While The Weather is Nice

The weather has finally turned and it is beginning to feel like summer outside! Since it has stopped raining and we have had consistently warmer temperatures, we have been spending lots of time outside with the dogs soaking up the sun. We started off celebrating the warmer temps by redoing our front garden. It's not officially done, but close enough that we can live around it! When we were gardening the dogs were behaving so amazingly that I couldn't help but take a dog break and take some photos of them. Of course taking pictures of the dogs turned into cuddling with the dogs and get distracted from what we were actually suppose to be doing. Luckily we eventually got back to work and I actually forgot I had taken the photos about two weeks ago.

Earlier this week, Dee and I were taking about how much Hannah loves playing in water wether its the pond, her baby pool, or the hose, she just loves to play in it. Since Hannah loves to play with the hose so much, we decided she needed a sprinkler to keep her occupied. This morning we finally set up one of the 3 sprinklers we got her. She loved playing in the water and eventually learned that she could pick up the sprinkler and move it to where she wants it to go. It actually was really funny and super cute. Luckily Hannah wasn't being too crazy with the water that I was able to get my camera out and take a couple photos of the water and her playing.

Enjoy the photos below. More to come soon.

They're Growing Up Quick

It has been a while since I posted some photos of the babies. They are growing up quickly and developing the best personalities as they continue to grow. Below are recent photos of the puppies, Hannah is now six months old and Lumen is now four months old.

Spring Fever

Finally I think it is safe to say that spring is here!! The weather is finally starting to warm up during and the flowers are starting to appear in everyone's yards. For about a year now, my aunt and uncle have asked me periodically to come and let their dogs out if they aren't going to be home. I always love being able to go over there for a couple reasons. One, I get to take Hannah and she can burn off some of her puppy energy...or most of it! It's a win win for everyone. The second reason is that Jude and Gail have the most gorgeous garden ever! Every time I go there I always kick myself in the butt for NEVER bringing my camera with me! The last time I was there, there was the most picture perfect sunset happening and of course all I had with me was the I-phone..(which as much and I love it, it didn't do the sunset justice). However, this time when I was asked to go over to their house I made sure I packed my camera right away. Unfortunately, yesterday I was fighting with rain and had a very limited window to get the photos in. Luckily I was able to get some quick shots of their garden. Take a look below. I want to note that the only thing edited about these photos is levels which is a huge deal that that, is the only thing I had to change! Enjoy the selection below:

Shadows

Even if you know nothing about photography or photo taking in general, you know that shadows can ruin a photo if they are not intentional. On Easter weekend, Colleen and her boyfriend Matt were in town and I of course took the opportunity to take some portraits of them. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us. Saturday afternoon was so sunny that it was creating horrible shadows on both Colleen and Matt. Luckily I was able to get two photos that were semi decent to share below. The first photo is actually one of my favorites just because of the lighting. The second photo is actually a replica of a photo I took of Matt and Colleen when I was still working with film photography. I still think the film photo looks better (I wish I had it on my computer to compare the two!), but I am pleased with the lighting. Enjoy the selection below:

Things Just Got a Little Crazier

Well, another year older officially and I still haven't been taking as many photos as I would have liked to have been taking. I am finding it so hard some days to pull out my camera and capture life around me. These past weeks have been a little more crazier than usual. . . to start, Dee and I got another puppy. . . yes, you read that correctly, another puppy. Below you will get to meet Lumen (yes, another character from Dexter) who is a 10 (she's probably 11 by now) week old white German Shepard. She is the sweetest dog I have ever met, but certainly not the brightest . . . we are working on her training! I took Lumen and Hannah over to my parents house to play with their new puppy and burn some energy, since they have a much bigger yard than we do at the condo. The girls had a great time together and I was able to get a few photos of them all too.

If you haven't heard, yes in the middle of April, Ohio got a really unexpected snow shower which blanketed the ground with just enough snow to turn everything white. Since Lumen is a white dog I thought I would have a hard time with her and the snow contrast wise, but it appears against a "true" white, Lumen is far from white. . . annoyingly, she looks very tan in the photos against the snow! However, one of the reasons I love the snow so much is because I love the lighting that comes with it. Rarely is it super sunny and snowing. Luckily, today the lighting was amazing and the photos barely needed any lighting help!

With the weather getting a bit nicer (hopefully!!) I hope I can start to bring my camera out a bit more and get some great nature photos as well as photos of the pups growing up. I have included below a photo of a bleeding heart plant that we got. I was just messing around with the camera the other day and happened to get some great shots of this cute little plant. Enjoy the selection below:

A Quick Note

Just wanted to share these photos real quick, next post shall be a longer one! Enjoy:

The Fine Details

One of the greatest gifts my macro lens has given me, is the ability to capture the fine details out of things. Personally, I would say the difference between a photographer and someone who takes photos is that a photographers job is to capture details and different angles of everyday things that nobody else would see. Last week I had bought some flowers from Heinens and at the time I thought I was crazy for how expensive they were, but thinking about it now, they are a week old and still look amazing....now I can never get flowers anywhere else! One of the things that persuaded me to buy these particular flowers was the colors. These flowers have the brightest and most vibrate colors that I had ever seen before, so of course I had to buy them. Yesterday early afternoon I was looking for something to do and grabbed my camera to see if I could maybe get some photos in the spare time I had in. My initial thought was to take pictures of the flowers that have been sitting on the counter basically asking for it. So I grabbed the flowers and placed them on the floor where the lighting was much better and started snapping away. I got about 10 photos in before Hannah realized what I was doing and then she started to steal the spotlight. Of course I changed my focus from the flowers right over the Hannah. Sadly Hannah had chosen to lay where the lighting was no good, so the majority of the photos I took are not really worth it. Half way into the photos of Hannah, Denise shows me this photo from online of this German Shepard where the photo was just the top portion of the dogs face containing it's eyes. That photos sparked something in me to try and duplicate it. Sadly, Hannah was getting sleepy and still laying in the crappy light, so I knew I wasn't going to get the photo this time....(I am still very determined!!!) but the photo made me want to get some of Hannah's fine details, so I got the best ones I could. Take a look below at my fine details: