Monday, August 31, 2015

Day 243, Project 365

Got to take some photos of Maddie tonight; the weather FINALLY cooperated!


Day 242, Project 365

Took a lot more photos today and while the animals tend to be me fav, I did manage to get a person in here.  :)


Saturday, August 29, 2015

Day 241, Project 365

Seriously struggled with the focus today for action shots....kind of frustrated to be honest.  :(

Either of these are in focus BUT I love the elation on their faces!!



Friday, August 28, 2015

Day 240, Project 365

Minnesota State Fair Day!  Lots of things/people to take pictures of today.  I tried some midway shots but not incredibly pleased, I'll need to work on those.

The most adorable lamb ever won for today's photo:


Thursday, August 27, 2015

Day 239, Project 365

And here we are...another volleyball season has begun.  Scrimmage today for Kait - it's so fun to watch the improvements she and her team have made over the summer.  Looks like it'll be a good season!


Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Day 238, Project 365

I was so excited to be able to take photos for this adorable, sweet and funny family tonight on their pontoon on White Bear Lake.  It was a gorgeous night and the sun was perfect!


Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Day 237, Project 365

Sometimes the ideas just don't pan out...I wanted the blue sky as a backdrop for the red flowers but nothing I did and no crop made this photo interesting.  :(  Oh well, today it is what it is.


Monday, August 24, 2015

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Day 235, Project 365

My cousins Jodi, Julie and I went out this morning to cheer on our cousin Jessi while she walked her last day of the 3-day, 60 mile walk.  She is a survivor and a ROCK-STAR!

Here's my two favorites.  The first is when she first recognized who these crazies were and then her emotional hug!



Day 234, Project 365

I was too tired after a 14-hour road-trip to post my daily photo...better late than never.  I took a raod-trip with both of my sisters-in-law, my mother-in-law, my husband's aunt, cousin and her daughter to Lanseboro.  We shopped a bit, took a CD, self-guided tour through Amish county and their shops, Harmony for dinner then back to Lanesboro for a little more shopping.  It was a great day!  Lots of laughs, great conversation, learned a lot (A LOT!) about the Amish and then got to drive home in a blinding, raging thunderstorm!  ;)

Here's my favorite non-person photo:





And my favorite people photo:


Monday, August 17, 2015

Day 229, Project 365

A quiet day and I'm okay with that.  Started culling through Friday's images - I think I cut them in half!  Wahoo!!  :)

Snapped this quick today in case rain came and I didn't get to get some pics of Little Miss M (we'll save that for another day when it's a little more sunshiney).




Sunday, August 16, 2015

Day 228, Project 365

Another day, another new adventure.  On the docket today: newborns!  Little AJ was just unbelievably cute.  I probably could've just sat and held him rather than take his photo but I guess that's not why AJ was at my house today.  :)



And seriously after this busy weekend, I am EXHAUSTED.  I've got about 500 images to cull through from the past three days and that alone makes me tired thinking about it.  Off to read a little bit tonight and then I'll hit the editing hard this week!  :)


Saturday, August 15, 2015

Day 227, Project 365

Another day-long road trip adventure.  This time I went northwest in our great state and my hubby and youngest agreed to accompany me!

We saw lots of things and I took lots of pictures but this is probably my favorite:


But I have to throw in a people picture(s), too, so:

Crossing the headwaters of the Mississippi (does everyone spell/sing that out when that type of write it??) at Lake Itasca.


Friday, August 14, 2015

Day 226, Project 365

Whew!  First ever senior shoot - check!
Of course Alex and Shawna were SO easy to work with.
My fav of each of them and my fav of them together:




Thursday, August 13, 2015

Day 225, Project 365

Studying/prepping for my first senior photo shoot tomorrow!  Eeek!  Nerves are a little rattled but thanks to a couple of very special, wonderfully reassuring gals I'm feeling pretty okay about this.  :)



Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Day 224, Project 365

Went to Walton park tonight to see a father/son duo of Elvis Impersonators.  Beautiful night to be outside.  



 Before he sang 'American Trilogy' he asked all the vets to stand up; thought this was kind of cool of my father-in-law int he twilight and with the flag on his hat and all.  ;)

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Day 223, Project 365

Got out my 50mm 1.8 again today...I forgot how much I liked it.  I really concentrated on being still to get that sharp focus.  Not too bad, in my opinion.  :)




Monday, August 10, 2015

Day 222, Project 365

Well, I still haven't caught a butterfly in my garden so I'm settling for bees...


Saturday, August 8, 2015

Day 220, Project 365

Challenge accepted, Robin, challenge accepted.

