Giant Metal Chicken

Because really, who doesn't love a giant metal chicken?

Love That Shot - Story Time

I've been completely swamped lately and haven't been able to participate in the photo challenges.  While I was going through some pictures today though that I printed out for my Mother In Law, I came across one that jogged my memory, it's one of my favorite series of photos to date, and I thought it would be a perfect entry.

This is my son's new best friend.  Every night we read a book before bed, and I usually carry him with me when I go to the bookshelf to pick out a book.  This bear was sitting on one of the shelves and he reached for it two nights in a row, so we started reading the book with him on one knee, and Mr Bear on the other.  He certainly loves his bear, he sleeps with it every night, and loves to play with it.

A Little Busy Busy Week...

It's been a bit of a crazy week around here.  LM has been an absolute fusspot and only napping for 30 minutes at a time, and so it's been really difficult to not only get the camera out and take pictures, but also to download them, sort through them, and edit them.  He wasn't much better today, but I took my camera with me when we went out for a walk, and I was determined to get some use out of it.  I also threw my 55-250 mm lens on the camera, and I have to say I'm really starting to like using it.  Don't get me wrong, I love my 50mm prime, but I do sometimes feel limited with it, and when you're pushing a stroller, it's much nicer to just zoom in and out, and it zooms pretty good.

So, here are a few from today.

If you're familiar with the Canadian show Heartland, you might recognize this sign.  The show is shot in my town.

 
How can you not love a giant metal chicken?

In The Garden

This photo challenge came at the perfect time - here in Alberta things are just starting to bloom, especially my favorites - the lilac trees.  I love seeing how beautiful they are at all the stages of their growth.

Love That Shot - Walk in my shoes

I'm loving these photo challenges, they're really forcing me to try and get creative.

My favorite shoes in the world are any of LM's shoes.  There's something so sweet about shoes that are so tiny.

More Flowers

I'm on a bit of a flower kick - I guess because they stay still (provided the wind has died down) and I don't have to worry about them falling over or getting distracted and only wanting to look at the cat.

I took LM for a walk this morning and brought my camera with me, with great intentions to practice some more with the magnification filters. I was in a hurry to get to my destination as I was meeting a friend, so I motored there as fast as possible, figuring that I'd get a chance to snap some pictures on the way home - the added bonus was that after a morning of playing hard, LM would be tired and would probably nap in the stroller, giving me the opportunity to snap pictures at my leisure without hearing complaints. This was a great plan, and would have actually worked, if it weren't for one tiny little detail I overlooked - my memory card was still plugged into the side of my laptop.

Sigh...

So, while I did not manage to get pictures of the amazing flowers I saw on our way home, I did notice a few popping up in my own garden, so while LM was napping, I popped outside and snapped a couple. These are the only onse that I liked. Hope you enjoy!

Fresh and New

One thing about living in Canada is that our blooming season starts much later than the rest of North America.  So I tend to find that I'm getting excited about seeing things just starting to bloom that others have already seen bloom and fade away.  A perfect example is our Lilacs.  I love lilacs, they're one of my favorites and seeing other people's pictures of lilacs has made me extremely impatient to be able to take pictures of my own.  Thankfully, they've finally started to bud and I was able to get out and snap a few pictures.

I'm also hoping to get out and get some other flower pictures.  I'm finding the magnification filters a bit difficult to work with, but I think it's just going to take some practice!

My Inspiration

My favorite photo of Little Man and I that I've taken is a black and white photo.  It's one of those pictures that wouldn't look right any other way, except black and white.  And believe me, I tried many many different edits with this picture, most in color.  I didn't get that "AHA!!" moment until I converted it to black and white, and then it was perfect.  I have this picture hanging on my bedroom wall.

Every time I start to get frustrated with my photography and feel like throwing in the towel and buying a cheap disposable camera, I look at this picture and it reminds me how much I love it.  It helps me to keep trying.

Insomnia and Frustration

The insomnia isn't mine, the frustration, however, is.  I could sleep, no problem.  I'd love to sleep.  I've forgotten what it's like to put my head down at night and not wake up for 8+ blissful hours.  In a perfect world, insomniac babies would go to insomniac parents and then they could happily not sleep together.  I'm thinking that there probably aren't enough babies that sleep really well to go around though.  I've been making do with 3-4 hours stretches of sleep for about the past month or so, and considering that prior to that it was months of 1.5 - 2 hour stretches of sleep, it was a major improvement.  I'd kind of figured that eventually he'd start stretching it out longer himself, and we'd both begin to get some good sleep.  Apparently that's not the case.  Last night was a major regression.  He was up every hour or 2.  Nothing was consoling him, not eating, not cuddling, not coming to bed with Mommy.  Nothing.  Today is going to be one of those days where there just isn't enough coffee in the world.  I think it's time for hardcore, cold-turkey, sleep training.

