Photo Friday #20 - A birds life

 Caught some of these guys doing birdie things and thought I should share.  Top is the American Robin and bottom 3 are a Common Grackle.

More Daisy Days

Here are the other daisy shots that didn't make the Macro Monday cut.  I liked these for what they are, flower pictures and the Monday group added an element of a bee.  I purposely used a much smaller f-stop in order to get some of the other flowers from totally fading into the background.  Normally I would do that and they would all just melt away, but I thought they added a little something to the photo.  Maybe just clutter, but I think this clutter worked.

Macro Monday #20 - Daisy of a Day

Sometimes it takes a little time to get the right photo op.  With Mother's Day, my main concern was making some memories with the boys and getting the right photo together for my presents.  Now that the day has passed, back to my 52 week project.  Today is a series of pictures where a little visitor stopped by to stretch on a flower I was photographing.  He thought it best to show me all sides before he took off.  I have more photos of the daisy shoot that I am going to share throughout the week.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.  As promised, here are the final shots from the family outtakes.  

This photo was a combination of these three photos.  We had a little trouble focusing, but made it all work thanks to Photoshop!

This is a spot that one of the boys picked out to pose and as you can see, it didn't have the most attractive background and happened to be in direct sunlight.  With the help of Photoshop, it wasn't a big issue.  

 All in all, the photos turned out as I rather well.  We had some trouble spots, but they printed nicely and they have a happy momma!

Photo Friday #19 - Family Outtakes

I realize that when people look at photos from family photographers they usually think that was a perfect look and great looking kids.  Little do they realize how difficult it is to actually get the kids to do the things that they do in photos.  Kids are naturally cute and to make the photo different from a snap shot that their parents would take, it takes getting the right expression and processing the photos to look like something great.  Now, you have all probably heard the expression it is easy to take pictures of other peoples kids, but it is truly a task to take pictures of your own.  That goes to say that it is truly difficult when they are young and you are trying to get them to sit still and do any type of pose.  I read recently an article talking about getting your kids to take pictures and enjoy helping you make memories.  Well I took this concept and attempted it on my little field trip this week.  I wanted to share with you some of the outtakes of the kids as they were attempting to help me make memories.  :)  I didn't try to pose them just sat them down and had at it.  Sometimes I let them choose their own poses, which turned out a little more than interesting sometimes.  I love the smiles and expressions they give when it's just fun.  Kids with big imaginations definitely get some big idea.  I had to squash a couple of them because it probably wouldn't have been the safest thing to do.  Also it doesn't help that much when it is a little windy outside.

Yes I know he has a huge electrical stand coming out of his head.  I could clean that up in post.

I was trying to get everyone to look at the camera and boy #2 thought he could assist Boy #3 a little.

Yes, I know there is a big eyesore behind the kiddos, but again bye-bye in post.

I didn't want to post all of the good ones because I am going to have them for a surprise for someone special on Mother's Day.  I will post them on Sunday or sometime next week if anyone is interested on the final outcome.  As you can see, there will be plenty of post work with head and body swaps to make sure everyone is looking their best in the final pictures.  Hope to see you next week and yes I know they need a haircut!

Supermoon

I have been seeing posts everywhere about the Supermoon that occurred Sunday night and wanted to get mine out there.  I was on the road so I didn't really have a set up shot like I had wanted.  I was planning on having the Bob Kerry Pedestrian bridge in the foreground with the Supermoon right by it.  It would have been cool, but had to settle for this since I was about 2 hours away when it was at the point I wanted to catch it.  This was also hand-held with a super telephoto lens, no tripods from the car, so I had to hold really still which was a difficult challenge.

The Supermoon occurs every year when the full moon passes closest to the Earth.  It is able to do that based on it's eliptical orbit around the Earth.  This year it was Sunday, May 6.

Macro Monday #19 - The Purple

Today's picture comes from the lone flower still left with a bloom in the flowers we received on a field trip.  The others have been picked off by a certain someone.