More strawberries

More strawberries, this time on theme. They're in a 4th of July/patriotic bowl (which I bought the other day just because I thought berries would look awesome in it).

Canon 40D with 24-70mm lens at 70mm
ISO400 F5.6 SS2sec (tripod mounted)
Custom white balance

Strawberries

It's pick-your-own strawberry season here.

Canon 40D with 24-70mm lens at 68mm

ISO400 F2.8 SS1/5
Custom white balance

Summer day 7

Summer is...smelly pee. I mean, fresh asparagus.
Do you like it better horizontal or vertical? I took it horizontal.

Summer day 6

Summer is...boats and buoys on a beach.
I know the midnight sepia thing is so over, but what do you think of it on this shot?

Summer day 5

Summer is...silly girls jumping in a pool:

Summer day 4

Summer is...turning last year's walking sneakers into this year's lawnmowing sneakers.Canon 40D with 24-70mm lens at 42mm

ISO200 F5.0 SS1/50
Soft light layer, color pop action
Cropped, resized and USM for Web

I love mowing the lawn. I love the smell of fresh-cut grass and of gasoline, I love the neat lines it makes, I love the feeling of combining exercise with accomplishing a task, and I love jumping in the pool to cool off when I'm done. My kids don't love that I love it because when they mow, I actually pay them. I hate every other chore indoors or outdoors, but I love mowing the lawn.

Summer day 3

Summer is...spending a Sunday at Fenway Park watching baseball.With the family (who really were happy to be there--it was just hot and we were in a rain delay).
You all remember my boyfriend Quadzilla (aka Jason Varitek), don't you?
You may remember my posting a photo of my DS playing baseball with the one-sleeve look inspired by one of our Red Sox, Jacoby Ellsbury. He's too young to be my boyfriend, that would be pervy. :-D Here he is. It's so fun watching him steal bases.
I love when the big guys support each other. Manny Ramirez giving Julio Lugo a ride:

At one point my lens looked over here and said, "Mama? If I eat my vegetables will I grow up to be big and strong like these guys?" I hope so, baby, I hope so.

Summer day 2

Summer is...fruit salad.

Canon 40D with 24-70mm lens at 70mm

ISO400 F2.8 SS1/60

Summer

Summer is...my not-so-little girl doing cartwheels on the beach.

Canon 40D with 24-70mm lens
ISO400 F5.6 SS1/6400
Custom white balance, exposure compensation +2/3
Adjusted levels, hard light layer, USM, cropped and sized for web

My girl

CC welcome and appreciated. I'm always trying to improve my people photos.

Canon 40D with 100mm macro lens
ISO400 F2.8 SS1/2500 AV mode
Custom white balance

Dragonfly

What do you think? Overprocessed?

That's sketchy

Some friends of my dad and stepmom's offered their home (on the beach--so nice) to host their anniversary party, and I wanted to do something to thank them. While I was there I took a photo of the house. Then I turned it into a sketch in PSE, using the instructions here
http://www.photoshopcreativeelements.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2058
from a link that Amy (MommytoTen) ) shared on her blog: http://dailypleasures.blogspot.com/ (Thanks, Amy!)

Then I printed it on white cardstock and framed it:
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Hopefully they won't look at my family blog and follow the link here and see this before I get a chance to give it to them. :-D

A Maine real estate sign

This is why I love Maine.

And it makes me wonder: when did 'wicked' become a word the rest of the country uses? It used to be a New England (and particularly Maine) thing, but now I see/hear people all over use it occasionally. It makes me laugh because one of my brothers refuses to say it because he thinks it's so hick. I embrace my hickdom and use it as much as possible, especially around him. That and a hearty "Jeezum Crow!" I never say "Ayuh" or "You can't get theyah from heyah," though, that's just lame. :-P

The Dance

I know I've mentioned about a million times how happy I am that my dad and stepmom are here for a visit. Here's a photo of the two of them together on Saturday, when we had a party to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. I've been blessed to have a wonderful "bonus mom" for all these years. She is an amazingly strong woman who has gotten us all through some tough times, especially in the last few years as they've coped with my dad's various health problems. Watching them dance together the other day made me cry like a baby, not just because that romantic stuff gets to me but because last year Dad had a long, difficult recovery from back surgery and we weren't sure he'd walk again, so seeing him be able to dance with his beautiful bride was all the more emotional for me.

