Pop!

Wow Blake! That was a tough one to think of. Good. But tough. Way to keep us on our toes :)

When I thought of circulation, I first thought of a circle going around in a circle. (Lame, I know). When my daughter suggested that we go blow bubbles today, everything clicked. Bubbles are little circles that are circulating around in the air. :)

I wish that I had a faster camera so I could have gotten some mid-flight, but I'm sure my time will come :)

I like how these bubbles in the picture are waiting for take off. ;)

Splash

Emma's afternoon was spent circulating into and out of the pool, always making a huge splash when she went back into the pool.

Yes... I know this is a stretch, but this was a HARD word! :)

Shhh!!!!

Self explanatory here, but I am excited I finally blurred something in the foreground and got the background in focus! HERE for my only 2 decent ones. CC please!

Bowling

When I read the challenge word the first thing I wanted to do was go hunt me down a cadaver...get it...no circulation. Ah-ha :). But sadly, I couldn't find a cadaver anywhere (go figure) so I went with bowling. You throw/roll the ball, it hits the pins (or in my case, it doesn't) and then the nifty little machine spits the ball back out...circulation, baby.

f2.5, 1/50 sec, ISO 200

CC

Winners: Sign

Good morning, and welcome to the weekend edition of winners!

Brittney definitely took the cake with her awesome vintage truck and U-Pick strawberry sign.

Coming in second were Katy with her adorable signing daughter, and Mindy with color TV (but is it digital ready?).

Congrats to all! Scroll down for today's challenge!

Challenge: Circulation

Thank you Mindy for asking me to come up with a word. I was thinking about it and this word kept coming into my head. Hope it is hard, after all we are suppose to challenge ourselves, right? :)

Enjoy! Remember deadline 11:59:59 Sunday night!

Pleased To Meet You!

NAME: Melinda Boschi

What camera do you use?
I use a Sony Cyber-shot, DSC-W120 (a really basic point and shoot.)

What is your favorite photography subject? (or, what do you like to take pictures of the best?)
I like to photograph my daughters, and nature.

What camera equipment is on your wish list?
A backdrop (or even a couple un-designed, unstained sheets would do!), and maybe a couple of props…I work simple and don’t mind staying that way. But I just started looking at digital slr’s…and am in love.

What are your hobbies outside of photography?
I love to play piano and sing. If you give me a book, I'm certain to finish it before the week is out. I am currently involved with my Church’s young women (ages 12-18) in planning their summer camp and am REALLY loving it!

Tell us about your family! (married? Kids?)
I have been married for 4 ½ years to a wonderful husband and father, and we have two little girls, aged 3 and 1, with a (?) on the way…due on my birthday, actually!

Where do you live?
I live in SE Wisconsin.

Do you have a blog you would like to share? (family blog or photography blog?)
My blog is always open to visitors…be prepared, though, it’s pretty full of pictures of my girls! Our family blog can be found at http://www.1lil2lilgirls.blogspot.com/. I also have just started a practice-photography blog, at http://melindastrialphotos.blogspot.com/. This second blog, I would LOVE for you all to occasionally visit. I'm looking for tips and pointers, especially as the weddings that I worried over are getting closer. I'm trying to get more 'portrait' type pictures there, so I know what I'm trying to do. Thanks!

What is the best photography advice you have ever received?
I don’t think I can pinpoint this. My dad and uncle have been pretty avid photographers all my life and I think I did more learning from observing. However, I have really enjoyed the tips I get from the Tuesday’s Tutorials (previously named “Friday Features”).

What (if any) editing program do you use?
I use the only program I liked from free downloads, Picasa3. I love to use it!

Can you share your favorite 3 pictures with us??
The first is Lizzie, my 14 mo/old, getting her first Christmas pictures. (She was 8 mo at the time.)
Next is my personal favorite from the mission24 challenge, my Hero shot at the fire station.
Last, I've got a candid shot of a little boy I sometimes babysit, taken at our local art museum.
I'm so glad I get to work with so many talented people on this blog!

Voting: Sign

It's that time again... time to give votes to your favorites and shout outs to your other favorites!!

Vote for your TWO favorites, and tell us why they made the cut. Then shout out to as many as you like. :)

Remember not to vote for Shelby, since she won last time with her Amazing Anchor! (Although I don't know if this rule is even important... if someone takes two winning pictures in a row, don't they deserve to win it, if people want to vote for that photo? I don't think it would happen that often, because there are TONS of talented photographers on this blog! What do you think?)

signs of getting older

This isnt my best picture but its hard getting a class of kindergarteners to hold still and look happy. Some noise in the back but it will get better with practice.

My graduate, the one who refused to wear the cap.

He also wouldn't do any of the songs, dance, or motions.

He is a peach.

Nikon D60, 70mm, 5.5(i think)

cc always welcome

Sign: I Need A Life

This is what I spent my day doing. Originally I took out the sewing machine to hem and alter a pair of pants. Then I thought I might make a couple of old pillow cases into new pillows for my couch. And then I found a matching sheet, well one thing lead to another and the finished project is.....

