Well... Oh well

So yes, it has been weeks. Yuck, I'm ashamed. Why is it that shame makes you avoid what you know you should do? Like post pictures that you have, even if you haven't taken enough to cover your 365 resolution. Well, I have lots of excuses for some of the days, and none for others. I'm just lazy sometimes, and that's the truth. But I have discovered something about myself. Well, I shouldn't say discovered. I already knew this. BUT I didn't think that it applied to this situation. That discovery is this, I hate doing something if I have to do it. Sadly, this has been true all my life. Maybe it's true for everybody. I thought it would be a good motivation for me to make myself take at least one decent photo every day for a year. I thought it would be good for me. Well, it would be good for me... it just wasn't good for my love for photography! I started feeling stressed about finding the time, or upset when I realized the day light had left me and I hadn't touched my camera. You can only take so many pictures in your own house at night! Not to mention I may not get bored of taking pictures of my sweet funny silly beautiful daughter... but y'all might get tired of looking at them. I want to awaken my creative side and show you what I see when I look at the world, what I feel. Unfortunately, that takes time I don't always (or hardly ever) have when raising a newly walking toddler.

So for conclusion of the whole matter, I am going to shoot for posting once a week, be it one picture or 100. I will not feel guilty if I miss my deadline (well, I will a wee bit) and I will not allow myself to feel pressured by all this. This, for now, is supposed to be my hobby. And hobbies are things that you love. And I still love this and I am going to continue to love this. SO, I am officially resigning from my 365 pic a day resolution... I know I have been a quiter in the past, but this is me admitting my limits and accepting it.

Well now, I feel much better : D
To celebrate my freedom, here are a few of my favorites from a little practice session with my daughter in a new corner of the house that I arranged just for pictures. I am VERY excited how my pictures are starting to turn out! They aren't perfect in my eyes (though my own pictures may never be) but they are SOOO much better than a short time ago and I love to see progress!
Ok, I'll shut up now.

 Ok, that one's not from the special picture taking place (as you can see by the laptop on the coffee table) but it's the first picture I edited with my new lightroom 3! woot!

Sincerely,
Your talks-too-much host
AJ

Cotton Headed Ninny Muggin

 OK guys... here's how its gna go from now on. I'm super lame at this posting every day thing. SO I'm going to now shoot (lol pun) for once a week, 7 photos. Except for this post... This one will have more, but a few from the same day. Here's my story (if you missed it on facebook)
   So, I've been very frustrated with taking pictures in our house. During the day, the light isn't always great save in a few spots. In the evening, I can't for the life of me get the color right. I learned a little about the color graph thing... but I'm in no way an expert with it (I forget what it's officially called). SO, sadly, (and this is rather difficult to admit) I put the camera down for a few days this week while I waited for my gray card to show up (which I ordered from amazon {wow, I'm using lots of parenthesis}). I was frustrated and tired of putting up pictures I was disgusted by. I haven't had a lot of time to get out doors being that I have a 1 year old and its cold out there : P HOWEVER! I was being a cotton headed ninny muggin. What color is a piece of paper... oh, yeah, that's right... WHITE! What color are the walls in my house? What is that you say? oh my, WHITE! Why do I have to wait for my gray card to get here before I can get more accurate photos? HAH! I don't! Silly sillies. (sigh). SO, here are some pics from this past week... not from every day (sadly) but some :)

So here is the color white according to my camera (before setting the white balance)... yeeeeaaaah. No wonder my pictures come out so lame! LoL

Before white balance                                        After white balance... SO much BETTER!!!

Here is a picture of my fist...well... my ring... because I felt like it

Hey look... its me!

 Startin' em early... Bethy took this one ^_^

2 Photos 2 Fun

Oh my... I know this is totally unrelated to photography.. but I keep cracking up over this video I saw on FB... I shared it. Go watch! SOOO funny! hahaha... haaa

Anyway,
I owe you two so here ya go!

  

Random bubbles in my pan ^_^ I was practicing focusing on different aspects of the triangle. This was shutter speed being my main priority and setting my Ap and ISO to meet the exposure needs :) It's a bit grainy, but I've been instructed to embrace the grain LoL I love the CMBlog. : D

 

Bethany's adorable toesies. I was trying to find different shots from the same pose 9another cmblog tip). Got a few good ones :) I love this one though hehe

Ok, all for now. Nighty night.
~AJ

BathTimeForEVERYBODY! *italian voice*

Well well well, aren't we all so proud of me? I'm posting the pic of the day ON the day! *gasp* Isn't that just special...
I've taken bath photos of Bethy before, and I've posted them on here before... but tonight, this one is extra special. I just loooooove it! AND yes, we all know the color isn't quite right, even though I tried a few new settings. But no worries! I ordered my gray card today. CANT WAIT! I want these pics to rock my socks, instead of causing me to sigh with loss (of a perfect moment that is).
Here she is, my bath baby:

I just love her ^_^
UNTIL TOMORROW! (we all roll our eyes, but with hesitation because I actually came through once)
~AJ

Unadultered and Unashamed

SO, I decided that until I get Adobe Lightroom, I'm not going to touch my pictures (aside from converting to jpg). I hardly edited them anyway (aside from a few B&W), but I figure if I'm going to be good at this, I have to be open about where I'm at. NOT to mention editing with picasa is lame... LoL

Also, I'm going to quite cheating and really just pick ONE(1) [<= had to be clear] picture every day, being that this is a pic a day project. If I have something to show off... I guess I'll just have to post it to FB ^_^

I would greatly appreciate, from here on out, some productive criticism and advice. If you see something you think could be improved (white balance, focus suggestions, etc) or even something new you think I might enjoy trying, please please PLEASE clue me in! I'm excited to take the shooting 101 at clickin moms (soon! I hope) and I think it will help me figure out what I'm not doing right. Sometimes, I just feel at a loss :)

Thanks!

Here's the rest of the pics I needed to post to get caught up... UNTIL TOMORROW! (we all roll our eyes)

 The boot picture is not perfectly clear :( I wish I had discovered Alservo with BBF before I took this!

 Somebody loves spaghetti :)

All caught up ^_^
~AJ

Some Catching Up To Do

So... apparently this choosing just one picture a day thing is just impossible for me. Suppose it's not breaking any rules to have more than one ^_^
Well, with the funeral and our wedding anniversary/Ryan's birthday plans this past week+, I've not really had the time to post all my pictures. SO, this is going to be one long post with LOTS of pictures... since as I said before, 1 a day? Who can do that? I managed to narrow it down to 2-3, sometimes more for the cuteness of the pic than the artisticyness (woot, made up a word). SO, I'll not bore you with pithy details about all our excitement... Here you go...

Jan12th - 25th (I'm too lazy to date each one ^_^)

Super random... I know : D

OOh, and just a little fun fact about this one ^ ... I was practicing with low light... very low light... in fact, just a night light. LoL. Pretty good eh? ^_^ I'm only a little proud...

And yes, I know this is just through the 25th. And to be truthful, this isn't even all the ones I wanted to post. I may post some extras on the next go round. Anyway, working on the next post :) But thought I better get this one up before I get distracted with life stuffs!
~AJ