What makes me happy?

So, for Christmas I got a few things that I REALLY wanted.  I spoke of the big one in my last post which was a 50mm Lens. 

It was such a great gift.  I really can't thank my parents enough!! 

Also got my nifty lenspen! I love it! It cleans like a dream.

Love that I got a shutter remote! You just never know when you'll need it!

This one was really cheap and it works great so far.

Then last but not least, the Gary Fong Puffer

I had read a review for this and as I do not have the cash to put into the expensive stuff, I really wanted something to diffuse my onboard flash.

Here's my first experiment.

Without Puffer: 1/50, ISO 200, f 1/8

With the Puffer: same settings

I think that speaks for itself.  Anyhoo, it does not really help with the shock of the flash in someones face like a party bouncer does, nor does it reduce the pin light that the flash creates in a persons eyes,

but it is pretty nifty for inanimate objects.

Hope this was helpful to someone.  I had fun, I'm completely in love with my 50mm and what it can do inside with little light.  It makes me very happy!

Thanks for stopping in!

Becky

Christmas 2011

Well, I don't know about anybody else, but I had a WONDERFUL Christmas.  We woke up around 8am, exchanged gifts at the house and then went to church and a little girl accepted the Lord as her Savior that morning.  God had really been working on her, she'd been asking her parents questions and finally it all just made sense to her. What a wonderful God we serve! Needless to say it was a GREAT service!!  We only had one service so after church we went to my brothers house for dinner and gifts again.  All the kids had a blast.  What a great way to celebrate Jesus's birth!   Here are a few shots I took with my new 50mm lens!!!!!! ;0)  That was a highlight for sure! Thank you Mom and Dad!!!

It was very hard to get a pic of Benj not looking down. :0) He's usually the one looking at the camera, but there was just too much to look at I guess.

I Love this face. Rachel is such a sweet heart! When she's telling a story, her eyes get huge and she gets so excited. I love talking to her.

Sweet Abby, she's the cuddle bug. I don't think I've ever seen a baby as cuddly as she. She just lights up when Daddy or Granddad talk to her. It's wrong how babies are like that!!! Haha!

Last but not least, My own sweet Emma. So smart and happy. I love that girl!

I love all those faces so much!

Thanks for stopping in! Have a great day!

Becky

Christmas is upon us!

Boy, this year has flown by.  I feel like I say those words alot, but man are they ever true!  I guess I've always heard people say as they have gotten older that time seems to go by even faster.  It's probably because as you get older you realize just how little time you have so you want to stop and savor every moment.  I know for me, I was always younger than I wanted to be - well, when I was young that is haha.  I am now starting to realize life is short and I'm close to 1/2 way through mine... Oh well, enough depressing thoughts for the moment.  

Christmas is upon us and there are many things I LOVE about this season.  I love the goodies, the church functions, the feeling... and the LIGHTS!  I don't know what it is about Christmas lights, but I've always loved seeing them.  It's one of my favorite things to just drive around and see what people have done to their houses.  I think it was last year that we were driving through my Grandparent's small town in WV late at night and I realized that the old small towns are where Christmas decor is at.  I mean, I LOVE the vintage stuff.... like the plastic reindeer and the big lights.  They just feel right... anyhoo, I don't have any pictures of that, but I do have pictures from Shadracks Light show - you drive through and the lights flash on and off to the beat of music on a radio station that you tune into.  It's a lot of fun.  Hope you enjoy :0)!

Well, I guess that's all for now.

Merry Christmas!!!

Playing around with Photoshop Elements

Hello there, I've had a few minutes to myself this evening and thought I'd share something I've been playing around with.  A while back I discovered that Adobe will let you use any of their programs for a trial 30 days so I started out with Lightroom, which I liked, but I felt like I didn't have a lot of control over the images.  I'm sure there was more to it then I saw because I didn't really spend a whole lot of time with it.  Then I tried Photoshop CS5 (which I don't think I will be able to afford) and now I am using Elements (whichi is more in my budget).  I have to say that the easiest for me to learn has been Elements.  I'd say it is because Gimp is a lot like it.  Most everything is in the same spot as in Gimp.  There are definitely some great advantages of using Elements over Gimp and one of them is actions.  I picked up some free actions here and there.  The one I used in this image is from a photographer I follow on fb.  She's very talented and I'm sure you guys have heard of her.  Oh so posh photography  She also seems like such a sweet person.  Her actions are very cool, but since I don't actually own the program, I haven't purchased them, I just grabbed a couple of her free actions.  