So this is a sign to me that I need a life so that I can fill my days with things that aren't so insane!!! I know this is kind of a lame post but like I said I need to get a life and get out more :)
CC always welcome, and nope I'm not going to tell you what I did in photoshop it. That might just ruin the effect. If you figure it out or really want to know then we can discus details.

PS- I know it's past midnight but I finished the project at almost midnight exactly.

Sign of Respect

Out of respect for our country, we fly the American Flag a little higher...

CC always welcome. Thanks for looking.

Double Take

They put this billboard up by my house a few weeks ago. Every time I drive by it, I have to do a double take! Good thing the guy is probably over 10 feet tall, otherwise people really might think someone is after the goodies on the billboard :)

Ribs!

Always a good sign! And they were yummy!

CC always welcome!

First Sign of a Prince

Ampelmann

In what used to be East Berlin most of the walk/don't walk signs are ampelmann. While I was there last week, I purchased the bag pictured above. I took other pictures of ampelmanchen on street, and a bunch of other signs (including one for the U2 uberbahn at Zoologisher Garten--how cool is that!) many of which will be posted at my blog along with other pictures from my trip.

iso 100, f/5.6, 1/25 sec.
cc

Sign: A sign of things to come

I woke up this morning with tell-tale symptoms of my semi-annual sinus infection. It's actually about 4-5 weeks late. I thought I had gotten out of it this spring, but no. So this photo is a sign of what my next two weeks will look like. I used a soft focus effect on it, because my head will be a little fuzzy around the edges.

CC

It's Time

This is the sign that Mommy's run enough errands and it's time to go home and put the poor little boy to bed.

f/2.0, SS 1/160, ISO 200
d300, 50 mm prime lens

Its All I Got

Here it is, it's all I got. Not gonna lie it sucks! I chose this for two reasons. Today is a day you just stay away from me hence the yellow light. Also it says two cars on green, can anyone tell me why there is a yellow? I hated metered on ramps!!! As always HERE for the the other choices.

signin'

ARG. So Blake gave me this AWESOME idea... but in the hub-bub of things today, I didn't find any spare time to go out and take the shot I wanted.... and trust me, it was gonna be GOOD.

But yesterday (pre-hub-bub) I took some shots of Ava signing "More" and "Please"... yes, I know that we already have an ASL pic up but this is ALL I GOT... dang.

This shot was taken after a BIG handful of chocolate chip bribery. Can't go signing "MO?" and "Pweeze" for nuttin', huh AvaLou?

Smokey says.....

Do you all remember Smokey the Bear? Looking for signs today I spotted this by the Forrest Service down by the Lake. I have some pretty fun memories of Smokey the Bear from my youth so this was my favorite for the day.

I Love You...in ASL

That's American SIGN Language.

Taken in natural light, on 'portrait' setting on my camera (a setting I just found, actually. very cool.)

CC welcome, as always!

A good sign

Our son Allston is still a happy boy and thats a good sign because we still have a lot of driving hours ahead of us!

U-Pick Strawberries

I decided to go literal for this challenge. Because....I LOVE SIGNS!!! I was in heaven driving/biking around today snapping away at old signs, funny signs and ones that I love for no reason at all. I ended up going with my favorite sign of all, the one at my favorite local farm announcing strawberry picking season. I take my wee ones every year and we pick until our fingers bleed...ok, ok, that may be a slight exaggeration ;)

50mm, f4, 1/500 sec, ISO 100, center weighted metering, WB cloudy

CC

Color TV!

I have a thing for retro signs, even if they're run-down and especially if they still advertise COLOR TV!! My cinema photo made it into a magazine, so I decided to go take a picture of my other favorite sign in town. :)

the sign of summer...

its summer! finally! hoooray

shot at :

iso 200

speed 500

nikon d300

70-200

fstop 4.5

cc

Challenge: Sign

GO! :)

Winners: The Letter A

Good morning everyone! We have one winner and one winner only this morning. You loved Shelby's yacht club anchor! There was a second place, but it was Brittney, who won last challenge. Please remember not to repeat votes!

Congrats to Shelby!

Tips and Tricks for Better Landscape Pictures

I love nature. It is my favorite thing to take pictures of. I am especially drawn to landscape photos. I love taking them and I love looking at them. I'm going to share a few quick tips I've learned on how to get better landscape pictures.

NEVER, EVER put your horizon in the middle of the frame.

Decide what holds more interest in the picture and capture more of that. For example, in this picture I captured more of the hoo-doos

and this one I captured more of the sky.

Try to capture foreground, middle and background to give the picture depth.

The weeds are the foreground, the lake/mountains are the middle and the sky/distant mountains make up the background.

Look for Scaling Opportunities

If you want to show the true majesty of a mountain, or in this case a narrow slot canyon, look for something you can capture in the picture that will help show its true size. I had Britt stand in this one and it seemed to do the trick.

Look for S-Curves to lead your eye through the picture

Or any curve for that matter. It's a cool way to add direction to the picture.

