January 5th

We did nothing special today, the children got dressed at about 3 pm, that says it all :-) A nice, lazy Sunday, typical last-day-of-the-holidays! We did go to a playground for a little while, but were really cold so we didn't stay too long. The weather was gray, not good at all for my pictures, I had a hard time taking any good ones. Besides that, there is NO color in town, or at least I didn't find any, so I had a hard time finding any good subjects for pictures too ;-) But I did manage to get this shot of my son, he was kind of hiding behind his hat (the hiding for the camera is beginning!!!) and I liked that I took the picture just when he was peeking under it to see if I was looking.

There's also this moment that I liked today, the picture is not very good, but the moment WAS. My son (in his pyjama's) and I playing Monopoly (his sister already gave up), I think he's so cute when we're playing Monopoly! And as not all photos need to be masterpieces (yay!), here's a picture of my son in action!Thanks for looking!

January 4

Yesterday morning, their was a beautiful light coming in from the window next to my Christmas tree, falling just on some ornaments that I like a lot. So I decided to take some pictures with this light only, not easy a 7.30 in the morning in winter! I quite like the result! Aperture mode. The first ornament is the one my daughter received for her first christmas, from my parents, the second ornament is from my son's first christmas, the third one is actually without any special meaning for us, let's say it's a cheapy one ;-)

I quite like the lighting on these, please tell me honestly what you think of it, help me improve!

Thanks for all your comments!! They are very much appreciated!

Bad light day! POTD January 3

Hello all! I've been reading Bryan Paterson (Understanding Exposure) these last day, carry it around as a bible actually ;-) and somehow he makes it look easy! But I discovered yesterday that is isn't!!! After the WB problem, I struggled yesterday with... light! I went outside to take my pictures (I prefer outdoor lighting!! or so I though), took my son and my camera to town and started playing tourist! Technically spoken I am a tourist around here, so I might as well act like one too ;-) We had beautiful weather, the temperatures were OK but the sun was totally saying "spring!). So I discovered that too much sun is, well, too much. In the afternoon my son had a little friend over at our house, they played in the garden but I don't have any good photos of it, because they turn either their back at me (often) or the sun is just too much (shadows in the faces). Here are the two better pictures (not perfect!) that I picked for POTD (I'm not gonna show you all my failures!!):

That is my son in the playground, climbing. I cut out the slides itself, ugly colors (you can still see a little yellow!). As you can see, the lighting is not correct (the exposure) but it is one of the best from yesterday...

Next one doesn't show a face, only (dirty) shoes. I wanted to show you some history of my town, these are my sons shoes on the Rosetta stone, a copy obviously (he's standing on the hieroglyphs part), that is on the most famous little square in town. It is terrible to take pictures of because it is a tiny square surrounded on 4 sides by building totally blocking the light!! When I took the photo I didn't actually realise the floor was that dirty :-) Disappointment there too!!

And to show you another one anyway, this is my son running on that same square and I am disappointed with this picture because my son is not at all well exposed and it could have been a really cute photo.
Well what I can I say? Any CC would be welcome! Oh, and don't worry, I'm not giving up on this, I'll get there!!!

**edit: I shot my pictures either in A mode or S mode, no full manual today!**

January 2d, portraits!

First of all, a huge Thank You for all your comments, I love comments!



The photos for today show portraits of my kids. I really wanted to give the blurry background a try, so I took these pictures with my 70-200 lens, f/4.8 (I believe) in manual, yes yes, I'm trying! Like this you meet my family at the same time :-)



First my boy, who is the youngest:

Picture taken outside, while he was on his bike. The background is basically our driveway, couldn't get any trees or other goodlooking things in the background and to be honest, didn't think of that at the moment! Then meet my girl, the oldest of the two:

She was in the living room, which isn't very tidy as we speak! hum hum. Well, I might not buy these pictures of a professional photographer ;-) but for my first attempt I quite like them. Oh, and I don't do any photo editing, simply because I don't know how to do it!

Thanks for any comments or CC, see you tomorrow!

January 1st, POTD! Beginners mistake, or how to turn your cat into a smurf!

Let's start by saying Happy New Year to all of you!!

