Day 31- Muscadine Vine

It is macro week- woo hoo! Macro week is perfect for me. There aren't many pictures in my photostream that aren't taken with my macro lens. However, today I wasn't feeling too creative. I just went out in the yard and took a picture of the muscadine vine.

Settings: f/5, ss 1/30 sec., ISO-100

Day 30- Lipstick

This is my last red picture for the week. I decided to take a picture of my lipstick. I think it is funny how lipstick looks in the tube after you put it on a while. Mine always has this curve to it but my friends' don't.

I can't wait to start macro week tomorrow. I took this picture with my macro lens. To be honest, there aren't many pictures on my blog so far this month that haven't been taken with my macro. I love that lens!

Settings: f/5, ss 1.6 sec, ISO-100

Day 29- Red Apple

It is a red apple (no kidding right). It is another red picture for my red theme this week. I used a navy background for most of them but I really liked this one.

Guess what next week's theme is..... macro!!! I don't know that I have many pictures that aren't macro so this will be perfect for me.

Settings: f/8, ss 0.8 sec., ISO-100

Day 27- Soul Mates

To find something to take a picture of my red theme I bought a bag of Valentine M&M's. I picked out all the red ones and added just two white ones.

It reminded me of searching for a soul mate. You search and search in a sea of people and finally find that one perfect match. That's how I feel about my husband, Chris. This one is for you honey! I love you!

Settings: f/8, 0.8 ss, ISO-100

Day 26- Red Rose

I know is isn't original but I took a picture of a red rose for my theme, red, this week. I set up the rose on my desk and put the macro lens on the camera. I keep going back to the macro because I love the pictures I get with it.

I played around with Photoshop Elements and changed it to black and white. I love the black and white picture but it didn't go with my theme. So,which one do you like better?

Settings:

f/25

ss 6 sec.

ISO-100

Day 26- Red Tail Lights

My wonderful husband, Chris, took me to an overpass in the boonies in the freezing cold so I could take this picture. He stood on one side of the bridge watching the traffic. He would yell to tell me when to take the picture to get the most in the picture. He is wonderful! He takes me to crazy places, regardless of the weather, just so I can take the picture I want.

This is the first time I've ever tried a picture like this but I love the way it turned out.

Edited to add settings: f/6.3 ss 15 sec ISO-100

Day 25- Red Line

Ugh, it is only the 2nd day and red is already kicking my butt. Why is it so hard for me to come up with ideas for this one? I have one thing in mind that I'm going to try tomorrow but you will just have to wait.

Chris came up with the idea for this picture (because I was struggling). Can you tell what it is?

Day 24- Girls in Red

My brother Kevin came up with his girls to visit today. He knew my theme this week was red so all the girls were dressed in red!

Kayla and the twins, Kara and Leigha, love for me to take their picture. Kayla wants to see every time I take a picture and I think it is so cute. Kara has started saying "Ianna see" now too. They love to get right in the lens when I take their picture. Today Leigha reached right out and grabbed the lens. I thought this was a funny picture because she is just grinning while doing it.


You can see they are little hams. Every time Kara started doing something different she would "ugh" at me to take her picture. She would just smile and say "cheese". I love them dearly! Obviously I didn't post all the pictures I took. I just picked a few, which was hard.

I had my brother take a picture of me with all of them. This is as good as it gets when the picture isn't their idea. The little bits were squirming around trying to get down the whole time.

L to R: Leigha, Kara, and Kayla

I know taking pictures of people is something I need to work on. I'm using my speedlite and it seems to wash out their faces. I know I should back up but what do you do when you can't back up? I also had to use the portrait setting on my camera. I want to use manual but when you have 3 active children in front of you that isn't always possible.

Day 23- Farewell Bugs

Since this is the last day for bugs this week I decided to post a few. These are all bugs from my collection at school. The first one is a cicada. I took one up close of his face and then just the wing.

When I saw this wasp I thought of a handle bar moustache. So I zoomed in on the antenna. I'm crazy right?

