I have a confession - I'm actually typing this on the 16th and backdating to the 10th.  I didn't realize I was so far behind on posting! I thought I'd left off on Friday! So sorry for the delay, probably looked like I'd fallen off the boat there :) I will say despite being behind on editing and posting, I have at least remembered to take my daily pictures! Anyway, I decided to post two for the 10th.  Supposedly this lens is supposed to be better at low light than my kit lens, so I've been eager to play with that.  The first photo was a bathroom door cracked open with a light on the other side.  The second was the view through my porch window as I was arriving home from work - the Christmas lights were still on and I liked how they looked through my window sheers in the middle of the night.  (Please click each photo to view the full image)

I decided to take Courtney's advice and get a prime lens, and it's arrived, so... yay! Since my camera has a crop sensor I purchased a Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G to serve as the equivalent of a "nifty fifty."  I played around with it a little today, and this was one of my favorite shots, but as usual I've still got a lot to learn. I don't like that I ended up cropping his arm where I did, but I'll try to compose better in the days to come. :)

This is a glimpse into the beautiful red-and-gold themed Christmas tree at my friend Brandy's home. :)

Sidenote: I finally purchased Photoshop Elements 12 and am in the process of learning how to use it (confession: I think I like some features of Picasa better, seems more user-friendly - at least at this point).  I really liked how this photo came out after post-processing in PSE, but was surprised to discover that my edited image file was suddenly at least three times as large as the original file. o_O  I actually had to resize it in Paint so that I could post it here.  Methinks I have much to learn! >.<

This image was actually inspired by Moyca's Day 33 - Dancing Lights.  I liked how she intentionally blurred her image and thought I'd give it a shot with a familiar form (I'm sure you can't guess what this is! lol ^.^).

Paws belonging to our 80+ lb doberman, Hannibal.  Those nails really hurt if he steps on your bare foot :-/

He was so excited to get outside and into the snow as soon as he got home from school. ^.^

My mom dropped in for the day and brought us this lovely fruit tart.  I'm pretty sure this is the most colorful picture I've posted here yet! ^.^ It tasted pretty good too! :)

This was one of those days when I snapped several pictures and got them on the computer to find that they made me smile more for the memories than the details/composition, etc. ;-)  I was having fun with my littlest giving him lunch and just enjoying his cute little antics but discovered my photos weren't as sharp as I'd hoped, among other things.  Ah well, next time.  This one does make me laugh a bit because the position of his arm almost makes it look like he's taking a "selfie." ^.^

I realize this photo is similar to one I posted not too long ago, though this particular day was cool and windy and the mountains looked especially clear from where I was.  I actually ended up pulling the car to the side of the road and using my zoom lens to try and get a good shot of them, and several horses happened to be grazing between the mountains and myself.  I'm trying to be mindful of my composition lately and realize the horse is facing "out of the frame" rather than into it but if I'd shifted it that far I would have lost most of the mountains, so I broke the rule :-/  I took several photos but this particular horse against the mountains was probably my favorite because I felt his coat pattern and color complimented the snow capped mountains :)