Ant

Another photo from my archives...




Love this....need to work on focus although I do love the lines of the flower. 
From 2009. This was taken on my Rebel  XT which I have now loaned to Tyler for his high school photography class. He hasn't used it yet but I look forward to his learning process.

water drops

It seems that my hobbies have increased in the last several years and my photography has suffered. I also realize I need to tag my photos so I can find them easier....

Anyway, here is  an oldie from 2011.  I really do love photography although the DSLR is quite heavy for my wrist. I'll need to wear a brace and see if that helps....

Cats

Now for something different since you might need a Japan break.

Our 2 cats are growing fast and keeping us entertained. We've been busy this weekend and I noticed the two were being a little rambunctious around the house. So I pulled out a favorite toy of theirs, a feathery pineapple. At least that's what I named it when I first saw it and now it no longer looks like before, the cats still love it.

I shoved the stick into a box of towels so the feathery part would dangle/bounce/entice and it didn't take long before they attacked.

I'm trying to reawaken my photography so I used my 50mm Canon lens with Sony adapter with the Sony a6000. Nice sharp pictures but slower auto focus. Always difficult to capture Shadow but if he is still, I can get some nice shots of him.

Lots of the photos are blurry or cats moving so much they're not in the frame. It was fun though...

Sony A6000

Another sweet addition to my life which gave my photography a kick start. My Canon is awesome but lately its weight has been a real pain for me. Since I got the Sony, my Canon has been my in-house camera for kitty photos.

This little Sony is much smaller and lighter than a DSLR so it's easy to take out with me easily. I've been playing with it for about a week or so and I'm learning what it can do.




My first major outing was out hiking along the Palos Verdes cliffs/coast. A very bright day which can be problematic at times but the Sony adjusts well. Above, I have the sun to my left but we can still see nice details with the kids and their clothing.




A landscape photo catching the wave splash.




Next day, same area with totally different weather. I had to adjust a little in Lightroom to get more details but the camera still performs well for me.




A more difficult challenge. A black cat. Luckily the light was good to help but there is no editing, just straight from the camera. Pretty nice. Shadow helped by being extra still.

back in the mix

and now back to photography...

These mushrooms have popped up in our neighbor's yard last week so it's been interesting to see the growth and decay of them. Today I decided to dust off my DSLR and macro lens to get back into a groove.

Lots of cool little nuances and textures in these little shrooms. The gardeners are coming today so this was my last time to get really up close to them.

It rained yesterday and by rain, I mean that it was basically trace amounts. Enough to get the cars wet but not enough to rinse all the dirt completely off.

2014: Starts now!

A whirlwind 2013 holiday season and hopefully settles down to a brand new year 2014!

It didn't help that our family of four came down with varying degrees of cold/cough/fever but we are over the worst of it. Tyler and I finally got our flu shots today.

Lots of things to focus on like my usual knitting and photography amongst many things on my list. I developed a roll of film about a month ago and was pleasantly shocked to see that I double exposed the roll. So what we see is a mix of Kauai and California.

can you see the ocean view? rotate it.

Josh among some clouds.

Another Los Angeles/Kauai mish mash.

Pine cone/Spouting horn

That was fun although at the time I had no idea that this was happening but it is still kind of cool.

Another fun thing, was practice taking portraits. With babies & children & other people!! Normally I would be freaked out but luckily my models were very good friends which made it easier.

Quick update

I can't believe how quickly Christmas is approaching which means I'm completely behind and unorganized. I was frantically knitting gifts for family and now I'm at that point of, Oh well, I tried.

That goes for my annual photo calendar which is definitely put on the backburner and highly unlikely to be ready by Christmas. I think the number of calendar users in my family/friends have drastically reduced in size and I can only think of a few that actually use them.

So that sums it up, behind in knitting and photography although the knitting is done but I haven't taken any photos of them so, yeah.

I did manage to take some pictures of Josh because he is still a willing participant/model and I rented this monster pro lens that needs to be used (a lot). Luckily I have it until January so once school is out, I will torture the kids with photography. :)

Leaf Toss

Gathering more leaves

This guy takes direction so well. :)

Photo session over: time to head home.

Morning portraits

Up and out the door earlier than usual...J has a field trip and has to arrive 15 minutes earlier. I decided to try out a new lens that I'm renting.

Wow, this sucker is massive and heavy. So far I'm still getting used to this but it's fun to try.



J is wearing his class T-shirt with all the kids names filling in the 14. I can't believe that this is his last year of elementary school.



Stopping for another pic by a lush green plant.



Closer portrait. My baby is growing up.



