Sepia Scenes - The Daisy

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Wordless Wednesday - Belly Sliding

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ABC Wednesday -B

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B=BLOCKS
Here is my daughter with one of her Christmas gifts.

Shadow Sunday

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This is my first Shadow Sunday. My daughter loves seeing how big her shadow is.

Monochrome Monday - Koi Pond

Botanical Gardens 2006
Look at that face on the little cherub. So sweet.

Sky Watch - Memories of Spring

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Winter 2009

Winter 2009 is shaping up to be a cold, blustery, snowy, icy, year and my kids couldn't be happier. They don't have sleds but they do just find going down the hill on their butts. We talked about getting them sleds this year but honestly, why? They would probably kill themselves coming down the hill on a sled. I think this way they have a little more control.

Handsome has been going up the hill alone since the end of last winter. It took me 2 years to let him go alone. My daughter, Goddess was allowed up there this year which is simply crazy to me. She is so much smaller than my son was when we used to walk him up there, now she is going alone. When she asked this year I told her maybe next year but my husband trumped my year wait and she was told she could go up. Watching her climb the hill and go down the ice rock makes my heart sink each time but would I have thought she was ever really ready? The answer is, probably not! I still cringe when my 5.5 year old, who is the size of a 7 year old goes up. I am happy they are having fun and hopefully these are the things they will remember when they are angry teens who hate us.

Sepia Scenes - A Boy & A Dog

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Isn't it amazing how a change in color can alter the mood of a photo?
This is a picture of my son, holding my friend's dog Tiffany. He wants a dog so bad!

Lens Day Challenge: White - Necture of the God's In Natures Refrigerator

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Mucho Snow!

Family Foto Fun Friday - Me

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This week's theme is ME

I continue this from my main blog Maria's Space because honestly, how many pictures of me can I have on one blog?

Ok, where was I???

Here I am with my sisters. I am the one wearing white and must be about 5 years old. The puppies were a litter of twelve from our family dog Coco. This must have been big news back then because the paper came out and took pictures and wrote a story about Coco and her family. My sisters and I were all in the paper and felt like celebrities. I should really scan the paper so I can post it.

This was the Christmas before we became a family of 4. I am 6 months pregnant with Goddess and so happy. Finding out I was having a girl was so exciting to me. Here is the story of my baby girl.

As I said on the last post at Maria's Space, now this is huge. Man, I absolutely hate this picture but really this was me. Goddess would be taken by C-section the very next morning (see my pre-registered wrist band). I was so ready to meet my baby girl but scared to leave my son for a few days. Looking at this picture actually makes me ache.

This is me in the beginning of September. I knew that life was just about to get very scheduled and busy so I took a photo of myself relaxing, listening to music on the deck. I love using accent when I shoot black and white. Love my Canon Powershot for this reason.

Here is my family picture taken the end of September 2008 for the kids school. Getting everyone to settle for the photo was annoying but when the school asked for a family photo I realized the last one we took was in April or May. We used to take a family photo weekly for the first 2 months and then monthly. What happened to us? I think everyone got to hard to make sit for a photo. My husband used to be the only problem but now there are two others who can say "no" or "later."

Sepia Scenes - Christmas Morning Videographer

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photography or to participate.

Here is Handsome this Christmas morning. He was excited to open his gifts but we had to wait 2 hours for his sister to wake up. Don't get me wrong, she is not a late sleeper, Handsome just loves to wake before dawn. His current time is 5:48 a.m. Damn kids!

Wordless Wednesday - Playing in Natural Light

Monochrome Maniacs - Family Bonds

I took this picture on Friday of my niece, my daughter and my sister. Every year between Christmas and the kids return to school my family gets together to exchange gifts and catch up.

We usually go to my cousin's house because that is easy for my sister (who takes mass transit) to get there. It is about an hour and a half for me and the visit is usually quite rushed.

My cousin D has 2 children (11 and 13), my sister has 2 (7 & 10) and my 2 are (3 & 5). It is great to get together because there is a natural ease. Honestly, this is the same ease I have with most of my girlfriends. However, this picture of my sister, my niece and my daughter reminds me of the ties that bind my family.

We only see each other 2-3 times a year but the comfort is still there. Look at my daughter's face. She is 3 and you can tell that she loves these two as if she sees them everyday.

Learning Aperture and Shutter Speeds

Since receiving my new camera for Christmas, I am very interested in learning about Shutter speeds and aperture. I don't know anything about photography. I have a vision and I try to capture the feeling I get from the vision in each picture. Other than that everything else may as well be written in another laugage.

My go to site for photo information is DPS (Digital Photography School). I subscribe to their newsletter and look forward to each one.

Here is a article from the last newsletter.