And then of course I had to check out the wasp eye. This thing just looks neat.

I'm sad that bug week is over but I'll be looking for more bugs around here when spring arrives. Next week's theme is: RED. What in the world am I going to do for that?

Day 22- Line up Ladies

I took a little different direction with my picture today. Instead of going for detail I went with multiples. I had quite a few lady bugs in my bug collection so I lined them up (like I wish my school kids would do). I found a few more creepy looking bugs in the group today so I will make it to the end of this week's challenge.

The kids were so funny when I took this picture. They wanted to see every time I snapped one and they were so amazed and supportive. How can you not feel like a good photographer when all you get is "ooooooooo" and "wow" or in this case this week, "gross."

I also took a picture of this red carpenter ant. This is one big, fuzzy, red ant. He even has a stinger!

Day 21- Monarch Butterfly

Here is another bug from our classroom bug collection. I love bugs but I also love going out to find them. I wish is was warmer so I could do that. This picture was taken at the end of the school day after my bags were packed and ready to go home. I just don't feel very creative taking pictures of dead bugs. :)

Day 20- Grasshopper Legs

I took this picture for this week's theme, bugs. This is another bug from our class collection. It is hard to get creative with dead bugs on pins, lol. Of course I used my macro lens. So I decided to focus in on the spikes on these legs. Wow! And when this bug was alive he wasn't afraid to use them to try and get away.

Day 19- Our First Bug

This week's theme is bugs. Even though it is the middle of winter, bugs I can do. My 5th grade class has been collecting bugs for months to make our own bug collection. Today we started pulling them out of the freezer and started pinning them. No one will put anything in the small fridge in my classroom because it is full of bugs! :)
The kids were so excited about this one that I forgot to set the white balance. I had to adjust it with photoshop.

Day 18- Tater Tot

I'm a 5th grade teacher and my class has a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach for a pet. The kids named him TaterTot. So this is TaterTot hanging out on his sponge. We are all waiting for TaterTot to grow up so he will start hissing.

Day 17- Grasshopper

I'm still running fever today so I'm posting another old one. This week's theme is bugs. I'm not sure how I will find any living bugs to take pictures of in this cold but I have some at school for our class bug collection. Don't be shocked to see those posted here later this week.

Day 16- Rockford

I'm not posting a new picture today because I'm sick. Just got out of bed to come post and then I'm going to crawl back in bed.

I'm posting a picture of our trailer in Rockford, AL for the sadness/crying theme because it burned this week. It is a total loss. I'm so sad because it was a great place for us to go and get away. I've taken some of my best pictures there. Here are just a few of them:

Day 15- Hotdog

Theme: Sadness/Crying

What is sad about this? Don't you hate it when a perfectly good hotdog falls on the ground?

I needed a little comic relief to go along with this theme. I was playing around with my students at school so I was using the preset mode.

Day 14- Pills

To go along with this week's theme (sadness/crying) I decided to take a picture of just a small fraction of the pills I've had to take over the last few years.

Sickness + pain + 8 years + 7 different specialty docs + 2 weeks at the Mayo + 7 colonoscopies + too many other tests to count = no results

This is my ultimate sadness picture.

Day 13- Sad Eyes

I had my husband help me take this picture. I tried to get a picture of my own eye to go along with the theme (sadness/crying).

Day 12- Guitar

So the theme this week is sadness/crying. The sadness in this picture is my huband's knuckles. He has arthritis so bad that it hurts him to play. However, he is a phenomenal guitar player. He makes me sick because it is so easy for him. He can hear a song one time and play it.

Day 11 Sickness

This week's theme is sadness/crying. I chose to do a picture of sickness. My husband and I have been passing something back and forth and we can't seem to get well. I had lots of props on hand for this photo.

Day 10- Copics

Ok, the theme this week is sadness/crying. Wow, this is going to be a hard theme to stick with. I'm going to have to get my brain thinking in that direction.

