Week 8: Reflections and Oscars

This week's challenge was reflections without a mirror.  The first thing I thought of was reflections in water, but since I live in Utah, it's the middle of winter, and I dislike going outside in the cold, that was just not going to happen.  It also turns out there aren't many reflective surfaces in our house.  But this is what I came up with: 

I don't know if I really love any of them, but oh well.  I tried to get a couple of reflections of Alex, but that kid moves way too much!  By the time I noticed a potential photo opportunity, he was gone. . .but at least he's cute!

Matt's brother hosted an Oscars party yesterday at their apartment in Logan.  We arrived in style, especially after Alex stole pépère's hat.  Check out my handsome boys!

Don't you love Matt's bowtie? :)

We had a lot of fun playing movie trivia games, eating delicious food, and watching the Oscars.  A part of me dislikes the Oscars - it's rather pathetic how much money people spend on the whole event and I don't particularly care which movies earn what awards, but I must admit I do enjoy looking at the dresses, and hanging out with the Laurendeaus is always a fantastic time!!

Happy photographing!!

Week 7: Valentine's Day

So I must admit, I didn't do so well at taking pictures this week.  I think I only took pictures 2 out of the 7 days. 

I was busy though.  I began a new adventure!  I started working as a math tutor and I now officially have three people I help a couple times a week.  As incredibly nerdy as it sounds, I missed math and the challenges that it posed, and it is great to have the opportunity to get out of the house, use the math I spent years learning, and earn a little money on the side.  I love it!

I felt it fitting this week to photograph things associated with Valentine's Day.  Typically I would steer away from photographing/talking about what my Valentine's Day consisted of since I don't particularly care to read what other people do; however, Matt completely nailed it this year and I feel a little bragging is in order.  I apologize in advance. . .

Valentines would not be complete without a dozen roses and chocolates.  Stephanie came down and watched Alex for us while Matt and I went out Friday night.  We went to the Star of India (maybe not the most romantic, but fantastic food!) and afterwards Matt surprised me with a box full of candy, a love poem, opera glasses, and tickets to this!

Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!  He's pretty amazing, right?  I'm fairly sure there aren't too many husbands out there who would willingly take their wives to the ballet, but I am lucky enough to have such a husband!  I loved the ballet and was so much fun to get away with Matt and do something new.  He is the greatest husband ever!! 
   
On a completely unrelated topic, for those of you who knew Grandpa Pitts, we started tearing out the paneling in the spa room this week and ran into more of grandpa's fantastic handy work.  Take a look.

Do you have a hole in your furnace duct?  Just patch it with a sign you picked up on the side of the road.

Who needs a real junction box when this will do the trick?  It used to have about 10 different wires attached, but sadly Matt tore most of them out before I got a picture.

Somewhat blurry picture, but this was the junction box where grandpa spliced the wires running to the spa. . .which ran on 240 volts. . .the more we see the more amazed we are this house never burned down. . .

Happy photographing!

Week 6: Bokeh

Mondays have usually been my posting days, but I didn't have time.  Matt's great grandpa passed away and his funeral was yesterday.  While I didn't really know him that well, he was a great man and he will be missed by many.   

• Side note on funerals: I hate them!  I know that many people view them as a way to find closure, to deal with grief, etc., and I respect that.  But personally I hate gathering around the casket (all dead people look a little creepy) then sitting in a church with everyone crying all around me singing somewhat depressing songs.  I would much prefer to have a party when I die.  I also hate the idea of being buried in the cold ground (I'm ALWAYS cold), so please, when I die, cremate me and have a big party with good music and good food to celebrate my life!  

• Side note on dying: Matt wondered yesterday if they celebrate your "death day" in the afterlife; we celebrate our "birthday" here, so why not?  Hmmmmm. . . .

Anyway on a lighter note, this week I was lacking inspiration in my photography, so I turned to the Digital Photography School's weekly challenge for inspiration.  These guys have a ton of great free articles and tutorials on their website, along with several ebooks (none of which I've ever bought, but they look good).  They send out a weekly newsletter, complete with a weekly assignment and photo challenge.  People post their pictures, can give and receive feedback, and there might be a prize for the winner, although I've never actually taken the time to post anything, so I could be wrong on that one.  This week's assignment was "Places of Worship", but that required going outside. . . .so I skipped out on that one.  Instead I took the photo challenge: Bokeh.

What is Bokeh, you may ask?  Yeah, I didn't know either.  Turns out it is "a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image."

(http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-achieve-nice-bokeh-in-plain-english#ixzz2Kimyatrk)

And so I attempted (that being the key word there) to take some pictures that have nice bokeh.  I would not say that I was so successful, but hey, I learned something new.  My lenses have a max aperture of 3.5, and I feel like my photos would have been a lot better had I had a larger aperture.  Oh well.  Here are a few of the better ones though.

Also, the grandparents have told me over and over how much they love reading this blog.  But let's be honest, they don't care about photography, they just want to hear about Alex.  So here's the picture of Alex for the week.

Alex was thoroughly enjoying an orange strawberry smoothy at the time.  Once again, this would have been a much better picture if I could have blurred the background more, but oh well, he's cute!

Happy photographing!

Week 5: Random Life Lessons

I don't have much to post today.  We've been battling illness off and on this last week, and I didn't take too many pictures.  But here are a few things learned this week.

Lesson #1 - The "Happiest Place on Earth" is not Disneyland; it is the light aisle at Home Depot.  

"Wooooowwww, look at all the lights!"

Alex could spend hours in the light aisle.  It is a "must see" every time we go to that store now (which has become a VERY regular occurrence).  It just might make it in the Top 10 Destinations for Toddler Tourism.  

Lesson #2 - Grandpa will let you play with things you shouldn't, and it's AWESOME!

We got together at my parent's house to celebrate my brother's birthday this week.  Alex kept pointing to an antique oil lamp, indicating that he wanted it turned on.  My dad broke out the matches and lit it for him.  Alex then decided he needed the box of matches, and then proceeded to attack said box of matches.

Lesson #3 - Winters in Salt Lake still sucks!  This one goes back to a conversation I had with Emily the other day.  I had the opportunity to go skiing with my parents on Friday and it was absolutely beautiful up at Alta Ski Resort.

Even though the valley air seemed relatively clean that day, this was our view coming down the canyon.

Why I just love to see the air I breathe, don't you?

So with that lovely thought, try to avoid breathing, escape to the mountains, hope that spring will come quickly, and keep taking pictures.

Happy photographing!