Bad Shots and Birthday Wishes

New camera = 2, Wendy = 0. I've yet to be really happy with the results I get with my new camera. I really knew how to work my old point and shoot. I'm not complaining and I'm not in a big rush. I enjoy experimenting and reading the manual. I have just been short on time to practice or it has been raining. You can read about the weather here. Now the shots I take in auto or scene modes are good and some are even great, but that's not the point.

Yesterday I decided to take the afternoon off from work and go shoot. My photo buddy Kathy and I decided to see what we could find around town. Kathy has a new super duper lens she's trying to figure out and I was going to play with my polarizing filter. I got some neat shots with the filter. Although most of the time, I forgot it was on so a lot of my shots looks darker than they actually were. Camera = 1 Oh well, I don't mind showing off my good and bad shots. There aren't any real keepers in this post though. I also at some point turned my camera to aperture priority and didn't really realize it. Camera = 2.

Here is an angry goose. He or she, I don't know the difference, was very bossy and was actually chasing all the others away. Luckily, my basic enhancing tool was able to lighten it up nicely, then I cropped it.

Here you can see I got a nice effect with the filter but still had to lighten up the photo. Still nothing to write home about.

I got the detail I wanted in the top flower. Improvement.

I like the detail in this one too, but I had forgotten I still had the polarizing filter on...

so, it had to be lightened too. Not bad, but not exactly true color either. Still working to learn photoshop too. I think I'll let this one go and focus on the camera right now. I am amazed at everything photoshop can do, but I believe you should try to make the camera take the picture you want. Then you edit if needed.

I am happy with the colors in this shot, although the composition is just blah.

So there you have it. Although I don't have breathtaking photos to show off, I learned a lot.

Happy Birthday to my dear friend Patsy. I wish I was celebrating your birthday with you. I hope you have a great day! This will not make sense to anyone but Patsy, but here is your poetry tidbit ...

We walked in the bar

and gave our ID's

Chris at the door said,

two dollars please.

What kind of beer?

That was the question.

Bottle or can?

She had a suggestion.

Pitchers it was!

We'd save and be wise,

cause Chris at the door

liked to see Patsy kiss guys.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Rain and Funny Faces

In my neck of the woods we are waterlogged, soaked, growing gills and just plain tired of the rain, sleet and snow... but mostly rain! Since December, we have had over 16 inches of rain. Here is a recap of our weather since about November. It's been raining, cold, raining, even colder, raining, snowing, really cold, kinda cold and raining. We've had days where the sun was shining but it was on one of those cold days. UGH! I'm a warm weather gal. I need a warm day with sunshine soon. Since the weather forecast says it is supposed to rain tomorrow and I'm kinda grumpy about it, I will cheer myself up by posting some of my favorite pictures from Special Olympics.

One of my favorite things about taking photographs of people is when they are acting silly. My friend Kathy would always have the children she photographed make a silly face at the end of a session. They always looked forward to it and sometimes those were the best pictures. I run a camp in the summer and we had a counselor who always cracked us up when she was in a picture. She was always doing something crazy like pretending to pick her nose, making strange facial expressions, sticking out her tongue, etc. Pretty soon we would just say, "Lindsay, make a funny face." A tradition was born and the kids and adults would line up to pose for a funny face picture. We take funny face pictures all of the time now. Sooooo, I have many pictures and I love the personalities that shine through each photograph. Last weekend I was helping coach our bowling team at our state's Special Olympics competition and I took these pictures of one of my favorite athletes. He makes the best faces. He also won a medal and was very proud.

Make a funny face

Woo Hoo, way to go!

Coaches can make funny faces too.

Water fountain at the waterfront park in Charleston, SC

The muddy water looked like it was boiling as it rolled in on these tiny waves.

Enjoy the weekend. Have fun. Spend time with your friends and/or family. Set your clocks forward because it will be daylight savings time this weekend!!! Can I get a hip hip hooray because that means Spring is on the way!!!!

Jump For Joy

The photo challenge this week is "Jump for Joy" at i♥faces. This picture represents joy for many different reasons.

1. We were celebrating sweet Anna's 15th birthday.
2. It brings back memories of a warm summer evening spent with friends and family.
3. They jumped at the same time!!! Oh Joy!!!
4. This shot captures their personalities perfectly. They were being goofy teenagers. My son picked up a toy sword and she was wearing stickers on her face from The Little Mermaid.
5. It is a joy that they are in my life, my sweet son Tyler and our friend Anna.

Go check out all of the other photos at i♥faces by clicking on the logo.