And another one by the park. Its sad that he doesn't want to play here anymore....

Now, my next mission is get pics of my oldest baby not being sullen and teen-like. :)

Fur Girl Portraits

I met Julie a year and half ago on the Kings fan cruise so we immediately bonded over hockey and the LA Kings. She has 2 cute dogs which she refers to as her "fur girls" which are her babies.

I wanted to surprise Julie with some pet portraits which takes some planning while she is away on a trip and Kat dogsits. Timing, weather and life always kept getting in the way but today was the day where we both had the time and the weather was cooperative.

Now for the subject of getting the dogs to behave. Ideally, I would try to try and portraits of the dogs together but normally they don't seem to hang out well next to each other so we had to do each one separately.

Lady is more patient and mellow while Raina is spastic and often clueless but both dogs are super cute. I originally was going to take them to a nearby park but the sun started getting hot and I thought the outside area of her place worked with the greenery. Plus we could pose one dog at a time while the other was inside the house and they switch them out. It worked great.

Raina

This is Raina a miniature Australian sheepdog.  She has gorgeous light brown/amber eyes with the cute ears. She is a snuggler/burrower that is so endearing then when you least expect it, she will launch herself onto you if you're sitting on the couch. Raina took a while to settle down and sit so I don't have many different poses with her. Yes, if I could describe Raina in one word, it's spaz. :)

Raina in B/W

Next up, we have Lady (spaniel breed). Lady is the perfect lady as her name implies. For her photography session, she happily sat and posed in and out of the house. Raina was all over the place.
That's why I have more photos of Lady. She has more patience which helps me have the time to set up the shot and she has nice expressive, knowing eyes.

Lady is ready for her close-up.

Cooperative & working the angles.

"I know I'm adorable."

Classic Lady.

Lady thinking, "hurry up!"

Okay, only one more photo.

This is the photo that paparazzi takes and publishes unflattering pic of me biting my lip.
Sigh.

So that's the portrait session, then the fur girls took a nap after their exhausting shoot. It's tough to be adorable....woof!

Ebb and Flow

June Gloom

Very foggy day in Palos Verdes.

Fuji film set

Now here is the film that wasn't developed that we found one day cleaning out junk.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see some picture of the kids & us probably in 2004. The kids are both little with baby faces. :)

Josh

Tyler

Time is fleeting.

You can see the whole set here.

Babies

Finally found some time to visit with my friend V who had twin girls in the spring. They had to spend some time in the hospital and one had to be there for an extended time with a couple of surgeries. Thankfully, both are home with their family and I finally got to see both in person.

Aren't they adorable?? I brought some baby items with me to see if they fit. Here's Danica with the baby pom pom hat. She's now 7 months and teething so expect lots of pics with drool and hands in her mouth. :)





And I was thrilled to see the baby booties fit her as she has petite feet. Little Mary Janes for Danica!!





Danica is enjoying the Apple Core blanket I made by tasting it. :)

Now it's Kendra's turn to model the hat. She has a lot more hair than her sister. At first I thought the weight of the hat was going to topple her over; she was definitely swaying when I put it on her head.





Lots of hair compared to....



this. ;) Oh those babies are just precious!

Under the Wire

Very skimpy on the posts this week not because things are quiet (quite the opposite) but due to lack of organization on my part.

I finished another pair of socks while in Vegas which is a major hurdle since it's been extremely hot in SoCal for over a month then I went to Vegas (helloooo, desert) and sweated over there. At least I had A/C in hotel room which got me through it all, plus knitting at the airport/plane.

The pattern I used is called Scylla that utilizes slipped stitched which is great for variegated yarn (short color changes) but in honor of the yarn/ location of knitting/weather, I will name my pair Hot Neon Vegas. The colors are not adjusted but really this vibrant/neon hot pink and purple. A lot like the 80's. :)

hobbies collide

Here is the photoshoot which was sort of rushed since I'm impatient and didn't search for the tripod. I decided to liven up the shots with Josh's latest hobby, skateboarding. The skateboard is actually Tyler's who is graciously loaning it to Josh in the meantime.

This pattern was super easy and enjoyable. I would definitely knit this again especially for variegated yarns.

closer view

another boring pose

I'm gonna have to set up the tripod to get some more shots of this great pair of socks.

Oh, also this morning Josh and I did some more portraits within a portrait series which came out better since I used a DSLR and not my phone. ;p

Josh really hammed it up for me and showed me his natural smile instead of his grimace.

Kids grow so fast.

My next goal is to have this photo enlarged, framed and shoot another portrait when Josh is in his 20's (or in his teens).