I lied - here is one more water picture. This is a view of our lake from way up yonder. Our little town is nestled right in the middle of the picture. Now I am going to bed - catch up more tomorrow!

This photo was from this summer - boys just wanna have fun... That does it for water photos...

This is another one I was playing around with for the water challenge. Pretty cool I thought...

This is a picture I took for the water category. It is a small pond we keep open for the ducks to drink and bathe out of. It has a reflection of a nesting box and then water dripping from the icy banks.

This is what the lake looks like during the summer. No wonder my husband only goes out when it is frozen over!

This photo is of my "grandkids". They are mardarin ducks and we think they are just gorgeous. We had a couple pair last year and they hatched out I think 8 babies so this is part of the crew.

This is a picture of the FROZEN lake we live on. Lake freezes over every two to three years. This is my DH after a "rough day at the office". My next post will be how the lake looks say.... mid August!

Wow! I bit the dust... the last two weeks have been crazy; my husband has been sick; been to a convention and then working on bills at the legislature; list of excuses goes on and on! But I really want to stay up with this challenge so I am going to post like 20 pics so I will be caught up. Will probably only give a short note as to what the photo is all about. If you have time, flip through all of them. CC and comments always appreciated. This photo was taken about 10:00 am last week after the fog lifted. I thought the tree house added a cool element to it.

I made this guy pretty nervous when I first stopped and he considered taking flight, but then he settled back down. Is he awesome looking or what? Such a magnificent bird.

I had to laugh at myself while taking these photos because back in November my husband and I were trying to decide what kind of new car to get. He wanted certain features and I wanted others. I had never had a sun roof before so I told him I thought one would be kind of fun. He wanted to know what in the world I would ever need something like that for. Well, now I have the answer! I parked right to the side of this bald eagle, popped the roof open, and shot away! Gotta love those little extras! Now I am off to Salt Lake City to a convention for three days so no posts until I get back. Don't want to take my Nikon to the big city so think I will opt for the p & s. Have a great weekend!

My Son...

How about a little CC and opinions on these photos? I ask my son if I could take some shots of him and he said only if he didn't have to stop watching TV. Hence, I did my best to not disturb him. I don't have any colorblasts so just played around with b/w and sepia. Which do you like and what do you think of the crops? All three were taken with a 85 lens/f4.0/Shutter priority and w/flash. Thanks for looking!

January 8, 2007

This photo was taken as I was getting screamed at by a 7 year old, "Mom, I am going to be late for practice! You love that camera more than you love me! Let's go!!!" But as has happened many times in the past, I couldn't resist stopping to catch this awesome sunrise. I will explain more about where we live next week when we blog/shoot about our Hometown. Thanks for looking! By the way - I did not touch the coloring on this pic - that is how brilliant the colors were. I did use noiseware due to not checking the iso but other than that, it is SOOC.

January 7, 2007

This photo is definitely me. I spend about 95% of my life at one kind of sporting event or another. My DH and I were both athletes back in our day and all 4 of our children have inherited the addiction. Right now our oldest is working for the University Bball team while going to school. Our 14 year old just finished his junior high season and is now playing on a super-league team in a town 45 minutes away. Our 12 year old daughter has her first junior high game this Friday and our 7 year old is two weeks into Little League bball - so we just leave the car on idle knowing we won't be home for long!

"Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow..."

Does this guy look like he is having a good time or what? He is quite a young bull - just a couple of years old probably. We have three of them hanging out in our area. Thanks for looking.

I couldn't decide which photo I liked better of this lil' feller so I posted them both. Nothing like fresh snow to brighten up a picture!

Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: AFS-VR 70-200mm
Auto mode

And the weird thing - these were taken through my south-facing window because it was too cold to go outside! I thought they would have more of a glare or distortion to them.

Probaby obvious by now that I lean towards outdoor/scenic shots. I love "shooting" my kids but still struggle with lighting. I take a lot of action shots at athletic events locally so be ready for those to start appearing.
Thanks for looking!

January 4, 2007

Hope you can see this photo - it is a little small but I did not want to crop it down any more. It was taken on a creek called Big Creek and it is usually frozen this time of year. The last couple of days have been unseasonably warm so parts of it opened back up. These ducks were taking advantage of the open water while it lasts. Thanks for looking and have a great day!

January 3, 2007

Busy, busy day yesterday. Didn't know if I would get a photo taken but then a friend called to say she was in town so we ran over to where she was staying and I got this photo of her son just getting out of the swimming pool. Was that a run on sentance or what? This little guy has the most gorgeous eyes ever.
Great to see old friends again. It is snowing pretty hard right now so my picture today will most likely be an outdoor shot. Thanks for looking!

January 2, 2007

Day two and I am still going strong! I thought I would sit out on my lawn and wait for the winter chickadees to come feed at our bird feeder. "Life" interferred and I did not make it outside until it was almost dark (and a mere 22 degrees F...). While I sat there shivering I noticed the moon breaking through the overcast skies we had had all day. Since the birds were not cooperating, I started messing around with the moon and this is what I came up with. Enjoy!

This isn't the most creative, but it will do for a start. Taken about 12:10 am this morning - New Years Day! Hubby quit us early but the kids (14, 12 & 7) and I stayed up until 1:30 am playing games. Nothing like good ol' bubbly Martinellis Sparkling Apple Juice to ring in the New Year.

My camera is a Nikon D70 and I have had it 2 years now. This photo is SOOC except for a little creative cropping. Thanks for looking!