Christmas in Miami

I still haven't figured out the editing thing.  I think picnik is working out for me, but I don't know any of the terminology and stuff.  I'm sure I can just look stuff up, but have so many ginormous projects going on right now that as much as I want to, I can't dedicate the time I need to get better at this.  So I'll just continue to do the little I've been doing.

I wanted a telephoto lens for my birthday in May but I don't know if I should ask for it if I can't properly work my camera yet.

I wasn't able to sign up for the class right away and figured I'd do it this week...turns out the class is now booked.  Which originally supersucked and I was totally bummed about it (especially since a good friend of mine and I were going to sign up together and she *did* sign up on time and LOVES the class), but I always forget that there's a method to the Universe's madness.  Turns out that from now til July, I will be focusing on something more important on Saturdays and wouldn't have been able to make it to the class anyway.  I'm still kind of bummed, even though I'm excited for my Saturdays. 

Anyway, on to my original intent for this post...

Usually, I take the boys to a lady who does portrait style pics for my Christmas cards, but this year, I felt more in tune with my roots so to speak and wanted to portray a real Miami Christmas.  These are not the ones that made it on the Christmas card, but part of the same shoot.

 

Of course, since I have the cutest kids ever (hahaha), I am able to take nice pictures of them...I am trying to find guinea pigs to see if I can take good pictures of other people's kids, too.    I may be disappointed in my results. :-/

We went to the park today...

but I didn't take my Rebel.  I hate taking my purse to the park and didn't want to hold on to too much stuff so I shoved my Elph into my pocket.  Bad mistake. 

I really, really played with editing today, but I still have nooooooo idea what I'm doing.  I wasn't able to download picasa for some crazy reason and my husband came home talking about cropping and feathering and he could have been speaking Mandarin for all I understood. I mean, stop yer' yappin' and download Photoshop already! And throw in a tutorial!

Anyway, these are my favorite.  They came out blurry because of the camera.   Maybe it adds to the allure.

"But I don't wanna play"

 

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" (Ames, I believe you have a similar shot, so for sure this was subconsciously inspired by you)

 

"I see nothing special about this shot" (haha- that's what my husband said when he saw this one)
"Well, I do!" (although I'm not sure what...maybe it just looked better in my head.  I don't think I captured what I was going for.)

Football Season

It's almost over.  That's half good, half bad.  On the one hand, I get my husband back...on the other hand, no more Sunday backyard barbecues and football to watch.  I really do love watching football, even if the Dolphins are less than stellar.  Ah, there's always next year...Go Fins!

At my son's last flag football game, I got this shot of the opposing team scoring a touchdown.  It was sah-weeeeet!

"Going in with Style"

"

While I was cleaning out my closet

I found an old picture which I love.  Part of the problem of me taking pictures is my complete and utter disorganization.  I didn't even remember I took it, and had it in no particular place in a crazy closet.

Anyway, as soon as I saw it, I heard Samantha's voice in my head and thought it would look best in black and white. So, after I played with it a little in Picnik, this is what I came up with:

"Like Father, Like Son"

I'm not sure how I feel about the rounded edges and the vignette may be a little tacky, but it fades out the whiteness of his shirt a little.

And then this is SOOC (thanks, Amy for the catchy terminology. *wink, wink*).

What do you think?

I'm not sure how I feel about this one.  I mean, on the one hand, I love it, because when I took it yesterday, the sunlight was coming out of the sky in such an angle that it made me feel like God was enveloping him in in His love.  But I don't know that I did a good job of capturing that.  I'm sure with some editing, I could get it right, but I don't really know how to edit.  Any ideas? Thoughts?

"Ethereal Beauty"

I'm way too wordy

Part of what I love about pictures is trying to say what you mean through photography.  The problem is then I think other people aren't going to get it, so I go on and on and on...I mean, why? why can't I just trust that people get it, or that their own interpretation is fine, too?!

I'm going to try something new.  I'm going to try to give my pictures titles and hope that the titles relay the message.   And I'm not going to elaborate.  Or at least I'm going to try not to.  Really hard.  *sits on fingers*

So here goes...these are my favorite series shots from this weekend. 

"The Perfect Catch"

 

 

I hope you like them.  I'm going to copy my good friend Amy and try and post regularly in the hopes of getting better soon.  I'm also going to take a photography course, because really, I have no idea what anyone is talking about.  And this is something I love.  So I'm going to treat it with the respect it deserves.  Not because I want to become a photographer, but because I want to make myself and others happy with the pictures I come up with.  And they do make me happy.