalk so the dust gets all over everything. I feel like I've handled this project at least 20 times! lol I may have to keep it a little longer.

Monday.

2009-07-07T17:11:00.000-05:00

I know this is huge! I'm using some new sharpening techniques and wanted to try it out. Everyone except for M and I went fishing last night so of course I had to get a few pictures! I've been going through my photos from the past year or so and I can't believe how much my techniques have changed, in other words photos I used to think were great, I now see alot that I could have done differently! Thanks for hanging in there with me 365 friends, it's really helping me to improve! AND IT'S FUN TOO!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

2009-07-06T00:28:00.000-05:00

Happy 4th of July!! This first photo is one of my favorites. I took this while we were waiting for fireworks to start. I had fun taking fireworks photos this year....not really sure what to do with them now, but it was a fun challenge!

This was friday's photo. I waited too long to take my daily photo and it was too dark outside, so the quality isn't great but I did get my daily photo in! The dirty face is the typical end of the day look for all 3 of my kids now that summer is here. We saw lots of geese out on the lake today!

Wednesday and Thursday.

2009-07-02T23:40:00.000-05:00

E and her friend S. They play together so often now that summer is here.

Peppers! I think I might prefer the look of peppers to most flowers! lol They taste good too...

Tuesday.

2009-06-30T23:18:00.000-05:00

Just some funny shots today. M loves to sit in this basket. She climbs in all on her own. The first shot makes me LOL and really shows her personality! The second just shows what she was up to...admiring her match-game cards (2 that didn't have matches) lol!

Monday.

2009-06-29T23:55:00.000-05:00

I met my new niece today!! She is so precious! She's very expressive with her hands. I took these at a family get-together. This was my first time photographing a new baby since getting into photography. It was really fun.

Sunday.

2009-06-29T01:13:00.000-05:00

Teamwork!!

I think going down the slide is M's favorite activity! She I just thrilled the whole time! I wasn't excited about the lighting so I tried gave this one the "old photo" effect.

We'll be going back .... I just love this setting! This was just a quick one on our way to go swimming.
I did take a few pics this week (wed-saturday) but just didn't spend a lot of time. I've been working on our home improvement projects this week and I've found that it's very hard to do it all! I'm hoping to be back to posting everyday now. I really miss the 365 blogging when I don't do it!

Tuesday.

2009-06-23T20:45:00.000-05:00

These are strawberries from a roadside stand. They didn't last long at all and the funny part is that I think I only had one!! The kids loved them. :)

It was so foggy this morning and this caught my eye! I had to run home to get my camera, hoping it would still be like this when I got back!

This is photo that I've wanted to take for months but it just hadn't worked out until today. The water isn't always that still. I tried it with my 50mm didn't have a wide enough angle so I had to go home for a different lens and then come back, so two trips back home!! Maybe next time I'll just be prepared from the start! haha

Monday-Sunday.

2009-06-21T16:17:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been a week since my last update. It's been busy. I spent a lot of my computer time this week working on my new logo!! It still needs a little work, but after a week of working on it, I have a logo that I like!

We went camping for two nights at a state park in Minnesota with my family. It was a great time. I'll be posting my people pictures on facebook soon, but thought I'd post a few of my favorite nature shots here.

Here's a very tired M earlier in the week. In addition to designing my logo, I also painted the den this week so there were a couple days that I didn't have a chance to take any photos. The last one is an inchworm (silkworm?) that was dangling from a tree in our yard.

Sunday.

2009-06-15T00:10:00.000-05:00

This one is really growing on me. Maybe it's just the ordinary-ness of it. I took it yesterday.

We went out on the water again today! Lots of fun. We got an earlier start today. No fishing, just another boat ride. Here E is enjoying the speed of the ride!

I love how the sun makes the water sparkle.

Saturday.

2009-06-14T00:27:00.000-05:00

We took the boat out this evening. It was fun! It wasn't as dark as it looks in this picture, but I wanted to expose to capture the way the sunset is peaking out from behind the clouds.

Friday.

2009-06-12T23:16:00.000-05:00

Jiffy pop!! Yum?? Well, this batch was a little overdone. What was supposed to be 4 packages of Jiffypop for an upcoming camping trip ended up to be 8 so we sampled it tonight. We had a small bonfire in the yard this evening complete with smores.

Our friend S has a great bubble wand! I'm pretty sure the hand belongs to "I". :)

Thursday.

2009-06-12T00:13:00.000-05:00

The kids and I went for a walk in the woods today. It was fun! They are really into it! Lots of my pictures today included bugs, but this was my favorite.

Wednesday.

2009-06-10T17:31:00.000-05:00

"I" hasn't been on my blog for a long time....he's just too fast! ;) Nothing thrills him more than startling me, which he had just done when I took this picture, lol.

Tuesday.

2009-06-09T23:50:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick snap of M. I actually caught her smiling!!

Monday.

2009-06-08T22:17:00.000-05:00

Well, you can see where I was going with this, but E just wasn't in the mood for a picture! I'll have the last laugh tomorrow when my new auto-focus lens gets here~LOL! I can't wait! ;)

Sunday.

2009-06-07T18:50:00.000-05:00

My neighbor has an awesome garden all spring and summer! Today I was able to go over there to take pictures. It is just beautiful! Here are some of my favorites.

Friday.

2009-06-05T19:38:00.000-05:00

Today was the last day of school!! I copied Elli's idea and posted a 1st day and last day of school comparison. I can't believe how much she's grown in every way in just one year!

This is my good friend Mary and her son. Today for the last day of school we had yearbook signing party with a DJ and everything for the elementary school. It was one wild party! :)

Thursday.

2009-06-05T00:27:00.000-05:00

M wants to do everything the E does. :) Here's another example... I took this from the window so it really is candid.

Wednesday.

2009-06-03T22:08:00.000-05:00

I'm not a fan of putting buckets on heads for safety reasons, but I did like this picture!

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.

2009-06-02T23:30:00.000-05:00

Here is E on the "merry" go-round!! I was in the center of it to take this photo. I'm going to try it again with a narrower aperture.

Here are some of the birds at the park. I just liked the scene in general.

Here's one I really like of M. E helped me get her to sit there for just a minute!

I had really fun photoshoot on Sunday!!