Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

My family Christmas:

What would a photographer be without their camera during the holidays...well it wouldn't be me!

These are my favorites from Christmas day. I shot them with the SB800 flash (mostly) pointed straight at the ceiling. What a great light it creates in the room when you bounce the flash!!


I love this one of my Mom:



My Cousin (he loves to make this face for photos):



My Aunt:



My Aunt & my Cousin (her son):



My Mom and the "gravy" (yeah, we're Italian...we call tomato sauce "gravy"):



My hubby & his Dad:



One of my favorites of the day... My Grandpa who we got to smile/laugh.
The pic of him I took before this one...looked like quite the grumpy gramps.



My Brother-in-law and his Fiancé:



And of course...every year I make the family pose for a group shot (thank goodness for a tripod and a remote shutter release!):



And then when everyone cleared out I asked my husband to let me take a couple of us "since the tripod was already set up!" :D I love that my dog joined in the shot!!

Lunch Snaps and Shots Along the Way Home

During lunch I stopped a local park near my work that my co-worker suggested to me. The sky was really bad today but I don't think these photos came out bad at all.

They gave me a some "almost fall" shots to work with:

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When I was walking back to the car I spotted this window on an apartment building. The thing that caught my eye was the little tiny pumpkin on the windowsill. Something about it just told me to snap a shot:

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On the way home after work I stopped for a few minutes at this cemetery I pass. I was specifically looking for signs of fall at the cemetery. I particularly like these 2 signs of fall in this peaceful place:

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Close to the cemetery is a church that I love love the steeple on. I noticed there were some fall colors on the surrounding trees so I took some photos of the scene:

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The Most Magical Time of the Day!

Today I was asked to shoot some photos of my company's VP, a Senior Director at a competitor company, the Mayor of the town I work in as well as the Township Administrator.

The Women's Leadership Group at my company is holding a 5K run/walk to raise money for a new ambulance for the township where our office resides and these company leaders will be participating in the run/walk.

This photo will be in the local newspaper soon (I'm not sure of the exact date of publication). Once it's published I will scan a copy and post it here in my blog.

This is one I liked most from the shoot today:



While driving home this was the scene over my favorite stretch of farm land to catch great clouds or a sunset. The warm orange glow feels so "fall" to me!

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Another beauty from today (click to view larger):



A little "fall reflection"

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I have more to add so check this post tomomorrow...I'm just so tired I can't add the rest from today! :)

Here the ones I promised I would add that are favs from the day:

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Overall this was a top day for me for some beautiful sunset shots. I will be sure to stop here at this time of the day again!

What a Doll!

Still editing! Thought these few were so sweet!

A little selective coloring....








Tonight I also spent some time continuing the restoration of this photo of my grandparent's wedding day. I spent a long time getting it to look this way...I'm sure it could be improved but this was the best I could do at this time:

Chasing the Sun

Left work pretty late today...so as I was driving past my favorite farm fields for great cloud shots I just had to stop to capture the sun that was setting.

The rays of sun were shining from the clouds beautifully...but by the time I stopped my car and got my camera out the scene didn't look exactly as I had seen it while I was driving..but I captured what was before me and I still think it was beautiful!



The trees were blocking my view of the actual sun going down so I hoppped back in the car to another area where I could see the actual sun a little better and I got a few neat ones in that area.



To view more of my skyscapes click HERE.

A Few Special Ones From Today

I stopped by the park after work. With fall here it's getting too dark too soon for me! Had some trouble with the light...but still caught a few nice shots.

A couple favorites were these 2 fishermen at opposite ends of the lake. They just looked like they really enjoyed this time time alone...



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I was able to see a beautiful sunset. It was hard to catch it how I would have liked with the trees being where they were but I still like the results:

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I tried something different with this one through the weeping willow branches:



I chased the sunset all the way home trying to see if I could find a large clearing where the sunset was viewable but had no luck.

There's always another day and another sunset though!

Photo Shoot With Two Little Friends

Today I did a photoshoot of my friend Mary's 2 children. I've known Mary since grammar school and I asked her to let me know when she had some free time to do a photoshoot of her 2 children Bobby & Kaylee.

We started at the lake and then it took them a little time to warm up to posing, etc. but once we switched to a different location at the park things took a turn for the best. I took a few hundred photos and when I looked at home there were a little over 100 quality shots. Since many look very similar I'll go through them and pick the best of each.

The best part of the day was when a rainbow appeared as the sun was setting. Bobby noticed it and I quickly laid in the grass and told them to look up at the rainbow holding hands. It was a great way to end the photoshoot.

Because the sun was setting behind the trees the photo came out really dark but I liked it that way. I lightened my favorite of the rainbow shots a bit and I like that it is a little shadowey in the shot.

I'll be working on the series for a while since there are so many quality shots but I'll share the rainbow shot I edited below.

Got to Test the New Lens for a Few Minutes Today...

Saw a field of these yellow wildflowers on the side of the road and felt compelled to pull over and capture them.

The sky was terrible today so this was my chance for some photos with the new lens.

A close up...I love how the Depth of field came out on this one:



Zoomed all the way out to highlight a wide view of the field:

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I also captured a butterfly on the side of the road:



To view my flower photography gallery click HERE.

To view my Butterflies & Bugs gallery click HERE.

After Waiting 4 Months...I Finally Got It! The New Lens Has Arrived! 18-200VR - Yee Hah!

The lens I wanted (AF Zoom Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX VRII) has been out of stock at B&H Photo since I got my Nikon D80 DSLR back in May. After a tip I received I ordered it this past Saturday at Best Buy with a price match (of all places!). If I had known about the price match I would have gone there and ordered it back in May!

I refused to buy it anywhere but B&H Photo because everyone else was charging way more. I had an 18-135 which worked well so I figured I would be patient and get the price I really wanted at B&H Photo.

I never even thought of Best Buy's price match policy! Not only did they match the price but they taken an addition % off to BEAT the competitor's price. The ordered it for me and shipped it free to my home! Got it within a few days.

Anyway, here's what she looks like (what a beauty!):



Check out Ken Rockwells review of this lens HERE.

Ken Rockwell also talks about how to get one HERE. I guess I'm not the only one having a hard time getting one....makes me think twice about not ordering all 5 that Best Buy had in stock and selling them for a profit on ebay! :(

You can also check out DP Review's forums to read more about how other's felt about the lens.

First shot with the new lens was my best friend, Lucas:



Then I went outside and did some test shots to see the lens zoomed out at 18mm and zommed in at 200mm with my best model, Lucas (of course).

At 18mm:



At 200mm:



At 18mm:



At 200mm:



I can't wait for work to end tomorrow so I can go out after work and get some shots with the new lens!

"Watch this space" as they say!