A tale of a frozen family

Okay… so I said I wouldn’t say anything… but isn’t there something so amazing about a child’s smile when they don’t know you are looking????  (insert heart exploding feeling here).

You’d think somebody who is just laying around healing up would have plenty of time to sit on the computer and babble babble babble.  I do spend most of my day sitting on the computer, but not so much time babbling… so I guess I’ll just have to admit that I’ve been a slacker. 

Since I don’t particularly have much in my life to babble about at this very second, I’ll put up some pictures we took over the last week or so.   All of these are straight out of the camera.   I can’t wait until I’m actually out of my recliner more often and at my desk so I can photo shop these a bit (that is after I learn HOW to photo shop them )

I just love the mountains at sunset!

But a zoom lens sure would make these pictures ROCK

Did I mention I love sunsets????

I’d like to photo shop the power line out… and zoom in a mile or so.  Did I mention zoom would be cool?

Okay… enough about mountains and sunsets and zoom.   I’ll move onto the spawn.  She goes to preschool 3 days a week.  One of the daily activities in preschool is 1/2 hour of gymnastics every day.  A GREAT thing for kids in Alaska…. who get stuck indoors way too much!  They were particularly good this day, so they got free time.

This is Em’s best friend Grace (I giggle at this since Em’s middle name is Grace).  Grace is a diva… Grace loves the camera.  I probably shouldn’t admit that I have 10 times more pictures of Grace from this day, because… well…. she likes the camera

And of course, the spawn…. trying to run without falling down.  I love my child more than life itself… but she is as coordinated as a slug.

Speaking of coordinated… let me show you!  This was what happened when Em ran into the wall.  The wall is the same wall it’s always been.  It’s in the same place in the house it’s always been.  But Em, is Em… and I love her!

See that knot on her forehead???

She was quite proud!

That’s my girl.  I love her.

OH, and I almost forgot to show you.  We had a rainstorm come through last week, followed by 20 below weather right behind it.  THIS is what happens when you have that combination.  This is the PARKING LOT to the lake, where everyone ice skates in the winter.   People have opted to skip the lake and have been literally skating in the parking lot instead.

And last by not least…. here are the trees right outside the house.  I just LOVE this picture.  The colors are sooooo amazing!  and this is STRAIGHT from the camera!  Who knew!!!

Okay, so that is it.  Have I redeemed myself for my days of absence?  Does anybody care??  Is this thing on??? HELLO???

Alrighty then.

We had to drive into the city this morning for more doctors appointments, and we caught that time of day that the sun is coming up over the mountains (10am no less LOL) and we also had a storm system blowing out, so it made for interesting photos.

The thing I’m having a hard time with is getting the exposure right.  I know it will probably smack me in the forehead in the near future, that it’s something very easy to adjust, but I had a heck of a time with it today.  

This one is MUCH darker than I hoped it would be…. any of you photo buffs who are coming by, feel free to steer me in the right direction.

This one is a little better, but still pretty dark.

And I liked this one.  Still not as vivid as I wanted it to be (or how my eyes perceived it was)

 So…. those are my shots from the day.  

To make sure I don’t tick the family off… here are the usual pictures of the spawn.  Why can’t I have a four year old that likes to watch cartoons?   It sure would drop the level of pressure I’m always under to “entertain her brain”.

This is her making her own volcano… hoping that the lava lizards would erupt along with it (I have no idea what a lava lizard is!)

and the grand finale!

For the record, no lava lizards were harmed in the photography or execution of this experiment.

One of the things on my to do list is to get the advertising business off the ground.   One of the things I needed to make that happen was a good digital camera that I can do my cover shoots with, pictures for articles, etc.  So, being in Best Buy on a great sale day, enabled the purchase of said camera to happen.  I picked up a SAHWEET Canon Rebel Digital SLR bad boy. 

Now, the downside of said SAHWEET badboy digital SLR camera is that my photography skills fall under the category of SUCK.   I have no doubt that I can work on that problem, it just make take a lot of time and practice.

The following is a photo montage of said practice.  The family, doesn’t seem as enthusiastic about said practice as I am

I decide that Emma will be the best test object right away.  I clicked a couple of dozen shots in the truck (in the parking lot of Best buy no less… I’m an instant gratification kinda girl, what can I say).

So, I’m trying out the various angles that the lens allows me to do.  I’m just playing with the clarity settings, etc.   This is about shot number 10 of her just sitting in her car seat.  I’ll say it takes nice quality photos, she’ll say “Mom… I’M BLIND!”

I continued the photo shoot through dinner (remember, I’m an instant gratification kinda girl!)   I’m now trying out the zoom ability on the lens.  Look at this… nice tonsils Em!

And equally gorgeous blue eyes there babe!

Jeff does not seem to be even remotely interested in being an active member of this exciting photo shoot!!!  (way to work it babe!)

I decided that perhaps I should stop torturing my family.  Well, that and it was dark.  Too dark in the truck to photo anything on the way home, too late to force Emma into any more flash blindness for the day (she did have school tomorrow, so I probably need to let her get a little sleep and let her eyes heal from the flash burn I inflicted earlier).  What was I going to do???  

OH YEAH… DOGS!!!!  They never seem to mind getting their photo taken.  That is until you take it about 100 times, then even they lose interest.  

I don’t speak dog, but I’m pretty certain this look says something along the lines of “PLEASE…… STOP!”

Adolph however, is always a willing participate.  Just get a look of this handsome man!

Capstun decided that he just wasn’t in the mood for a photo shoot and went to bed.  What a diva!   

Since I had no one left to torture for the night, I put the lens cap on my camera (with a tear in my eye) and decided to spend the rest of the night reading the instruction manual.  (you know, that foreign booklet that a man never opens???) and found out it has a gazillion or so settings.  I tried to play with them a little bit outside this morning.  Nothing spectacular, but a few different light/exposure settings for your viewing pleasure.

Sooooo… that is me, boring you to tears with my first lesson in digital photography 101.  Hopefully I can find much more exciting things to entertain you with in the near future :) 

Thanks again for listening to me babble :)