A Photo Shoot - The Many Faces of Yahoo.

I think I got burned on taking photos a while back but after I got some camera advice from a friend of mine, ordering some filters and taking football pictures I've been finding more and more reasons to break out the camera. Last week Yahoo and I were outside on one of our many glorious SW Kansas days and, surprisingly, she was hamming it up for the camera. Most days she runs and hides when she sees me shooting. I'm sure most of you won't care one bit about this post and that's fine; these pics are mostly for grandmas, grandpa and numerous aunts and uncles anyway :) 

Pretending to be asleep. 

She spends more time swinging on this hammock than actually laying down. Good thing they are sturdy. 

Her Princess Face....

...and her Tiger Face! 

..again..

...and again!

I was playing around a lot on editing these and I'm really happy how they turned out. Since she was born I've been trying to get a photo showing the accurate color of her eyes. I think I'm pretty close here! 

Family Photo Session!!

This summer will be our 10th wedding anniversary and, believe it or not, DR and I haven't had a professional photo taken of us since our wedding! I take a ton of photos but I thought it was high time to have some professional photos taken of us. A friend of mine suggested a photographer in Meade, KS, Priscilla Meairs (you can find her photography blog here) which is only about 20 minutes away from here. So I messaged her and she suggested that she just come to our town one evening because she's always looking for new and different locations to shoot other than just in her own town. 

Priscilla arrived at our house at 7:00 in the evening and we all piled in the car and followed her through town to a couple of locations she had scouted out before picking us up. The first place she took us was an alley behind the hardware store. (Pictures 1-11) My boys were being boys through this whole shoot wanting to be crazy or just cross their arms and scowl but Priscilla worked wonders with them by reading their personalities and suggesting poses that they'd be more comfortable with. 

After the alley she took us across the street and plopped us in the grass of the flower shop. There were times I thought for sure she was just going to fill up her camera before we were done. She was constantly shooting photos, a lot of times she wasn't even looking in the viewfinder! She'd just hold the camera above her head and snap away (#14) but they turned out great. 

#17 was taken at an abandoned auto garage. Who would have thought THAT would look good? But it sure did! Yahoo, oh what a PISTOL she was that evening!!! After about 15 minutes she was just about done with taking photos. I bet Priscilla took 50 photos of just this pose waiting for Yahoo to smile. I admit I didn't have high hopes but she even came up with great ones of my little monster! 

Our last stop was at a home/antique/museum of sorts (18-21) We have a gentleman in our town who is always going to auctions and finds fabulous finds in the oddest places; he's got pieces from an old hospital that was being torn down. Anyway, he's built this building for himself and uses many of the treasures he's discovered. You can see a gas pump, an old bike and various things hung on the side of his building. I just love this spot and knew it would be a great backdrop for us.

We were back home in our living room before 8:00 pm. I couldn't believe how quick it went. Priscilla did awesome! She has two different sitting fee options. 

The first option is $50 fee and she'll post her Top 20 picks on her blog then I'll just order photos from her blog. If there's any photo If I want a digital copy of it costs $10 each and she releases the photo so I can use it anytime, anywhere. 

The second option is a $50 sitting fee and for $200 you'll receive a CD with 30-50 edited images with a photo release. 

I was so happy with Priscilla and what she's done. I haven't ordered any photos yet; I'm having a hard time deciding since she has a lot of different options on her site. My one goal was to get ONE family photo where everyone looked happy and clean. I must say, she well exceeded my expectations!! 

If you are in SW Kansas and are looking for a photographer, especially to photograph kids, I'd highly recommend Priscilla! You can find her here! 

Week 42 - Windows

The window in my garage. 

1/250 sec., f18, ISO 1600

Week 43 - Scary!! 

Looks like I'll have to tote my camera along while I'm trick or treating :) 

Photo Thursday - I'm White Rabbit Late on 52 Weeks.

I am so late. 

Like the White Rabbit Late. 

You know running around like crazy screaming, "I'm late, I'm late." 

How does this happen? I'm so good at keeping my kids on myself on schedule for school, football, dinner, bedtime...but I can never keep myself on a schedule for my own projects. They just seem to fit into the few spare moments I have, if any, in a day. 

