Day 31--Month 1, Complete

So, today, I wanted to try that little take a picture while zooming the lens trick. I didn't have anything in particular in mind...so I just took a baseline.

And gave it a try--pretty neat! I can't wait to do it with something more fun, now that I know I can :)

In other news, Kaylee had her official Daisy ceremony today. When I told her, "Kaylee, you will get a special pin and offically become a Daisy today." Her reply was, "What have I been this whole time I've been going to Daisy meetings then?"
Atta girl!

She loves that her good friends Jordyn and Juliana are in her troop too.

Day 30 Not-quite-sunrise

The title says it all...
I am rather pleased---considering I was once again caught with the wrong lens.

Day 29--Jordyn's Birthday Party

I actually took a lot of good pictures today. Of course, a close friend's 6th birthday party is a veritable playground of opportunity...which I seized.
I wish I could say, I knew what I was doing. For some shots I did, they came out as I intended and hoped, some were dumb luck, some came out terrible (when I don't think they should have) and still more opportunities were missed because I didn't actually change my settings to what I had intended. Kids move too fast, dagnabit.
However, viewing 211 photos and sorting them and trying to identify the best ones is very difficult and time consuming, I don't think I can do any more tonight.
And, while I choose to safely assume that my friends have consented to allow me to post their children's likeness on my little blog here, I choose to make no such assumption otherwise...and there were a fair number of children there that I only know in passing or plain just don't know at all. I therefore am limiting my postings to those pictures which contain ONLY children who my children play with on a weekly basis! And of that number, we only have the ones I have sorted already this evening.
So after a not-so-brief rambling introduction, I give you: Jordyn's Birthday Party:
Here is the birthday girl!

This is our playgroup, all playing happily at their friend's party!

Here are a few of my solo favorites, but again, I haven't sorted them all, this is just what I can do before I drag my old-lady butt to bed!
Kaylee

Rowan

Alessandra (aka Tocky)

Elizabeth

Gracie

That's it, that's all I can do. I hope to have as many photo opportunities this week, as I had in just 1 hour or so today!

Day 28--Bubble Baths & Sunset!

Yay, I got a couple of goodies today. Nice after the last two days.
Leo had a great time in his first bubble bath today. He didn't really like the bubbles, I would say 'tolerance' would have been the overall theme of the event.

Oh, and I wasn't in an ideal location and didn't have my tripod or my better lens...but still got a cool looking shot of the sunset today.

Day 27--A great day, just not for photos

OK, so today was a really great day, just not a particularly good one for photos. Completely my bad, plenty of opportunities to take my camera out...I just didn't.
So again, we will go with what we got...
Here is the little Lion...crawling so fast these days. Its only been a couple of weeks, but he's starting to get things. He knows when something is too far away from where he is standing and he'll lower himself ungracefully down and then zip over to what he wants on all 4s. Far less whining from him, far more winning for me!

This next series of photos was taken over 2 days...but you'll see the theme pretty quickly. The first 3 were taken today.
Here are Petra and Loofy being very attentive...

Oh! Of course, food!

Here are Leo and Loofy being very attentive to Rowan...again, food = attentive!
This photo reminded me of a few I had taken 2 days ago...

I was cleaning the toilet and I looked out of the bathroom door to see basically this scene. Now by the time I had cleaned my hands and gotten my camera it wasn't quite what I had hoped, but I am sure you get the gist.

The way to a dog's heart...



My goal for the weekend is to take at least 2 pictures a day that I actually really like as opposed to the last 2 days where I have posted out of necessity and not desire. Luckily, we have a few things going on this weekend that might work in my favor for this goal!

Day 26--mulligan?

OK, this post makes me sad for 2 reasons. #1 I didn't post it in time and #2 I don't like the picture. You have no idea how tempting it is to just try to make sure I get 2 post-worthy shots today and pass one off as yesterday, but that would be cheating. And well, I shouldn't cheat.
So in any event, I am stuck with what I did yesterday, which was very little. Hopefully I can make up for it with today's post, which will hopefully be on time!
Anyway...here is Kaylee's basic feeling on Mommy bringing the camera down to the bus stop EVERY morning!

