Self Portrait Challenge...

Ya'll have seen me (waves high)


but tonight I tried to take a picture of something else that has defined me for almost 9 months, well actually 9 times 3 if you wanna add it all up each time..the BELLY. This is our last little one, and I wanted to capture the moment but self timer is HARD when you are shooting into the dark and trying to lock focus..so I will have to try again when the hubby can press the button, but right now, this baby seems to be ruling my life, always making the doctors change their minds and threaten induction for high fluid levels and BAM they drop, then oh ok well now he is breach..well I think he flipped after dinner tonight because it sure feels different than it did.. He is a booger baby for sure and he isn't even here yet! From the threatened miscarriage in July, to the Pulmonary Embolism in Aug, twice daily shots of blood thinners in my belly since then and ALL the other tests they keep running on him, they can't find anything wrong...he is our miracle baby already and I can't wait to hold him..any day now actually! The kids love seeing him on the ultrasound every week and already have big plans for Baby G. So thats why this is my "self portrait" for today!

I missed some days but I'm back!

The hormones during these last few weeks of pregnancy have REALLY hit me like a truck, lol, I feel like a crazy person crying one min and laughing the next! Oy vey, is this over yet?! We got some snow today though, and of course the kids were excited even if it made mommy cry :P We had to drive in it though which is why I was upset, we had a non-stress test today, baby G is good and fluid is lower than last week which means they won't be chasing after me screaming about induction (YAY, I REALLY want a med free birth this time, no pit please!) BUT he is breach..So if you could say a prayer he'll flip because I DO NOT want a C-section at all, it scares me to death! On to the pictures!

another favorite thing...

Another one of C's favorite things is her "baby woof", so when C wanted pictures today I pulled out some old canvas I bought for Eli's cake smash back when he was one (ek, so long again it seems!) and we tried some blue for variety! I have to admit though, I LOVE the black and white, what do you think?

favorite book..

I grabbed the camera and realized, yep, its dark again! So I figured why not practice bouncing my flash again. Charleigh grabbed her favorite book and was up for modeling so here she is! Her favorite color alternates between purple and pink depending on the day but this has been her favorite book for almost 2 years now, we have a DVD of daddy reading this before his last deployment and it has been a bedtime staple ever sense! It is a really cute story, if you have never read it and have a little girl it is worth a look! Should have bumped up the exposure/flash a little it looks darker here than in PS eh, I'll keep practicing!

I'm cheating today..

This isn't a photo I took today but I did finish designing it for my little cake smash cutie I shot last week! So, since its late and I'm tired its gonna have to work ;) It is photography related though so hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things tomorrow, now back to homework because I can't handle making a B+ in two classes lol, I'm to much of a perfectionist nerd for that ..so sad

waited until it was late again..

so I played around with my flash and hubby's garage! I originally started with it on camera and decided I would try it off and see what kind of effects I could get! Not perfect but it was fun! I turned out the overhead light for the one with the biggest flare..it was pitch black out there so focusing was interesting but I think I will def. try this again!

Fun Friday: COLOR!

We went hunting around the house for colors of the rainbow for our Fun Friday project 365. Of course since it was Charleigh they had to be in the right order! Here is our storyboard!

how he makes it home after being in the field...

Its the DEW baby! I don't like soda, I NEVER drink it..something about the bubbles..but it makes me happy to see this on my counter because it means the hubby is home from the field or training or whatever. So this little green bottle will never tempt me to drink it (I'll stink to my coffee please and thank you) but it will always make me smile! I played around with some funky processing and bounced my flash because I JUST took this picture and it is dark in my kitchen!

Mission for today, use my flash on camera...

and learn to check my ISO settings! I accidently had my ISO at 2,000 for these..WHOOPS..but here they are anyways because its to late to retake haha! Didn't really edit them to much, ran a vintage action on the stuffed animals, these are ALL the animals E has to have in his bed each night, its a process for sure! And then a few of the kids playing in E's room before bed, I need to work on bouncing my flash so thats what I was doing tonight, bouncing off the wall to the left with the flash on camera and set to +.7 for compensation..I think they turned out ok, I'm happy I got a little bit of catchlights instead of pin lights!

Trying to play catch up!

We had internet issues and it FINALLY got fixed today, whew!

Here is Sunday's photo, we actually had a nice day and got to play outside!! The kids had a blast and ran in circles for hours and of course we had to drag every toy we owned out of the garage!





Then we did Eli's first haircut, actually Daddy did it because mommy was to busy being a crying mess because her baby now looks like a big boy :( But he is an adorable big boy! Excuse the bad lighting in these, it was late and he started cutting before I could even grab my camera!



and finally before I go take my photo for today, the storyboard from the cake smash! I LOVE how it turned out! This little girl was SUCH a doll I can't get over her eyes!

yesterday's photo..internet is STILL down :(

Here is a photo from yesterday, I had the opportunity to do a one year old session for this ADORABLE little girl! I did get cake smash pictures but haven't finished them yet! I will post tonight's photo later, I'll have to drive up here to the library parking lot again ;)

Fun Friday!

