13: routines

Only 5 days behind... Ohhh well, this way I will have "regular" blog posts well into March.

Day 13's assignment was routines. Capturing your loved one going through their daily routine. Of course the day that I get to this assignment would not be a typical day. Mia has no school so the "getting ready for school" routine was out. BUT we can always count on Mike and his morning tea.

12: the eyes

Lesson 12 was all about how to take a great picture of eyes. Where to place your subject, in what direction they should look, what light works best and to turn off the flash.

Even with the wiggly subjects I chose today I got some great pictures of their eyes. Even Mia has a hard time holding still if I need anything other than a quick snapshot.

11: dreams

"What does your loved one dream of accomplishing or doing?" was the prompt for this assignment. We have a lot of goals for the near future. I think having a new house comes with a big list of things to do. One of the biggest dreams Mike has is being more self-sufficient. Growing lots of our own food, hooking up the windmill to something so it can produce some kind of energy we can use and getting a few animals. (Chickens, (maybe)a pig or two and (maybe) a miniature cow... we are still in the discussion phase of some of the animals I just listed.) A little bit of that dream was delivered by UPS today... my big seed order! I am so excited for spring!

07: generations

I finally got a chance to take some pictures for lesson #7 this afternoon when Gabriel was out cutting wood with Mike and Papa O. Gabriel loves working outside with his Daddy and with his Papa but with both, at the same time! He had a blast!!

I knew I was going to have to adjust my camera settings taking it outside on this nice sunny 49 degrees day. (Not that the temperature has anything to do with how much light the camera has to work with.) So before I walked the 1/4 mile back the snowy old railroad track bed where the chain-sawing was taking place, I adjusted everything so I had a great reading on the internal light meter. What I didn't take into account was the trees that blocked a lot of the light on the path. Luckily I got a few pictures that turned out anyway.

10: Space - where they are comfortable

See, I knew if I put it in writing I would take the time to read about how to select my focal points. It took maybe 5 minutes to find the part in the manual and figure out what buttons to push. I also too more baby steps and am starting to understand what all the settings actually do. Maybe by the time I finish this class I will stop asking Mike WHY he wanted to buy a camera with so many... buttons.

Mia and I had a lot of fun with this assignment. I don't think Mia has a "space" that she is most comfortable in, it could be a chair, the floor, up a tree. She is most comfortable with a book in her hand.

09: passions and hobbies

For lesson 9 I was told to work more on my selective focal points (still haven't really figured out how to do this part) and my "baby steps to shooting in manual mode" (that does make it sound a little less scary). But did I do this... NO... I stuck my camera in AUTO and took the pictures! I'm going to tell both you and myself that I will take the time to read about how to do the selective focal points (I do know my camera has 17) then maybe I will. I DID get a few shots with different spots in focus so I don't think it is a big deal.

It took me a while to figure out what to shoot for this assignment. Passions and hobbies... It has been so long that Mike has had time for passions and hobbies. Maybe his passion is the business? Helping making it a success and not loosing his mind? But that didn't sound like much of a hobby to me. Then it came to me... firewood! Every spare moment he has he is trying to make sure we are warm.

06: who they love

With Mike's crazy work schedule it has been hard to get a picture of him without his computer in his lap. He had no choice this time... When your order of 200 fast growing poplar trees comes in you can't just let them die!! So Gabriel and Mike scooped dirt into the little bags that came to start them in. We are going to have a forest in the basement until it is warm enough to put the trees in the ground. I'm told if we plant 100 trees every year for the next five years we will have our own supply of firewood for the winters to come. I grabbed the camera and hoped to get some good shots of Mike with who he loves. (or is it Gabriel and who he loves?)