Real fruity???

Are these real apples or not? As yummy as these look, I wouldn't recommend biting into one. These are fake apples purchased for no particular reason for me by my mother in law. My kitchen has a fruit theme and my dining room has 3 apple prints hanging in it. While out and about my mother in law thought these would be just right for me. Of course in true mother in law fashion, she had already decided where and how I should display these lovelies. I had other ideas and now they reside on my sideboard in my dining room in a Longaberger basket. So, while they look tempting, don't bite into them. This shot was taken with my new 50mm 1.4 lens. I think I'm going to like this little baby.

Settings: ISO 400, F 1.4, SS 1/80, focal length 50mm. Shot in RAW and processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Bananarama

Watermelon is my favorite fruit. Always has been, always will be. But, I don't happen to have any watermelon around the house here today so it's bananas for us. I'm very particular about my bananas. I don't like them too ripe and sweet. I prefer them while they are still a bit green. Strange I know, but that's how I like them. Once they ripen and get sweet they seem a bit mushier, I prefer not to eat them, but I will. Bananas, apples, oranges and grapes are the fruit staples we keep around the house so getting a picture of one of them is no problem. I love to eat other kinds of fruits, but these are the ones that are always here. I guess I'm just a little bit "fruity."

Settings: ISO 400, F 10, SS 1/8sec, focal length 200mm. Shot in RAW on tripod and developed in Adobe Lightroom.

Here comes Peter Cottontail...

Today's food is one of my favorites. I think it's one of my favorites because I can't have them all the time. They are synonymous with Easter...at least to me. I rejoice when I see these colorful little orbs make their appearance on the store shelves every spring. I'm sure I could get them the rest of the year somewhere...but I think it's better to keep traditional treats traditional. My favorites are the red, yellow and orange. Not so much the green. Definitely I could do without the black ones. Blecchhh. It's beyond me why they make entire packages of the black ones, but they do. They are the ones left over after I'm done and end up in the trash. To each his own I guess.

Settings: ISO 400, F 6.3, SS 1/20sec, Focal length 200mm. Shot on tripod in RAW and edited in Adobe Lightroom.

Time for Breakfast

It's Spring Break around here so that means no school schedule to worry about. My 16 year old daughter decided to make pancakes for breakfast this morning. She's quite adept at it and I don't mind in the least turning over my kitchen to her. This photo was shot this morning before digging in.

Settings: ISO 400, F 5.6, SS 1/8sec, focal length 78mm. Shot on tripod in RAW, PP'ed in Adobe Lightroom (love this program).

What have I been up to?

I've been absent for a while. Last week we took a trip to Tucson Arizona to watch my daughter play her senior year spring break softball pre-season games. It was a bittersweet time. We had fun, but we knew it would be our last spring break trip and her last spring break softball games. This season is going to be full of lasts for her as she graduates college and moves on with her life. I'm sure softball won't go completely away, it just won't be as big a part of her life as it has been for the past 17 years. I shot a ton of pictures of both softball and beautiful scenery. I shot all of my scenic shots in RAW so I have a bit of work to do before I can post any.

I'm back now and trying to get back on track with the POTD'ers. It's taken me until Wednesday this week to get into the groove due to something big that had been looming over me. It's this big, scary, nasty monster that makes it's appearance every year about this time. I hesitate to write it, but here it is...TAXES! Now I don't actually do our taxes, we have an accountant who does them for us due to us outgrowing my comfort level with dealing with all the forms and such, but I still have to get things prepared and in order for her. It is never as big a job as I always make it out to be, and dread, due to the fact that I'm pretty organized in this area. I have a file folder that any time we have a tax related item come about, I just drop it in this folder. No searching for receipts and cancelled checks. It works for me and really helps at this time of year. My trusty calculator humms along when I pull everything out and start to work on it. I would be lost without it, hence my tribute to my calculator today. I decided since taxes were an edgy subject, that I would make my photo a bit edgy using the LOMO technique on it. I have no idea where I got the instructions, but if you Google LOMO workflow, you will probably be able to find it.

Settings: ISO 100, F 20, SS 2.0 seconds, Focal length 110mm. Shot in RAW on tripod. LOMO process in PSE5.