So the challenge this week was your favorite childhood character or toy and immediately I knew what I wanted to do! I had hoped to get BOTH kids in the picture but that proved to be to much lol, so here is Charleigh with "Are You My Mother" my favorite book and we added Eli's "Snort" because "oh, no you are not my mother, you are a snort!" is Charleigh and Eli's favorite part! I have more from this mini session and I'm planning on making a storyboard but I wanted to get this posted early !




and a few more from Eli even if he didn't want to sit with Charleigh and the book ;)

Curriculum....

I'm finishing up my homework for the last week of my current class and the subject for the discussion board this week was curriculum. I think this is word is one of the most important things in our text because with all of the emphasis on testing, security in school, IEPs, etc one thing teachers must have an input on and be inspired by is the curriculum they teach. It is why textbook companies spend some much time and money trying to sell why their book is better than the one currently in use and it is what teacher's use to write lesson plans that fit "standards". SO..pulled out the 50mm and played with DOF for emphasis! YAY a thought out post today, now off to write the paper I've been putting off!

Side note, I've been using blogger to upload some of these photos until I get my Flickr upgraded to pro because I filled it up lol, so if things look different from post to post that is why!

today was really busy...

and tomorrow will be too because both kids have check-ups in town so I can register them for the Friday Night Out that the Armed Forces YMCA offers here (YAY for date nights for me and hubby though, they watch the kids from 5-10 for only $10 per kid at the YMCA!) I snapped a quick shot of the album I made for the mom of the little girl I took photos for last week, I think it came out cute even though my product photography is lacking! I was going to do something else when we got home but it was really late and ya, you know the drill! This is a 3x3 album and there are photos on the back side of well! LOVE these things!

frozen fog..

i never knew what it was until today, because when people talked about it I was to lazy to go outside, but I love what it did to the trees..although I would have rather had my 40 degree weather that was promised and never got :P

Look Mom, No frostbite!

It FINALLY warmed up enough today to get outside, I think we were all excited! Lets hope this warming continues and they are right, Wed will be in the 40's!!!! I am still in love with the snow but I'm ready for it to melt for at least a few days!

"I take a picture mommy, I so Happy!"

Eli told me today that he "wanna take a picture mommy, wanna take a picture, I so happy!" so of COURSE I pulled everything out and threw it together in about 2.5 seconds and snapped away! I love his personality in these shots and it is NOT often that he wants to model for me, so that make today easy for P365! I am going to try to get to the lake this evening though, I've been dying to get a sunset shot but its been TOOOOOO cold and finally today we are warming up a tad so hopefully everyone will be up for a car ride!!



Classic Eli face

went a little to warm on this one, just forgot to re-upload..oh well


don't smile at the camera was taken a little to literally!

SOOC Sat

On another forum I'm on someone mentioned doing a project 52 of SOOC shots, to work on exposure, WB, etc in camera and spend less time in front of the computer! I love this idea because less pp work is more time to take pictures! So here is my first SOOC Sat shot, I'm going to do one a week on either Sat or Sun and work on everything "clicking" in camera. Horrible crop, guess I'll have to work on that next week ;) but other than resizing (and I didn't even use the size and sharpen for web action lol) this is hot off the camera!


Also gave hubby the camera for a brief moment, working on showing him the focus points/etc so he can take pictures of Baby G's birth! This is NOT SOOC haha, I'm not that brave!


edit to add more one, I love garage light to bad it is so cold out there! Can't wait for summer!

one word for today..

With a low of -13 tonight it is just COLD, but hopefully the weatherman is right and we will warm up into the 40s next week!! Never thought that would be "warm" to me but I'll take what I can get!

New tutu!

Made C a new tutu this morning and it is GIANT! I think next time I'll cut the strips a big shorter, but she loved it and thats what matters! I couldn't pick one for P365 so you get them all!

I waited late again to take a picture..

so excuse the lighting! I had a doc's appt today in Topeka, and I can now add the word "white out" to my vocabulary, never trust the weather channel's time table..I thought I would miss the snow..ya..that didn't happen. It was my worst driving nightmare come to life and I was scared to death on the little hwy coming home but I made it all in one piece! Baby G is already measuring 5lbs and technically I'm only 32 weeks! ACK! big boy! But the doc seems to think he will come early because he will be out of room lol! Everything is good with baby and mommy though so thats good :) I'll see my reg. doc next week and then the specialist again in Feb if I haven't popped! Time is running out, maybe I should start thinking about washing his sheets and getting the cradle set up!

Its not a fight to get her to make her bed...

Its a fight to get her to mess it up by sleeping in it! C makes her bed up like this EVERY day, she was so proud of it so I snapped a picture of her before bed tonight. Tried out a honey action because I was to lazy to grab my flash so the lighting was weird and there are no catch lights in her eyes, but it is a photo! yay! five days down lol!

Not kids, but another kind of love for my husband...

His other baby, his engine. Realized I hadn't picked up the camera today so I snuck out into the garage aka The Shop and caught some of hubby's engine and then one of him grinding some old welds off as well. I really pushed the camera, ISO was 2400 I think on one of these, maybe higher? I know at one point I was trying 6400 which on the D90 is REALLY pushing it haha, but I added texture so I wasn't to worried about noise anyways! EDIT TO ADD this is a KA24DE Nissan Engine, must cite correctly apparently if I'm going to invade his shop with my camera ;)