365 | six

{calm}

I have an obsession with capturing the skies.
We are blessed with very beautiful sunrises and sunsets here.
Not all the time, but often.
I never have my "big" camera with me, though, so almost every sky image I have is from my iPhone.
And usually shot through the car window.
Because we are up and getting kids to school at sunrise around here.
Ugh.
I think 8-4 would be a much better school time :)

{Technicalities}
I wasn't really paying much attention to the mechanics of this photo, because it was such a quick capture and with my phone.
I did expose for the sky to create a silhouette of the light pole and houses, and I'm happy with that and how the colors came out.
I wish that the driveways and utility boxes were more underexposed.
I think they distract you away from the sky.

365 | five

{breakfast}

Pretty much the same everyday.

Some kind of cereal.

Orange juice to wash down the Tamoxifen (otherwise I forget and Dr. P does not like that).

And this devotion book that I've had forever.

It's the One Day At His Feet Devotional by Chris Tiegreen.

(you can find it here if you're interested)

I keep thinking I will get a new one each year, but I still get something new out of this one everyday and really like his writing style, so I won't try to fix what ain't broke, right?

The content of breakfast pretty much stays the same everyday, but it's typically is not as serene looking as this setup today.

I managed to get lunches together last night, and we were blessed with a late start for Elliott today (thank you to whomever decided that was a good idea for the first day back),

so I had a little more time to sit down.

Breakfast is usually eaten standing up in between dropping Elliott off and getting Ethan on the bus, and the devotion is usually sometime after that - sometimes even way after that - like bedtime.

But this is how I would love it to be every morning - a quiet, peaceful start.

{365 details}

I decided I needed some more direction with this 365 project.

I knew there would soon come a time when I would be at a loss of what to photograph one day.

I did some quick research and found a 365 challenge that fits my needs.

It gives a prompt for each day of the month.

I won't use all of them, but when I'm stuck, I like having something to refer to.

Plus I enjoy looking at everyone else's projects.

If you're interested, it's called

THE BETHADILLY CHALLENGE

and more info can be found at

bethadilly.com

I do not really know much about it other than I've seen a few other photographers refer to it in their Instagram posts and other forums that I participate in.

I'm incredibly thankful that she has taken the time to organize it and encourage others to participate.

Anyway, that is where the {breakfast} theme came from.

{Technicalities}

I'm really not thrilled with this image.

I always like the documentary part of anything I shoot about my family's everyday, so I do like that.

But I wish I had pulled back a little more.

The book is way too close to the edge, and I had to straighten the image a bit in post, so that cropped it even tighter.  I need to keep work on shooting straight.

I also wish I had used the 50mm lens instead of the 35.

I'm not loving the distortion in this one - I don't think it really adds to the image this time.

I've been concentrating on being aware of my ISO settings recently, and I'm happy with that, but I think I was concentrating on that so much that I didn't take care of the aperture appropriately.

I would have liked to have increased the aperture a bit to get a little more of the blue glass in focus.

I do not like the white bowl in front of the bright window - not enough contrast.

And I think the exposure could have been bumped a bit.

f/2.0

1/160

ISO 320

35mm

365 | four

Rubik's Cubes

It's one of his hobbies at the moment.

He is constantly watching YouTube videos, trying to learn how to solve them.

One thing about him....when he decides he wants to do something, 

his determination will not let him stop until it's finished.

Right now he is determined to figure this out.

And then start on more challenging ones.

I did not even realize there was more than one of these.

But he was more than happy to show me all the different ones he has his eye on.

This has got to be better than video games, right?

Technicalities:

(Since my goal in this project is to dig deep into my photography skills, 

I thought I would critique myself - feel free to ignore)

I like this picture and the mood it portrays. 

I wish I had moved the pillow.  It distracts me and doesn't add to the story.

I think the side lighting adds a nice depth to the image.  

It emphasizes the concentration going on and draws my eye right to his hands and the cube.

I used my wide angle 35mm lens just because it is what is on my camera 90% of the time, but I'm glad I did, because I think the distortion draws your eye to the hands and cube even more.  I did a profile correction in Lightroom, but went back to the original image because I liked the distortion  - it adds to the strength of the shot.

My favorite aspect is the somewhat of a juxtaposition of his growing, almost teenager hands holding what many would consider a child's toy (although if you've ever tried to solve one of these, you would completely disagree, so I will keep that to myself).  

