Having fun with Aperture

So, I have been having tons of fun experimenting lately...I just love this! Just wanted to share a few pictures that I took around the house the other day, and one while driving (sweet time when my boys are asleep in the backseat). :) Rebecca, thank you so much for these classes, I am loving it!

This was taken on a dark day, about 4:30-5pm, with shutter speed of 1/100 and Ap of 5.6. I just love how the big branch in the background is out of focus, but not to the point that you don't know what it is.

These were all indoors, but I turned on all lights in my house, and had my flash up. I love this picture! I focused on the outer leaves of the gerber daisy, so the ones in the middle are all that are really in focus. Shutter speed 1/80 and Ap at 5.6.

This is one of my favorites as well. I focused on the very middle of the sticky-outty part (not sure what that is called :) ), so everything on the same plane is in focus, and the rest of the flower is slightly out of focus. I like it! Shutter speed is 1/80 and Ap 5.6.

These one are fun also. Same bouquet of flowers, opposite side. Shutter speed again 1/80 and Ap 5.6. I couldn't really get a lower ap for many of these, because the closer I got to the bouquet physically, I couldn't focus anymore. So, these are smaller ap then I would have liked to try, but zoomed in.

Assignment- February

Sorry this is a little late everyone....and yes, I did end up having to take these pics inside anyway, due to the lack of time with my two little ones. But, at least I got it done, and I can definitely see the difference when ap is changed. I didn't post the ones looking at metering, because you can't tell much of a difference from an inside picture with no natural light. All of these pics were taken with a shutter speed of 100, ISO 200, and an external flash bc of the indoors at night. I did not change the lighting in Photoshop per Rebecca's rules, however sorely I was tempted!

Ap = 40 Everything in the screen is crisp

Ap = 32 Still pretty crisp

Ap = 18 Getting a little more blurry, though still pretty crisp

Ap = 6.3 Getting much blurrier ( is that a word? ) :)

Ap = 5.6 You can definitely see the blur in the background on this one...I like it! :) With a pretty boring picture like this, it makes it a bit more interesting.

Assignment- Light

What better time to show off my crazy father's Christmas lights, then now?? My Dad starts putting up lights on Labor Day weekend, and doesn't stop until the first or second weekend of December. He is very proud of his house, and I am sure would be pretty psyched about me using it as an assignment. :)

The full deal
His running stream into the lake complete with ducks and deer taking a drink :)

Assignment- Symbolic

When I think of our beautiful city of Snoqualmie, there are usually two things that always come to mind. The gorgeous view of Mt. Si, and our historic trains downtown. So, that is what I choose to take this week. :)

Christmas Card

I absolutely love designing announcements and cards now! I am still learning, but I am having a ton of fun! :) I thought that I would share the card that I designed for our family for Christmas! I hope that you like it!

Assignment- Thankful

There is so much that I am thankful for, it was difficult to narrow it down to just a few. But, here are some of my top choices! :)

I am so thankful for my happy and healthy boys, and that I have a husband who is actively involved! :)
I am thankful that we have become a family, and that we have a warm and safe home to raise our children in.
I am thankful for my heritage, and family. This is one of my favorite places in the whole world, in Portage Utah. It was my grandparents home, before they passed. My great-great grandfather helped found this town with the early Mormon settlers, which I never knew about until I was baptised myself when I was 20 years old.
And, I am thankful for all of Heavenly Father's creations. The beauties that are around us everyday, especially the little tender mercies that we tend to miss. I love how beautiful this earth is, and I always find myslef wanting to photograph everything around me!!

Assignment- Three

My three men! Dylan and Lucas playing around with Daddy.

A group of three beautiful flowers left in my stepmom's garden

Assignment- Spooky

I know this is a little late, but I thought I would give it a shot. I know that this isn't very "spooky" in the Halloween sense of the word, but is about as good as I can get at the moment. :) I love the water droplets! And I really enjoyed this picture because they magnified the veins in the leaf.

Assignment- Fall Leaves

When my mom and I were on our walk the other day, we found this GORGEOUS tree, with all sorts of colors! I had a ton of fun photographing these beautiful leaves.

Assignment- Fall Colors

This was really fun for me to play around with this week. Teage' s family was in town and staying with us this weekend, so we took a little trip to the falls where I was able to catch some neat shots that were a little unexpected. :) Let me know what version you like better...

And then this one....which actually looked rather plain, until I focused more on the coloring.