I'm something like five weeks late on my 52 Week Photo project. Where does the time go? I had every intention of getting these done but before I knew another week had come and gone...and another...and another. I even took a day last week to take a photo walk around town and catch up...and then accidentally deleted most of the photos that I took, which was okay because I didn't like most of them anyway. 

Today I put my foot down. I passed the laundry and dishes that were desperately calling out for my attention. I left my daughter playing Play Dough unsupervised, though she did come help me out with some shots later on, to go to the garage and catch up on my 52 Weeks. I was determined that I could find inspiration right in my back yard and that I would only shoot ONE photo per theme. 

And I did. And, I think, they turned out pretty darn good. 

So here you go, straight from the camera, no edits....

...my very very late photographs. 

Week 32 - Intromit (to allow in)

1/60sec., F8, ISO 1600

Week 36 - No

I am ALWAYS hollering at her to get down and leave my clothespins alone! 

1/250 sec., F8, ISO 200

Week 39 - Tools 

Shot in Black and White but I think I'd like it just as much in color

1/80 sec., F8, ISO 1600 with flash

I've been really afraid to use a flash for a long time but recently I've started to get the hang of it. I still feel a little uncertain using it though. 

Week 40 - Bent

1/100 sec., F7.1, ISO 1600 with flash

Week 41 - Blue

1/100 sec., F8, ISO 1600 with flash 

Next week, if I'm not behind again, theme is Windows. 

Photo Project, Weeks 33 and 34

I'm not behind really I'm not! I HAVE been shooting my 52 week themes I just haven't had the time to post on them! 

I take that back. I did skip one week's theme, Week 32 Intromit, because I just have not thought of or come across something that I think would fit. That might be the one week I come back to. 

Week 33 was Air and I focused on air while we were in Colorado. Both of these were taken at the top of Pike's Peak. 

1/2000 sec., f14, ISO 1600

1/400 sec., f9, ISO 100 (edited the brightness and cropped slightly)

I know my ISO's are way different. The top was taken from inside a train so I had my ISO high and didn't have time to readjust before taken the shot of the rocky hill. The second was outside on top of the mountain and it was SO bright that even at 1/400 sec. I felt it was too overexposed so I edited it a bit. 

Week 34 - Miniscule

This was one of those weeks that I wish I had a macro lens. But in this case I got in as close as I could to my subject and then cropped when I needed to. 

1/50 sec., f5.6, ISO 1600

1/30 sec., f7.1, ISO 1600

Then I cropped this one tightly

An Eggplant Leaf

1/20 sec., f7.1, ISO 1600

These were shot near sunset so I was losing light quickly. Not bad for a slow shutter speed and being hand held. I'm not sure how I feel about the graininess. I kind of like it, though I wasn't planning on it. Is that okay? 

Next Week - Luscious

Either I need to work on my food photography or I need to find a really sexy cowboy to shoot some shirtless photos of! Any volunteers? 

Week 31 - Down

Week 31 theme is DOWN. 

We went to visit Boot Hill and the Old Front Street in Dodge City the other day where I took these photos. None of these have been edited, just straight out of the camera. 

1/320 sec., f14, ISO 1600

1/320 sec., f25, ISO 1600

1/250 sec., f14, ISO 1600

Week 32 - Intromit

Oh goodness, that's a word I'm going to have to look up. 

Week 26 - EAT

I'm a week behind but hopefully I can get caught up by Saturday. 

So Week 26, halfway through..can you believe it? 

This photo was taken a couple weeks ago but I love it so much I thought I'd include it today. Not that I took a fabulous photo but I love the way Yahoo's hands are so carefully cradling her watermelon. That girl LOVES her watermelon! 

1/100 sec., f9, ISO 1600

1/60 sec., f5.6, ISO 1600 with flash 

I've found that one of the hardest things about using my camera is using my flash and still getting, what I think, is a nice photo. This morning Yip was sitting on the couch eating an apple and reading, his normal breakfast position, with the light coming in through the window. It was a nice gold light but just not enough to expose his left side but when I turned on the flash it was just perfect. 

Next week, or maybe Saturday if I can catch up...that's the plan anyway, is EYES!!