Mission 24 business for the day

This will be quick as I am getting ready to head to Utah today.

JUST A REMINDER that we are having the Mission 24 get together tomorrow in Utah---
(Bountiful area). I sent an email out with the address. IF YOU DID NOT GET THAT and want to come, please let me know. Kids are welcome and we hope to have a great time. The Idaho one was a blast, and it made me super excited to meet all of you in Utah!

Also, we started the feature photographer a while back, but I completely dropped the ball posting them while on vacation. I want to start that back up this week, but only have a few people who preposted their with their pictures. So, a reminder for that is that even though most of you emailed me your responses, I realized it would take FOREVER for me to post everyone's pictures. So, I need each of you to go on and post them yourself. It's really easy to prepost.

Just copy and paste your questionairre into a new post. Add your self portrait and your 3 favorite pictures (like you post your pictures for challenges) and then prepost it. To do that, click on POST OPTIONS--it will be just under the your text box on the left hand side.

It will drop down an area that talks about comments and backlinks--don't worry about that stuff. On the right hand side you will see POST DATE AND TIME. PLEASE put in the date 9/9/09. I will then change the date when it's your turn to post. But at least it will be on the computer and ready to post.

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS about that, please let me know. A lot of you haven't done it yet...and i would love to be able to introduce everyone.

Leave a comment or shoot me an email if you didn't get the email about the mission 24 get together and want to come. My address is on the sidebar.

HAVE A GREAT MONDAY!

Voting: The Letter A

I just happened to check this morning (I'm on a mini-vacation :) and saw that we hadn't started voting yet, soooo....

Here goes!

Vote for your fAvorite picture stArting with the letter A!

Remember not to vote for Katy, Dave, or Brittney!

Amazing Scouts

This is our annual scout Flag Retirement, it was amazing!!

Nikon D60, 55mm, ???? sorry

CC always welcome

Please allow this one, my computer froze on me.

A for Adorable

Sorry to post another baby photo, but this is a photo from a shoot I did for my newest baby nephew today. He is super adorably cute. The more baby photos' I do, the better I'm getting at them i think.

this is at
iso400
f5.6
60
canon rebel XTI
CC
Sepia tone added

A for Afraid

Hate to post this beside all the cutie patootie baby pics but here is my take.....trying some new stuff

~cc~

A for ANGEL

A is for Angel--my sweet niece Grace being one of them. She is still so new and fresh from heaven. I just love watching her observe the world around her! SUCH an angel baby!

This post is brought to you by...The Letter A

There are two posts here, one from me and one from my husband, Travis. We spent a lot of time with family this weekend and he took some pictures of our ADORABLE niece, Megan.



On the way home I took some pictures of AGRICULTURE. This is a cute farm outside of Blackfoot that I've wanted to take pictures of for a while but hadn't yet. So I seized the opportunity for this challenge.

Both taken with a Nikon D-40, automatic setting, slightly cropped. CC welcome.

Finding Agony

(70mm, iso 100, f 8, 1/160 sec)

Yesterday, Britt rode the Little Red Riding Hood Bike Ride, a charity ride to find a cure for breast cancer. I was her photographer. Knowing the challenge for the day I wanted a picture of agony. I should have known that Britt would complete the 64 mile ride and be ready for more. So, no signs of agony, she happily peddled along with my little sister, Jess, thoroughly enjoying the ride.

Audacious Aphids

Their doom will be coming tomorrow...ladybugs attack!

An Infinite Amount of A's

Well, not "INFINITE" amount... but a lot nonetheless!
Looka all dem A's, baby

Letter A: Adorable, but already??

I took this picture this afternoon of my little girl. She's about 13.5 months old, but I think she started the terrible twos this week. Hence the already??. But she's still adorable (if I do say so myself).

About the photo: Shot in manual mode, ISO 100, early evening. Adjusted exposure, saturated colors, increased shadows.

CC

Abstract Atrocity

This is my daughter's hair after removing her Sunday hairdo...just a big old mess! BUT she looks so cute running around with her hair flying around in 10 directions. I feel like I've taken lots of her lately and wanted to focus on the hair. Taken with flash, then given filtered b/w in picasa. CC always welcome!

ABCs

Yup, my wee one is hard at work learning those ABCs. Good ol' Dr. Suess!

CC welcome

f/2, 1/250 sec., ISO 200

oh and I appologize for my ENORMOUS picture. I'll downsize it when I get a sec. Promise. ;)

Ant in Motion

f/5.6 1/125sec. ISO360 using my 18-135mm
Have any of you ever tried to take a picture of a running ant? NOT easy! I decided I wanted to take a picture of an ant after my hubby told me that my son had been chasing them throughout church today (they were playing hookie) and had actually attempted to say "ant"- HORRAY!

I had no idea how hard it would be to actually chase down an ant and get him in focus before he got away. (I only have a zoom lens so it's tough with tiny subjects) I was trying to track with the ant and I love how the ground looks like it's moving while the ant is in motion. I just cropped it a bit and added a border.

CC ALWAYS WELCOME!