So I pulled a picture that I took in June, didn't really think even enough of this shot to convert it from RAW at the time.

(SOOC)  You may notice that this is from the same session as my banner :0)   

I ran the action and tweaked the levels a bit and this is the result:

Obviously the quality of the shot isn't great, it's a little out of focus, but I really like what the action did to it.

Well, thanks so much for stopping in :0) Happy Tuesday and I am so glad it's my Thursday!!!! YAY!

Fun Friday

Since I've been AWOL for a while I thought I'd share a few fun moments that Emma and I have had

...and no the placement of her antenna is not lost on me... lesson. learned. look. at. your. background.... O.o

and Then a trip to the park

Thanks for stopping in, the semester is going to end very soon and I hopefully will be back at that time.

Have a GREAT friday!!

Becky

The End of the Tunnel

Sometimes we need a light at the end of the tunnel.  Friday is that for me this week. 

I've walked through the tunnel searching for the light.  Yesterday I saw it and today it's even brighter.  At 4:30 the tunnel will be past. :0) 

This week I have shared a few pictures from our trip to the mountains a couple of Saturdays ago.  It was cold up there and VERY windy.  I had laid out a coat for Emma to wear up there with a hood and everything, but of course I walked out of the house without it.  We had to wrap one of my friends jackets around her, it was quite funny, but for some reason I did not take a picture of her in it.  So back to my point... haha... There was one spot that wasn't so cold so she got to unwrap and she had a blast!

So these are not in focus, but she was running all over the place!!! I love the last one, it's just the perfect memory of that moment.

Who Needs Words?

Smoky Mountain Fall Foliage

Today I'm...

Missing the Beach!!

Although I miss it, I also feel Christmas in the air! It's not yet Halloween and I can feel Christmas. I yearn for cold days and colder nights, hot chocolate in my cup and candy canes on the brightly lit Christmas tree, for the smell of pine in the air and white cold stuff on the ground (although we don't get much of that around here). I want to see people in coats and toboggans, I want to go ice skating downtown (and I probably will go this year!!), I want to take LOTS and LOTS of winter pictures!!! :0) I CANNOT wait! :0)

I want to watch plays that remember baby Jesus being born in a stable knowing what He would do for us on the Cross. I want to share in this with my family, friends and especially Emma.

This year Emma is speaking like she's been doing it for years! She has feelings and knows how to vocalize them (which is not always altogether pleasant). She is going to really enjoy this Christmas season, I'm going to show her what Christmas is really about and make is so special for her, I CAN'T wait! :0)

Thanks guys!

Becky

Hands {I Heart Faces}

I took this shot while walking on the beach with my 2 year old.   All she wanted to do was dig and all I wanted to do was walk... well, guess who won haha. :0)  She loves her some dirt!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I'm back from vacation, we went to the beach this past week and it was beautiful!  Stayed in the penthouse in a hotel right on the beach.  I have to say, it was very nice hearing the waves crash on the shore all night long.  Also enjoyed the sunrise over the ocean each morning.  So these shots are from my vaca, what better way to share them then with the scavenger hunt!?! :0)

Landscape

Complimentary triadic color...

Ok, so this doesn't really fit, but isn't she cute!?!

B&W

Well, My sister took this shot, but I set it up and edited it!!! ;0)

Food

Iphone shot of cajun fried creek shrimp from the fish house!!! :0) Love it!

Blank Space

Not a blank space???... huh?...

Where's the shore?

So many times in life we take things on our own.  We step out into the water and it feels good at first.  It feels refreshing and satisfying, but after a while our feet start sinking.  The further away from the shore we get the harder it seems to get back.  We get so far away that we can't see the shore any longer.  The water just keeps getting higher and higher until only our heads are above.  It is then that we are forced to look up.  To reach up, to ask for our Heavenly Father to help us.  It is in those times that we trust in Him fully. This isn't how He meant for it to be, He wants us always to trust in him. 

