Oklahoma Wedding!

Whew!! 

Am I ever tired! The kids and I just returned from an Oklahoma wedding. Our cousin was married on Saturday about 8 hours away but we'd actually been gone since Tuesday night. My parents, a sister and two brothers came down earlier in the week to spend time with Mountain Man in southern Oklahoma. We drove down (5ish hours) Tuesday night to see all of them, Wednesday we spent the day with them and some other Oklahoma family there, Thursday we drove through pouring rain a few hours to the northeast corner of Oklahoma, Friday we had the rehearsal, Saturday was the wedding and Sunday we drove home. What a great week! Long and tiring but well worth it. 

Now, if I wanted to be mean to a bunch of my Indiana family I'd post photos of our trip chronologically. But I know there were some who didn't make it down for the wedding who would love to see some photos. I didn't get as many as I would have liked but I'll share what I have. 

Our cousin Al!! Isn't she just gorgeous! 

She tied one of our Grandpa's belt buckles to her bouquet. He had passed away this past May and yes I was tearing up taking this photo. 

Al married a wonderful Oklahoma rancher/farmer and in true western style the whole wedding party wore cowboy boots! 

Al asked if my kids would be in the wedding and I was happy to oblige. Though Friday night after the rehearsal I was nervous that my three exhausted kids would cause mayhem but they pulled through and did fabulous. 

Yahoo wasn't a flower girl but a sign girl! She carried a piece of barn siding right before Al that said "Here Comes Your Bride!" How cute!!! 

See those three little boys standing so perfectly still? Their mothers promised them ice cream and money if they behaved like absolute angels!!! 

I don't know about you but J, the groom, looks just a bit nervous to me! 

What a wonderful couple they are! Too bad we don't live closer though. 

I didn't SEE this part but I HEARD that when Al and J were kissing that my boys, the junior groomsmen, covered their mouths like it was gross and looked away. Anyone get a picture of that?? 

During the rehearsal I asked J if he had made the archway backdrop for the wedding, it was gorgeous! 

"You mean the Outhouse?" he asked, "We're getting married in Outhouse! But don't tell Al that, she doesn't think it's funny!" 

Oh, J will sure fit into this family! 

At one point before the wedding the photographers weren't in the dressing room and Al asked if I'd take some pictures of the girls. I was able to watch the bridesmaids pray over the bride. What a wonderful group of women these are! 

Party time!! 

I have practically no photos of the reception because Yahoo was asleep on my arm for most of it and the rest of the time I was cutting and serving cake! The kids and I had to leave way too early to get started on the 8 hour drive back. We had such a wonderful time with family I sure didn't want to leave. But isn't it nice to have a family that will drive so far to see one another? I still feel blessed! 

Week 8 - Fall

The thing I've enjoyed most about this 52 week project is how surprising my subjects are although I have the themes listed for an the entire year. 

For example, I intended to take my boys to the basketball court with my tripod and work on some slow shutter speeds with basketballs falling from the air. I thought it would be a neat subject to play with. However the weather didn't cooperate, or did it? Instead of some warm weather we have had very windy cold days and one day with some unexpected, but very welcome, snow!

f 7.1, 1/125 sec., ISO 800

 With the snow "fall"ing I had my subject for the week. But it was a lot harder to photograph snow than I thought it would be...and my hands were getting cold. I did find some drips "fall"ing from the downspout though. 

f 7.1, 1/125 sec., ISO 800

I had no reason to shoot in black and white other than I thought it may highlight the snowflakes better. 

But, I made the mistake of shooting snow without thinking of my light meter and everything turned out just too gray. 

f 11, 1/200 sec., ISO 800

So I did do some editing on these; increased contrast and played with curves. 

This was the before image. 

Next week, Week 9's theme is LOUD!

The Wheelbarrow

I love my mom. (duh)


But I'm especially thankful for her sending me this photo. I was complaining on Facebook the other day how homesick I was for Indiana leaves so she stepped out the back door and snapped this to send me. 


At least she wasn't as cruel as to box up fall leaves and actually send them to me. Mom did that to Mountain Man a couple years ago. That sure didn't help his homesickness!


Although I love the leaves I was happy to see the wheelbarrow. This belonged to Grandpa, I don't know how old it is, and I grew up hauling load after load of wood from the barnyard to the house for our wood burning stove. In the summer it wasn't stored away. No, this was the most comfortable lawn chair we had. It reclines at the perfect angle with the handles as feet rests. 


What you see here is actually the second wheelbarrow. When I was growing up the wood was rotting and falling apart and when my younger brother was a teenager he replaced all the wood parts and kept the metal fixtures. It's still great. 


Too bad I can't steal it and haul it back to Kansas with me. 
I could use a really comfortable chair on my front porch. 

Football with a New Camera Lens

I got a new camera lens this week!! Woo Hoo!

A zoom lens; 70-300mm. And boy did it come in handy this week at the boys flag football game. It's been an awfully fun lens to use because I can get photos that, otherwise, I'd only get if I were right up in the subjects face. The only thing I'm still learning about this lens is how to focus. My other lens, the 18-55mm one that came with the camera, has an auto focus so it's not something I've had a lot of practice doing. Focusing manually becomes instantly harder when the subject is running too. So forgive me any blurry photos today. Besides...it's football, you get the idea blurry or not.

HA! The only photo they are both in. These coaches are smart....they don't put Yip and Yap near one another or they'll end up tackling one another!

Yip, #6. Go get em!

I'm not sure what this look is for he's giving me but he's awfully cute with that mouthpiece jammed in his jaw!

Yip down in his stance.

Yap...I think it's against the rules to hold on to his shirt.

God Bless Coach Mike! He sure is positive with all the kids.

He's giving Yap some encouragement here.

Yap, I DEFINITELY know a straight arm to another guy's face is against the rules!

Geez, I kind of wish they had pads and helmets!

Marker Monday - Pumpkin Paintings!

We've been painting up a pumpkin patch this week and learned about color mixing with hardly any mess.

First, find a plastic bowl with a flat bottom.

I placed some red and yellow craft paint in squeeze bottles and the boys put dots of each color on the bottom of the bowl.

We made sure to have equal amounts of yellow and red but mix it up, more red or yellow, and see how many shades of orange you can create.

Then turn the bowl upside down on a piece of sturdy paper, we used cardstock, and twist it until all those dots of paint are mixed together.

With a q-tip, draw pumpkin lines or jack o' lantern faces.

If you can't get lines to show up you may need to reapply more paint.

With a clean q-tip you can add a stem, leaves or vines.

The perfect, fairly clean, pumpkin painting.

Shooting Corn Tassles

Ha! I think I figured out the conundrum with getting the orientation correct when posting vertical photos. I had to go to my blog settings and choose the old post editor. Kind of clunky posting but now my photos are posted correctly!

I just love the way corn tassels look almost flowery.

My favorite season...

Fall is by far my favorite time of year.

I love the cool air whipping my dark hair around my face.

I love the soft whisper and aroma of the leaves.

I love the way fall weekends allow to you relax like no other season.

I love how fall is Mother Nature's meditation.

I love how easily children play in nothing more than a pile of leaves.

I love Thanksgiving more than Christmas.

I love hunting season and all the men decked out in camo and bright orange.

I love how the blazing warm fall colors contrast the cool fall evenings.

I love fall....what's your favorite part of this time of year?