A window

A window, but not taken today. I spent the day today volunteering at DD's school for field day, making snowcones in the rain, and I'm pooped.

More important men, the oldies

I guess after not posting on "important men" theme all week, I've decided I'm not quite done. I was looking through my scanned photos and found some oldies that were good for the theme.

Here's my dad back in the day (the day of hair):
This is my husband's grandfather. I love this photo. He was a lumberjack. Isn't that cool?
Here's DH's grandfather again with his own father. DH recently received this photo from a distant relative. We don't have many old photos so getting one of his great-grandfather was exciting. I can definitely look at DH's grandfather in this photo and see my DH in him.
And here is the love of my life, my DH. When I pulled this one up on the computer DH said, "Can you believe you procreated with that?" Aww, he was cute. He just had a bad haircut. His dad used to give him haircuts (too poor vs. too cheap to go to the barber is the big debate) and DH still has trauma over it. Can't say I blame him. I've got photos of him with worse haircuts than this one. :-D. My father-in-law is a man of many talents, but barbering isn't one of them.

Happy Father's Day

Me and the first important man in my life, my dad. I am so thrilled to have him and my stepmom here in Maine for a month-long visit.

Family portrait

Well, the important men in my household weren't too cooperative with the theme this week and posing for my camera, so I've resorted to a family portrait as represented by our Wii Fit Mii characters. The blond with her back to us is DD's BFF. I call her daughter #2, so it's fitting that she is in our 'family portrait.' (How convenient that her character turned away when I took the photo of my TV screen since I don't have permission to post her photo on the blog LOL.)Look what a porker my Mii character is! It's a little demoralizing getting on the balance board to be weighed and watching your Mii character blow up like a balloon. A little demoralizing and completely hilarious. :-D
I've heard that that the Wii Fit sometimes tells people they're fatter than they are (check out the funny video below), but in my case I'd have to say it's pretty accurate.




Two thumbs up from me on the Wii Fit game, by the way. Not a great aerobic workout, but really fun.

Links to the textures I used in yesterday's photos: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ghostbones/sets/72157603698161108/
I got this by following a link that Amy (MommytoTen) posted on her blog. Amy rocks!
http://pifphoto.com/
You'll have to scroll to find them, but there are lots of goodies there. (Most of you probably already know about PIF; I learned about it from you.)

White trillium again

Thanks for pointing out my pun in yesterday's post. I had to go back and read what I wrote because it was definitely unintentional. :-D

Playing with one of my flower shots from a couple of weeks ago, adding some free textures I've collected:
In the post below this I've shared some photos of my own that I thought might make good textures.

Sharing some textures

Just thought I'd share some photos I've taken the past few months to put in my "textures" folder. I haven't really played with any of them so I don't know how they'd work, but if you like to collect textures like I do, feel free to right click on any of the photos in this post that you want. I'd love to see what you do with them. They're all JPEG files, and I think they're all saved at 300dpi but haven't checked.

Cemetery

I had time to kill the other day and went shooting in a cemetery. I prefer old cemeteries for the interesting aged stuff and textures, but I did think this grave marker was kind of cool. When I saw her up close, I have to admit she creeped me out a little. I hope she's not modeled after anyone real, because I'll probably get struck down for calling her creepy.
The flower detail was kind of pretty. This might make a good texture.
I haven't been pleased with the photos I've been taking the last few days. I think the heat and my busy schedule this week have sucked my energy and enthusiasm away.