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

We don't have to swim back to the shore.  We don't have to even be able to see the shore.  He does all of that for us.  He lifts us up out of the water and stands us back up on the shore. 

Psalm 40:2

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

What wonderful Grace and Mercy we recieve from our Lord!  Not only did He give His son to die for us so that our sins would be forgiven, but He cares where we are and what is going on in our lives.  When I choose my own path I am not choosing myself, but rather rejecting God.  WOW!  Rejecting God. That's not a place I ever WANT to be, but I find myself there a LOT.  Where can we go when we find ourselves in this place?
Samuel 22:7
In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.

Just Another Butterfly {Texture Thursday}

I thought all of the grass in the background adds texture to this shot so I'm saying it qualifies ;0).

Happy Thursday guys, hopefully I can get some new pictures taken soon.  It's been dry this week... I mean, I don't have one shot to show for myself.  So sad.  I am actually having withdraws haha!  I am going to the beach in a few weeks and I cannot wait to get there and snap pictures to my hearts content and then edit them WOOHOO!!! Plus I am starting on Faith's SLR photography class next month and I am so excited!!!!  (Can you tell?)
Right now I have a pretty good understanding of my camera, I shoot solely in manual mode, but there is soooo much that I just don't know and I can't wait to see what she has in store for us!

Have a GREAT Friday Eve!! ;0)
Becky

Simplicity - SLR Photography Class

Faith over at Simplicity is offering a pay as you can photography class for Oct.  I believe to get this deal you have to sign up this week.  I already signed up and I was so excited about it, I just had to blog about it ;0)!!  I CAN'T WAIT!!! :0) 

I've really enjoyed Faith's blog and I've been wanting to take part in her classes, but just haven't been able to.  This popped up on my fb page and I went and registered as soon as I could.  The spots will surely fill fast so if you are interested you'd better pop over there!

5K- FAIL!

I trained to do a 5K jog for 5 or so weeks, I was doing anywhere from 2 1/2 - 4 miles 4 times a week.  I have not seen a lot of weight loss, but I can tell a difference in the way I feel and the way I look so I know I'm losing inches (I should probably have kept track of that).  So, Friday night (I'm a total procrastinator, leaving things to the very last minute) I dragged my mom out to the store to get some running clothes.  I went to bed early and set my alarm for 6:30 the next morning because the run was at 8 and that way I would have plenty of time. 

The next morning I woke up to Emma getting in bed with me.  I looked at my cell phone and it was 7:30!!!!  There was no way in the world that I could've made it at that point.  I wondered why my alarm didn't go off.  I thought, maybe it did and I just turned it off in my sleep...  Well, I had set the Tues-Friday alarm.. why I even have one like that, I do not know.

Anyhoo, can we say FAIL!?! 

I was extremely disappointed that I missed out on my very first 5K and I let friends down as well, not a great start to my weekend.  I do get a 2nd chance.  I am definitely doing the race for the cure on Oct 22nd and I can't wait.  My friend and I are going to do it together, I'm hoping we can get some more people for our group as well.  This time I am NOT oversleeping!!! 

This ones from our 4th of July Parade ;0)

Thanks for stopping in!

Becky <3

Friday and my lazy bloggerness

I know I'm just the worst blogger right now!  You wouldn't believe the ideas I have for my blog, but I just haven't the time to follow through.  I've been trying to train for a 5k and do my class work and blah blah blah... I know, excuses excuses. 

I really love to take part in the fabulous friday challenges, but I haven't taken any pictures this week so I will share a couple more that I've worked on.  My sister had the idea to print out the mill picture I shared on Tuesday, but to make it a series of 3 and hanging them on the wall possibly on canvas.  Problem was that I couldn't remember exactly what I did to make it look like that haha... lesson learned!!  So I worked on these 2 shots and may end up redoing them or using something else. 

I think this one might be too light

and here is the one I've already shared, just so you can see the group together.

What are your thoughts?  Do you think they look ok together?  I don't know that I can be objective since I've stared at them for so long haha :0).