Old Man Winter is back . . . 118/365

and I made Khalila warm up by the fire place so that I can take some images of her "silhoutte" LOL Besides she has some awesome features.
Just a couple more weeks for spring, right?

117/365 Willow Tree Angels

Thank you to everyone who gave suggestions for yesterdays lighting problem. I played with it for about half an hour today. I used flash, bounced it off of the ceiling, bounced it off of the wall, used other house lights and nothing. Still ended up with a bad shadow. The only thing I didn't try was 2 studio lights facing each other. I will try that soon.

Just practicing with some more lighting. I've taken the 1 soft box and moved it in every possible direction. These are my Willow Tree Angles on a picture frame glass and scrapbooking paper for the background. See? I'm using my scrapbooking stuff!
lol

My Knight in Shinning Armor 116/365

He guards the house like no one else. He stands post and doesn't mind it at all.
Well I guess he's not really "my" Knight, he belongs to Dave. Story goes that he went shopping with his parents when he was very young, and from the moment they stepped into the furniture store he was mesmerized by this knight. He wouldn't take his eyes off of it. I don't know exactly how the rest of the story goes but they ended up taking him home where he watched Dave grow up. When Dave moved out the knight went for a vacation in storage. Many, many years later, when we bought our current home the knight came to take his rightful spot above our mantel/fireplace.
He's home and he's diligent.




Yuck! Huge shadows but since it's up against the wall and I only used one soft box not much I can do there. Or is there?
Tell my your opinion on my Post processing. Is it too much? Not enough.
I will try these shots again with a different lighting - maybe darker.

Winter Sunshine 115/365

When I got home from work today, I noticed the colors of the sun setting through my back door, lovely.


How's this for a little winter color?


Here's a little sunshine Dave made for me. I like it.

In response to yesterdays comments . . .

Yes the food was delicious! Khalila ordered the rice and I ordered the noodle dish. Neither one of them was spicey. If you like Chinese food you'd like these two dishes. Dave on the other hand loves spicey. He ordered Curry with white rice SPICEY! The ice tea is delicious and unique K & I think that's yummy too.

Thai Cuisine 114/365

Pineapple Fried Rice and Radnar (w/ tofu)


Thai Iced Tea

The Price of Freedom 113/365

For those of you on OPS I added these plus a couple more to a post there.
I've done alot of post processing because I think these images call for it.
The "shadow" is Dave, he was reading the names as I bent down to take the picture.

Twix & playing with photoshop 112/365

Played with photoshop


and this one is a freebie by Jenn
I'll give you a link later I'm running late.



These images of Isabella were taken by Pam Lopez on January 2009. Thanks Pam, Loved the pictures. Hope you like the P.Ping

Play date & sibling love 111/365

Isabella & I had our playdate tonight. She "earned" some stickers because of how successful she's been with potty training. After she plastered them all over her page she decided she didn't want them there and she started disbersing them on our faces. Please note the bright blue eye shadow on my face - that was from our "make over" She painted my face and I painted hers - LOL.


Her mom and aunt earned some face stickers too!

and finally my oldest and youngest. I used only one light and a reflector.


This is the fist time I use some "actions" on PSElements. I used Coffe shop FREE actions. See here:
She's got some really neat stuff.

I AM A VIKING 110/365

Well, I'm not a Viking - he is.

A&P & snow again 109/365

She's pretty tired of it, I tried to encourage her and tell her she's half way through with this semester, she says "not even close!" but at least she let me take her picture.


And looky, looky. . . .what has happened in the last 3 hours! More snow! Lots and lots of it. High ISO and it's pretty dark and wet out there.
I'm open for any suggestions on how to improve these images.

The dragon again 108/365

The dragon did such a great job his first time modeling for me I thought I'd try it again with better lighting.
She was calm and cooperated really good. I'm going to have to have David buy her a special treat. (they're called pinkies - ewwww!)

107/365

Yes it's late. I came home late and I was worn out.

Evening at home 106/365

The first pictures attempts show the fact that it's snowing again!
We are having friends over for a Chili (Dave made) and pinapple upside down cake I made. Since there are no children we have the fireplace going, lots of candles, music and some drinks.

This awesome template was a freebie by Jenn. see here

gotta go hang out. Have a great night.

Happy Valentines Day 105/365

My girls are learning a new language. Some sort of statistics class, sounds like a foreign language to me.



