Old Ford Truck

I went out to visit my Grandma Bushman and took Malcolm and Quinn with me. I had a great time visiting with her, reminiscing, while the boys discovered fun things at her house. It took some convincing for them to go into the basement, they were scared, but once they got down there, they saw how cool it was. Of course they had to play with the pool table, and found all the toys.

After a hour or more, we decided we better head home. As we were getting in the car, I noticed this old Ford truck sitting out by the shop. I hadn't ever noticed it before, so it must have been moved when the farm was sold. So I fell in love with this truck! I want to clean it out, put it on a trailer and bring it home with me!!
Although it's missing it's grill and front bumper, it's a beauty. With the baby blue paint job, and the beautiful brown rust! I sure wish I would have taken a picture of the tailgate, because it was awesome as well! The best thing of all, is that it's a Ford. My Dad raised me to love Ford trucks. That's all he ever drove, besides a few years where he got a Dodge that was a bad lemon, so back to Ford he went.
The boys had to pose in front of it, and they were just hilarious, so I had to post some of these pictures. They act like they've seen a body building contest some where, because they sure have some good poses.
Just look at that. Quinn's pose is hilarious! I just love it! Malcolm's bicep is looking pretty massive here.
Can I just say I love my boys...especially in front of this old Ford truck.

Wyman Family Togetherness

The day after the Chlarson Family Reunion, on July 19th, we had our own little family get together, just the Wyman's, Bushman's, Luttmer's aka Perkes, Hardy's and Adams. Our family is a little confusing to say the least. We had a great time. We all went to church with Mom and then after church we took a big family shot of us. It was a little tricky with all the little kids!We are a cute big family!! Thanks to my Matt's brother Ben, who pushed the button, since I couldn't do it myself and be in the picture!

After our pictures, we had a nice big meal. We all like to eat and there's nothing better then to eat on a Sunday! I LOVE MY FAMILY!!

Foreground

This month at Take Out Photo the monthly special is foreground. It's the very last second for me to post this, but I'm just glad I'm getting it up at all. If you haven't noticed, I haven't been blogging much. I haven't been taking many pictures either. I'm blaming it on the cold weather and my blue mood. I need a change of something in my life! I'm in a rut. 

Anyways I didn't think I would have anything to post this month, but I did take this picture while playing outside at Matt's parents last week. I was playing with my aperture and focal points on the grass, then took this one of Winston. I think it counts as foreground. I love the bokeh of the grass in the foreground. Winston looks so dang cute just sitting there on his knees too.

Thinking I didn't really have anything to post, I had gone through some old pictures and came upon these from last June. I've never posted them, so I thought it would be a good chance. Plus, I think they are pretty cute pictures. I'm not sure why I never posted them. I had been shooting exclusively in manual for only three months and was still learning to do it, a lot of them didn't turn out good, I guess that's why I didn't post them. In this first one, I love the wheat right in front of Quinn. I didn't mean for it to be there, and thought it had ruined the picture back then, but now I love it. 
I've always loved this picture, both the boys started running at me as I was trying to get a picture of them. I love how they are both barely in the frame. It was really back lite so I tried using the flash. Quinn was really bright right in the front, and Malcolm was really dark. I like the original still, but playing in photoshop, it really made the picture more perfect. It was fun to play with layers and layer masks to get Malcolm out from the dark.
We stopped by this wheat field on the way back home so I could feed Winston. Matt took the boys out and tried taking pictures, until he got frustrated, so I took over. I love them a lot more then I did then. Funny how that works.

A Perfect Day

I've been waiting for the perfect day to get out and take some pictures. Well today was the day, it was warmer, close to 50^ , there was some sun and Matt was home to help tame the wild beasts. This month at Take Out Photo, the monthly special is background. I knew where I wanted to go for the pictures, because I've been wanting to do it for a long time. I'm glad the challenge pushed me to get out and do it. I got a lot of shots that I think are cute, some that I love, but a lot that aren't technically right, but at least I got out and did it. I also used a lens I had bought 5 minutes prior to doing the shoot.

On craigs list, Matt found a canon film EOS ELAN slr camera with a 28-80mm f3.5 lens and 9 filters for $30! Apparently some of the pictures were coming back with a big thick black line through them. I have no knowledge about the camera at all, but figured $30 for an extra lens would be worth it. We checked it out, it's older, but I couldn't pass it up. While Matt was running an errand, he took the camera into Kits Cameras and they think it was just the shutter sticking, and it looked like there's something sticky on it. So I think we got an awesome deal, I don't know that I will ever use the camera, but an extra lens and filters will probably be handy. She said most of the filters are for black and white photography, so I need to research them out. Sweet!

