Camershy Photo Challenge Week 7: Cherish

I thought a lot about this week's theme. Of course I cherish my husband and my kids, but I take so many pictures of them already I wanted to do something different. I ended up going with something along the same theme, family, but I used my Willow Tree figurines as the focus. The pregnancy figurine is actually called "Cherish" so I decided to use that one as my focal point and then place some of the other figurines behind. I used a small depth of field in order to really focus on the first piece.

When I went to edit the photo I was playing around with a few effects I had downloaded from The Pioneer Woman website. This one is called "Heartland" and while I normally don't like anything this bold I felt like it worked for this picture with the wood.

I also took some pictures of the other figurines, set up in the way our family looks right now. I love my Willow Tree figures. I still know when I got each one and why. They represent the love I have for my family.

 

Camerashy Week 6: Ancient

Cold front!!! A cold front at my house means a fire in the backyard, and as soon as I thought about it I knew that was going to be my "Ancient" submission.

I took a LOT of pictures of our fire. I've played with taking fire pictures before and I think it's fun to adjust the shutter speed and see what effects you get. I had a few pictures that were my favorites. This is the one I'm picking as my submission for the week. Even though it isn't as sharp as I would like, I love how warm it is, showing the embers burning in the bottom of the fire.

This is a really cool picture too though. It's my husband's favorite. The longer shutter speed caught the flying embers that were going around the fire

Photochallenge.org Week 6: Panning

Panning is way harder that I thought it would be!! I wanted to do someting different than a car, so I decided to use Jordan on his bike as my subject. He was so accomodating. He rode circles around me forever in order for me to take my shots.

In the end, I didn't get anything sharp. I should probably bump up my shutter speed but found doing that lessend the panning effect, so maybe I just need more practice.

Here's the final picture I've submitted for the week. It's the clearest one. I actually really like it and the fact that Jordan is a little blurry doesn't really bother me.

Photochallenge.org Week 4: Nature and Wildlife - Backlit Leaves

So, I am not happy with my picture for this challenge this week. Don't get me wrong, I like the picture itself, but it wasn't until after I selected and posted it that I really thought about the fact that flowers have "petals" and not leaves, and it doesn't really qualify....  I really thought about reshooting, but alas, the sun has been hiding the ENTIRE week and I've decided to just let it go and get ready for week 5.

Here's my pic:

 

 

Update : I couldn't resist, I had to reshoot.  Here's a picture of a palm tree on my patio, with lighting from above coming from a flood light.