120/365: A Visit to the Children's Farm

It was a beautiful day here so we spent most of it at a children's farm at a regional park nearby. It was just me and the kids; so I'm exhausted!

119/365: Another Kalanchoe + Macro

TGIF!

118/365: K is for Kalanchoe

Today, I shot another photo for the ABC challenge at Clickin Moms. We had rain and dark skies all day long. It was a little challenging to capture this plant in a creative way. So, late this afternoon, I had just finished editing this one of these lovely succulents when, lo and behold, the sun made an appearance for a few minutes! I rushed and got another picture of the Kalanchoe.

The top is a PSE-edited photo taken with the 50mm lens and the bottom is a LR3-edited photo taken with the 15-85 lens (which I used for yesterday's post). Thank you to Karren for giving me the name of the berry plant in yesterday's post--it was a Pyracantha bush!

117/365: Where the Wild Things...Grow

We went for a late afternoon family walk today. I caught the last few minutes of very lovely light. I can't say spring is in full bloom here but there's interesting life sprouting anyway (can you tell I have no idea what any of these are called?!).

116/365: U is for Ukulele

This one is for a contest over at Clickin Moms; however it's not the first time I've captured hubby and his uke. See my first post on this blog.

115/365: Rainy Day and Her Galoshes

It's been rainy all day. We ventured briefly out before I had to get the camera back inside (wink)! When she first got her rain boots, she could not stop showing them off to everyone! 

114/365: Easter Bonnet

It's a lovely Easter bonnet, and she may not be wearing much after this year. So here's my capture of it!

113/365: Sunny Day and a Big Kid Bike

We bought my daughter a new "big kid" bike a week ago but only today was the weather warm enough to take it for a spin. Sure felt like a real spring day! Hallelujah!

The first two are shot with my 85mm lens. First one is processed in PSE using My4Hen's Just Love. Second one is processed in LR3 using Willette's Easter Bonnet (how appropriate!). Last photo taken with my 15-85mm, SOOC from LR.

112/365: Good Friday

Happy Easter (for those who celebrate)!

111/365: Crayons

Guess it's my turn to do the crayon shot! That's all I could muster for a Thursday--in dreary un-Spring-like weather!

110/365: Painted Feather

My mother sent me some pretty unique artwork, which arrived Monday. It's these framed hand-painted feathers. They're done by Puerto Rican artists. Here's a close-up of one of these feathers.  This one depicts the Three Magi (one above the other).

109/365: Guilty Pleasure

This should be a picture of some decadent food. But it is not, today, anyway!

108/365: Macro Monday - Color

These are the little confetti that come in a jar to decorate the icing on cakes.  I shot into the jar for this one (and used the Speedlight).

107/365: Abstract Mood

Sunday we spent the day at the Art Gallery of Ontario. I've looked at my shots off and on between yesterday and today. I couldn't decide how to edit them or what to post! Then it hit me tonight. I'm in an abstract mood! The first one is of the Gallery's huge wall of arched timber beams and part of a wood sculpture. The second one is the reflection of a portrait I took (my subject is reflected on a glass wall overlooking a mossy brick building).

106/365: The Big Water Fall

We spent the weekend sight-seeing with my mother-in-law. My daughter saw the Falls again almost as if she had not seen them before. At her age, every time is a new adventure.

105/365: Casa Loma

We did a little sightseeing today. The temperatures dipped again, so we stayed mostly indoors.

SS 1/125 f/4 ISO 3200

SS 1/500 f/7 ISO 200

Thank you for the comments on my macro!

104/365: Pixel Peeping and Macros

I am coming to the conclusion that pixel peeping and macro photography are not a good combo! Or maybe, I'm expecting too much. These are my Gerbera daisies.

103/365: No Way, We're Not Smiling

My daughter decided to give me her funny face, while my son chose to ignore me and my camera! Just one of those days, I guess! LOL

Thank you for all the comments on yesterday's post. I bounced my flash behind me on the first one and to the side on the second one. On both, my daughter was sitting on a silver reflector. As for my B&W conversions, I do them in LR3. After doing the standard WB adjustments, I play with the Tone Curve (bumping up the lights and bumping down the darks). I tweak other things such as contrast, brightness, and recovery sliders as needed. I use the adjustment brush to lighten or darken any given area that needs it (have not done this lately). I learned a lot of this from David DuChemin's book, Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Hope this helps!

102/365: My Assistant and the Speedlite

After spending the afternoon listening to Neil van Niekerk talk about flash (Clickin Mom webinar), I had to ask my little assistant if she'd let me practice on her. She was so cooperative today!

I'm editing on my big non-calibrated monitor and this B&W conversion has me second-guessing myself. Tell me what you think.

101/365: Late-Night Strawberries

My hubby came home with strawberries (among other snack items). So that's what I shot!

100/365: The Flash Bus

Today, I attended the Flash Bus Workshop in Buffalo, NY and got to meet a Clickin' Mom (Michelle, aka FeatheredLight). It was a treat for me to be able to attend the all-day photography workshop that was all about using strobes (mostly off-camera flash). There were close to 400 attendees. As a newbie, I was amused by the incredible amount of gear everyone carried around--talk about a photogeek-fest! I still have a lot to process about what was discussed but am eager to put to use some of what I learned.

To my fellow 365-bloggers: Happy 100th post! 

99/365: Night Practice

I had to take out the Speedlight again in honor of the Flash Bus Tour workshop (more on this in the next post).

While I'm not too excited about the pose, I was pretty happy with the lighting result. This was taken in our backyard with a tiny bit of window light (to assist in focusing) and with the Speedlight bounced against the brick wall behind me. Settings:  1/250, f/5.0, ISO 400 focal length 46mm (15-85 lens).

98/365: It's Springing Up Daisies!

 I had to make a little flower purchase to cheer myself up!

Gerbera Daisies

97/365: What the Doggie Saw

I think she was checking out what my other doggie was doing. Hubby was playing the latest toy in our house: my iPhone.

Taken with the Speedlite and the 50mm.

96/365: A Little Something for Dinner

We had a little treat for dinner tonight. There was salad, too, but couldn't get that in the frame! LOL

95/365: Her Cup of "Coffee"

Since she sees me having coffee, she will sometimes ask for coffee, too. A while ago, I started giving her hot chocolate in a small coffee cup. So that's what she had today. It always seems to make her feel better no matter what her mood!

94/365: Neighborhood Doggies

So that snow we got last night melted by mid-morning! It turned into a warm day, and maybe now, we can really welcome spring! I saw these two neighborhood doggies and couldn't resist asking the owner if I could get a few pictures of them.

93/365: What the Evening Brought

It was hard to grab focus in the dark but I like the effect even though I didn't like seeing the snow. This is the view of out my backyard door. Mother Nature is totally teasing us!

92/365: Windy Afternoon

We took the kids to the playground again since it was a nice day. The wind made it a little cool and a bit dangerous when a brush fire broke out in the ravine behind our house--it was actually several houses up from us but we got a lot of smoke for a few hours as a result.

91/365: Hands in Dirt

She was only in the backyard a few minutes but I think she fancied herself a spring gardener!

90/365: Footloose and Not-So-Happy

The last couple of days have been quite rough since my son, who was not feeling well, decided to turn up the volume on the terrible twos stage. Yesterday, he spent most of the day without clothes. So this is the only part of him that I could snap before I turned in for the night.