Jump for Joy - The cutting room floor.

Here are some of the shots I took for the Jump for Joy challenge. All photos can be clicked and enlarged.


Oh right, it's iheartFACES not iheartMICKEYMOUSEUNDERPANTS.


Um, not even close to centered.


I debated between this one and the one of my husband.


The little princess needed her shot at iheartfaces fame.



Hmmmm, this is where burst would have been smart.


P.S. Don't you love that bridge? I can see some future photos being taken with that backdrop.

iheartfaces Challenge - Jump for Joy

This week iheartfaces is Jumping for Joy! I am jumping for joy because I am finally starting to understand my camera in manual mode!! Yay for me!


I am also trying to take photos for the challenge instead of going through my folders and finding what I feel is the perfect shot. I have many pictures of my son jumping that I could have used but I really wanted to use my newfound "manual" skills and get a new shot.


So, here is my wonderful hubby jumping for joy. The poor guy was sick but obliged me in my quest to get a good shot. I took several this day and many of my son but I decided to go with this one. I like the contrast of the b&w conversion. Unfortunately I can't seem to fix the blown-out side of his face. Live and learn. To see outtakes from my attempts at Jumping for Joy, click here.

Click to enlarge.

Twelve on the Twelfth

I'll get to my point in a minute but typing the word "twelfth" is really odd. It doesn't even look like a real word. Strange.

Anyway, I was reading The Daily Digi the other day and they were mentioning things that could be done instead of Project 365. I just don't think I could take a picture every day for a year. That is just too much pressure for me right now. However, twelve pictures on the twelfth of every month? Totally doable. So I looked at the 12 of 12 blog (that is no longer updated) and I decided to challenge myself.

This month I just focused on getting the twelve photos. I did ok but could have done better. Next month I'd like to focus on the actual photography part of it. Bettering my photography skills is one of the things I'd like to accomplish this year. Also, these are backwards. The bottom picture is morning and the top is evening. I just don't feel like rearranging them.

So here are my twelve photos from January 12, 2010:

My hubby wearing his sunglasses on his forehead. Cracks me up.


Alex using his corn as a golden tooth. Dinner for the kids was rotisserie chicken and corn.


Isabelle refused to take her coat off to eat dinner. Whatever floats her boat.


My awesome hubby making our dinner. Greek salad with rotisserie chicken. Yum!



Alex waiting in the car while Ben was in the Sears Tire Center pricing tires.
My car had a blowout earlier in the weekend.

Hmmm. Ok, I had a picture of the kids' dentist door on here

but since it listed name, address and phone I decided to take it down.

But it is part of my twelve.

Isabelle after dropping the kids off at school.

My son is allergic to peanuts and I'm just not ready for him to ride the bus to school. We drive him the three minutes to school every morning. The taller boy in the back is my nephew. He lives up the street and sometimes misses the bus. When he does, he hitches a ride with us. Today happened to be one of those days.

School supplies waiting to go in the backpack.

Who doesn't like to bust-a-move after breakfast?? Lol!

My beautiful girly in her "sweet" pajamas.

Dropping a rubber ball down the stairs. My son loves that we live in a split level.

I Heart Faces Themed Photos

I Heart Faces is one-year-old this month!! To celebrate they are having a special contest. We need to present photos that naturally or electronically shows their I Heart Faces name/logo. I'm all about the computer so I used their logo and ran with it. Below are my five submissions for this awesome week!!

“I am submitting these photos into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo for use in the marketing and promotion of their website.”

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Hilarious Outtakes

Brooke from Dinkypops No More chose the photo of my husband in my grandmother's wig as her third place I Heart Faces Hilarious Outtakes winner. Thank you Brooke! And thank you to my hubby who didn't care that I was posting that less-than-stellar photo of him for all of you to see!

Here is what Brooke had to say:

Third Place:

Momarazzi Chronicles
I was sitting on the couch looking through entries, when my husband leaned over, peaked at my computer, and said "Now that one is funny!". I couldn't agree more and giggle each time I think of this guy sporting grandma's wig.

I ♥ Faces Challenge - Hilarious Outtakes

This week at I Heart Faces the theme is Hilarious Outtakes. I have quite a few from this holiday season. Below are three of my favorites and a bit of an explanation! Lol!

On Thanksgiving my family found my grandmother's old wig. We all took turns trying on the wig. This is my husband in the wig getting ready to say something to me. I snapped the picture and this is the result! Lol! I've been told he looks like The Church Lady.

This is my son's attempt at being Rudolph, a red Christmas light up his nose.

My daughter showing off her makeup techniques. She found my mascara and figured out how to open it and swipe it across her pretty little eye.

Check out I Heart Faces for more funny photos!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for these three beautiful human beings. They bless me every day!

I ♥ Faces Challenge - Sun Flare

The I Heart Faces Challenge this week is Sun Flare. Let me tell you, it was a huge challenge for me. I tried every setting I could possibly think of to get those beautiful rays and I just couldn't do it. Below is the best I could get. Please keep reading after the picture for a request from me.





I am asking for help from the wonderful I Heart Faces readers. What can I do? I shot for 2 hours yesterday trying to figure it out and I couldn't. I live on the east coast and it was around 2:30 when I started. The above photo was taken around 4:30.

I have a ton of pictures that have a huge white blob on the side. I have read the tutorials and kept my f-stop on a high number, usually hovering around f/22 or so. I also tried to position myself where I could see the rays and I could see them in the viewfinder but when I snapped the picture it was white. Either the whole picture was white or the side of the picture was white. I shoot with a Nikon D80 and used the kit lens.

The Exif for this photo is:
f/16 - one of the lower ones I tried.
Exposure - 1/200sec
ISO - 1600
Focal Length - 58mm

When I shot this same photo with the above information but at 1/50sec the top was extremely white and the subjects were brighter. Here is a screen shot of a few I took.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Amy