Mom Snaps

I thought this was so cute this morning. The little girl sleeping next to her Valentine puppy – both wearing hearts. Yesterday we went shopping for my birthday. One item on my list was a new flash for my camera. But since I wanted something with immediate satisfaction, I decided to go with a PSP. Usually I need a stronger flash every once in a while. I could have used one for this picture. Oh well. Now I do see that even though I don’t need a stronger flash all of time, but I do need one more often than I realize.

I am in the process of rearranging some of our furniture. I do this every few months – hoping to find the right balance of function and fit in each room. So I’ve been emptying one of the bookshelves and there happens to be a box under it. This makes it perfect for the cat to hop up and perch. The card folder must be pretty comfortable since she quickly started to nap.

I just couldn’t resist snapping a few photos of this. I tried to frame it up so I wouldnt have to do any cropping. I also took the camera off auto since I didn’t want to use the flash and wake either of them.

I’ve missed a couple of days in the photo a day but here is one I took today of my mom’s shop. It used to be an antique store but now it’s mainly storage. I tried some different settings but the coloring was all wrong and it was freezing outside. So I snapped one of auto and here it is. It looks way better than the others. Hopefully tomorrow I will have another picture. Not promising anything as it is really cold weather this week.

Yesterday was a busy day so I grabbed my camera around 9pm and fired off a couple of pictures of the girl’s new doll house. In my haste I didn’t check the focus – hence the reason for the blurry picture.

Today I will take more time. The point of this photo of the day isn’t just to snap a photo but really spend some time each day using my camera. I was so wanting to not miss the first day that I just snapped something without checking it. Lesson learned. Will be more careful and take more time from now on.

So technically this photo cannot count as my photo of the day since it was taken around 11:30pm last night – when it was still Thursday and 2009. But I couldn’t resist trying to photograph the moon. The clouds were in the way and it made me wish I had taken some when the moon was lower in the sky and it was a clear night.

Today starts my photo a day project that I had tried last year but wavered. This year I hope to take at least one photo a day. To make it more interesting, I plan to have a new theme each month and explore more of the settings on my DSLR. My January theme will be buildings. Might as well start off with a pretty straightforward theme. After all I do plan to start eating less and exercising more today. (Not a diet, just making a healthy change in my life) This way I won’t stress too much about subjects while I’m starving and ache all over.

My daughter got a Strawberry Shortcake berry cafe and roadster for Christmas. It came with Plum Pudding. I don’t know why her playing with the car on the bed reminded me of “Thelma and Louise” but it did. If only they had driven off the edge of the bed then it really would have been just like the movie. LOL

I’m so glad she likes Strawberry Shortcake. I loved playing with SS when I was a kid.

Not sure who is having more fun this Christmas. The girl with her new toys or the cat with the toy packaging. Both are very entertaining this holiday.

I have had my Canon Rebel XTI for a few years and still use it mostly on the automatic setting. My goal for 2010 is to take photos every day and to explore the functions of my camera to the fullest. Last year I had started trying to do the photo-a-day challenge but faltered and could never get going again. This year I hope to have better results.

Each month I am going to try to learn about a new photo technique using my camera and then use the photo of the day as practice. I have played around with the settings before but can never seem to retain what I’ve learned. Hopefully by concentrating on a setting or technique for a whole month that I will gain real knowledge on how to use it.

I hope to spend the next few days making a list of what I want to learn about my camera and photography. The better plan I have, the more likely I am to stick with it.

Rae wanted to write a letter to Santa. She wants him to bring her a small dinosaur. That might be an easier gift than the red/polka dot teddy bear she wanted last week. Not sure if Santa’s workshop makes such a bear but I have it on good authority that they do indeed make dinosaurs.