wonderful news: photography and a baby

Hi everyone. Hope you all are staying warm. Just thought I'd catch you all up on my little part of the world. As some of you may know I've been learning to use manual on my dslr camera. I don't get to practice as often as I'd like to- but I'm learning slowly. When we went to visit our family over the holidays I made my daughter and niece model for some photos. I need tons of more practice (as you can see below)- but I think I'm improving. I'm not trying to be a professional photographer by any means- I just want to be able to take photos that I'm not scared to show anyone- lol.

This is my beautiful daughter- Megan Nicole.

  

And this little red headed cutie is my niece- Journey.

So what do you guys think? I'd love some feedback. If you're a photographer and have any tips for me I'd love to hear from you. I'm always open to learning new things. :)

Now I'm moving on to some exciting news...

I've also learned that I'm going to be a grandmother. My oldest daughter- Heather- not pictured- is going to have a baby in August- my first grandchild- SUPER excited!! Needless to say- I'll be getting lots of photo practice when the baby arrives. ;) 

They haven't learned the sex of the baby- but shhhh- I'm secretly hoping it's a girl. And not because I think my daughter deserves some revenge for her teenage years- lol. I just loved the experience of having daughters- and I hope she gets to experience it as well- but we're going to be excited no matter the sex. 

I had never really imagined myself being a grandmother- I know two daughters and never- but the answer is "no". I guess I just tossed the idea of it out of my mind. I still see my girls running around with pigtails in their hair lol- it's hard to picture them all grown up and having babies of their own- but that's life and I'm loving it!! Going to be a #1 Grandma!! :)

Well- I guess I'll let you guys go surf the web- until next time- keep smiling!! :)

i spy challenge | day one | something edible

Don't you hate it when you plan and plan on something and then all plans go out the door? Me too! That's what happened to us this weekend. We were all stoked about going to the Watermelon Festival- but it got cancelled due to the weather- bummer! Guess I'll have to wait another year- ha. Since we couldn't go to the festival we did get to stop at a few flea markets. At one store one of the owners had the cutest little live monkey- yelp I got pics! He's so cute I just have to post one now- and I'll post the rest in a later post.

Okay now it's challenge time! Day one of the challenge was to take a photo of something edible. First- I took a photo of a box of thin mints- but I didn't like the way it turned out- so I decided to go with a bowl of grapes. As you can probably tell by the photo I'm an "amatuer photographer". I don't think I'll be getting any awards for food photography anytime soon- ha. I have been trying to learn to use manuel on my camera- I think it's improving a little- because at first the photos would just be way to dark- thank goodness for lr! If there's anyone out there reading this and you have some useful tips on how I can improve my photography- please feel free to share- I would really appreciate it.

Tomorrow I'll be taking a photo of something smooth- hmmm wonder what it'll be!?! Hope you guys will play along with me! Anyone that wants to play along can post their photos to instagram using tag #opsispy.We would love to see!


Well... until tommorrow's photo! :)

I Spy... A Fun Challenge

image source

Hello! I can't believe it's almost fall- can you? Where did the summer go? Well... I'll tell you where mine went- working. That's why it's been so long between my posts. Things are calming down a bit now- so maybe I can focus on the other things I really love to do- like blogging & photography.

I hope to get some really good photos at the Watermelon Festival this weekend. We moved here last year and didn't know about it last August- so needless to say I've been waiting for it this year. It's nothing to big just craft vendors, good music, food, lots of friendly people, and of course- watermelons- yum! I will post more about the festival later- because for now it's on to a little challenge.

To get me started with my blog posts I found these cute printable scavenger hunt cards (above) over at Lisa Moorefield.com and they gave me the idea for a photo challenge. It's not going to be a month long challenge- it's just a little something to get me motivated. I figured if I post the challenge on here I'd have to stick to it- I think I can- I think I can- lol.  

The idea of the cards is to play ispy using digital photography. Great idea- right? You just list the ispy items on the card and post a different photo each day. Since the list is for ten things it will be a ten day challenge. Ten days hmmm... yea- I can do ten days- lol.

I will be using the "i spy something card" that Lisa already has made in her printable set that you can download here. This is how it will work- my day one challenge will be to photograph something edible, day two a photo of something smooth, and so one. I will start my challenge in a few days and post ten days in a row.

If any of you guys need a little self motivation please feel free to join in on the challenge. If you do and you use instagram please share your photos with us using hashtag #opsispy. We would really love to see them!