1.28.2011

Snow Day!

No school.  Snow day number one for this week.  We headed to the school for some sledding with friends.   I brought along my camera and a new lens (Nikon 70-300 with VR) which I bought for baseball season.  The fast sleds let me practice my "zoom-focus" skills, suggested by a professional photographer, to get great action shots.  He suggested I sit in my driveway and "zoom-focus" on cars as they drove.  I'm not sure what my neighbors would say about that method.  Sledding photography was much more fun!  

Snow days are fun, exhausting, and really special if you don't mind getting off your schedule and losing your alone time to be productive.  Okay, my alone time isn't always productive, but I need that time.  My jewelry making time took a hit, but we played spy games, went sledding, lunched with friends, battled with Nerf guns, watched movies, made scented soap, read books, put together puzzles.  Phew!  Two-days down, four to go.





She took off her glasses and I got a rare shot of her beautiful blue eyes.

Snowflakes and freckles

Picking the fastest route.

I had to jump out of the way as he went off the path and nearly got me.

Peeking to see if she was at the end yet.  

She smiles when she gets to the bottom so I know she is having fun. 

Wet, heavy snow and sleet.
Night shot.  Highest ISO.
 Trees were cracking and broken branches litter my yard.

Night shot with my camera on the highest ISO.
 It was pitch black outside, except for some porch lights.
 It's amazing how bright the photos turned out.
  I was hanging out the bathroom window to get this shot.
 The moss on the tree shows up as a hint of green.

1.06.2011

Walt Disney World ~ Magic Kingdom Fireworks



Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom fireworks were amazing!  We made a special trip one night during our vacation to see the 11:00 p.m. show.   I brought along my camera hoping to get some fun night shots of the family.  We waited in line to see the Monsters, Inc. comedy show.  As we sat down a Disney Castmember told us we would miss the firework show if we stayed.  We bolted.  The kids lined up on the bridge.  They were at an angle I could not photograph their faces while they watched the show, so I decided to focus on the castle and the fireworks.  Everything was happening so fast that I struggled with finding a setting in manual mode that worked.  I changed my metering from spot to evaluative, set the ISO at 5000 and started shooting.   These photos are not edited.  

I started my blog for my jewelry business, but photography, my hobby, has been much more fun to blog about since it is fun to learn and share.  When I create jewelry, I'm in mental zone where I'm focused and find it hard to stop, photograph the process and teach.  Perhaps I will do some jewelry making lessons soon.   In the meantime, let's talk photography.


The multidimensional light show on the castle
was even better than the fireworks.

She was captivated by the fireworks.
I was captivated by her.
This  face is why you take your kids to Disney.
 I had to wait for a bright blast to get her face lit.
Shutter speed 1/60, f/1.4, ISO 5000

I like this the photo because it shows the details of the castle.

The firework smoke caught the light display and helped backlight the castle.

Fireworks and a pink castle

Fireworks and a green castle

The finale.
Okay, now I'm blind.
I saw fireworks for hours.