Another door opens....

Isn’t that how the saying goes? When one door closes another one opens? Well the door on 2010 is about to close and the door to 2011 is about to be flung wide open! This year truly did fly by, as I’m in the process of making photo book of my family’s year, it seems like we just experienced those things yesterday!

Just look how much my boys have changed in just the course of a year

 It’s amazing when you look back and compare the change side by side!

My boys aren’t the only ones that have grown this year, I have too! It was at the beginning of 2010 when I decided to dive back into the world of photography and explore my passion! I have learned so much this year and with every month that passes by come closer and closer to the person I want to be, creatively at least.

I guess the word that best fits for 2010 is Growth...

The growth in my life has been good, I have succeeded and failed and grown from it all! Seeing my boys physically grow and their personalities sprout has been rewarding. But with all things that grow, when left untamed it can quickly become overgrown and wild! So, my word for 2011 is FOCUS!

Adding more focus to my creativity, giving it direction. Helping my boys focus on learning and developing their minds and manners as we delve into the world of homeschooling! More focus on completing task and goals. More focus on family and getting distractions out of the way. More focus on getting healthy!

As I said in my previous post, I am planning on attempting another 365 project or similar photo project, I sort of lost focus on it when life started getting crazy! This year, I’d like to complete it, I also have another project I would like to work on, but I’ll save discussion of it for a later date, but I am super excited about it! I did however complete half of my 365 for 2010. Here are a few of my favorites from my first attempt at 365...150??

I hope you all have a great year and wish you the best in achieving your New Year’s goals!

Brooke

P.S. I've linked this post up with Meagan over at Madelinebea for her 365 check-in

Monochromatic Inspiration

The last few weeks the muses have been musing on the holidays and related themes,and still are if you would like to join in, however, I noticed the muses are musing on MONOCHROMATIC COLOR , when the new year rolls in So, I thought I'd move on to the new theme since I have some pics to share that fit the theme! Don't forget to check out the Mortal Muses blog for current theme and their Flickr pool to share it!

 Believe it or not, I took these just last week, its not looking much like winter here, the winter looking scenery usually comes with the new year!

Speaking of the New Year, is anyone else starting a photo project in 2011?? What are you doing? 365 project? 52 weeks? Daily prompts? I'm interested in your suggestions and ideas, I've been thinking about giving the 365 thing another try since hospital visits and party planning interrupted mine this year! I've also been throwing around the idea of a project I read about at The Maternal Lens, 31 Strangers in 31 Days, or a variation of the idea. It would be definitely challenge given my introverted personality, but a challenge full of reward I think and a good lesson on trying new things, both a nice way to start the new year!

I know alot of you have or are getting ready to embark on a photographic journey...but if you haven't I suggest that you do, they time I did spend doing my 365 project this year was very rewarding. I learned alot about myself, improved upon my photographic ability and found myself artistically. If you are planning on starting a photo project in 2011, I suggest you start a blog (if you don't already have one) or an account on flickr. There is a great world of creativity, inspiration and artistic support out here! Most everyone is nice and willing to help or learn along with you!


I really am interested in YOUR ideas and suggestions on photo projects for 2011...but, here are few links that have some great info and inspiration if you are thinking about starting a photo project as 2011 rolls in!

• If you just want to take it week by week, there are some great weekly word prompt blogs and link ups out there, having a weekly word prompt helps when you have a creative slump and can make you think outside the box! My favorites are The Sunday Creative and Mortal Muses

• The Daily Shoot is a great source of  inspiration you can print a list off containing prompts or assignments when you need inspiration or you can also go their twitter site and subscribe to updates to be sent to your phone and always have a prompt everyday!

• Meagan over at madelinebea has a list of fellow 365er's, which I am a part of and you can be too! You can find a very supportive community there and check out what everyone else is doing!

• You can find groups on Flickr to share work such as a group for people doing 52 week projects or 365 week projects. There are tons of groups just search the groups, but be sure to read the groups rules!