As you increase the size of your aperture (make the hole that you shoot through bigger) you let more light into your image sensor. As a result you will need a shorter shutter speed. In the opposite way if you increase the length of time your shutter is open you decrease the necessary aperture that you’ll need to get a well exposed shot.
Priority Modes

Aperture and Shutter Priority modes are really semi-manual (or semi-automatic) modes. They give you some control over your settings but also ensure you have a well exposed image by the camera making some of the decisions on settings. Let me explain each separately:

Aperture Priority Mode

(often it has a symbol of ‘A’ or Av’ to indicate it’s selected)

In this mode you as the photographer sets the aperture that you wish to use and the camera makes a decision about what shutter speed is appropriate in the conditions that you’re shooting in.
DofPhoto by carpe icthus

When would you use Aperture Priority Mode? - if you remember our tutorial on aperture you’ll see how the main impact that aperture had on images was with regards to Depth of Field (DOF). As a result most people use Aperture Priority Mode when they are attempting to have some control in this area. If they want a shallow DOF (for example in the shot to the right which has the flower in focus but the background nice and blurred) they’ll select a large aperture (for example f/1.4 - as in the example to the right) and let the camera choose an appropriate shutter speed. If they wanted an image with everything in focus they’d pick a smaller aperture (for example f/22) and let the camera choose an appropriate shutter speed (generally a longer one).

When choosing an Aperture keep in mind that the camera will be choosing faster or longer shutter speeds and that there comes a point where shutter speeds get too long to continue to hand hold your camera (usually around 1/60). Once you get much slower than this level you’ll need to consider using a tripod. Also if you’re photographing a moving subject your shutter speed will impact how it’s captured and a slow shutter speed will mean your subject will be blurred).
Shutter Priority Mode

(often has a symbol of Tv or S)

In this mode you as the photographer choose the shutter speed that you wish to shoot at and let the camera make a decision about what aperture to select to give a well exposed shot.

When would you use Shutter Priority Mode? - in our tutorial on shutter speed we talked about how the main impact of different shutter speeds was how ‘movement’ would be captured in your images. As a result most people switch to shutter priority mode when they want more control over how to photograph a moving subject.

For example if they want to photograph a racing car but want to completely freeze it so there is no motion blur they’d choose a fast shutter speed (say at 1/2000 like in the first shot below) and the camera would take into consideration how much light there was available and set an appropriate aperture. If instead you wanted to photograph the car but have some motion blur to illustrate how fast the car is moving you might like to choose a slower shutter speed (like the second shot below which has a shutter speed of 1/125) and the camera would choose a smaller aperture as a result.

Keep in mind that as the camera chooses different apertures it will impact the Depth of Field in your image. This means if you choose a fast shutter speed to freeze your fast moving object that it’ll have a narrower DOF.
Practice

As you can see - Shutter and Aperture Priority modes do give you more control over your images but they do take a little practice to get used to.

As you use them you need to not only think about the setting that YOU set but also keep an eye on the setting that the camera selects for you.

I find that when shooting in Av or Tv modes that it’s often best to bracket your shots and shoot a number of images of the same subject (where you have time) at different settings. This will ensure that you’re likely to get at least one shot which meets your need.

The best way to learn about Shutter priority and Aperture Priority modes is to grab your camera, to head out with it and to experiment. Switch to Av or Tv and start playing with the different settings (taking lots of shots as you go). Particularly watch how the camera makes changes to compensate for your selections and what impact it has upon the shots that you take.

In Aperture Priority Mode take some shots at the largest aperture you can (small numbers) and see how it blurs the background (but also increases the shutter speed) and then head to the other end of the spectrum to take some shots at the smallest aperture you can (large numbers) to see how it keeps more of your image in focus.

In Shutter Priority Mode play with fast and slow shutter speeds and see how that impacts DOF.

Don’t be frustrated if your initial shots are not what you’d expect - it takes practice to get your head around these modes. But keep in mind that when you do master them you’ll have a lot more creative control over your shots. It’s really worth learning this.

DPS is full of interesting information on photography and is written for people like me, with limited knowledge.

[source]

Creative Photography - The Sign Of A Cold January Morn

Sky Watch Friday - Fire In The Sky

(Hit the button above to be taken to the home of Sky Watch)

I took this photo as the sun was going down. The sky was amazing. I was losing more and more of the redness as I played with the zillion settings on my new camera. It was ridiculous trying to figure out how to capture what I was seeing. This was one of the last pictures I got before running inside freezing. I did nothing to the color and wish I had more pictures.

Head over to my main blog for another picture of this sky

Sepia Scenes - Tea Time

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Winning Parent Magazines Holiday Prize Pack this year, was pretty big. I doubt I will win anything this big again. One of the things in my prize pack was a tea press. I have always wanted one and the moment I got the box, it was the first thing I took out.

After brewing the tea, I ripped open one of my wedding favors for the first time. At my wedding in 1997 I gave out tea cups and saucers as favors (did I mention that I am a tea lover?).

I set the pot, the tea cup and saucer on a holiday tray that I have had for years and sat down to enjoy. It was awesome!!! I highly recommend it.