For this very first POTD in 2009, I have to admit I am cheating. Already???? Yes :-O I took these pictures yesterday, and although some turned out nice enough, I made a huge mistake, which in my eyes in a beginners mistake. I won't say this will never happen to me again, never say never, but I hope I'll think about this mistake next time I go picture hunting!

We were taking a walk in our quite new neighbourhood (new to us), it was beautiful weather, almost spring like, and I had only one thing in mind: taking photos! So there I went, and the result was quite a surprise.I took the photos in manual, some were not well exposed at all, others were quite ok in exposure but... I forgot that I had put the White Balance on Thungsten the night before! So basically that's how you turn a white cat into a smurf, meet ScoobyDoo:

That was actually not the picture I selected for the POTD, that one is below. Also taken with the wrong WB (it took me a while to actually notice my mistake!), taken on our walk on a little path nearby our house. Even though the colors are not correct, I quite like the photo :

Thanks to a very helpful Pea for explaining how to make a frame ;-)

I received the book I ordered: Understanding Exposure byt Bryan Peterson and Wow, it is a great book, I recommand it everyone who is, come me, a beginner!!!

I am so looking forward to spring, with lots and lots of photo opportunities! :-) I'm starting to get obsessed!!! Well, I'll see you all tomorrow for a new POTD, have a good day all! OH, and PS, the picture in the post below was also with wrong WB :-O

31/12: POTD -1! Resolutions!

My first picture is up! It is a picture of a new day that arises, the last one of the year. 2008 is almost behind us, we’re going into 2009 and guess what, I still haven’t met any extra terrestrials :-O The “new” millennium definitely doesn’t live up to the expectations!

Looking back at the year 2008, even though some great things happened such as moving to this beautiful area in the South West of France, 2008 has been the worst year of my life with loosing my sweet mother in May. I’m glad to go into a new year, even though that won’t change a thing!
It’s time for some resolutions, of course. OK, there is still the goal of loosing the few kilos I have too much, I still blame it on my son although he’s 4 now and I really should start blaming it on myself ;-) But this year I only set “creative” goals, skill developing goals! Here we go!

Photography – I just bought myself a Nikon D60 DSLR (Reflex) camera and my first goal would definitely be to learn to get the best use out of it, using manual (or at least semi-manual) mode! In order to achieve this, I read a lot (I love reading) but I do realise that practice will be the best way to get there. I therefore plan on doing the POTD challenge on Two Peas Photography (cf. post before), which will “force” me to practice every day! At the same time, I hope to learn how to use Photoshop Elements to get the most of my pictures!

Scrapbooking – Last years goal was to make 104 layouts in the year (2 a week!) but I didn’t make it, I came to a (sad) total of 63!!! But, having moved houses and having had all my scrapbook things in a box for 3 months, I am not surprised about that! For 2009, I set my goal on a little less, because I hope to spend time on Photography too ;-) Up till yesterday I thought I’d set my goal on 1,5 layouts a week average, for a total of 78, but this morning I revised my goal and I’ll put my scrapbook thicker on 52 layouts because I also plan on making quite some mini-albums (Richard gave me the bind it all for Christmas!!!). I plan on doing a challenge a week (which means a layout a week) on some of my favourite challenge blogs!

Scrapbook related – ATC holder! I bought myself an ATC holder earlier this year, it is still in the box. I plan on filling the holder with ATCs (surprise) that show my children in 2009. I basically plan on taking one picture a day of them (at least), either the two together or only one of them, and on the ATCs I want to document their year. I’m not setting the goal of making one ATC a day, I’ll probably do loads of them every once in a while ;-) but I really am gonna try to keep up with this!

Well, that would be about it. I do have to clean my house once in a while, and I do have a job to go to!!! Having said that, I do realise that these goals might be a little optimistic, because it does involve daily photography and daily blogging :-O but I’ll try!! See you next year!!

PS I love comments ;-)

New blog!

New camera means new blog! I just got myself a brand new Reflex camera and now all I need to do is master the beast :-) Not easy to start, but I'll get there, I read about everything Photography related on Internet and plan on joining the POTD Peas (Photo of the Day) on twopeas Photography. I'll use this message to say THANK you to all the peas for the valuable advice they give to beginners (and pros)!!!

I don't have any pictures to show yet ;-) , this is just an introduction!!!