• Shutter Sisters offer 365 sharing and inspiration as well as monthly word prompts for a One Word Project...You can find additional 365 help, prompts, and articles on starting a 365 project here and here

• A few more links: Photo project ideas, 7 photography projects to jump start your creativity, and a different kind of project.

• And at last, if you want to add some color to a photo project, why not use your crayola box for inspiration! There is a flickr group called sixty-four colors dedicated to such a project and a blog too!

Well, there you go, there is my part in helping to inspire you! Now what ideas do you have? Also, I just wanted to say, for those of you intimidated by all the fancy cameras out here, you don't have to have a DSLR to start a photo project just a passion for photography and a want to better your skills, even if you just have a point and shoot camera! As a matter of fact, most point and shoots have manual settings that you can use to give more photographic technique practice!

So, please be inspired or share some inspiration! Let's help each other out and share some ideas! I hope you all have an inspiring 2011!!!

Sweets!

The Mortal Muses are musing on the holidays through Jan. 1st,  today's prompt is SWEETS and it couldn't of been on a better day! Today I spent most of the day making some candy cane cocoa for our neighbors, using some jars I've been saving after all the pasta sauce is gone! I try to do a little something for the neighbors every year and once all the jars were all decorated they looked so cute! I also have been wanting some shots of the traditional candy cane, a little cliche I know, but I wanted some shots anyway! So, here are my sweets!

Head on over to The Mortal Muses to view the other holiday submissions and to link up your own!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland, Sort of...

pliWinter is here, the temperature is dropping and we aren't exactly walking in winter wonderland of snow, but we have pulled out the stocking caps and hooded shirts! I personally like the smell of crisp cold air, it just seems cleaner and fresher. Granted I could do with out all this wind, but the cooler weather means rosy noses, snuggling and that feeling you get when go from cold to toasty! Even though everyone is cold they all seem just a little bit happier!

The theme over at The Paper Mama is Winter and I thought these pictures of my boys working their winter attire would be perfect...well winter attire for those of use who have milder winters that is and are crossing their fingers for no ice storms in 2011, I don't know if our trees can take another one!

My youngest and his stocking cap his uncle got him during his trip to Peru, I love this picture even though he look like "really mom, another picture!" He's just so darn cute!

My oldest prefers hoodies and looks pretty cute in them! I can't believe he just turned four!!! They grow up too fast!

Head on over to The Paper Mama to check out the other submissions and to link up your own entry!

Also, the theme over at Simplicity is Simple Beauty, there is just something beautiful about my kiddos and their smiles. The way they can make me laugh and smile when I'm having a bad day! So my simple beauty is that smile my little boys face! Link up your simple beauty over at Simplicity!

The Journey

I was not going to link up today over at the Mortal Muses, today was my youngest son's second birthday party! However, I peeked at the prompt in a quick moment I had, I came up with a few ideas of what I wanted to do, somehow portraying all our personal travels during the holidays and the amount of time we spend on the road, but the journey of the three wise men just kept coming back to me. Luckily my mother-in-law has a beautiful nativity set that worked quite well. Plus, it's nice to be reminded why our family celebrates Christmas, it can get lost sometimes amongst all the glitz and glitter of the holidays.

 This is my entry today for the prompt, JOURNEY, over at the Mortal Muses. Head on over to link up or check out the other entries! Have a great weekend everybody!

Oh the Bokeh!

Today I wanted to start my post with a little bit of sparkle! A little bit of holiday bokeh to be exact! Did you know that there is a Holiday Bokeh Party going on over at Life with my 3 Boybarians?? I'm sharing my holiday bokeh over at the party and you should too! Or you can just head on over and look at all the gorgeous sparkle!

I actually took this first one before I heard about the bokeh party because I couldn't resist getting a little bit of Christmas tree bokeh this Christmas!

This second one I took before dinner! I just love this Christmas bell and thought it would be a good subject! Hope you enjoy!

Peace....

Today I decided to participate in 'Twas the write before Christmas' over at Bigger Picture Blogs. Today is day three of a week of holiday prompts. You can choose to interpret it however you please, writing, crafting or in my case photography. I missed the first two days, but it is set up to join in at anytime!

