well we survived Christmas and we have been spending a few days of relaxing. Well the girls are, hubby is working all weekend long. I thought I would share a moment from our Christmas morning. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.......

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will not be posting anything till after the holidays are over. We plan on spending the next few days with family. Enjoy your holidays and be blessed.

Ok, I was reading an article on white balance and thought I would give it a try and play around with it. I never really understood all there was to know about white balance on a camera before. I have changed it to the different settings, "sun, flourecent light...." but there is a setting that is just a K- which stands for Kelvin. SO here are a few different photos playing with the Kelvin setting of my white balance on the camera.

This is one was set with Auto White Balance, in manual setting F5.6 , 1/4 sec. iso 125

This one I brought the Kelvin down to 2500 (which will produce more blues in your photo's. )The camera was set to f.6.3 1/4, iso 125

This last photo I changed the Kelvin white balance to 10000. (which brings deep reds to the photo.) I like this one the best. f.6.3 0"3 iso 125

This was a fun project to do. I plan on experiementing more with the Kelvin white balance. I want to understand it more.

Well here is my banana ready for her Christmas performance at school. I know it wasnt really a "Christmas" performance, Politically correct it was a Winter Performance. Who is kidding who. They sang Christmas Carols. So it was a CHRISTMAS performance..... I snapped a few pictures right before we left on Tuesday night. Tonight, I will be dressing all the girls up and doing our annual sister pictures in front of the tree. So you should see some new photos in the next day or so.

Well I am working on my Thanksgiving weekend photos. We were up in Ft. Jones, visiting and on Thanksgiving monring it was extremly foggy. The girls & Vic took the dogs on a walk around the property. When I finally got the camera and on, Only Hannah was left in my sight. I like how she is almost "lost" in the fog.

Credits: I will have to post those in a bit, I have to go hunt everything down that I used in this template........

Well there are no photos or scrap pages to post today. I have been laid up on the couch with an injured foot. On Wednesday I was feeding the dogs and decided to "fly" off the back porch. Thankfully the dogs pillow was at the bottom of the stairs, otherwise I would of ended up on the cement. I sprained my foot pretty badly, but my foot didn't swell too bad or bruise at all. I have such a faint bruise, that I wouldn't even classify it as a bruise. :) Hopefully within the next day or so, I will be able to post a photo or too.
I have been reading a bit on techniques and I cant wait to go outside and snap some photos with these new techniques.
Hope all is well...........

Well today I am home disinfecting the house because 2 of my lovely children are home with the flu. They have been banned to the upstairs because the downstairs is totally sanitary.

Anyway, I did a Grand Theft Layout over in Scrapmatters. Then I had to do a second page to finish the photos. I am learning that I have to do both pages at the same time otherwise I may not get them done. Ugh!!!!

Credits: awall-a gift for you2- from oscraps.

Well yesterday I had a photo shoot for a very dear friend. We took many shots out at UOP and at home. You might find many shots from this shoot on the blog. I really like it, I turned it Black and White to add some dramatic feel. Every one of the kids is looking at the camera, event he baby, may have a funny look, but it is a great picture of the kids. The biggest challenge yesterday was the two little ones not "looking" or wanting to "do it myself". I had a lot of fun and since these kids mean a lot to me, it made it extra special.

Well you get 2 posts in one day. I did this scrap page for a Tuesday Template Challenge over at scrapmatters.com I really liked how it turned out.

credits: monsutt01, sweet genevesse spunky sparkle gem, wm2 G&S paper

Well 2 nights ago, i practiced some low lighting shots. We had a fun time putting up our tree and when the lights were on I pulled out the tripod and changed lens' on the camera. I put on the 18-55mm lens and then added the cross screen filter to add some sparkle to the prints. I set the camera to bulb and just left the shutter open for about 10 seconds per shot. I turned one black and white. I like them both so I htought I woudl share them both.

Well after being gone for a few days to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, I am back and well rested. :) This is a photo of a church we drove by while on vacation. When leaving town, I made my darling hubby stop so I could take some photo's of it. This church just called my name. I love the fall colors surrounding the church.

