This weekend off

Really, though - I don't get any weekends off...even my weekends off from work seem busy...but it's a good busy!!! After I did a CTMH demo for one of the girls in our CTMH club on Saturday morning, we went to NH to visit my cousins...for some candlepin bowling and pizza...I took these shots in our driveway before we left:
I took this picture of Dylan with his back to the sun....known as backlighting. Sometimes when you take pictures like this you get a nice bright background with an underexposed subject...here, not so bad - he was standing in front of the back of our Dodge Caravan. But you can tell that the shadows are pretty obvious on his face.
I took this photo a few moments later but I moved Dylan and me into the shade of a tree in our front yard. Sunlight is coming from nearly overhead to Dylan's right - better exposure of his whole face because we're both in the shade and the sun in not directly on either one of us. I like both pictures but this is a great example of how important the source of your light is to get the correct exposure.

I took this picture about 2 feet from where I took Dylan's last shot about 30 seconds after I took that photo. The sunlight is coming from behind me and in front of Melody - she is under the shade of a tree and I'm halfway in and and out of the sun. Great exposure of her face - but you can see the sun shining right on her tummy...and you can also tell that the wind is blowing from Melodys left to her right by the direction of her hair.

This is what her shirt said - "Little Sisters Rock!" Yeah - they do!!!


It was so nice out yesterday - breezy but warm - almost 70 degrees. So Mittens decided to escape while someone was coming out the front door and take an early afternoon outdoor snack on the leftover leaves of a lily in our front yard. I love the fall colors in this photo and how Mittens is giving me the hairy eyeball.

Unfortunately, foliage is past peak up north and here the leaves are in the middle of turning but nothing is too bright - still I love this photo that I shot of the leaves of the tree in the front yard.

This is just a photo of a small flag in front of our house...

I'm glad I got more shots of the kids before we left for NH.
Dylan looks so mature in this picture and Melody looks so boogie face (gross!!! She's got a cold.)
Let me just iterate how difficult it is to get three children to simultaneously look at you and smile...I at least got those two pictures above.


This I shot while I was standing on my van with the kids on the ground. Perspective is important - it can change the whole mood of the shot - I love Melody's smile in this picture...Dylan has the Rees expression on his face and Angel looks like she's been holding that smile for too long...sigh...the joys of taking my kids' pictures...

I took all of the photos above with my Canon 50 mm, no flash.

Got home last night around 9:30pm and then woke up this morning at 5:30am for Dylan's 7am hockey game against Pembroke. Dylan goalied today - the game ended in a tie 2-2. He shut Pembroke out the first 2 periods. Good job Dylan!!!!
I love how Dylan's face and the number two on his sleeve are the only things in focus in this picture. (I took this photo with my Canon 75-300mm at 300mm no flash through the glass at the rink this morning.

I left in the middle of the 2nd period (bad mother I am) in time for Susan to pick me up (thanks buddy!!!) so that we could meet up with Kristin and others to go on a scrapbooking bus tour. It was fun - but note to self - no more back of the bus...I had bus stomach until I got off the bus...ugh! Next time I drive the bus...