Back from vacation!

Well it's been a very busy two weeks away from here, mostly spent road-tripping. I used my camera a ton and am lost on how to even blog about it all! I may just start with the first leg of our trip, and blog again multiple times covering the remainder parts.
My camera was first used going by New York City. I was the passenger in a moving car so the pics are not that impressive, but I was just playing around with it.

That is the One World Trade Center Tower. Amazing, even from far away.

Through the skylight!!

Then we stayed in Maryland with my brother and had a busy, fun few days. From his boat:

We did some sightseeing in DC, going to The Newseum and The National Building Museum. (Look at me adding links to my blog!!) 

These are actual pieces of the Berlin Wall

From atop The Newseum.

A front page newspaper from every state for that day.

This was actually in a pretty dark room, but I got the settings right to really lighten it up! 

Inside the architecture museum. I feel like the pictures are "cooler" looking than it looked in person. Not sure why. 

My handsome hubby :) 

I am pretty obsessed with wildlife in their natural environment. Luckily we saw these deer on the way home. It was really dark so I'm kind of proud I got them to come out so light. 

While with my brother, we also went into Baltimore. You can walk right up to Camden Yards! 

Leading lines?

I think I like the composition of this one

Go Boston! They had plaques on the ground outside the stadium where home runs had landed. 

That night I got to practice some food photography:

And some pet photography:

Such a beautiful girl! 

As you can see, I had a lot of camera use so far, which I loved. I am still amazed how crisp and clear this camera takes photos. I can't wait to take a class, and try out other lens' and editing software. I think I'll stop my post here, but I have a lot more of the trip to share, including a wedding! Thanks for reading! 

A small mix of photos this week...

This was a very busy week! Between work, yardwork, preparing for a trip, and preparing for our bathroom getting redone, I used my camera very little. I brought it to my great-aunt's surprise 75th birthday. It was in a hall and the lighting was very low. So I increased my ISO, decreased my shutterspeed, and decreased my aperture. I may have lowered my shutterspeed too much, because the pictures are not as crisp as I would have thought or would have liked, and it might be due to my movement picked up during the longer shutterspeed. I also am not immediate family, so I didn't feel confident getting right up there to snap shots. I wish I did as I really only got one decent picture.

Cropped  a little:

I took some before and after photos of the yardwork we did this week. The befores have too much sunlight and shadow, but we were about to start digging, so I had no choice. I tried to wait until all shade for the afters.

Before:

After:

Hopefully the bushes will grow to fit into the space soon!

As I said, I'm getting ready for a trip, so there may be a delay in posts. But I'm hoping to have MANY pictures from the trip to work with when I do post!

Scavenger hunt

I did not have much time with my camera this week. But I think I did manage to get enough to post for the scavenger hunt. 

1. Happiness

Happiness to me is being at the beach, watching and listening to the waves. 

2. Spring in black and white 

It was kind of funny to think of spring in black and white, as it is so full of color. But I tried. 

3. Family or faith 

I did not have a picture for this one, but wanted to share that www.onefundboston.org has been set up to help those injured in the Boston Marathon bombings. I have faith that, with support, there will be recovery. 

4. Fuzzy 

My local garden/landscaping business had these little guys for sale! I saw them the other day but didn't have my camera with me. So I went back in today and snapped a couple quickly. I felt so awkward but it helped me get out of my comfort zone. And I thought they were perfect for fuzzy! 

5. Gathering or provide

I like providing food for the birds. They're so fun to watch! I have been trying to capture the cardinals that come by, but they only visit briefly. 

Thanks for reading! 

More little people!

I had some little visitors this week and they let me photograph them! I am still at the point of not wanting to intrude on their activities or direct them, so I just took pictures of what they were doing, seeing if I could capture some great shots "au natural." The first spot was in my living room, and they were close to my front window. I tried snapping with the blind open and closed because I was not sure how it should be. I'm not sure if some of the photos came out light/cool or if it's the gray wall background. They are pretty adorable nonetheless!

A little fun with aperture:

Then we went outside because it was so nice, out and mom is brilliant and brought bubbles. I found it was really hard to get the focus exactly on the eye with moving targets and mostly resorted to making sure their face or body was in focus.

'

I wish I didn't chop off his other hand!!

:)

Gotta throw in some bloopers of ones with completely wrong focus. It's always a learning process right?

Then they eyed the sandbox and I got another couple of cute shots! 

I had a hard time getting them both in focus. I was using a 2.8 aperture though, which I thought would be sufficient. It all happens so fast, I didn't have time to think to increase it and take it again. 

Chicky caught on that this was a photo shoot and decided to give us some poses! Too cute! I wasn't sure how long she'd stay like that, so I was quickly trying to play with the settings. I think one is a little too light and the other two are a little too dark. 

I'm really happy with the photos we took, and we had a lot of fun! I'd like to play around with some cropping and editing colors/tones. Along with a couple more lens', Photoshop or Lightroom is on my wishlist. Thanks to my models and their mommy, and thanks for reading!