So last week I was called to pick up my 5 year old from school due to a fever and sore throat. I'm a nurse, so I looked when I got him and was pretty sure it was strep, which was confirmed shortly after when I took him straight to the doctor for a culture. He started on antibiotics and we kept him home from school the next day, and then my mom mentioned that he had a rash. Long story short, turns out he has scarlatina, or what used to be more commonly known as "scarlet fever." Then I was up most that night with his baby brother, who seemed to be running a fever and possibly suffering from a sinus infection. Back to the doctor we go, he's put on an antibiotic... and the next morning he also has the characteristic rash. Oh joy... Not a lot of fun. The baby had a rougher time, which meant not so great sleep through the night, and then he didn't want to take his usual nap either. Finally that afternoon he gave up and crashed out on the floor, a first for him!
So that's the story behind this picture, which also happened to come from my iPhone (I almost forgot to take a picture that day altogether! Phew, close one!). On the plus side this gave me the chance to implement what I'd learned in the Photoshop tutorial I'd watched - "Removing Unwanted Objects." This photo was a lot busier/distracting before - I removed his sippy cup, some other blanket, and a book from it. I was really happy that PSE lets me do that! The lighting also wasn't good so the pic was noisier, something else PSE helped me at least improve a bit. I did go back to Picasa for my frame though :)
 iPhone - ISO 1600, s/s 1/15, f/2.4
Loved the frost this morning! Still working on the focus deal. Maybe I need to turn my f-stop up a couple notches. I was attempting 1.8 this morning, though a photographer friend I really respect told me her "sweet spot" is 2.2. Maybe that would help me get the focus I'm looking for. :-/
Nikon D5100 - ISO 160, s/s 1/800, f/1.8
Nikon D5100 - ISO 160, s/s 1/640, f/1.8
When I get home from work it's usually after everyone else is asleep. I'd gotten off a little earlier tonight so glanced up the stairs to see if any light was coming from under our door and instead I barely glimpse the shadow of the little elf. When the house is completely still and you're the only one awake and there's this little elf sitting in the middle of the top of the stairs... he's actually kind of creepy. :-P Anyway...
Obviously I turned the hall light on to take this photo, it was too dark otherwise not too. One thing I continue to struggle with in using my prime lens is getting the part of my photo that I want in focus to be in focus and to be nice and crisp/detailed. I took several pictures from this angle, using both the autofocus and manual override. The other downside is that it's often difficult to tell on my viewer whether I managed to get what I wanted in focus, especially when it's something small like a little elf in the middle of a bigger picture :-/ Obviously I didn't quite get it in this photo, but of all the ones I took this one was probably the best. It's a little frustrating not to know if I got what I wanted until I get it on my computer. Though now that I typed that it occurred to me that I'm pretty sure there's a way to zoom in on the camera viewer.... I'll have to check that.
 Nikon D5100 - ISO 160, s/s 1/10, f/2.2
I didn't get my photo-of-the-day in before going to work, so I figured I may as well take a picture of my work! I work pretty late at night and the new lens is supposed to be better at low light than my kit lens, so I've been trying to take more pics in low light lately to test that. I do feel like I get better results so far, though I am still learning how to balance my settings for these situations.
Nikon D5100 - ISO 640, s/s 1/15, f/2.2
I was walking around snapping some photos in the front yard and while on the side of the garage I noticed a nose sticking through the gap our gate leaves when it's supposed to be shut. So then my attention shifted to snapping pictures of Hannibal watching me through the space ^.^ I wish now that I'd tried to get him to put his ears up but I'm probably lucky I got this as it is.
Nikon D5100 - ISO 320, s/s 1/640, f/2.2
My husband thought it'd be a lot of fun to start the Elf on the Shelf tradition, so I caved and let him get one. I really need some brilliant but simple idea like this. He's seriously made out of felt (*cough*feels cheap*cough*) and sells for $30 (yeah he also comes with a book, but still...). Anyway, back to the picture stuff :) Somewhere my cousin mentioned how she likes to do black and white with one area in color, so I decided to try that for this photo. Yes, I confess I went back to Picasa, and it's probably a bit evident given the color isn't completely restricted to the elf. I'm thinking I might try watching a Photoshop Elements tutorial each night to aid my learning there, then maybe I won't be so quick to ditch it :-/ Has anyone else tried this, or do you have a recommendation of where I can go for free tutorials on PSE techniques? YouTube is the first thing that came to mind, but I haven't checked there yet. Guess I can consult Mr. Google too :)
 Nikon D5100 - ISO 320, s/s 1/80, f/2.2
We were enjoying a Christmas party at our friends' home and I liked how they had their Christmas village set up in their big kitchen window. Since their front yard was decorated with lights I thought it made for a nice bokeh backdrop to this photo! :)
 Nikon D5100 - ISO 640, s/s 1/30, f/2.2
I started to edit this in PSE but reverted to Picasa because I like the straightening tool better. I think PSE probably did a better job with balancing/auto-correcting when I first tried it there than what I ended up with here. :-/ I guess I'm just going to have to keep playing with it until I get the hang of it and learn how to work with what's available.
 Nikon D5100 - ISO 250, s/s 1/160, f/2
My place of work has a lot of lovely Christmas decor going on so I thought I would capture a few samples, such as their stocking holders here. I also decided to give my Photoshop Elements 12 a go on this pic. I have to admit that I find Picasa a lot faster and more user-friendly, at least so far, though understandably it's probably because I've been using it longer. I'm still figuring out how to get what I want with PSE, so when I want to move quickly I tend to default to Picasa (it also has the frame style I've been using!) :-/ I played with PSE a little on this photo and decided to apply the "Vintage" effect on this picture. When I went to save it I chose to do a medium-quality JPEG because I thought last time I'd selected "High" quality and ended up with a 17MB file. Well for whatever reason the medium translated into something like 857KB on this one (doh!) >.<
Ah well, maybe I'll re-edit the original later :-/
Nikon D5100 - ISO 400, s/s 1/10, f/2.5
... is a dead one! (IMO ;-)
One thing I have noticed with my new lens is that what I see through my viewer often does not match my final image, at least when it comes to images like this with a lot of background blur. Don't get me wrong, I love the blur that I can get with this one, especially compared to the kit lens I was using before. However, sometimes I'm surprised at just how much blur I end up with when I view the captured image, as that wasn't what I saw when I was setting up the photo through my viewer. It can also make it more challenging to get the part I want focused nice and sharp.
Nikon D5100 - ISO 200, s/s 1/1250, f/2.2
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