October 15th

30 Day Challenge, Day 12: Something Blue. Also had trouble with this one...Mostly because I was busy the past few days with a concert, and kept forgetting to bring my camera with me. I could've had an awesome shot of the backstage area lit by blue lights, but I didn't have my camera. Lesson learned: bring camera EVERYWHERE. This picture is from a few weeks ago. My son had a blast with the ball pen, and he met lots of other kids while playing in it.

October 14th

30 Day Challenge, Day 11: A Childhood memory. I kinda got stuck on today's assignment...had a hard time finding a childhood memory. Then I remembered that Halloween is just around the corner. I trick-or-treating, and getting all that candy!

October 13th

30 Day Challenge, Day 9: Someone you love. I had to include both someones in this picture - how could I choose just one? This is more of a snapshot than a well-composed photograph; I couldn't seem to find the right perspective to capture the moment.

October 12th

30 Day Challenge, Day 8: A bad habit. I am constantly fighting a losing battle against clutter. I tend to let things pile up on every available surface. This is our kitchen counter. It usually looks worse than this.

October 11th

30 Day Challenge, Day 7: Fruit. Stopped by a local produce market and got some inspiration there. I'm surprised that watermelon is still available.

What I Learned: It's A Small World

I've tried taking pictures many times of the It's A Small World ride at the Magic Kingdom, because my son loves it so much. The lighting is so dim, I usually ended up with very blurry pictures.


One our recent trip to MK, the ride became backed up a few times. The boat slowed down, and the lights came up for about 10 minutes. I learned that this was the absolute best time to take pictures. The slightly-creepy dolls came much more in focus, and I finally captured my son's wonderment. Of course, some of the photos still came out a little blurry.

October 10th

30 Day Challenge, Day 6: From a low angle. Kitty paws. Normally I don't like shooting in direct sunlight, but I like the shadows in this photo.

October 9th

30 Day Challenge, Day 5: From a high angle. Took pictures of my son helping make pizza. Since I had to shoot something for the challenge, I decided to jump on a chair and took this shot. Really liked the perspective.

October 8th

30 Day Challenge, Day 4: Something green. Saw this little guy at a park. His owner brought him out go get some exercise, and let us play with him.

October 7th

Took the tyke to the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party tonight. He dressed up as Charlie Brown.


We were hampered by rain for the first hour, but after we got candy, all was well.


There were spooky decorations


a parade


characters


and fireworks


The tyke loved it all, especially the candy.


Earlier in the day, I took lots of pictures of the sky, for Day 3 of the 30 Day Challenge: Clouds. I was afraid that it would be a typical cloudless day in Florida, but the impending storm made the sky much more interesting.

October 6th

30 Day Challenge, Day 2: What You Wore Today

I displayed my clothes the manner of In Style magazine. I also had on a black tank top underneath the shirt, and black peep-toe pumps. Check out the other participants in Courtney's group.

What I learned: Grilled Chicken Salad

Still trying to improve my indoor food photography skills. This time, I tried using back lighting to enhance the salad. I bounced the light off the wall behind the shot. This gave the elements in the salad more depth than light bounced from above. Here's a comparison.

Overhead light


Back light


Settings: ISO 400 | f/9.0 | 38mm | 1/60 | speedlite

October 5th

I'm joining a group of people who are doing a 30 day photography challenge. I need some motivation to take pictures every day, so I hope this will help.


Here is Day 1: self portrait. Please pardon my horrible grip on the camera. Want to join? Link up here.

October 4th

Insides of a picadillo emapanada from a local food truck. The other empanada is a blackbean-plantain.

October 3rd

One more day at the Food and Wine Festival. Here is my review of the festival. The best things I ate today were: the lobster claw from Hops and Barley (United States)


the coq au vin from France


the pumpkin mousse from Hops and Barley


and the white chocolate mousse from Desserts and Champagne (pictured left)

October 2nd

Went to an ice cream party in a park. The weather was perfect - sunny, breezy, not swelteringly hot.


I had a challenging time keeping someone away from the make-your-own sundae table.

October 1st

Spent most of the day at Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival. We ended up doing more drinking than eating.

September 30th

The first of what I'm sure will be many days at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. The theme is Passport to World Flavors. Today we tried stuff from China,


the Caribbean,


Poland,


And Germany.

September 29th

Something seems amiss in the refrigerator.

September 28th

Potty training has started. So far, the bear is the only one who has used it.

September 27th

Trying to make the most of the backlit water. Forgot to use a lens hood, so there's a flare.