Mia in Dreamland

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is By The Book and it is probably the easiest one I've ever had. I knew immediately what image I wanted to share. As an added bonus I was inspired to play around with it a bit using some texture and I really like the new result. :)

All my kids love books. Reading has long been a love of mine (I'm never without a book and my to-read list on Goodreads is hundreds of books long) so I am thrilled that my kids find joy in reading, too.
I took this picture earlier last year when Mia had been quietly playing in her room and I found her sound asleep with the book splayed across her body. It was just so sweet that I couldn't resist.

Best Face 2011

2011 was a crazy busy year for us. We finally moved. The kids were busy in school and while I got my camera out from time to time, it was not nearly as much as I'd have liked. Hopefully, I'll do better this year. :)

Not only do I want to work on getting out with my camera more often, I want to try harder to expand myself by participating in more challenges than I did last year. And starting off with the best face of 2011 challenge at I Heart Faces is a good way to do that.

Which means I've been sitting here going through all my shots from the last year, and I find myself stuck on this one.

It just makes me laugh. The curlers in her hair, the expression on her face and the way she is peering over the tops of her glasses. It's the not best photographically-just a simple snapshot taken on a whim-but it is the one that makes me smile the most.

Autumn Splendor

First, just let me say that I love this week's challenge. The colors of fall are my absolute favorite and if it wasn't for the cold, I'd want it to be Autumn forever.

Now, let me tell you that I've had the hardest time deciding which photo to enter in this week's challenge. I've even asked some online friends to vote on it because I just couldn't decide. My youngest is such an easy kid to photograph since she just loves being the star. She's so dramatic which meant I ended up with one shot where she's pouty and forlorn and one where she looks so excited and happy--how do you choose?

You don't. You make others do it for you. Hopefully, they chose well. I'll post the other shot in the following post and you can vote, too. LOL

As you can see this is the happy shot. This is my favorite, I only wish there had been more of the autumn colors in it. However, we seem to be overrun with yellow trees, not enough of the deep orange or reds which have always been my favorites. :)

White

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is the color white used in a color photo. I'll have to admit this one stumped me. I certainly never try to dress my kids in white. It'd be filthy in seconds. LOL

I looked and looked and found very little in my previous photos that featured the color white. And with school starting and a hurricane bearing down on us, I really didn't have much time to think of any creative set-ups. So I'm gonna cop out and share this pic.

This was taken the first time I shot a little baby. Luckily, it was for fun and for getting used to working with such a little one. He was the most awake little thing, though, but so sweet and calm. I was lucky to be able to experiment a bit with him, but he had no interest in sleeping--he was much too interested in this new crazy person. LOL I learned a lot about what I want to get and do if I ever have the chance to play with a tiny baby again, so that was cool. Good thing I'm really only in it for the love of photography as I still have lots to learn and experience. :)

Meet My Litle Friend

So this week at I Heart Faces is pet week. We don't really have a pet unless you count the stray cat who has adopted us but isn't into being cute or posing for pictures. Mostly she just wants you to give her food or she'll try to trip you coming down the front steps.

I do however, love animals. I love going to the zoo and shooting. The birds are big favorites of mine. And I love insects. Ladybugs, and grasshoppers, bees and butterflies. I've showcased them all a time or two here. Ooh! Or there's Assateague and the wild ponies! I love those too.

So. You can imagine my difficulty in choosing a picture to share for this week's challenge. I finally decided on a shot from this afternoon. I really couldn't resist. I love the colors and the bokeh. I only wish he wasn't so shy and would have shown his face more. He's a beauty, though.

Enjoy!

Cue the hate mail. ;) (The brave may click for a larger view.)

Oh, and just in case you're wondering. He was in the middle of lunch and was less than thrilled with my taking his picture at such an inopportune moment. He did not eat my face though. And he cleans up after himself, so bonus!!

Planning Mischief

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is "beautiful eyes" and it was so hard to pick a picture to submit. I'll admit, I may be biased, but I do believe my children have the most beautiful eyes ever. LOL And how do you choose from the gorgeous blues my daughters are sporting or the chocolatey brown my son has?

In the end I chose a shot of my youngest. You'll recognize it from my header. Mia has gorgeous blue eyes but in the end I chose the black and white version of this shot because I think it brings more attention to her eyes. With the color version it is easy to be distracted by her strawberry blond hair and busy plaid dress. Either way, her eyes just sparkle. Possibly with mischief.

She's probably plotting world domination or something.

(Click on image for larger version)

Bright and Vivid

So, it's been a quiet few months for me, at least photography wise. We've been renovating our new house for the past year and that has pretty much taken over our every last waking minute. (Remind me to share the befores and afters!)