Today's prompt was a song by Casting Crowns-"I heard the bells on Christmas". It is a beautiful song and you all should go over and take a listen!

So, while I was listening to the song I decided to stop all my chores to really focus on the song. While I could interpret this song in sooo many beautiful ways, the word peace, angelically sung by a choir, kept making it's way to my thoughts. There are so many positive things about the holiday season and for me these make my Christmas enjoyable and peaceful! Its easy to get got up in all the stress, but when you chose to focus on the positive and soak up the joy and remember the reason for season, we can all have a little peace, if not on earth, in our hearts!

The word peace makes me think of silver, light and airy, calm...This is what I came up with...

While I was shooting this series of pictures I decided I liked the top photo in the collage as an interpretation of the prompt over at The Sunday Creative, you can see it again below...The word this week is Frozen, while I would like to get some pictures of snow or ice, here in the Southern end of Central North America we have yet to see anything that resembles snow, just wind! I could have went deeper and got some beautiful set up shot with a model...but, I like this picture for the prompt for lots of reasons. First of all it is part of a small decorative tree I have that is suppose to look like an iced over tree, so it looks like ice. Plus the prompt frozen again makes me think silver, light, clear, all which I think you get from this picture. But, most of all I like the memories flood back every time I unpack it from the Christmas box...I got this tree right after I found out I was pregnant with my first child...a lot was going on then, transitioning from college student and wife to just wife then wife and mother. You could see the transitions in all aspects of my life including my decor, from dorm worthy decor to more sophisticated pieces...This piece was one of my first "grown-up" looking Christmas pieces. Four years later, I still bring it out every Christmas, a little reminder of moments passed!

Well, I hope you all enjoyed my interpretations of the prompts and I hope you all head on over and join in!

     

Diptych fun!

It's been way to long since I've participated in all the wonderful creative groups out here! I saw that the mortal muses' were having some fun with diptych and triptych and couldn't help but join in the fun! I made a several, but these were my favorite three! That's all for today, but now that I got the itch to join in on the photo challenges again, I might be back soon!

I love butterflies! I think I have like a zillion photos of them, well maybe not a zillion,but definately a lot! These shots are some of my fav, this particular day the butterfly let me get super close!

I love, love lemons! Don't they make you miss summer? That why I thought I'd use this one for Simplicity's photo challenge, Dreaming of Summer

I love the fair! For me it's the kick start of fall, my favorite season! 

Go join the fun over at mortal muses

and the challenges at Simplicity

Spreading the News {Huge Giveaway}

Hope you all had a great thanksgiving holiday, I know Idid! Just thought I'd stop in and share a little bit of information with you and let you all know that there is a HUGE, I mean HUGE, giveaway at Laura Winslow's Photography blog!


She's calling it her favorite things giveaway there is over $2000 worth of great items from 59 shops, but there is only one winner! It started today and ends Dec 7th so hurry on over there and enter!
Laura Winslow Photography

A quick Hello!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, we've had a lot going on these days! Once our family ventures into October and the fall season things start getting a little crazy! Adding photo sessions to the mix has only made it crazier! I've been busy to say the least! Taking pictures, ordering pictures, planning a lumberjack birthday party...wait...what...Yes, a lumberjack birthday party! The reason I just had to write this post! Among all the busyness are both my son's birthdays (right around the holidays, crazy huh?) and my oldest son wanted a lumberjack birthday party. I tried and tired and tired to get him to pick something normal, like Thomas The Train or Go Diego Go, but he insisted on making mommy put on her thinking cap and get creative amongst all her busyness...after all they do not have a lumberjack section at the party store.

Timber! Watch out, this is where the gifts may fall!

My dad wanted to join the fun and showed up dressed like a lumberjack!

My oldest really enjoyed the party, especially getting to play his lumberjack game on the wii

Thank goodness for Old Navy and their fleece throws, it made the perfect table cover

I kept tradition and made the cake for the fourth year in a row...some lumberjack plaid and a tree stump, oh and of course, what is a lumberjack without his axe!

Later into the party we all had a little fun with the camera! We had plaid hats, scarfs, lumberjack beards and an old picture frame...and a lot of great lumberjack fun shots!