I've never been a candy and stuffed animal kind of mom, so, From Papa Dave and myself Miss Isabella got some Old Navy T-shirts, glitter glue, itty bitty markers and a book with poster size coloring possibilities.




Didn't get to spend too much time with her today as her social schedule was pretty packed.

A hidden member of the family 104 out of 365

I thought I would bring this family member out of the dungeon and introduce her to the world. Halo - the bearded dragon.

Bearded Dragon is the common name for any agamid lizard in the genus Pogona. They are native to Australia.

Bearded Dragons are popular exotic pets, notably the species Pogona vitticeps, the Inland or Central Bearded Dragon. These pets are also affectionately called "Beardies" by those who breed or raise them. They are a popular species among children, because of their friendly and calm nature, along with the relative ease of caring for them.



We've had Halo for 6 years, she was tiny (2 inches) she is now 24 inches long! She went into a period of hybernation and she scared me this time. Almost 2 months without food or water.

Everyday Beauty 103/365

When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator”
Mahatma Gandhi





I was on my way to pick up my daughter at the university and I had to turn the car around to watch the sunset. It does not matter what part of the world I'm in or where I am at, whenever I see a sunset it almost brings me to a halting stop. I take a deep breathe and I am grateful . . . .
Something about the beauty of sunsets just makes me think of how blessed and lucky I am.
So my point & shoot came through for me this time.

Dinner at home 102/365

No big deal except that I cooked because my daughter was supposed to come over for dinner but she ended up having car issues and Dave was working so I had a nice hearty meal by myself - between you and I, I don't mind being/eating by myself. I look forward to alone time. LOL

I seem to be having "red" issues with this picture. I cannot seem to find the correct balance for the color.


This is not the final outcome - it has a nice gravy to it and you serve it over mashed potatoes or rice. It turned out yummy!

Nice weather is still holding out 101/365

and I couldn't be happier about it, my dogs are pretty happy too.
This is Twix, she's pretty head strong for her 10 pounds. Prime lens 50mm, 1.4. Look at that bokeh.



Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made." ~ Roger Caras

POST #100 out of 365!

This picture describes how I feel today. It's not too often I feel like this, but on my 100th day of posting - this is how I feel.

My picture for today our Gristmill wheel.

Valentine mini session 99/100

It was a difficult session because the subject did not want to co-operate. We had to call in Papa Dave who was so persuasive she just grinned at him - LOL. Oh he has a way with the ladies. I also used my prime lens and I'm so used to zooming in and out without having to move but I wanted to try something different. Oh and her mom was suppose to be holding the reflector and next thing I know the reflector is in another room! LOL
But, I think they turned out pretty darn cute.

To see the rest of these visit my flickr or My other blog

A heat wave today! 98/365

Today the weather was a wonderful 60 degrees and I took a lot of pictures!
The sunshine, the warm weather just inspired me. After yesterdays sorry attempt at a sunset, I decided to find a good place to take a picture of the sunset. That took us to Miller Beach (Lake Michigan) and one of my favorite spots out there The Lagoon (Gary Indiana). Oh yeah, we took the dogs with us. They also needed to get out.
I couldn't decide which one to post so I picked five. If you want to see the whole set, I've uploaded it to flicker http://www.flickr.com/photos/16119903@N07/

TGIF! 97/365

It's been a long week and I'm tired.
This beautiful image was taken by Pam - when she came to visit last month she did a mini session with Isabella. She was showing me about lighting and stuff. I've been a little leery of editing them because I'm afraid I won't do as good a job as she would but I have to do it and get over it. She took some beautiful images. Pam brought with her this cute hat and petite skirt. Isabella fell in love with them. I wondered how I was going to get it away from her!
Thanks Pam. I love the images. I will share more later.
My image for today. This was the view this evening from my back door. Darn trees are in my way - LOL
why did I think I could take great images with my P&S. I guess they serve their purpose but I have the DSLR's why mess around with this one and then get upset when I get grainy pictures.
Oh well, the snow is melting and the days are getting longer. Thank God spring is around the corner!

Play date 96/365

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~Pablo Picasso

I wondered, momentarily what I would do with all of my scrapbooking supplies. I've found my answer. Here we used glitter/glue pens, paint, markers, buttons, flowers and more. Not to mention some cardstock.

First image taken by Dave

This is my picture of the day. Evidence that Isabella was here

and this one was taken by Sandrita with her P&S.

I decided to start her on her Valentines day cards. She held this one up to her mommy and said "Happy day mommy."