I am grasping at straws tonight but I took a picture of a few of my Copic markers with my macro lens. The sad thing about it? I don't use them as much as I'd like. These are the best markers ever! They don't leave lines when you color and I love using them on my stamped images.

Day 9 Chocolate Cake

I was Betty Crocker today so I had to take a picture (another macro) of this. It is a rare occasion for me to cook.

Does anyone have a suggestion about a good tripod? I am at my wits end with the one I have now. When I tilt it down at all it falls all the way down. I've tightened everything as much as possible and it still isn't holding the camera up. Help!

Day 8- TP

I know, it is a strange subject but what can I say? :) I have issues with my colon (maybe Crohn's, maybe not) and one of my goals this year is to try and stay positive about my health.

I've been to the Mayo and about 100 other docs and they just can't figure me out. So I'm dealing with this with the support of my wonderful family. Sometimes it really gets me down but I'm going to try to stay positive.

Day 7 Snow day

Have you ever had one of those days when you go out and take pictures but can't capture the image the way you want? Well, I had one of those kind of days. This first two pictures were taken with my macro lens but I also took some today without it.

The second picture of the day is for my best friend Trace. She called me and said she knew I had been out in the snow and taken picture of the snow flakes. Well, I hadn't so out I went. By the time I got out there wasn't any snow falling so I had to settle for the snow on my car.

My last pic today is without the macro. I took a few shots of my dog, Bandit, but he was too cold and wouldn't cooperate. So I took some of the tree instead.

Day 6 Blue eyes

My husband, Chris, has the most beautiful eyes. I've been bugging him all week about taking a picture of his eye with my macro lens. Of course it is a macro picture. You guys are going to worry about me when I post a picture not taken with my macro. lol I hope you like it!

f/5.6

ISO-100

ss 4sec.

Day 5 1/5/10 Money

More pictures with my macro lens... are you getting tired of them yet?

Today the kids came back to school, I had a hair appointment, and I had some errands to run on the way home. I didn't get home until late and I'm exhausted! It takes a little while after a break at school to get back on schedule. I had a busy day today so I did a quick picture of a five dollar bill. Hey, I'm a teacher so don't expect to see any big bills here.

I am still amazed with what this lens can do! I had no idea there were states listed on the Lincoln Memorial on the bill. I guess I probably should have known that but I didn't.

Day 4 1/4/10- Competitive Shooting

Something else I want to do this year... Competitive Shooting. My hubby won a close quarters combat shooting competition and he wants me to practice so we can compete together as a team.

I love going to the range and I'm a good shot. It just takes me a while to line everything up the way I want it. So it will take some practice for me to be as good as Chris is.

I guess you can tell I'm still using my macro. The battery in my camera died half way through this so it is charging as I type. I didn't get to do everything I wanted but I'll just have to wait.

Picture 1: f/3.5 ISO 100 ss 1sec.

Picture 2: f/3.5 ISO 100 ss 3.2 sec.

Picture 3: f/3.5 ISO 100 ss 2.5 sec.

Day 3 1/3/10- Kisses

The theme this week is resolutions, but I don't make them because I can never keep them. So I'm going to keep taking pictures that tell something about me. As you can tell from today's pictures... I love chocolate!

I'm still trying to get the hang of my macro lens. I think I might be getting it now. I just have to get everything I want in focus in the same plane.

I am just blown away by the way this lens blows things up so they are so big.

So don't be shocked if a lot of my pictures are taken with my macro lens.

Picture 1 & 2: f/3.5 ISO-100 ss 1/5 sec.

Picture 3: f/3.5 ISO-100 ss 1/2 sec.

All taken with Canon Macro EF 100mm 1:2.8

Day 2 1/2/10

I've been playing with my macro lens again today. I'm reading a book and trying to learn how to do some macro stuff. I love how you can take pictures of things so tiny and not have a clue what they are.

I have to use one of these every month.

And I wanted to try to get some pictures of it.

I guess by now you have figured out it is a needle. I had my B12 shot the other day and thought it might be interesting to try to take some pictures of the needle. I added some water to play around with it and see what I could do.