My peaceful place.

Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go. - Louise Driscoll

This is a photo of my Koi pond, my sanctuary. This is where I spend most mornings quietly sipping my coffee and enjoying the quiet first moments of the day. I feel very close to God when I sit here. Maybe it's because it is so peaceful or maybe it's just because this is the only time of day that I have to myself.  I have discoverd that I need a few minutes each day to reflect. This morning it was 20 degrees outside and yet I still couldn't resist bundling up and spending a few minutes by the pond.  So... needless to say, I am eagerly looking forward to Spring.

New photo...

I Heart Faces Pet Challenge

This is a photo of Maple, one of our dairy goats.  She is a sweetheart and always very curious to see what's going on around her. Check out the rest of the Pet photos at I Heart Faces http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/04/photo-challenge-pets/ for this weeks challenge.

Busy Busy Busy and a Broken New Camera!

I have been very busy (as you can tell by the title of this post).  I have been competing for a spot on the CT for NutHouse Scraps, I'm still on the CT for Godigitalscrapbooking.com. and I am competing in the Amazing Digi Scrap Race.  That makes a minimum of 6 LO's a week. WOW! I've really gotten a lot quicker at digi scrappin. The only problem is I don't have any new pictures because my new camera, the NEX-3, had to be sent out for repairs!  I had to take it back to the store I bought it from and yell at  politely ask them to fix it!  They said sure and that I should have it back in about 3-4 weeks.  I was not happy!

I am thrilled that I have made it to the final round of competition at NutHouse-Scraps. They have been having the applicants create QP's with kits from the designer's at their site.  Here are a couple of my QP's.

For the Amazing Digi Scrap Race, my partner, mommydeb, and I are both competing for the first time.  Our team is called the Digi Divas and we are team number 98. Come and check out the race here:  http://ndisb.com/?page_id=258   Our first challenge was to make a LO about your family that included 6 unique facts about your family.  The Round 2 Challenge was to make a LO about someone that inspires you. Here are my pages:

credits for my LO found here: http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/326267/view/3178345/-1/1.html

credits for my LO can be found here: http://www.scrapbook.com/myplace/index.php?mod=galleries&u=326267&m=view&id=3178229&type=-1&start=1&page=1

At GDS, I just finished the Be Inspired Challenge.  We were supposed to use this picture as inspiration for our LO.

Here is my take on the photo. I used all Studio4 Designsworks products for my LO:

Winter Engagement Photos Ashlee and Darrin

I had the pleasure of photographing a wonderful couple for their engagement photos.  Ashlee and Darrin were so much fun to work with.  Despite the fact that temperatures were in the teens, this couple never complained once about the cold.  They wanted a mix of head shots and some full body shots to show off Ashlee's growing belly.  They are very excited to become parents in just a few more weeks.  Congrats Darrin and Ashlee! Here's a look at a few of their photos taken near a local park.

Christmas Bokeh Photos

Merry Christmas! Ok, I am a huge fan of Bokeh type photos and I was hoping that my new camera the NEX 3 by Sony could be adjusted to give me some of those awesome shots.  I placed the camera in M mode and moved the settings to 0.5"  and F5.   I really wish that I could set the F stop a little lower but just couldn't find a way to do it. Overall, I was satisfied with the results.

To get those beautiful, blurry Christmas lights, use your lens with the lowest aperture.  Place your subject as far away from the tree as possible and get as close to the subject as possible.

Trying Out A New Camera

After dropping my camera into our pond (twice) and having it slip out of my hands and bounce down the bleachers at a baseball game, I finally had to admit I needed a new camera.  While Christmas shopping, we stopped at the electronics store and came across the new Sony NEX-3.  It was very light and promised to take near DSLR quality photos.  I decided to give it a try.

So far here is what I have discovered about this camera:

Pros
light weight - 2.2 lbs
video quality is good
quick shutter response time
continuous shooting at 7 frames per second


Cons
short battery life
navigation speed - the camera is slow when jumping between shoot mode and playback mode
there aren't many available lenses
flash has a weak range area

Here is a close up of my son taken with the camera.

Our dog

ISO?

Well if you are anything like me, learing all the different terms for your camera can seem a little intimidating so I'm hoping to explain a few that i have learned over the years.

What is ISO?

ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor (or film) to light.  The higher the number, the less light is needed to take a photo that is correctly exposed.

 Most people tend to keep their digital cameras in ‘Auto Mode’ but most cameras also give you the opportunity to select your own ISO. In Auto Mode the camera selects the appropriate ISO setting depending upon the conditions you’re shooting in. Most cameras will try to keep the ISO setting as low as possible in this mode.  Higher ISO settings allow you to shoot digital photos in low-light conditions, but such photos are more susceptible to noise and grainy images than photos shot at low ISO settings. With a digital camera, you usually can shoot at a variety of ISO settings.