Swallowtail and Thistle

Cowboy Boots and HDR

I've been playing with my new camera and some HDR (high dynamic range) software.


Tell me what you think!


Spring is almost here and I am so ready to get outside with my Canon and really try it out!

Happy Fall Y'all!!!

Just One of the Reasons

I love the person who let me borrow this camera: So I can catch moments like these.

My littlest man, looking so grown up!

My baby! Being sweet!

My smoochie face. I live for those sweet sugars under that neck!

He is perfect and he is mine!

This face is one of the reasons this child gets everything he wants!

He squeezes my heart with those eyes!

Each of these photos had Pioneer Woman's "Soft and Faded" Photoshop action added.

A Few More Photos

Sharing a few more....
Wild Turkeys


Another Momma


And another baby


Thistle bloom


Simple beauty


Loving the colors and bokeh in this one!

Still playing with this Canon Rebel Xsi. I'm not sure my friend is going to get it back!

Our Road

is only 1.5 miles long.


Our house is 1 mile in.


The road dead ends a half a mile past our driveway.


It's quite and peaceful on our little road,


and I absolutely love


the last mile of my drive


each and every time I return home, especially this time of year.


It's beautiful!

Don't forget the Peppermint Goodies give away!

Fireworks photos

I have tried for years to take fireworks photos and often get blurry shots but I took the time to do some reading and try out some settings on my new Nikon D3000.
I love this shot and wish I had had the settings right when I took it but these are the kinds of shots I used to get.

But I decided a new camera means learning new things so I spent the afternoon perfecting my manual setting expertise (which wasn't much before tonight and is still sorely lacking but I'm learning!)
It's amazing how much you learn from picking just one subject and learning what your camera has to do to get those shots.

First of all, for fireworks shots you need a tripod. I found mine in a box of junk labeled "Stuff" in the attic.

Now for the settings....
Turn your flash off.
Turn your dial to S and set your shutter speed at 4 seconds...yep 4 secs...that's why you need the tripod.
Then turn your dial to M....that M was kinda scary for me. I usually ruin my shots when I try to play with the M button.
Set your ISO to 100. Setting this as low as possible will reduce the noise in your photos.

I played with the manual focus setting like some of the tutorials I read said to do but I found that my auto focus worked much better for me. Use an aperture between 5 and 11. Mine was set on 5.6.
I also played with the Active D lighting on and off. I couldn't tell much difference at all but ended up leaving it on.

That's it, I pressed the shutter button and let the camera do it's thing.
Much better results than I have gotten in the past and I get another chance to play tomorrow night when we have our fireworks at church!

So in a nutshell...
Tripod
Focus: Auto
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 4 seconds
Aperture: 5 to 11

Hope you all have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!!