218 Downtown E'ville

Had a fun time chatting with Paige and Mendy tonight.  We were going to take pictures of downtown E'ville  after having a bite to eat.  The eating part was fun because our chats are always heartfelt and I look forward to them all the time.  When it was time to take pictures it was just me and Paige because Mendy has been feeling a little under the weather.  Once we got out there, we were both freezing to death.  I can't believe how much the temp dropped since after school when I was walking around without my coat to when I was standing shivering next to Paige!
Thanks ladies for a good night :)
Anyway, this is what I came up with.  A long exposure of 10 seconds, ISO 100, focal length of 27 and of course, on a tripod with a shutter release cord.

217 Weddings.

Sweet little Shelley getting married. I'm happy for her. I'm happy for anyone that can have a good marriage. I remember saying those vows and thinking that "happily ever after" was starting and couldn't wait. Now, I think that marriage pretty much sucks. 7 1/2.



It was nice having all of the Yas together. I really miss "us". I feel like there's a weird divide and I do NOT like it. I feel like in my life I already have several friend "groups" and none of them would get along with the others. Now I feel like the Yas are sort of out of sync. It makes my head spin. I felt sort of "celebrity" like while at the wedding and several people came up and asked if we were the "Ya yas". But then, in my head, I was wondering if we were?



The next picture is my favorite from the evening. This is the sort of moment that I remember us having all the time. The fun can be felt in the picture. This is definitely a Ya ya moment.



Maybe weddings make me a little sad? Maybe I see too many people so happy when it first starts and then as people grow and change, that all goes away? Maybe I hate seeing women giving up their standards or opinions and changing to "make it happen"? Maybe I'm not sure that at 23 I didn't do the same thing? Will my married friends still be together in 15 years? In 10? In 5?
Will the Ya Yas?
Do people just grow and change and then move on?

216 Thanksgiving

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the family today. I'll post a few pics for the memories.

My fave pic of the day:


Richie getting excited about the timer running out:


Stevo getting excited about his cards:


Me and my Dad:


Me and my Mom:

215 Dried up

A few weeks ago out in the field at my mom and dad's house  I was out looking for grasshoppers before it got too cold- I took my amazing grasshopper shots last November and was hoping to find some new action shots.




No such luck, but I thought this dried up flower was interesting.



I'm kind of feeling like that dried up flower lately.  I think I've given all of my energy and I have none left.  I think about last November, and I was out taking a bazillion shots of everything I could.  This November, I only did a photo shoot because I promised I would and haven't been out to specifically take pictures.
I still love it, yet I can't get motivated.
I think that part of that is that my head is getting worse.  I have a headache every single day now.  I'm also very dizzy about 4/7 days each week.  I'm trying not to sing in the car anymore, because if I do, I will get a headache.  If I overdo lifting of anything, I have a headache.  I made an appointment with my regular doctor.  Here we go again.  I haven't been to the doctor since the one made me bawl my eyes out by being so ignorant and rude to me.
Hope this idiot listens to me.

214 Time for Yas

Had a little get together for Shelley's big day yesterday with all of the Yas.  It was nice to see everybody all at once, although sitting at a rectangular table does not lead to the best conversation...we needed our ovaltine!  I think we all look rather beautiful here.  I'm looking forward to the wedding and getting to cut loose with all of them!

213 Photo shoot

A bit behind in the editing department.  I keep taking a lot of pics lately, so I need to stop doing that and just edit a little.
This is Miles-  I shot this on an overcast day with my 50mm 1.8 lens...I LOVE that lens!  Very crisp!
I'm pretty sure the aperture I used on these pics was about 2.8 or 3.5 because when taking pics of a kid, it's really hard to get them to sit still long enough to get the focus just right when using 1.8, so I up it a little.  I think the blur in the back is still enough for this to be a pleasing picture.
I'm also very happy that I shoot in RAW.  RAW really lets you have a lot of control over the exposure and different settings on the pic that usually JPEG decides for you.  Here, I wanted to up the shutter speed, but because it was rather overcast, that made the pic darker. I adjusted the exposure and the pic came out nice and bright.  Also, in photoshop cs5, in the raw edit screen, I added a gradient filter on the sky so that when I adjusted the exposure, it didn't blow out the sky and make it white, but kept it blue.  I LOVE CS5 and RAW!!!