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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Early Photography Success

I have always loved photography, but for the longest time, it was just point, shoot and hope to get lucky. It wasn't until after my sister's wedding, two and a half years ago, that I started to think about deliberately doing things to make photos more interesting.
My sister's wedding photographer was awesome. There were so many fantastic shots that I wanted to get married all over again and have her photographer take my photos. My husband isn't on board, even though I do want to marry him again.
Anyway, my point is that while we were getting ready, the photographer took pictures of Keebles, my daughter, sitting on the floor, admiring her flower girl shoes. In the first one, the focus fell on her fancy shoes, and her awesome hair was slightly out of focus. In the second one, the focus was on her hair, and the fancy shoes were slightly out of focus.
Holy cats, it was an epiphany! You can do that? Choose for one thing to be in focus while the other one is not? Why did I not know this before?
Fast forward to this: my first attempt with blurring my background. Yes, I wanted Keebles to be out-of-focus. I thought it showed what she might just look like to that cicada.
On a side note, the last time I had Keebles get real close to a big bug like this ended in disaster. We were at my grandma's farm (like we are in this photo) and there was a HUGE praying mantis on the side of my grandma's house. Keebles didn't want to get close to it, but me, being the good mom that I am, encouraged her to. And the giant praying mantis jumped on her face. Screaming and tears ensued. So, I am grateful that she was willing to get this close to the cicada.
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Friday, January 14, 2011

Oh, the humanity!

My book club holds our annual Christmas party in January. It's just easier that way. We all have young kids and lots of family and the month of December is a sprint as it is.
This year, I decided to take my birthday present with me: Just Dance II for the wii. I love to dance. I have zero rhythm, no moves, but I sing really loud and smile a lot to make up for it. In my Shannon-logic, I decided that asking for that game for my birthday would help me learn some moves, thereby rendering me awesome at age 37. Have I mentioned that I was once so sure of my moves that I actually tried out for Poms? Oh my gosh, what a ridiculous idea that was. This body was not meant for dancing. I look like an 80-year-old woman with a bad back. On no, that's how I feel...
I digress. As usual.
The first time I played, I cracked poor Keebles in the head three times with my Wii-mote. It's a good thing that she is such a good sport, or she has a really hard head.
When we played at the Christmas party, I didn't hurt anyone (bonus) and I was lucky enough to have friends willing to document my awesomeness in photos. (Please know that this is written fully in sarcasm font.)
So, here I am, rocking out some song at 11:30 at night in my friend's basement. I have no earthly idea what I am doing, but I'll be sure to break this movie out at my cousins wedding in April. I think I'll call it "Monthly Self-Exam."
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