So I tried bribing the kids with ice cream cones if they would cooperate. They did okay, but they do not know how to sit still and look at the camera. Malcolm kept telling me it was boring. Then he always turns his head to the camera, but looks somewhere else out of the corner of his eye. Quinn just can't stop moving at all! I came home and have played on photoshop the rest of the night. I wasn't planning on it, but I got sucked in. I had fun playing with some free actions that I never use and got carried away. So here's my attempt, my different backgrounds, and some pretty handsome boys! I'll warn you, there's more then a couple.
I love Quinnie loving on Winston! Isn't that cute!
See, they don't even know how to look at me. There is a busy road about 20 feet from here, I'm sure that didn't help. But I like that there looking somewhere else!
We took our family pictures for our Christmas cards in this same area. I love the color of this old building. There are rail cars about 3-4 ft away from this building, so I had to squat underneath them to get the pictures.
Is that not cute or what! I must say, I have some good looking boys!
It was Matt's idea to use the contrast of the horizontal and vertical lines. He'th tho thmart!
Matt also took this picture while I was jumping up on the rail car to get a different view. He's way better at this then me!
I got some really cute pictures for this angle, but one of the boys were always doing something weird. See what I mean! Malcolm will give me his weird fake grin, but he'll look at something else. I try telling him to look at me, and he just turns his head and leave his eyes focused on whatever he's looking at! Ha!
I tried getting Matt to squat next to the boys, but he protested. Said he would have been willing to do it if I would have done it in the front of the building. So I took a picture of him anyways!
Quinn on the rail car with me. Malcolm wasn't willing to get up here, because last time he ran his hand down the wire cable and got poked. I love Quinn's eyes and his hair sticking out on the side.
I wanted one against this red door thing, but the sun was in the boys' eyes, so we did a shadow picture instead.
There was another door on the other side of the building, so we walked down that way. I think this picture is so cute!
Quinn actually stood still for more then two seconds!
But it didn't last long, here they are playing around again. Probably playing guns or something. Earlier they were doing the robot as they sang "Mr Roboto". They are some cute boys!

Some More Black and White

So I thought I needed to get my sad post off the top of my blog. Sorry for making everyone cry! After writing it, the next morning I woke up with swollen eyes! I really do appreciate every one's sweet comments. I feel so blessed to have so many people that care about me!

I've been playing with more pictures in black and white. I decided I don't know that I really like my first one, besides the incredibly handsome boy in it, it just seems blah, with no depth to it. I don't know how to make it better though. So I played with some others.

These first two are Winston's feet when he was two weeks old (sniff!). I really like them. I did the channel mixer with them, but then added a photo filter in sepia to them, very subtle sepia. I like the way it made them look better.

I loved this picture of my niece Emma and my Mom giving her a kiss. Her straight face is adorable and those cute little checks! I wish she'd let me love on her!! So the original is here on my mom's blog, I like it too, but I like it in black and white better. I lover her eyes because they're blue, and love color for that reason, but I think with the colors, it draws the attention away from the sweet moment. That's why I like the black and white version. My personal opinion!
Off to bed now! Will I ever get out of this bad habit of stay up too late? I think I need some intervention!

Black and White

I love this site!! I have learned so much from Marc and I would recommend it to EVERYONE!! Every month he has what he calls a monthly special and I've liked taking part. The problem is, I haven't really taken part since....AUGUST!! I subscribe to his blog, read it, try everything. I just haven't had time to play with it. A couple of them I did, but just didn't get to posting the results, and for the last few month I have been consumed with Ryan and Stephanie's engagement pictures and making a guest book with their engagement pictures. That took a lot of my extra time. Anyways, now that the wedding and holidays are past, I plan on getting into my creative side and doing this. I do need the creative challenge, since it doesn't come easily to me. This month's monthly special is black and white. I love black and whites but I don't like how dull they look to me if I just let photoshop do it automatically or desaturated the picture. I'm so excited to learn all his different ways of turning pictures black and white. I'm hoping to do several of these this month! So here's my first attempt with his first tutorial. Isn't Malcolm looking way too old!?!

Randomness

Just some random pictures I've wanted to put up since I don't have much else to share.

Two reasons why they have buckles on everything.I would just put him in and walk out and come back to this. So funny!
Another trick you should never do. Matt put him on the table while we were both cooking one day.
Winston getting ready to try rice cereal for the first time.
Didn't like it too much, and still isn't into it. I've been trying it everyday. My kids never like food...does anybody know how to get them to like it?
I had to take a picture of what the boys look like when I go walking everyday. I put all three boys in...it's quite a challenge on the many hills!
I love Matt's eyes so I made him take a picture so that I could play with photoshop!
Not much going on here. Just back home visiting with family and having a "vacation" from apartment living. Feels so good sometimes!

Matt of all Trades

I just had to post this one last picture from our day trip to Riverfront Park. Matt has been into these HDR photos. He's really been wanting to try it , so he set up the tripod and took several different exposures of the clock tower, then layered them all in photoshop. I don't know how it all works, maybe he can explain it better if he feel like it. I just had to share this amazing picture he captured. I have such a talented husband!!! Anything he tries, he's great at. I wish I had half his talents!

My First Monthly Special!!

So my awesome sister in law Melanie sent me an email about this blog called Take Out Photo. He's doing "monthly special" photo challenges. His first was to build this grid. I was really excited to try it, but hadn't found the time to play. Today I finally turned on my computer and did three. That's how easy it was.

The first one I did while I was holding and nursing Winston. (Must be easy!) I decided to try black and white and color. What do you all think? Would it look better in just black and white, or just color?I also wanted to try just one picture. I think this looks cool, but would be better if the subject was centered down one row only. So what do you think?
Since I did one of the other two boys...why not do Quinn too. I wanted to see how it would look doing a close up of one picture. I think it's kinda cool, but should probably fill the frame more.
Just a quick fun thing. Plus, as you can read on the blog, Costco prints 12x12 pictures, so I can print them then frame them...fun huh!?! You all should try it too!