It tells the story of him being in that in-between age of still a boy yet so much closer to an adult (which I'm totally not ready for).

365 | three

NERTS

Our new family game obsession.

We learned how to play one night at our friends' house, and I think we've played at least once a day ever since.

My goal was to beat our friend, Aly, which hasn't happened yet.

But I am the current champion at our house, so I'll relish in that role for a while.

365 | two

Chai tea.

My sister introduced me to this addiction.

So I blame her.

It's probably full of sugar because it's a latte.

But it's only 140 calories, so I say I can have one everyday.

And I look forward to it every. single. day.

The mug is my new favorite.

It was a gift this year.

You can't see in the picture, but it's tall with a matte finish.

It's perfect.

I'm sad when it's in the dishwasher.

I know....it's truly an important issue :)

365 | one

I said I would never do this again, but here I am.

One of my goals this year is to really dig in deep to my photography.

It's been a goal for a while, but circumstances have prevented me from being able to devote the time that I needed.

This is the year!

I'm so excited about it and want to tell you all about it, but I want to get my ducks in a row first.

But I can tell you that one of the ways I will be digging deeper is by shooting everyday,

so I decided to go ahead and do a 365 project again.

I have no doubt that I will miss days.

I'm totally fine with that.  I just want to learn and improve however I can.

The photos I post may or may not match up with the day of the year.

Shhh...don't tell anyone :)

This was actually taken on January 1st.

On my way to get Elliott from an all night lock-in.

I had a hard time dragging myself out of bed to get there in time, because we had been at said lock-in until 2ish that morning.

All I wanted to do was pull the covers up and go back to sleep.

But then I was rewarded with this beautiful sunrise.

His mercies are new every morning.

What a beautiful reminder on the first day of the year.

The awesome news is that no matter what day of the year it is, we are blessed with His mercy morning and night.

slowing down

That sounds good....slowing down.

For some reason, I can't seem to do it.

I often have a plan to do it, but it always involves dropping a commitment.

Dropping a commitment involves disappointing someone, and I am a people pleaser.

So I just keep my family going at this unnatural and exhausting pace.

Sound familiar?

I thought so.

Today I had my annual MRI.

I wasn't dreading it, but wasn't really looking forward to it either.

I'm blessed that I get to lay face down in the thing so that I really have no idea how closed in I am.  Otherwise, I'm sure I would have been dreading it.

The worst part, for me, is the IV.

I don't hyperventilate and lose my mind anymore like I did for the first one.

That was not pretty - so sorry to the sweet techs that were trying to help me - hopefully I will see you again one of these years and you will see what progress I've made.

But I just don't like IVs in my elbow.  

They hurt.  I don't know why.

But that's what I always have to look forward to with these MRIs.

Today was no different.

Once I was settled on the table and the lady was sliding me into the donut hole, the pain subsided a bit.

But then, of course right when the scans started, the pain returned.

Nothing to do about it then, because if I move a muscle they have to start all over.

And 20 minutes is long enough in that donut.

So I told myself it didn't hurt.

Then I told myself that it wasn't getting worse.

But it was.

Then I prayed.

Usually I pray something like "God please give me wisdom about what to do" about a situation.

This time I just flat out asked Him to take the pain away.

Just take it away because I can't pretend it's not there anymore.

And He did.

In fact the pain subsided so much that I almost fell asleep in there.

Pretty sure that would not have been good either.

So anyway, after the MRI, I decided to take the day off.

No scheduling people, no lesson prepping, no meetings, no photo editing, no cleaning, no organizing, no cooking, nothing.

I went to the mall and enjoyed having time to myself.

I ate at McAlister's by myself and enjoyed every minute of it.

I brought the boys home and said "yes" when they wanted to have friends over.

(That feels so liberating because we usually have so much going on that it feels like there's no time to enjoy friends at our house).

I did do a little photo editing....and a little laundry....and a bit of organizing.

But I limited it to a specific time and didn't get caught up in it.

When Ethan and his friend moved their wiffle ball game to the cul-de-sac, I went outside to get the mail and ended up staying because it was so nice out.

I grabbed my camera and tried to capture a little bit of fall.

It felt good.

I even talked to some neighbors - rare these days.

I know that some of these commitments will come to an end soon and this busy pace will slow down, but I want to be sure not to replace them with other commitments that will put us right back here.  I need to work on that.

For today, I've just enjoyed the slowness.