Jay'me is right

"I hope everyone enjoyed some fresh air and sunlight today. I highly recommend taking your shoes off planting you feet in the grass with your face towards the sky and letting your soul stretch towards the sun. The sun will hug you back today! The air will make you feel alive, I swear!"

Jay'me ended her post yesterday with the above statement. In strange coincidence (the universe screaming) my daughter was doing this exact thing while Jay'me was writing about it.



Yesterday was my daughters 4th birthday. Every year on her actual birthday her dad and I would take her to Main Beach, a local beach on a lake. We would play, take pictures and enjoy the beginnings of spring. Taking special time to remember all the special moments that brought our daughter to life.
Kate and I spent the day at the beach as usual. It was her first birthday since her fathers passing. Instead of devoting all of time to thinking about her birthday, we spent most of it remember wonderful thoughts of my husband.

He was with us yesterday. Giving us just enough glorious sun to enjoy our time at the beach.

I'm really glad that I was shooting in raw for this picture. Harsh, changing lighting conditions made this photo really tough. Being able to recover some of the blown (or lost) detail in the sky during editing really makes the photo a success.

I hope your spending the day reaching toward the sky.
Happy Saturday everyone!

Who Knew ?

Maple trees have beautiful bell flowers.

Nikon D40

1/320

F 9.0

55.mm

Natural light

ISO 200

I love Sere's soft angelic towers of blue bells. I however, am feeling blind as bat lately and am loving as much detail as possible. I see in soft mode without my "cheaters" all the time. I'm the girl that may buy a huge magnifying glass to study stuff. I'll be like a sleuth running around checking stuff out. I WANT A MACRO LENS!!! I may never go wide or landscape again. My fellow bloggers may have to slap me straight if I get a macro lens. I'll be photographing mold and grains of sand.

I nabbed this shot in passing as I followed my daughter who was yelling "Take a picture of this mama bird sitting on her eggs!". I got the mama Killdeer shot too!

As for the Maple "Flower"; Isn't it worth clicking on to enlarge? Tinker Belle probably already knows that these are the perfect shade of green and the perfect shape! I cant wait for my fireworks of flowers. We may not have that many but they are worth waiting for! This little bloom reminds me of 4th of July in the sky. And it's the perfect opener for a great show.

I hope everyone enjoyed some fresh air and sunlight today. I highly recommend taking your shoes off planting you feet in the grass with your face towards the sky and letting your soul stretch towards the sun. The sun will hug you back today! The air will make you feel alive, I swear!

Jay'me

Fun with Flowers!

I decided to go opposite of what Scott has with his picture as my connection. Mostly because today was rainy so my camera didn't come out. This shot was taken a few days ago. Scott's picture has these very vibrant and bold colors to it. My picture went opposite with pastel and soft. Although it does have the nice "bokeh"(blur) to it like his does.

Nikon D90
ISO-200 +.7 Exposure Step
Aperture F/7.1
Shutter Speed 1/250 sec.
50mm Nifty Fifty F/1.4D Lens
Manual, Natural Lighting, Filter

I very deliberately overexposed this shot to blow out everything on purpose. I wanted to see how it would turn out and I really enjoyed what it did. It gave it a very ethereal look that I accentuated with a pastel filter. I also lowered the contrast down a tad because I liked what it did to the picture and gave me more of the "look" that I was going for. I had shot this in RAW knowing that I would be playing with it.

I LOVE messing around with flower pictures, you can do so many cool things with them. Filters are great fun to play with in these kinds of shots and I have done that a few times to give them different effects.

Enjoy!
Sere

Wordless Wednesday with Scott

The poster (that's me) will post a picture and its settings. No other verbiage is allowed. The commenter's (that's you) will guess in the comments section below how my picture associates with yesterdays (Tuesday's) picture. It can be a setting. It can be a play on words. It can be a theme. In every photo there are numerous ties, thus creating no right or wrong answer. Just make a comment below and you will be entered into our drawing to be our next guest photographer.

What if I am not good enough to be a guest photographer?

You are good enough. We love all kinds of photographers! That's what makes this so much fun. We believe that everybody has a unique view of this world and we want to see it through the lens of your camera. Any camera goes, camera phone, point and shoot, film camera that has its photos turned into jpgs., high end professional grade cameras, any and all of them! So make a guess and have some fun!

How does this all work?

