Ketchup

So, it has been a while. Probably mostly because I am taking a lot of BAD pictures. I guess that is what one does to learn how to take good pictures?

I am starting to get the hang of how aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and exposure work together. Well, sort of starting to get it. It is much more scientific than I would have guessed. Fortunately, I love science. Yes, I did leave the data on the bottom of the picture. We have to do that for class. No tripod, I am surprised it isn't fuzzier.

So you have here condiments at The Counter in Reston Town Center, one of our favorite places to eat.  Build your own hamburger, awesome fries, onion strings and sweet potato fries. And right next to gelato from heaven. This week, cardamom, who would have thought?

Good Evening Trees

I am finding it nearly impossible to capture the way the sun bathes the trees as it sets. I'll give you this for now and keep trying. Maybe it can't be photographed?

Backyard Hawk

Thankful for already having the telephoto on the camera. I need to look this guy up in my many guides to eastern birds. He is clearly a hawk, but I don't know what kind. He is sitting on our bird feeder and seemed to enjoy posing for me.

Update: pretty sure this is an adult male Cooper's Hawk

Viola Collage

Tim's first viola concert and my first set of shots entirely off "automatic" setting.  Used the telephoto on "A" setting.  Not bad for a beginner in a school cafeteria --meaning me, not Tim, he was fantastic.  The water fountain and the wood podium pose some background problems, but I thought the viola and Tim looked pretty good against the blue wall.  And Picasa collage helped me get three pictures in without taking up so much space.  Congratulations on a successful concert, T!

Dinner is Served

I love taking pictures of food. Tonight I made my mom's favorite chicken and biscuits as well as trying to bring the flavor of summer with tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella with EVOO and balsamic vinegar. One of my kids ate only biscuits and mozzarella. I took a picture of that and it was so unappetizing, I couldn't post it. Tim and I enjoyed the meal together, and it did taste like winter might come to an end.

Something to Play With

A friend from the past mailed me this beautiful gift last weekend. She is a fiber artist (and clearly a good one...) and when she heard that I was interested in knitting and felting, she said she would send me some fiber "to play with." I couldn't believe the beauty and the quantity of her gift! So now I am mulling over ideas for ways to use this amazing material and finding a whole new realm of creativity opening up for me. Should I knit? Felt? Weave? Any ideas you want to share?

Ginger Snap

This is Ginger Snap.  In the first photo, she gets her first glimpse at her new home.  In the second, she is hiding under a chair for the foreseeable future.  Her foster dad said that she did this for about two days and then started hanging out with the people in the house, sitting with them, following them around and such.  House feels like a home again.

Basmati Rice Pudding

I enjoy taking pictures of food, especially food I have cooked. A good photograph evokes a memory or an emotion or both, and I have found that food pictures often can almost tell the whole story of a vacation or event. "Eew, there is that awful pizza from Sea World; remember..." or "That rice pudding was so good that we ate it for lunch. Cooking it saved us from the boredom of the third snow day in a row..."  And it was mighty tasty.

Happy Mardi Gras. Or Epiphany. Or Something.

King Cake from Great Harvest Bread Company in Herndon. Our little early Mardi Gras. Tim got the baby. I got it last year.  I had to Google to find out what the baby means, I think the most logical answer is that the person who gets the baby has to bring the cake to the next party.  Although I would like Tim to have good luck.

This is everyday...

Deer Infestation

So I don't love any of these photos.  The deer were in the neighbor's backyard and quite aways away and there were many obstacles in the way that made focusing the lens hard.  That and I was trying to lean against a tree.  But there were at least six deer out there, and I had just been thinking that I hadn't seen deer in a while.  My favorite thing about these photos is that in the third picture, I was trying to focus on the two deer on the left, and it wasn't until I reviewed the photos on my computer that I noticed their friend to the right.  I will have lots of opportunities to get good at photographing deer.

Freezing Rain

So this is the first photograph that is really of "everyday life." Except I hope it isn't everyday. Last night we had an ice storm, and I suspect it wasn't a very bad one, but bad enough to keep the kids home from school, much to their delight. I have been wondering if these particular plants were going to lose their leaves over the winter, now I am thinking they may just freeze off. I need to get a book about mid-Atlantic plants because it is too hard to carry the laptop around outside and, no, I don't have an ipad. I think it will be easier to tell what the trees are in the spring, when they have flowers. I don't like this ice, but I do love the trees. And on the topic of mid-Atlantic, the Washington Post says that the Washington metro area (or DMV?) is becoming less "southern." I'm going to call it solidly mid-Atlantic, with a southern twist in Virginia only.

Manassas Battlefield, Virginia

This is a replica of the Henry House at Manassas Battlefield. Mrs. Henry was an 85 year old bedridden widow who was the single civilian casualty in the battle of Bull Run, or Manassas, on July 21, 1861. Manassas was the sight of the first land battle of the Civil War, and those fighting were short term volunteers, ill prepared for their task. On the hills near the battleground, nearby residents initially brought picnics to observe, but not for long. It is also the site where "Stonewall" Jackson got his nickname: "There he stands like a stone wall." In case you didn't know, as we didn't, the Confederacy won both battles at Manassas.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

When you see the names of those who gave their lives in Vietnam, you can't help but see your own reflection. I appreciate that Maya Lin made the Vietnam Veterans Memorial something we can step into, touch, and be a part of.