I STRUGGLED with 'street photography' today...really struggled.  I was uncomfortable, felt incredibly obvious and just felt like I wasn't capturing anything - or that there weren't the 'right' subjects for me to capture.  I think what got me rolling was seeing a photographer stop for a photo, I watched what he was doing and found a little click of inspiration.
I was drawn more to pets and kids just because that seemed easier (that is until my oldest said "You can't take pictures of people and post them on the internet.  That's illegal!", it kind of made me feel like a creep!  ;)  )  Anyway, once I really started looking I started finding.

All in all I felt pretty productive today.

This is probably my favorite:


Thursday, August 6, 2015

Day 218, Project 365

Mixing it up...a little.  :)

On a side note, I took an online class night for some editing tips...anxious to start applying the things I learned.  Hope this is the first of many!!



Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Day 217, Project 365

You didn't expect me to change things up overnight, did you?  ;)
Yes, flowers again.  These were not in my yard though.  I actually stopped somewhere (with Lauren in the car so I didn't need to worry about locking myself out!!) got out and snapped a few.

A special thanks to Robin for the encouragement AND the suggestions!  :)  I just may do a few of those things.  And street photography is probably the most outside my comfort zone so it's a good place to start.


Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Day 216, Project 365

I've got to start challenging myself somehow.  My photos are becoming mundane.  Flower, dog, cat, repeat.  I'm not looking for the unique things or changing perspective, I think.  Not sure how I'm going to accomplish this but I need to try so this project doesn't become monotonous for me.

Obviously today was not a day I went for the different perspective or subject...


Sunday, August 2, 2015

Day 214, Project 365

Sometimes I get big ideas...that kinda, sorta pan out.  I took a road-trip today.  All.by.myself.  Like, all alone.  No one to talk to.  No one to be my cover and make me feel less like a fool if I want to stop and take a picture.  I had to go somewhere and say "just one, please".  If I wanted to be in a picture, well, guess what?  Selfie-time (note to self:  selfie-stick next time...way easier).
I survived.  I actually, truly did.
I learned a few things, too:  I can do things on my own.  I do like to have company sometimes (most times), though.  It was really fun to listen to all my own music and sing like I was the lead for every single song that I played.  I'm not entirely comfortable doing things on my own but I can do it.  And despite my fear of being totally judged, I'm guessing for the most part, no one cared except me.  I learned that if I see something I'd like to snap a picture of, stop the first time because I'll probably regret it.  I spent a lot of time backtracking because I passed something and regretted not stopping.  And as for feeling stupid for stopping and taking a random picture on the side of the road?  NO ONE cares!  I learned that I have a hunger to discover and see the world...or Minnesota anyway.  Lastly, and probably my most important lessons learned?  There are nice people in the world (and yes, they might even be Iowans) who will do the right thing and never, ever, ever get out of your car without taking the keys and/or cellphone or at the very least make sure the doors are unlocked.

Yup, that last one was a brutal lesson to learn.  It actually still makes my stomach turn a little bit.  I drove past a dilapidated, abandoned farm and yes, turned around because I knew I had to have a picture.  Got out of the car, shut the door, took my pictures and went back the driver's side and lo and behold...doors were locked, keys in the running car and phone inside.  Pure panic set in.  I first envisioned myself sitting in front of this broken down farm for hours and hours.  Then quickly realized, I'm on a relatively busy highway but in the middle of nowhere (Marion, MN or close to there, I guess?  Yup, I had never heard of it either) and I'm going to have to wave someone down to call 911.  Then I'm thinking, crap, we might have to break the window...ugh, what a pain.  Then, I realized that the car has a code on the door!!  Truthfully, this all happened in about one minute's time but it felt like forever, like things were in slow motion.  I waved at one car, no luck.  Then I waved at the next.  They slowed, then turned around; bless their hearts!  Iowa plates and I could see it was a dad and his older teenage son.  Honestly, I wasn't even worried about safety of any kind and I was just relieved.  I get a little panicky so I'm sure I sounded close to hysterical but I asked if they had a phone I could use and that my keys were in the car and I rambled about stopping to take a stupid picture.  I called my hubby, he gave me the code and all was well.  I think I thanked these two guys 20 times.  I told them they were angels...they absolutely were!  In this day and age it's awfully scary to think of stopping for someone.

With all of that, here's the picture of the damn barn I had to stop for.  ;)


And for the record, I have a new fondness for Iowa.  And here's proof:

As long as I've made this post this long, I may as well include my other shots:

The falls, thus the reason 'Niagara Cave'.  (Excuse the crappy, poorly lit pictures!)

Fossils in the cave.

Bacon Strips 

Stalactites 

Crossed the State Line Road

I didn't get to go on an Amish tour, but after a little driving around I found an Amish buggy going down the road. I was too scared to take a pic dead-on (Amish can't/don't/won't have the picture taken, thought I'd try an be respectful and really didn't need to be stoned to death or something).  ;)