Vacation 2010

I'm on vacation from work this week. So far we've gone to the beach and went swimming at a friend's house. Today is our bum around the house and try to get motivated to organize day. The kids will be hanging out at mom and dad's later today as I have to get to school today. Yes, I will be returning to school in the fall. But tonight, I'm testing to find out what classes I can skip over.

Anyway, last week, the family made the annual pilgrimage to a pond nearby Bridgton, ME. And while I didn't get to stay for the whole week, I did manage to take some good shots -

I love this picture of the girls - I applied an action from MCP Actions called Touch of Light/Touch of Darkness (it's free on their website - click on the link above). Originally, it was too dark but with this action, I saved this shot.
I don't usually like to pose pictures but need material for next year's calendars - every year for the last 3 or 4 years, I've made my parents and my in-laws scrapbook calendars as a Christmas gift. Last year, I made ones for both my sisters-in-law and this year, I decided that I will make myself one. This is Melody sitting on a rock, complete with a fresh booboo after tripping over a tree root while running.

The wind up there on my last day was absolutely nuts - hence, the windblown niece and sister-in-law. I love this picture anyway - That's the view from our camp, looking across the pond.

Finally, my favorite picture from Maine vacation - so windy - but they were happy to be there.

I've been using this vacation time to take more pictures and learning new editing skills. I'm also trying to organize my scrapbook room. That'll take more than just this week. I have way too much stuff. I'm just enjoying being away from my everyday life and getting around to doing things that need to get done.

Will post again once or twice this week as I've got lots of photos to post.

Wow - I completely forgot...

We celebrated some birthdays today - Sami, Dennis and Angel....had dinner and ice cream cake at the house. My other nieces and nephews were there too...Caitlin asked "Are you ever gonna put us on your blog?"

My apologies, oversight on my part - sorry....this is Adam's older brother, Scott's family...we vacation with them in Maine too.

This is my niece, Caitlin - that's my blurry brother-in-law, Scott in the background. We took this picture on the side of mom and dad's RV on July 4th. I blurred Scott out a little with some gaussian blur on PSE6.0.
This is Scott with my nephew, Connor - we took this photo on the last day of vacation in Maine. They got the shirts from Great-Grampy Ray when he went down to New Orleans to meet up with Adam's cousin, Lisa. The back of the shirt looked like this:
This is my sister-in-law, Laura with the two kids - I love this picture - even though Caitlin is squishing her mom's face and Connor isn't looking at me - It depicts love - how Caitlin loves her mom and how Laura loves Connor - one of those emotionally perfect shots!!!!
I love this picture of Connor - I cropped it so that his face is the main focus of the photo - I love how you can see his freckles and how red his little lips are!!!! As you can tell by the photo, Connor was begrudgingly a subject for my photos - evident by the semi-non-smile. That Avatar mohawk rocks!!!
He was happy here though - he finally caught a little fishy. The fishy....not so happy.
I told all the kids during vacation that they were going to be my subjects for shooting. Thankfully, Caitlin was cool with it...I love this picture of her!!! Big smile, in focus...it's great!

This is Scott and his girls. I love this picture too...not the best, compositionally, but certainly a great shot - I think Caitlin is starting to crack up because her dad was squishing her and her mom.
Finally, this shot - one of my favorites - this is a picture of the Rees boys. I think this picture is compositionally sound for a group shot, but there are a few things wrong with it - for starters, it was taken nearly blown-out (overexposed) with the pond at their backs and high noon-ish time overcast light. It didn't help that dad's shirt is white and that I got a shot of light to bounce off dad's noggin so badly that it made it look like his head was part of the background. Still, I love this picture (even though Adam likes to take his photo at parade rest - a military pose).

P.S. Caitlin, Connor, Scott and Laura - sorry this took so long to post - I know I had the other nieces and nephews in shortly after vacation. I can be such a loser. Please don't hold it against me. Love you guys!!!!