Summer Heat

Boy, is it hot out there...

My chickens are actually panting!

How are y'all keeping cool this summer?

Scavenger Hunt

This week was quite a roller coaster.
Those unexpected dips and curves made my heart hurt. You know that feeling?
 But you know what, I am confident that God is just as good now as He has always been :)
So, on with a new day and a new week:


I didn't really rise to my own expectations with these prompts,
but I certainly enjoyed them!
How about you?


1. Wrapped

2. Time Together

3. Tell Me A Story

These crickets were destined to be chicken snacks but my tender-hearted little girl intervened (she sure knows how to work those tears) so we gave them their freedom.

4. Love

5. Duplicated

Days Like These

Today I'm thinking about how fleeting life really is. Blink and you've missed it. 

This or That

Hey, have you ever taken indoor photos with just your ISO in mind?? 

Well, that's what I was experimenting with yesterday. 

And today. 

See, I took pictures of my living room fan & light yesterday but when I took a look at them late last night I was shocked and appalled at what I saw- 

let's just say, if I had a Cleaning Lady, she would be fired.

But since I'm the one responsible for dusting around here I just had to suck it up. 

;)

Anyway, after some brisk dusting this morning I started again.

Here's what I got:

All of these images are 85mm, f/2, 1/160 sec so you can really see how the increasing sensitivity 

of the ISO effects the exposure. 

 I had fun with this...

 and the added bonus of a clean living room!

Want to give it a try?

Wordless Wednesday

I fell a little behind on my photography homework... thankfully I have a really sweet teacher :)
We experimented with the shutter during the first part of the week and then got creative!
I know my salt & pepper shakers aren't the most inspiring things in the world but my focus is very creative ;)

Creative Focus (1)

Creative Focus (2)

Contemplate Your Shot (yep, I thought long and hard about this)

Shoot Where You Are (@the computer, of course!)

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday 
(and trying to keep it a little bit less wordy this week)

and a new (to me) linkup:

Thanks for stopping by!

Scavenging with Ashley Sisk

Yay! After delivering her beautiful baby girl 5 weeks early, Momma Sisk is back!
Head over to her blog {Ramblings and Photos} to see hers and everybody else's interpretations.

Thanks for swinging by!

1. Water

We have had tons of rain and T-storms here but I wanted something brighter- like my new hummingbird feeder!

2. Petal

3. Fresh

A big thanks to my 6 little hens for these lovely eggs :)

4. Eight

Did you feel like you just had to count them?? Yes indeed, there are 8 red petals :)

5. Calm

Don't you love quiet Sunday afternoons?

Wordless Wednesday

Well, I don't have much to say about Wednesday- it's been a rainy, quiet, Sense & Sensibility day.
However I have plenty to say about yesterday:
Tuesdays are the best... one of my favorite days of the week and always brimming with possibilities. While Monday is often filled with angst over my lack of productivity, Tuesdays are usually the polar opposite. I feel a spring in my step before I even have my first sip of coffee (and believe me, that's saying something). I stay focused, I have loads of patience and we almost always have time for a swim either in our kiddie pool or at The Club Pool.

On Tuesday there are more hours in my day, or so it seems.

I woke up yesterday feeling excited as usual. My to do list was simple and easy: Chores, photography homework, then off to the pool. I especially felt excited about my photography homework: shutter practice outdoors. This shouldn't take long I thought as I took out the trash and checked out the hummingbird feeder for a possible photo op. Hummingbirds would be the perfect subjects- if I set a fast shutter, I could capture sharp images- frozen in space. A long shutter would produce delicious motion blur. I pictured beautiful and artistic images that would make my teacher proud.
Dang. The feeder had been taken over by sugar ants. I didn't want to photograph sugar ants. Ok, no big deal, I quickly rinsed the ants off and hung the feeder back up but as I turned toward the house to get my camera, the wire cord snapped, the bird feeder fell to the ground and shattered into a hundred sharp, curvy pieces. Now, I'm the kind of girl who doesn't like wearing shoes. If I had been on my way to feed the chickens I would have been wearing my "poop boots" as my little girl calls them but unfortunately I neglected to put anything on my feet since I was just stepping out onto the deck for a second... I felt silly pulling shards of glass from my foot. I felt downright grumpy as I swept up the mess and scrubbed blood off the back deck. 

My perfect hummingbird photos had slipped away. But I wasn't giving up so easily.

This was Tuesday, after all.

I hobbled through the store, picked up one of the last feeders of the season and headed to the pool with my children, who never forget a promise. As soon as we came home from the pool and the kids were tucked into bed I filled the new feeder, hung it in the old spot, picked up a good book and my camera and waited...

Those fickle little birds didn't show up until 7:00 PM and even then, they didn't stick around long. I only got a couple measly shots, hardly enough to satisfy my shutter requirements.

f/3.5, 1/200sec, ISO 400

Feeling defeated, I hobbled up the hill to practice on birds who:

a. don't move fast and

b. can't fly away

f/3.5, 1/320sec, ISO 800

...and that's about the time it started to rain. 

Seriously? This feels surprisingly like a Monday.

I retreated to the house and looked out at the rain,
hoping it would go away before every shred of light had vanished.
Of course, that's when the bottom fell out. 

And that's when I decide to roll with it. I flopped down on the kitchen floor with the back door open
and snapped away. 

The rain turned out to be the best practice I could ask for-

and since I had just scrubbed the back deck earlier that day, there were even bubbles! 

Perhaps not as interesting as Hummingbirds in flight, but definitely better than chickens.

As for Wednesday's homework: Creative Focal Points, I think I'll stick with something safe. 

And I'll definitely be wearing shoes.

Macro Monday

Hey y'all, happy Monday!

So, it's the beginning of Week 2 in the photography e-class I'm taking at SweetViolet. The topic is Shutter and the homework today is "shutter practice indoors" so while my children were napping I poured some iced coffee, popped in my ear buds and started setting up a still life that would make for good shutter practice. 

After I snapped a few photos I realized the song that was playing:

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn...

I couldn't help but ask myself- is this a coincidence, or did those lyrics give me the idea in the first place? I'll never know, but I frequently catch myself singing or humming songs that are strangely perfect (or perfectly strange) for the situation... is that really weird? Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

Linking up with something new today, head over to Lisa's Chaos to see more!

Scavenger Hunt!

Hey y'all! Weren't these great prompts?
I had a great time with them and I can't wait to see YOURS!

1. Patriotic

Instagram- holler!

2. View From Above

iphone- best camera is the one you have, right?

3.Mosaic

Tough one! What do you think, do sequins count??

4. Something Tiny

5. Vibrant

Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Thursday...or Friday

Hey, how was your week? Did you have a delightful Independence Day? 

It was so nice to have the holiday in the middle of the week but I keep getting my days mixed up.
I think I've got it all straight now- today is Thursday, right? ;)

This month I'm taking a Photography class from my sister at Sweet Violet- so far, so good!
This week's topic was Aperture- how it effects depth of field and light.

Here's my homework:
Day 1- Indoor Depth of Field Practice

Day 2- Outdoor Depth of Field Practice 

Day 3- Basic Skills Practice

Day 4- Extra Challenge: Ordinary Beauty

Day 5- Snapshot of My Life

Tune in next time for Shutter homework! Joy!