Category: Photography

I Am Unable To Post The Answer From Last Month

Sorry about that.  I left it in my other computer.  Just so everyone knows, we were able to get a new car form the rental place, nicer, much NICER and at the same rate.  It has been a busy, busy month.  We were able to get to Kentucky for Megean and David’s wedding.  It was fun and busy.  Jacob ended up playing the piano for the ring ceremony.  Tomorrow will be one month of marriage for them, I hope they still like eachother 🙂  They are a cute couple and very photogenic.  Though I am not going to post pictures, I want them to be able to do that first.  We made it home safely and on the way we found a really cool outlet mall in Indiana.  We found tennis shoes that we have been looking for and like.  Right now we are sitting in a Panera waiting to go to the airport.  And we will be in SLC for the week!  We are alive, we are very busy.  as soon as we got back from Kentucky, we went to work, got sick (me from the preschool germs,a nd jacob from my germs from the preschool), we traveled all ovver the place, and we had both cars go very south on us, so we end up getting a new car.  Well, new to us, it is an old mssion car.  We both like it, which surprises both of us very much.  Life is good when we are working.  Oh, and I got my hair cut again.  Picture to come later, today or sometimethis week.  And some sort of a quiz, is forth comming too, you just can’t have the last one’s answer until we get back home.

Five Fewer Fish

I wasn’t working per se, but I did go in to the preschool.  I donated 5 fish, 2 Yellows and 3 Hammers, very pregnant Hammers.  So now I have about 42 fish in the tank still.  I went over to take the fish, and to take more “class photos.”  The kids are cute, but very active and some absolutely refuse to smile for the camera.  Some say “cheese” and this is what the mouth ends up doing.

   

Now, I am sure they think they are smiling, but that is not the shot Mommy and Daddy will want to use to order prints for the grandparents.   We need to come up with a better word to use to make kids smile for pictures.  Any suggestions?

It is an absolutely great feeling when a person (young or old) tells me they won’t smile, and they eventually do, or I am able to catch them off guard and make them smile for me.  In the end, I was able to get natural smiles out of these three, but I had to work for it.

I Don’t Want To Smile

Today I was at the preschool again.  The funniest thing I heard…backtracking, I was on the infant side, and I was also taking pictures for class pictures.  So the best thing I heard a kid say was Girl J (3 years) “I do not have a camera like that at my house.”  I told her that was ok.  I got a hand full of good shots, but it was a little too chilly for the kids.  I am hoping that tomorrow will be a nicer day temperature wise so we can get a lot more good shots.  One of the student workers saw some of the pictures I had on the camera and said she thinks I “should get into photography”….  Speaking of which I have a couple more good shots of a spider, another barn spider (I think), this one is outside my desk window.  I think this one is the male or female, which ever the other one is not, since it has just slightly different coloring.  If it is a different kind, I am interested in knowing what it is.  I seem to feel less afraid of them when I know what they are and where they are coming from.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Today we drove to St Louis to take Erin back to the airport.  We will miss her and hope she has a great semester.  After we dropped her off we went to find the Panera Bread Company and The Viking Store that we found on our honeymoon.  So we took Karen to see the cool store and while there found The Container Store, the ultimate OCD enabler.  And amazingly enough the weather was pretty good.

Also, yesterday our friend Evan did a photo shoot for us (Jacob’s family).

Wedding Bells Are Ringing

Karen was hired to take wedding photos for a young couple. I went as her assistant. The day started out cold but no wind**. By the time the wedding was over the wind was blowing hard***. We got some pretty good shots. I hope they are pleased with the results. I saw six brides today, and I understand that there were more before we got there.

The snow was crazy again today. It is days like this that make me wonder why Al Gore invented global warming, and why doesn’t it seem to work? It was anything but warm today.

Three of today’s brides.

*I am writing this after the fact as though it is current, and pre-dating my post. As it is my site, I reserve the right to do so.

**So it was relatively nice.

***That was not so nice.

Say Cheese

Snow is still around, good for pictures! Though I still do not like to be cold.

I offered to take some pictures for Jason, Jessie, and Aiden playing in the snow, but Aiden is the only one crazy** enough to play in it. So this morning I got some cute shots of her.

This afternoon Rick and Ginny came over and I got lots of pictures of them in the snow. I hope there is at least one that they like enough to use. Rick was so cold and tired of having snowballs thrown at him, so we were unable to get a good one of a snowball in the air. I am sure I could photoshop one in there. Directly against Skyler’s orders I got some kissing pictures. He told them that they are not allowed to kiss anymore until they are married. He he he.

This evening I babysat for other friends, and while I was there the doorbell rang. All three kids*** ran to the door. I opened the door and there he was. In his red suit and white hair, it was Santa Clause. He looked a little concerned and asked if it was the Smith**** house. I said it is and he looked relived. He asked the kids if I was the babysitter and they shouted “yes.” He asked it they had been good, again the chorus of “yes.” And he said then he brought them a plate of cookies/goodies. He “Ho! Ho! Ho!” ‘d and hopped in his old white car and drove away. Then the 6 yr old girl asked if that was the real Santa? I not knowing quite what the parents’ take on the issue is, asked her what she thinks. She said she thinks it is the real Santa, and the 4 yr old boy said he thinks it isn’t, so I asked why he thinks that. He said, “Because he wasn’t wearing red and white striped boots.” I said he was wearing a red suit with white trim, and the girl said he was “wearing black boots, and that is what Santa wears.” He seemed satisfied with that. Then when I put them to bed the older two made me promise to “tell mom and dad that the real Santa was here.” I obliged.*****

*I am writing this after the fact as though it is current, and pre-dating my post. As it is my site, I reserve the right to do so.

**By crazy I mean young enough to not know it is a crazy idea

***2,4 & 6 I think

****Insert family surname here

*****The 2 year old, he just wanted candy from the plate, he didn’t seem to care who brought it.

So Close-ish

This is a Picture of the sky we saw as we left Sam’s wedding (Jacob’s cousin), also the same day we took Erin to the airport for schooling.  We, meaning Richard and Karen and I, Jacob had a band thing to attend.

Here is a picture from the wedding.  It was a Civil War Wedding, and it was pretty cool!  Her dress was fabulous.

Standing in Nowhere, Illinois

It is amazing that we can stand in our small town and see details in the night sky.  Tonight we went out with Erin and Keri to our favorite cemetery  (yes, the same one where we visited with the Police Officer) with the telescope.  We saw the galaxy Andromeda, Jupiter and his moons, our own moon, and the Milky way was incredible.  With my camera on my tripod, this is what I captured.

And, looking through the telescope this is what we saw.

The way the telescope works with the mirrors, it places the image upside down and reversed.

It is just amazing to see all that detail, even most of it is visible through binoculars.

We had a great time, and I just wanted to share it.

Lunar Eclipse

We may sound just a little crazy when I tell you that we got up at 3:30 this morning to watch the eclipse. We stayed up for two hours with the telescope watching the shadow begin and become a full eclipse. Here are a few of the pictures we captured, from our front porch. The moon set while the eclipse was full.
Short version:


Long version:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L51HHNWZGw[/youtube]

This is a good site to see what other things may appear in the sky, just look around.