I Heart Photography

If you haven't noticed already with the massive amount of pictures I take of my kids, I love taking pictures. The two main things I love to photograph are my kids and the outdoors. Now I don't love it in a " I want to do this as a career way," just as a hobby.

I will admit that I prefer to take pictures of the kids outside because using sunlight makes the best pictures, in my opinion. Using a flash is definitely not easy for me. I feel like there is more opportunity for blurring pictures when I take them indoors. And thus, my amateurness comes out. I really have no idea what I'm doing. I've never taken a photography class or even read a book about it (shocking!). I've just tried lots of things and stuck with what works whether I understand why it works or not.

This Tuesday I'm going to see a friend's band play and I am definitely going to climb out of my comfort zone and experiment with my camera at the show. For whatever reason, I get shy about using my camera in front of friends because I have a digital SLR (low grade of course) and people automatically assume that someone with a "fancy camera" knows what they are doing. Silly huh?

Looking at some pictures I took at the park this past week there were a few that I impressed myself with, but understand I am easily impressed......

Looking at this picture I think, "Good job Michelle, that was a really good angle and there is not a big shadow on his face. And good timing with his expression." But then I also keep in mind that my kids are very photogenic and sometimes I feel like that is cheating.

Once again my little Matthew is too adorable and made taking this picture very easy. But I'll pat myself on the back for good timing because he isn't still for long.

This one I took using a technique I stole from someone who I consider to be the bestest photographer I will ever know. I wasn't even looking through the camera. I just angled it below her with her looking down on it and literally got lucky. I mean the odds of me aiming the camera to have Devon centered are phenomenal. This will probably never happen to me again. Bummer.

Now, speaking of the bestest photographer I will ever know, Suzanne Countryman. Let's look at the greatness she creates. Prepare to be stricken with awe.

Isn't that the shizel?

Victory Over the Evil Wasps

So I noticed about a week ago that wasps were forming a nest in the middle of my tomato bushes. No Bueno!! I have two silly fears, flying, stinging insects and arachnids (scorpions and spiders). Although, I am becoming more accepting of spiders because they eat bugs that would eat my veggie plants, but not in the house.

I've been thinking and thinking about how to get rid of the wasps without spraying poison on my tomato plants. During all this thinking I was secretly hoping Chris would "take care of them" with a stick or something, but that never happened. So today I put on my big girl pants. And a heavy jacket. And Chris's motorcycle helmet. And his motorcycle gloves. (You can stop laughing now.) I went out to the tomato plants with our tree clippers (I'm sure there's a better name for those), which extend pretty long, and I started cutting the branch the nest was on. The I trimmed the branch to where I could pull the nest quickly and without hurting the rest of the plants.

This whole process took about 10 minutes because I would snip a branch and jump back because the wasps got upset. Then I would snip again and jump back, sometimes swinging the clippers for protection. I'm grateful Chris was really into the book he was reading or else I know he would have taken pictures or recorded video on his phone. Sorry guys.

Finally, everything was trimmed and ready to be pulled out. Even with all my "gear" on I wouldn't move the nest. I was still too hesitant. So I started knocking the plants and shooed away the wasps. Then I moved the nest and destroyed it. One came back and was looking for it, but I was able to coerce it to fly away from the plants so I could spray it with wasp spray.

So this is the story of my victorious defeat of the evil wasps. Hooray!