Now we're cookin'

I know you may be wondering how a stove burner can make my life easier. Seems a bit odd (that's OK, I'm a bit odd too). In my 23 years of marriage I have lived in quite a few places and cooked on probably every type of stove that's out there...electric, ceramic cooktop, flat cooktop and gas. Gas is my all time favorite for cooking. I love the control it gives and how when it's off, it's off (try that with a ceramic disc cooktop). Now you may get the impression that I'm a gourmet cook, or even that I like to cook. Trust me, nothing could be further from the truth. If this week's theme was things we like to do, cooking wouldn't even enter into the realm of possibility. I just love my gas cooktop though, because it does make a chore that I don't truly enjoy just a tiny bit easier.

Settings: ISO 800, F 5.6, SS .30 seconds, focal length 80mm. Effects done in PSE5.

Anything that helps prevent confusion and/or fighting in a house with 4 kids (3 currently at home) is OK in my book. Our poor dog, she is loved and a best friend...up until mealtime. Then it's more like she is some unkown creature that has wandered into the kitchen. "It's your turn to feed the dog." "No, it's your turn." This became commonplace around here at 6:00. Finally, after 2 years I came up with a brainstorm. Assigned days for feeding the dog. The kids control the system trading days when they have conflicts. I'm out of the loop on this (thank goodness). So far so good. My youngest took the liberty of writing the assigned days on this magnetic calendar that resides on our refrigerator using first letters of names (or first and second letters for the boys since both of their names start with M) to keep track of who does what day. Wonder if I can get them to buy into a laundry person of the day?

Settings: ISO 800, F 5.6, SS 1/45, focal length 55mm. SOOC shot in RAW.

A ghostly occurrence

Do do do do, do do do do. (Enter Rod Serling) Imagine yourself, in a room alone. You are experiencing great joy in the fact that you finally figured out how to get the video head off your tripod so you could place your new ball head on the tripod. Imagine you are playing around with your new toy and decide to take a photograph in a relatively not well lit area of your home to test out your new tripod head. Moments later you have the settings on the camera ready to go and you push the shutter button. Then the unthinkable happens. You capture an etherial figure on your camera's sensor. OK, so not so etherial...it's a teenager who happens to walk into the front hall at an opportune time. It's along the same line as the kids don't need you until you are on the phone...or need to go to the bathroom. I could have been doing anything else at that moment and no one would even think of needing to find me. Such is the life of a mom. Anyway, I thought this photo had such a cool effect. My younger son tried to duplicate it but after several tries just couldn't get the timing exactly right. He wanted to be a ghost too I guess.

Settings: ISO 100, F 5.6, SS 1.5 seconds, Focal length 18mm.

Repurposing with a purpose

I was the fourth of 5 children, the only girl. My 3 older brothers were a bit older and pretty much did their own thing. My younger brother was basically my best friend growing up. We played together and were pretty much inseparable until hitting our teen years, then we drifted apart somewhat even though when asked which of my brothers I wanted in my wedding, it was no question. My younger brother died 10 years ago from a cancer that was supposed to have killed him 25 years ago so he did his best to fight for as long as he could. I do regret not having a better relationship with him in our later years. This photo is our toy box that we shared as kids. My mother kept it all these years in her home and it was passed on to me when she died. With my youngest child being almost 13, I really don't have a use for a true toy box. Those days are behind me until grandchildren come along. That doesn't mean that the old red toy box doesn't have a use in our house. It is still a reminder that I am a mother and children still live here. We use it for shoes. With 5 people currently in the house we have a lot of shoes that don't always make it to their appropriate rooms. When they are left behind, they get to go live in the toy box which sits in my family room. The photo inset gives you a peek inside. I couldn't think of a better use for a well worn, well loved old friend.

Settings: ISO 400, F 4.0, SS 1/15, focal length 33mm. Editing in PSE5.

Just call me a geek.

I'm a techie, I admit it. I love technology and computers. I hated the inconvience of carrying both a cell phone and either a palm pilot or planner so I convinced DH that I "needed" this phone. I love that it has my calendar in it, I can access my e-mail from it (very helpful when my DS was in the hospital for a week and I lived there during the days) and of course it's a cell phone. Not a very good one, but it works for the most part. What did we do before cell phones? I never leave home without it. I hate the feeling that my kids can't get in touch with me when they need to. I guess it's my security blanket. Of course I had to get the nifty leather case for my security blanket too. You might think that having a fancy schmancy phone like this that I am a highly important and organized person, but don't let it fool you. I am neither...but at least I look the part. ;-)

Settings: ISO 400, F 4.5, SS 1/250, Focal length 40mm. Desaturation and Cutout filter applied in PSE5. Click on photo to enlarge to get the full effect of the cutout filter.