Me!

As I was sorting through old pictures trying to find some that represent me and what I like I realized that there are a lot of things that I like and if I were to include them all this would be a REALLY long post! So I tried to break it down to a few things. I know there are things that I left out but hopefully this will give you a pretty good idea. I also realized that I don't take pictures of things that I dislike and because this is Friday night and I have a crazy day tomorrow I will just list a few things:)

My #1 dislike would probably have to be cockroaches! I don't like to say the word "hate" and try not to use it very often because I don't like my kids to use it but I think I can honestly say that I hate cockroaches!! When I was in high school I had a full time job milking cows and for two weeks out of the year for some reason we would have this surge of cockroaches that would come through. I was paranoid the whole time I was milking because I didn't want to step on one and hear it crunch. I even had to call my sister a few times to come milk for me because I couldn't stand it anymore. I can handle mice, spiders, and most bugs but NOT cockroaches!! Another dislike would probably be rock and roll music. I don't like listening to music that I can't understand the words to. Hmmm... it is late and I can't seem to come up with more dislikes so maybe I will add them later...

Now for the likes...

This photo has two likes in one. I love to read and I love to cook! When I have time that is and it seems like the more kids I have the less time I have to read and bake but I really enjoy doing both.
These are some of my favorite books and cookbooks.

I love the country! This is the dairy that I grew up working on and I love that I was able to learn the value of work growing up where I did.

Love the farm!! I have so many good memories of the farm!

I love my country and the am so very thankful for the freedoms and blessings that come with living here.


I love camping with friends and family! Camping is probably my favorite summer activity. I would go camping every weekend if I could.

Since this is a post about me I thought I would post a pic of me and the love of my life :)

I love to garden. It is a lot of work but I love the reward of the harvest and being able to walk outside to get the things I need for dinner right from the garden. Plus it gives me a reason to get my hands dirty in March when it is too cold to go outside still :)

I love sunflowers. It is probably my favorite flower. My kitchen in my old house had tons of sunflowers in it but I didn't really feel like it went with the decor as well with this house so I did away with most of them but I still have a few sunflower things hanging around.

I love that I live in a place where I can enjoy sunsets like these!

I love photography and that because of it I can take pictures of my kids like these :)

And more than anything I LOVE LOVE LOVE my family!! More than anything I LOVE my family!!!

Last but not least, I love my savior, Jesus Christ.

Well that is me in a nutshell. Maybe I will add things as I remember but this will do for now :)

Finishing up the Action Shots...

There was one more shot I really wanted to get and I didn't want to procrastinate it into next week and when I saw the boys outside playing I knew I had to take the opportunity while I had it. My kids are really cooperative when it comes to shots like this, which is really nice :)

Here I just combined the two so I don't hog up too much space :)

Settings on these were f2.8 ss 1/400 iso 100
shot with my 50mm

This is my panning shot that I really wanted to get and since my boys aren't world record fast on their bikes;) I had Lan jump on the four wheeler so I could get what I wanted. I told Ryley he could ride if he would look at me and wave as they went by:)

Settings: f6.3 ss 1/80 iso 100

Catching Up...

Since I was a total slacker last week I am hopefully going to catch up and get all the "shots" I wanted to do this week:) Here are mine so far...

I wish I would have had him face me so I could see his face. I only took a couple of them flipping and this was the only one in focus. I tried focusing before they flipped, trying to get them in the focus and not the background. However, I must have refocused because the focus fell on the trees in the bg and not on the boys.

Hmmm... I think he didn't get the memo that it is still winter!!

All of the above jumping ones were f3.5 ss 1/1000 iso 100

These ones I tried to do an effect called panning... I think the subject has to be moving faster than they could go on their bikes:) I am still going to try it later in the week but I thought I would post these anyways since these technically are still "action" :)

f3.5 ss 1/800 iso 100

This is one I tried the other day... This is just one showing more motion I guess :) When I couldn't get the original look I was going for I tried a slower shutter speed but since it was so bright outside I had to raise my f-stop really high in order to get the slower ss.

f20 ss 1/40 iso 100

Another Blue...

Because my ultimate goal is to take better pics inside my house and because I think he is so cute in his superman shirt:)...
What I learned...
-I still can't get Tate to show his real smile for the camera. This is probably the closest I have come but its still not it.
-If I roll up my blinds, instead of just opening them I get LOTS more light. There was still a little bit of a yellow cast on the left side of his face (camera right) but that was easy to remove.

f2.8 ss 1/160 iso 800

-This one I just pulled him away from the couch and shot from above to remove all the distractions in the bg. Our tv is big and I don't think it makes a very good backdrop. :)
-Looking at it now the color still seems a little off??? Guess I still need to work on that :)

f2.8 ss 1/200 iso 800

Not portrait worthy but definitely better than most snapshots inside my house.

Sharon's Blue...

BLUE #2

This idea came to me last night while I when I was trying to go to sleep but also wondering what I was going to do for my "blue" project today. I wanted to find a way to make it more interesting but my mind kept coming up blank. That is until I was sitting in my big comfy chair reading a book, thinking about all the other things I "should" be doing, I looked over and saw the lines on the table. I'm not sure I accomplished the look I was going for but that is what practicing and learning is all about. Right?

What I like/dislike:
-I like that the shadow of the glass leads the eye to the glass.
-I like the lines on the table but not the blinds in the background. Maybe if I had shot more of an upward angle I could have eliminated some of the bg.
-I don't like the water spots/smudge marks on the top of the glass. I saw them but was hoping you wouldn't be able to see them in the photo. Next time I will know better :)

Settings were: f4.5 ss 1/8000 iso 250
Shot with my 50mm

So not the most exciting pic in the world and probably more red than blue but my focus was the blue gum ball.

What I think I could have done better:
- closed down my app. just a little so the focus was more on the blue gum ball
- I was going for the split lighting but maybe should have diffused the light on the left a little so that it looked more blue or reflected the light onto the other side of the gumball so it wasn't so dark.
-I wish I had left a little more room on the bottom of the frame so the gum ball wasn't so close to the bottom.

What do you think?

Settings were f4.0 ss 1/160 iso 1250 -
Shot with my 100mm macro on my kitchen table window light camera left.