Ferber, take me away...

Onto the frustration.  I've had a string of days where I've truly believed my photography sucked.  A 5 year old could probably take better pictures with a disposable camera.  My focus is off, my pictures are all noisy, I can't get color right.  If I could make everything black and white I would, but I think that would only fly if it was currently 1911 rather than 2011.  I'm hoping it's just a slump and I'll get out of it and start being happy with my work again.

Out of a couple hundred pictures I've taken over the past week, this is really the only one that I was happy enough with to actually edit.

I know that it's somewhat of an up-the-nose shot, and the focus is more on his cheek than his eyes, but I like how intently he's looking at the toy.  Mommy-goggles I know, but I guess sometimes that's just enough to love a picture.

Another Major Milestone... and Fun with Filters

I thought moving into the big boy carseat was Milestone enough for one week, but Little Man decided to surprise me and step it up a notch.  After a few days of being absolutely miserable and cranky, and me attributing it to him being constipated, he completely caught me off guard when he popped not just one, but two teeth.  Yes, two teeth - LM is quite the overachiever!  It took me a few attempts to get into his mouth and check for teeth, and I still haven't been able to really see them - he's not really on board with the whole idea, and I'm thinking his mouth has got to be a bit tender.  But I can feel them if I run my finger along his bottom gums, and I was able to catch a really quick glimpse of them.  I sure won't be taking any pictures of them anytime soon though!

I was able to get some pictures today though, using my new Magnification Filters.  They were suggested to me as a reasonably priced alternative to the macro lens that I can't possibly afford or justify at the moment.  If I could, I'd be all over the Canon 100mm f2.8.  Maybe I can suggest it as a Birthday or Christmas present, but that's still quite a ways away.  $20 for a set of 4 magnification filters is much more within my budget at the moment. 

I really need to work on nailing focus using these.  I've read that it might be best to manually focus the lens (I'm using my 18-55mm kit lens - I could also use my 55-250 telephoto zoom lens, I'll probably try that one next.)  It's also been suggested to me that I try using my tripod and remote, so I'll give that a try as well.  Still though, the out of focus look actually kind of works with these spring flowers (yes, it's still Spring in my neck of the woods!)

These were all taken very quickly in a break between two thunderstorms - I had just enough time to pop the +10 filter onto my lens and run out to the front yard to see what I could get.  I'll definitely be trying this again, and I think I might try stacking the filters next time.

A slight change of plans... and a major milestone.

Yesterday was a pretty big milestone day for little man - he moved from his bucket carseat into the new big boy seat.  He was really hating the bucket, he was so confined and he strained to get out of it every time I put him in there.  Now that he's big enough to sit up in a shopping cart I figured there wasn't much point in keeping him in the bucket, so we made the leap and moved him out.  It's going to be a bit of an adjustment for the both of us, but the umbrella stroller I ordered should be here tomorrow so that should help a bit.  He's not nearly as portable as he was in the bucket.  Here he is in his new big boy seat for the first time.

And before anyone says anything, yes, he is rear-facing still - he's only 6 months old and the law says he must be rear facing until at least a year (I'm hoping to stay rear facing longer), and he's not nearly as upright as he looks in this picture, it's the angle I was holding the camera at.

On another note, today was supposed to be Colonoscopy Day.  Well, I cancelled my appointment, I'm waiting for them to call to reschedule.  I began my prep yesterday, fasted the entire day, except for coffee, water, chicken broth and jello.  I went out in the afternoon to pick up the jug of nastyness I was supposed to consume as the last part of the prep.  The last time I had a colonoscopy done, I only had to drink 2 glasses of nasty.  This time, they wanted me to consume this.

That is a 4 litre jug of pure, vomit-inducing, yucky gross-ness.  I know that's not a word, but I can't actually come up with a word to describe how horrible it is.  It's not so much the flavour, it's pineapple flavoured, which is gross enough (I hate pineapple).  It's how it made me feel.  Every sip made me feel like I was about to hurl.  I tried my best, I got through 4 glasses of it, and that took me 2 hours.  I would have been drinking this stuff into the wee hours of the morning, I don't even know if I would have been able to keep enough down to have it work.  So I called the Dr's office and I cancelled my appointment.  I've asked them to come up with another option - I just can't do this.  I'm sorry, I tried, there has to be another way.  Hubby wasn't too impressed with me, he thought I was being a wuss, and maybe so, but I couldn't physically make myself drink one more sip of it.  I just couldn't.  I'll see what they come up with for another option.  I know there are other ways of doing it, and there has to be one that's either less nasty, or requires a lot less of the nastyness.

So, instead of hopping on a stretcher and being sedated at 10:30 this morning, I think I'm going to head down to the park and check out a new stroller group.  Way more fun.