And of course, since my camera has been silent, so has my blog. Since I miss it and I'm trying to get myself back in the zone, so to speak, I decided to participate in this week's I Heart Faces challenge. :)



Hopefully, I'll be inspired to get my camera out and use it again!

Photojournalism

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is a little bit different. For this challenge, they've defined photojournalism as using an image (or images) to tell a story.

I've spent a lot of time going though picture after picture trying to decide which one to enter. I finally decided on a photo that is not a recent one. In fact it is one I took with my first 35mm camera. I don't expect it to be chosen because, well, it was taken by a 12 year old who knew nothing other than that she loved to take pictures. It's also a little battered and had to be scanned into my computer by my less than stellar scanner/printer.

I have always loved photography. As a kid, my dad was an enthusiast and I caught the bug from him. I received my first camera in second grade (it had Smurfs on it!) and after using that to death, was given my first "real" camera in fifth grade. It was a Canon Sure Shot with a remote and I loved it. I especially loved using the remote to sneak pictures when people least expected it. lol I used that camera for almost 16 years until I got my first digital point and shoot (also Canon!) when I was pregnant with Anakin. I actually still have the 35mm and it's still in perfect working order. :)

Growing up I always had my camera with me and I have hundreds of pictures in boxes from field trips and parties and school days. I'm amazed I didn't send my parents to the poor house from developing all that film but because of my obsession, I have tons of pics of things that I'm so thankful I have.

I took this picture the summer after sixth grade when my Girl Scout troop went to New York for a week. We spent a couple of days in New York City seeing the sights. I have many pictures from that trip and plenty of the famous New York skyline, all featuring the towers, but this has always been my favorite shot. I love the crowd of people, especially the older lady in the corner. I love how it was a very overcast day and how the towers seem to fade into the sky.

Beach Fun

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is beach fun. We are lucky enough to live within an hour of many great beaches. This year we've not gone as often as we normally would because we've been renovating our new house but I did get some great shots one evening when we met Jason after work and spent a couple of quiet hours at the beach.

Anakin loves the beach because he loves to play in the sand. He never goes into the water past his feet, but he will dig and build in the sand all day. By the time we're leaving, he's covered head to toe in sand. I still don't know how he does it. LOL

Portraits of Hope

This week at I Heart Faces everyone is posting about their experiences using photography to give back to the community to bring attention to a wonderful group of photographers that are giving back by taking photos for families of children that are ill.

Please click the image above for more information. :)

However, considering that I've just recently started shooting for people other than my family members, I didn't think I had anything to add. But I'd forgotten something.

Last year I worked with a group called Portraits of Hope in my area. Their purpose was to try to get information out to the public about children from our area in the foster care system. These are children that are either in foster homes or in group homes (sadly, all but one of the kids I photographed lived in group homes.) All these kids are ones that need homes and forever families and the hope was that getting their faces out there would help find them homes.

Now, in order for me to do this I had to sign away my rights to the pictures I took because I was working with the foster program. A small thing when you remember that these kids don't have families but I cannot share them here. I can however, link to a news report about Portraits of Hope that was on the local TV station and in it you do see one of my pictures (the girl with the pretty beads in her hair--she was so sweet but shy. She liked trying to pose for me though, and that picture was the one she liked. :) ) You can see a couple of others in the background.

Heart and Soul: Portraits of Hope

Doing this was an experience I will never forget and one I'm glad I did. Of course, I don't get updates on the kids (privacy and all) but I truly hope that they've all found families now. If I didn't already have five kids, I'd probably have been trying to bring them home with me. They were all great kids.

Purple and Periwinkle Princess

This weeks theme at I Heart Faces is the color purple and you would think, having two girls (one that absolutely loves the color), that I would have more pictures featuring it. And then I started going through months and months of pictures and realized how few I really have.

I still wanted to participate though, so I decided to use a picture I took of Mia last month and shared here before.

These were taken one day when Mia was dancing around the yard in her purple and periwinkle tutu I made her. She's such a little ham; she loves to strike a pose. I have a feeling she's going to be the one to make me totally gray. She's already to a great start.

Play!!

I had a hard time deciding on a picture to enter in this week's contest at I Heart Faces. Of course, having five kids, I have tons and tons of pictures of them playing. In the end I picked this one:



I love the expression on his face. And there's those green stripes he painted on his face. Because you can't really be a super-ninja-jedi-warrior without green stripes on your face. :)

Collage

I decided to enter a collage in this week's I Heart Faces contest but it's definitely not my best work. lol I think my brain is fried from editing pictures from a high school's friend's bridal shower.

I chose to use some fun pictures I took late last summer of Mia in her tutu and black boots. Even at three years old she has her own mind and fashion sense.