The contest will go on until my (Scott's) next post. I will use random.org to choose the winner and post the story behind my picture and what the connection is, along with my photo for that day. All you have to do, as our chosen winner, is email us your picture before 10pm on your post day. Usually on a Sunday, but we are flexible. The photo has to be yours, has to tie into the picture from the day before, and 3C1D has to be authorized to use it. Just remember to keep checking back with us to make sure you get the post about who has won.

Only one guess per person. Have fun!

Ready! Set!! Go!!!

Canon 30D
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L
Aperture f/2.8
Shutter 1/2 Sec
ISO 100
Kitchen lighting

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Everyone looks at everything different. As you all know, I LOVE a good piece of metal. Give me something dirty, rusty, gross and I'm in love. The depth of the imperfections astounds me and I find myself drawn in.
Yesterday Sara captured something classically beautiful. Who doesn't love a beautiful blond haired little girl? Everyone (myself included) is drawn to pictures of beautiful things. But, as my daughter reminded me this morning the things we usually find "ugly" or "offensive" can be beautiful as well.
Our lawn hadn't been mowed yet this season and when my almost four year old opened her blinds this morning she squealed with delight.
"Mommy look at all those beautiful flowers. This whole place is filled with them."

Nikon D300s with Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 @66mm
natural light
ISO 200
Aperture f/2.8
Shutter speed 1/2000sec

I don't think a yard filled with dandelions is classically beautiful like Sara's daughter but I do think the flowers serves as an ample tie-in.

WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER
Before I announce this weeks winner of Wordless Wednesday (or Talkless Thursday as the case may be) I should share the tie in and the story behind the photo... it's my job.
Click here for the picture.
My tie in was "sleeping like a log". Except my girl wasn't sleeping. She was pretending to sleep Easter morning so I could take a picture of her amidst her "mouse" friends.
The winner this week is... Sharon. Great guess Sharon. You were correct (not that that matters). Contact us at 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com and we'll make the necessary arrangements.

Find the beauty around you.
xoxo,
Brandi

Surprise!

We've got a guest photographer today. I want everyone to meet Sara. She was the winner of Scott's wordless Wednesday.
Everyone give Sara a warm 3C1D welcome.

A little from Sara in her words...

I didn't get quite what I was hoping for but one decent shot of the bunch will do, especially when the model grows weary of being the subject of meticulous instructions ("Smell the flower, honey!") and apparently doesn't want to get her knees dirty in the dirt (after picking up trash and planting in the woods at school all afternoon). If it looks to you like my daughter is rolling her eyes at me, I think you might be right. The tie-in is the flower. It's red of course. You can't see it but there are yellow tulips right beside it. Of course, the red is her favorite so I went with it. But she is wearing yellow so the color ties in, too.
The project definitely bred discontent with my current camera. I used a point and shoot, the Canon Powershot (and not even a new one) with a trigger that's retrofitted with a paperclip. I'm hoping a new camera is in my near future. We'll see! Thanks for letting me play today! Sara

Boy we can relate to the unwilling model and the working by sheer will camera. Thanks so much for playing with us Sara. We hope you can join us again soon.
Go on over to Sara's blog and check her out.

Want to play with us too. We promise it's easy. Go here and make a comment. Doesn't need to be anything fancy. Just say pick me and maybe I'll pick you. Tomorrow night the winner will be announced.

xoxo,
Brandi

Did someone say FUZZY ?

Fuzzy Wuzzy waz a Buzzy Busy Bee and boy is he neat!

Macro, Marco, where art thou ?

Moving target ✔ Manual setting ✔ Quick on the draw ✔ Someone happy with herself ✔

Nikon D40

1/500

f 11.0

40.mm

Natural light

ISO 200

The Story:

Picture this, Easter Morning we arrive at the in-laws. Hurriedly (hidden Easter eggs await) I carried all the cards, bags, coats, camera bag, and Mark carried two potted flowers from the kids for Grandma towards their door. No sooner did he step around the side of the car the Fuzzy Wuzzy there was swarming like flies on s**t. I say "STOP!", drop everything and start digging out Nicky Nikon. "Just Hold Still And Let Him Land!" Kids are waiting as if they have to wet their pants or somethings and I'm not giving in! It's my Easter too! Luckily Mark (my hubby) is excited about the shot too. He just stood there and let him pick a flower. I got off four shots before he was gone! Holy crap - this story is over.

Enjoy!

Jay'me

P.S. Thanks for the advice today Scott...