Day 365

This morning, Paul was taking a shower and thought it would be fun to put his little handprints all over the inside of the shower door. I thought it made for a great picture for the last day of 2009.

And this picture brings us to the end of 2009. I have to say that I didn't quite do what I intended at the beginning with this project, but I do feel like doing the blog has helped me with improving my photography skills. I found myself looking for things to do just so I could take a picture. I also found myself up at night trying to find something worthwhile to take a picture of for the day.

I'm thrilled to have made it all the way through the year with this daily picture blog. I'm also really looking forward to 2010 because I'm planning to go a different direction and I'm pretty excited (and nervous) about starting tomorrow.

Day 350

Tonight I'm getting started on downloading pictures from Paul's birthday weekend. I'm not sure how many pictures I have, but over the course of the weekend we had several events. Between two cameras, it will be a picture or two.

Day 343

Today was good mail day. I received a CD that I was pretty excited about from my cheapo music club. It's new this year, and when it was back ordered, I figured I'd never see it. I can't wait to add it to the music rotation.

I also received a Thank You and payment for the wedding I photographed late this summer. I'm really happiest that they loved the pictures!

Day 295

The boys and I were up and out of the house early this morning, so I had a chance to take some pictures I'd been wanting to get for a while. I just love the dew in the spider's webs.

Day 269

Today was the wedding that I mentioned yesterday. I think it went well. The biggest issues I had were with lighting and running out of batteries, but the pictures I've seen so far look like they'll be okay. It was a learning experience for sure. It encourages me to take the time to learn even more about photography.

I'm super nervous about going through all the pictures, so I only looked at some of them on the small screen. It's a busy week, so it might not be until next weekend that I'm able to really start working on the editing.

I'm including my favorite picture that I've seen from the day.

Congratulations to the new, happy couple!!

Day 268

I am shooting a wedding tomorrow, and it would be an understatement to say I'm nervous. This will be my first wedding as "the" photographer. I was basically the last minute second at my brother-in-law's wedding, and I didn't have time to stress about those pictures. It's been a year or ten since then.

Tonight was the rehearsal dinner. I spent a lot of time (and photos) working on figuring out the lighting. This is one of the bride that I really liked.


And I played some with the flowers they had bought for the bouquets tomorrow. I really love Dahlias.

Day 263

Today we were able to give the gift I finished up a couple of days ago. I'll have to say that the birthday girl was pretty surprised and happy with her gift.

Happy Birthday!!

Day 260

I spent some time today working on a special project for my mother-in-law's upcoming milestone birthday. All of the pieces came together this morning, but the funniest part was that I had never figured out the right program to make it into one cohesive gift. So I spent some time installing a program I'd bought but never used, figuring it out, and then uploading the finished product.

I was thrilled to pick it up this afternoon. Now to get it framed and wrapped.

Day 227

We took a little road trip today out to Dayton, Oregon for my cousin's wedding. It was at a winery and a gorgeous venue. The view was amazing. I took this picture looking out into the valley as the sun was getting ready to set. I really like how it turned out.

Day 222

We were out to dinner tonight at one of my very favorite places, and Matt kept looking up at the ceiling while we were eating. Finally, I had to look up and see what was so fascinating. All I could really come up with were the lamps that were over the table, and I have to admit that I thought they were pretty cool too.

I really liked the colors and shapes of the glass shades. Matt has a pretty good eye.

Day 215

My oldest wasn't feeling well on Saturday night, so I decided to stay home from church with the kids yesterday. Rob went without us because he was playing that morning. When he came home, he brought me these lovely tulips for our anniversary. They were looking so pretty this afternoon that I had to capture a few of them.

Day 206

Today we went out to the Bellevue Arts Museum Artsfair with grandma and grandpa. I really, really like to go out and look at all the artistic stuff people are doing, but the biggest draw for me is the jewelry. There are some very innovative people out there.

I was going to feature a gal whose jewelry I liked, but I didn't get a very good picture because she really threw me off when I asked if she minded if I took a picture. I thought I would ask because I know some people don't want you trying to copy their work. But her issue was she was concerned that the purpose I had in taking a picture would be to "slam" her work.

I thought what she did was gorgeous, which is why I wanted the picture to put it on my daily blog. But when I did get her permission, I was still so thrown that I just snapped a quick one and went on my way. It didn't show the detail that I wanted, so I'm going with a picture that I thought turned out more artistic.

These are graduated bowls by Marge Margulies Pottery. The coloring and design are just amazing. The bowls start at about cup size and work their way out to a significant 18 inches in diameter. They were really pretty bowls and fun to photograph.

Day 199

It's finished!!!

I managed to conceptualize, complete, and submit my beading project. I did end up having to make some last minute changes. I didn't account for the difference in weight with the silk ribbon and the spiral rope, so they didn't hang the way I had hoped. But I'm happy I made the change and pleased with the results.

It was very challenging to get a good picture, and I have some pretty great resources to utilize to get the right composition and coloring. But I haven't photographed much of my jewelry. I'll need to work on figuring that out better in the future.

Since the muse has not been revealed yet and it's sort of the heart of the contest, I'm using a picture of a portion of my completed project.

Day 194

It is our last day in Michigan, and I let my oldest choose what we did today. He really liked the beach and the splash park, so that's where we went. It was really windy, and as we were leaving I noticed the tall grasses moving in the wind and decided to grab a shot or two.

Day 175

One of the gifts that the boys gave dad for Father's Day was a mug with their little pictures on it. We did this last year, but this year I did it a little differently. I bought "A" and "D" letters for the boys and had each of them pose separately with a D and both of them pose with the A.

At the time of the "photo shoot", it was just this side of disaster. The little one was certain he should be allowed to go splashing in the murky, slimy water (ask me, I managed to step back into it), and the big one does all he can to never look at the camera.

When I got the pictures home, I managed to work though them enough to get basically what I wanted. It worked out and D A D really liked his mug this year.

Day 172

We went to the Experience Music Project this afternoon for Father's Day. I was playing around with focus, depth of field and composition with this picture. Nothing amazing, but kind of fun.

Day 168

I noticed this Foxglove on the edge of my mother-in-law's yard, so I thought I'd catch a couple of pictures. I liked how this one turned out.

Day 167

It was a nice, mild day today and perfect for a trip to the zoo. We were able to go with our friends and spent several hours eating a picnic lunch and exploring the exhibits.

We walked by the rose garden on our way out, and the awesome smell from the roses drew us in. I only got a chance to take a couple of pictures because we needed to get on the road to avoid rush hour, but I really liked the coloring on this one.

Day 161

Tonight we took the kids bowling. The school rented the whole 10-lane alley for two hours. Part of the party package was to put the black lights on and play some groovy music.

I had a couple of artistic shots of my shoes and my purse that I liked. But then, I bowled a 145 and had to use that picture today because that's probably the best I've ever bowled. I had to quit while I was ahead and take Matt back to the resort for bed, or I might have really put the other chaperones to shame. ;)

Day 157

Today was the Duvall Days parade, which literally ran down the street from our house. The boys had never been to a parade before, and since we could walk down to see it, there seemed to be no reason to miss the parade. Towards the end, there were some prancing horses and gals dancing. I thought the flow of their dresses was so fun to capture.