Some graphics, ribbon, scrapbook paper and poster board and you've got some party decorations

Homemade banner, thought the log letters added just the right touch!

Made a few log pillows for the "log toss", they were a hit!

A pile of twigs for balloon weights, brown paper bags with plaid ribbon and a custom Thank You tags to complete the theme!

We all had a great time! It all turned out so much better than I imagined and everyone enjoyed themselves, especially the birthday boy! So, I'm headed back into my busy world, but I'll be back to share my youngest one's birthday party...a yay I'm two monkey party! Thanks for letting me share with you and I hope you all have great holidays!

A lot of thinking going on...

These past few weeks have been crazy to say the least! I find myself these days struggling to balance my family, my passion, and my emerging business. While I'm not an official business yet, I'm headed down that road. It's been a whirlwind of emotion trying to keep my hobby a passion while still trying to make a living with it as well!  I have found myself a little uninspired the past few weeks and I've been putting off sharing anything here simply because I just wasn't to happy with it. On the other side of things, I've managed to direct my inspiration to my portraits and got some great shots this past week! So, as I try to figure out this balancing act, I've decided to take a little of the pressure away...I'm not going away completely, but I am going to spend a little less time out here in blog world, specifically in groups and challenges....I still plan on sharing my favorite shots of the month and my 365 for the month, so I'll at least post twice a month! I love seeing all your work and hearing your comments about mine, so I'll still be around, just not as much! Hopefully by the beginning of the new year I'll be closer to being balanced and ready for some more challenges, plus I'll be participating in Faith's Simplicity DLSR class in January, maybe I'll see some of you there!

The begining of it all...

I bought my DSLR at the beginning of this year...in March to be exact. I remember my nights scouring the Internet for tips, reviews and prices to find just the right camera. How much did I want to spend, how big did I want it to be, Canon vs. Nikon…you get the idea. Finally, I decided...I picked the Nikon D5000, excitedly ordered and waited for its arrival! When the knock on the door finally came, my heart sang with excitement! I tore the tape of the box quickly found the charger and battery and started getting some juice to those batteries! Meanwhile I admired my new baby and waited in anticipation for the light on the charger to quit blinking. I did chores to keep busy, sneaking glances at the flashing light as I passed through the kitchen with loads of laundry. Then it stopped, the light stayed constant! It was time! Click, click, click! Before I knew it I was on my way to filling up my 1GB memory card and knew a larger one would end up on my shopping list in the very near future! My first shots were of my boys, my youngest trapped in his high chair and my oldest running away from the strange contraption I was pointing at him! Over the last several months I have grown tremendously! I've participated in challenges, entered competitions, made some cash off my hobby and started a photographic journey to 365 days of photos! Today, eh, tonight, this morning, I don't know its super late, early??  I wanted to share my first shots from my camera in addition to my favorite 365 photos from the month of September! It’s been a crazy journey, but I’ve loved every minute of it!

The next four shots were some of my first shots ever with my new camera, I have always dappled in photography and have had a passion for it, but it had been on the back burner for quite awhile. So when I picked up the camera and got these shots of my boys, the fire was lit once again! Since those first awkward days of finding my new place and warming up to the title "photographer", my passion has only grown and I become more and more comfortable in this new skin!

{I'm using this shot for the Paper Mama Challenge, Confusion}

Now on to my 365 day photographic journey! September has been quite a month, surgeries, photo shoots, recovering from surgery...this month has been crazy to say the least! I wasn't on my "A" game much this month, I've been focusing my craft elsewhere and this months crop of photos haven't been my favorite. However, I managed to get a few shots I like!

I've already shared in previous posts most of my 365 photos here and here...So, here is the rest of the month...I think I'm missing two pictures, as far as posting goes, but hopefully I'll be able to get them all posted to my Flickr 365 Gallery soon. The button to my 365 gallery on Flickr in is my sidebar.

As you can see lots of low light situation, result of near forgotten photos! I didn't take alot of time to set up or "stage" any photos. Oh well, we learn from our bad days, right? Have a great day!

Brooke