Day 25--Ball Popping!

It is the toy that I have a love/hate relationship with. It is for babies, but the big kids always fight over it! It baffles me, but also presented something fun to fool around with, so...
Today's picture collage--our ball popper!

Day 24--A Foggy Morning!

A bleak morning at the bus stop provided some kind of cool naturally diffused lighting! I got a couple of relatively nice rain drop shots, no magnification, just really close with my 52mm.


Even the bus traveling down the road, provided an interesting opportunity, although I wish I had had time to swap lenses. Maybe tomorrow.

Day 23--2 Very Different Pictures

So, this is the picture I snapped this morning as snow was falling down, 4x magnification--still working on this, but still kind of cool.

Not loving my snowflakes, but having lost the day, I was stuck with trying to find something I could photo indoors at night...so, since Grant is back on OT, Petra can't seem to not blink--even with no flash, Loofy it is! Kinda creepy, kinda cool--10x!

Sorry no pics of the kiddos today, I have to follow my blogname sometimes:)

Day 22--Sorry its Late, we were watching the Pats

Yesterday was busy--what can I say!
This is my family watching the Playoffs! You'll notice Rowan, in particular, was riveted!

Day 21, Sledding

Love those smiling eyes...

Day 20--Pizza Face and Focus Fun!

Today's collage is aptly (IMHO) named: Pizza Face

I had some fun with focus outside at the bus stop this morning. I didn't even notice the sun in the shot at first...

I remedied that though...

Here's the cutie pie, thinking about something very important.

Awwwwww Mom, you're embarrassing me!

My gamers!

Day 19--Outdoor Fun with the Macro Lens Filters! +4 and +10

Clearly more experimentation needs to be done, but I still think some of these are rather cool!

Day 18--Playing with Trucks!

OK, so I had way too much fun playing with Leo's firetruck! OK, it wasn't so much the firetruck as my new macro lens filter set...weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Seriously, a little giddy. Also, on the RTFM front, I sort of figured out how to manually move my shutter speed and F-stop independently. Sort of...I swear, I will read it! But I decided to put shutter speed and F-stop fun aside to experiment with a few close up shots. Also, since I just read the little excerpt on panning in my book, I tried a little of that too...on a smaller scale. FUN!!!!

Day 17, the rusty lantern returns!

My snow covered lantern on a foggy morning. Now I have to get it snow covered on a sunny morning.

And the obligatory cutie shot! Waiting for the bus on an icy morning in some polar bear headwear.

Day 16--Bubbles

I was thinking of doing another collage, I took many cute pictures of the girls in various stages of blowing dish soap bubbles off their hands. However, while most were cute, none were spectacular...and this, this one was definitely better than the rest. So, I'll let it stand on its own.

Day 15--Friends and Family

Kaylee got invited to her first School Birthday party today. It was at a cooking for kids place and she had tons of fun!



It is also my dad's birthday, so we got to spend some time with family...



Here is the remainder of Leo's testosterone influence...he's got Daddy, Grampy, Bampa and these guys, cousin Mark, Uncle Mike (Uncle Sweetie) and Uncle Bob (GUB--as in Great Uncle Bob.) Poor poor Leo!



Joking aside, so much fun to see my family, we had a really great time!

Day 14--A different kind of color shot

I figure this is pretty self-explanatory.

I am going out for Girls Night tonight. I don't think pictures will be appreciated, but I am still going to bring my camera. The menu sounded so delectable and I am sure I will be permitted to photograph that! However, just in case I don't feel like it, or get home late blah blah blah. My safety shot has already been posted!

Day 13--more fun with light

A very busy day. So far the best advice I've read, and advice that I really try to follow every day is: make sure to take some pictures early, in case the rest of the day gets away from you. Cause, yeah, most of my days tend to get away from me after say 3pm.
Anyway...for a blog called not just the kids, I sure do seem to like those 3 subjects. But, such is life, what can I say? I think they're cute.
Fun with black and white settings...

I love how the light from the window and the overhead were combining on Rowan's face here.

And then, also fun with sepia mode. My photogenic Loofy :)

Day 13, and still going strong :)