Well today, I participated in 2 challenges over at Scrapmatters.com. The left side is from a speed scrap, and the right side is from the tuesday template. These were such fun pictures. These were taken when i did the photo shoot the other day with the cows, and formal wear.

credits: gsass_sunshine kit, mst_sspaper pierced, nikp_fatal alpha set, scrapchic stuidio stars, haynay tuesday template, vinerhand font, pristina font.

I LOVE this picture.

It was just a pure silly moment for the girls. They were hanging out on the tractor and I was getting the camera adjusted right and just snapping pictures of the girls while waiting. Megan wanted to take a silly one. So here it is. Should this be the Chistmas Card photo for the year?

ISO 100 F4.5 1/200

Today was a very interesting, but fun day. We went over to our friends house to take their Christmas Card photo's. Ok, that was pretty fun and unuasual. They had the pitch fork and hay and cows in the photos. When I moved, I had to make sure i didnt step into cow poop. I snapped this photo of "Maui" while we waited while everyone changed into formal attire. I like how she is just looking at me and not moving. The sun is hitting her at the right angle.

no settings today. That would be too much work to pull out the camera and look.

the settings for the camera were ISO 100 f:5.6 1/200

I was just goofing off yesterday with the camera. Hannah had a friend over and I was taking some pictures of the 2. I was trying to see how it would look with a family photo. I like the way the background worked on this one. I wanted a family photo on the property without seeing any house in the background. So maybe this weekend we will get a good one. Who knows.

Today you get a 2 page scrapbook layout. I actaully really like the page. I like the colors and the layout. I changed the template around on page 2 and added more pictures. Only want 2 pagers for events in the school albums. Some years there are way too many photos to scrap. I refuse to do 2 albums for 1 school year! :)

Credits: Brittdes 101408 template, JCrowley_macabrea holloween paper

This was taken about a month ago and a friends house. I like the scenic view of the barn. For years, i wanted to photograph the barn but every time we were there I didnt have my camera. This time I brought it. But instead of just photgraphing the barn, I used part of the pond, and the tree as the forground to set the picture up. Almost relaxing thinking about it. It was fun becasue the girls were fishing in the pond while I was taking the pictures. :)

iso: 400, 44mm, F:16, 1/60

Iso:400 1/60 F4.5 (small adjustments in lightroom)

Iso:400 1/60 f5.6 ( I did a little sharpening in lightroom. no other adjustments.)

Well today I dabbled with the camera and was trying to take indoor shots. I never really taken many indoor portraits. I want to get really good at it. So I put Megan in a few different outfits and snapped away. These 2 are just a sample of what i did today. I think next time I will try with the different type of lighting. Today's were with natural lighting. The outside shots were with the sun directly behind me. It was getting ready to go down. I think with the gold, it made it glow some. Almost a warm feeling.

Hannah had me take this picture. She liked the way the one tree was falling on it's side. I turned it black and white. I think it is a cool picture. I think it almost makes it desolate looking.

iso:400, 1/50 F:5.6( origianl picture in color before I changed a little bit in editing.)

These pictures of the girls were down in the Calaveras Big Trees. It proved to be a big adventure too. After falling on my butt, in pain, I couldnt concentrate all that much. But hey, I got a few good ones of the girls. We were aiming for a good Christmas Card Picture. Maybe the next time. It is also harder to be behind the camera and in front of it. I am proud of these 3 though.

I really like this page that I did a few days ago. It is fun and shows how much Hannah is having fun. This was at the beginning of the school year for her.

Credits: Lriordan-blog paper, JEdwards add challenge alpha, Lriordan Fallon stitching, AWI LIttle zoo monkey2.

Well, Where to begin. Someone in my life motivated me to get out there and do this. She has no clue either. :) I want to be able to use this for the special things in my life, from being a scrapbook page to a photo that I took and am very proud of. I want to let people see what I am made of. So I hope you enjoy.