Spring!

I'm a bad blogger. Really. I have so many good intentions but I fail far too often. And to be perfectly honest, I'd really rather be outside in the sunlight (despite breaking out in hives within hours of getting sun) than be inside at the computer.

And along with the warm weather, Spring has brought even more chaos. Anakin starts tball tomorrow, and there's the flowerbeds to tend to and the grass to mow, and parks to play in and bikes to ride and walks to take...

So, I've been taking pictures but have gotten behind in uploading them let alone blogging them. I'll do my best to catch up, but well....good intention and all. ;)

This past week my tulips finally bloomed. A couple days before they finally opened I noticed the color just beginning to develop at the tips of the petals. It was beautiful and fascinating to see. I love nature. :)

(On a side note this second picture was featured on I Heart Faces last week! Yay!)

Angling for Sympathy

Last month I was taking pictures of the kids being silly when Anakin decided that I was bugging him and he didn't want me to take his picture anymore. I shrugged and turned the camera on Mia who is always happy to pose for the camera.

Unfortunately, that only seemed to upset Anakin more as he is at the stage where he only wants to please me and he came up to me sobbing that he was sorry and that I could take his picture. Only he couldn't stop crying as he stood there looking up at me so I did the only thing I could do and snapped a picture.

The moment I did, he sobbed out a "thaaaannnnk yooooouuuu!", hugged my knee and ran off to play while wiping the tears away.

Bundled Up

Wow! It's been ages since I last participated in an I Heart Faces challenge. I mean to every week and then it seems that life comes along and distracts me from posting. I had a great jump picture of Jesse doing a back flip into the pool. I had the perfect hilarious outtake of Anakin making a face at his sister while she smiled sweetly at the camera oblivious to his shenanigans. I had a picture of Amelia's hand grasping her Daddy's tightly as she waded out into the ocean for the first time.
Did you see any of those?
Yeah, no.
Kids got sick, I got sick, there were dishes to wash and laundry to fold and I was barely finding time to post my project 365 pictures let alone take any. And really, it wasn't being fun anymore because I was too worried about not missing a day and not shooting things that made me happy.
So I took a break and now I'm back with this week's challenge, bundled up. This is actually a picture I took last year of Claudia. I had a ton of pics from the blizzard this year, but I couldn't pick one so I decided to go with an old favorite. I love how relaxed she is (she usually freezes up in front of the camera). I love the way her face is framed with the hood and scarf. I love her freckles and the specks of snow on the scarf and fur on the hood and the bright colors. I love how she looks comfortable and warm even though it was absolutely freezing out.

She was all bundled up. :)

Family

Family is the theme of this week's I Heart Faces challenge. I had a great picture that I really wanted to enter, but it was only of the kids. I love it because it really, truly tells the story of our family. The rules, however, state that there must be an adult in the picture so instead I chose one that I shared the other day.

I kept returning to this picture, because it makes me laugh. It's a typical scene in our house of Daddy chasing down the kids and grabbing them up and hugging them to death or pretending to put them in headlocks or hanging them upside down. The kids are always fighting to get loose and squealing with laughter. It's a funhouse in here sometimes.

Less Than Perfect

This weeks theme at I Heart Faces is hilarious outtakes. I have to admit that I erase most of my outtakes to save space so I had a hard time finding many. And most of the ones I do have are of Mia because she makes some of the funniest faces.

There's the "What's that smell?!" face:

There's the "Braiiiiinnnns! I eat your braiiinnns!" face:

The "Nuts?! Who's nuts?! I like nuts!" face:

The "Whatchoo talkin' bout, Willis?" face:

Then there's....well, there this:

Go here for more hilarious outtakes!

Sun Conure

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is Pets. Now, having five kids we decided long ago that the kids were animal enough for us, so most of my animal pictures were taken at the zoo or in my yard. We have a small zoo near us that is home to a few animals; flamingos, peacocks and other birds, wolves, bison, otters, a bobcat and a jaguar, some llama, an alligator and a few other assorted animals.

I find that I love to photograph the birds the most. I've always been drawn to their bright feathers, like those of this sun conure.

Sweet Dreams

and beautiful faces. That's this week's theme at I Heart Faces.

For some reason I can't find the picture that I wanted to submit this week. It was a picture of my oldest laying with his little brother, fast asleep, on his chest. I love that picture so much I've even scrap-booked it, but still could not locate it.

I did however, find this picture that I snapped of my youngest asleep on the couch from last year. She had fought taking a nap and crawled up on the couch with her ratty old sheet and passed out. I love her rosy little cheeks and pouty little baby mouth. I've always thought she looked like a baby doll in this picture.