Simple Summer Nights

The simple things in life sometimes bring us the greatest joy.  We like to take the dogs for a walk in the evening and visit “Houdini”.  I am not sure what the dog’s name is, but I have given him that name because he can get in and out of his fence so fast it’s hard to believe. 

He greets us as we approach his backyard.

When we get too close he jumps back into his yard.  He moves so fast that my pics are a bit blurry.

And then he sits on the fence and waits for us to get closer.

And he keeps peeping over until we pass his yard.

And then he comes back out to bark at us again.

After a bit of barking he goes back home again.

And we keep on walking down the alley.

I have one more dog pic for you.  I took this pic of Izzy in the backyard today.  It’s also a bit blurry, but it’s so funny.  I had my friends on facebook think of captions to go with the pic.  Do you have a funny one?

Texture Tuesday-Flowers

This week’s theme at Kim Klassen’s Café Texture Tuesday is flowers.  My Tiger Lilies have just bloomed so it is perfect timing.  My mom always had these growing in our flower beds in the front yard so they are special to me.  I love how I captured the color of some of my other perennials in the background.

I used Kim’s waterstainedframe texture, but I didn’t want the frame part in it so I extended the texture past the image to get rid of it.

Here is what the photo looked like before.

Canon 135mm lens 1/600s f2.0 ISO 100

I will be in the beautiful mountains of Colorado at the end of next week.  I am taking a private 2 hour photography lesson from a local landscape photographer early Sunday morning.  I can’t wait!  I hope to have some wonderful photos to share.

Project 52 Week 25 Fathers

My husband was giving my son a talk and I asked them to do it outside so I could practice my off camera flash at night.  I am thankful my son has a wonderful father. 

Here is the set up.

And in black and white.

Faux Brick Wall in the Son’s Room

Months ago I bought a faux brick panel from Lowes to put in the entry area of my son’s room I redid.  It sat in the garage for a long time and then it sat lying against the wall in my son’s room for a long time.  Today it finally got screwed to the wall.  I got the idea from All Things Thrifty Blog.  You can see her wall here.  She painted her mortar white.  I left mine dark.

If you take your measurements to Lowes they will cut it for you.  If you take your SUV to Lowes to buy it, then you will have to leave it and go home and get your husband’s truck because it won’t fit in your midsize SUV.  Just a little FYI for ya.

I did paint the brick using a sea sponge and some acrylic paints. It use to look like this.

I wanted it to go with his new gray room we redid in February.  You can read about that redo here. 

I might make a sign for the wall to break up some of the brick. 

I will let you know if I do. 

Linking to

Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table and Dreaming

Succulent Blooms

Did you know that succulents grow flowers?  I didn’t.  I have been practicing using my external flash.  I took these images at nighttime. 

Project 52 Week 24 Sunlight

My backyard gets lots of pretty sunlight and it does magical things…….

A Soldier Meets His Newborn Baby & A Photo Session

Sometimes I get to do really cool things for people using my skills I am learning with my photography hobby.  This week I was able to capture precious images for a  soldier and his family. 

See that cool trunk?  My father in law gave it to me years ago.  It is from WWII.  He bought it in an Army surplus store when he was in the Army.  I thought it was his personal trunk, but I recently found out otherwise. 

See that precious baby girl?  Her daddy had to wait 3 days to see her after she was born which is sad, but his homecoming was on the news and that is just too cool. 

I am lucky I was able to capture these moments for this precious family.  I lost my sunlight due to a storm and didn’t have a backup plan.  I had to put my camera’s ISO on 5000 and get the baby as close to the window as I could.  The sky was full of gray clouds.  My photos were full of noise so I found software to use to remove noise.  I did the free trial and it worked so well.  It saved the day! 

This baby was too pretty to have noisy photos.

She was such a sweet baby and very cooperative even when she got tucked into her daddy’s pocket.  Her mom saw this on pinterest and wanted to copy it.

I saw this one on pinterest and copied it.

This baby rocked the camo.

And the USA flag.

She’s pretty cute in her birthday suit too.

Other than no light (which is a pretty big deal), I would have to say this newborn shoot was so much better than my first one.  I am still embarrassed when I come across that post. 

Thank you Soldier Wiley for serving our country and letting me capture these special photos of your precious and beautiful baby girl.

Linking to

Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Sweet Shot Tuesday @ Photography Essentials

Neighbor’s Have New Roof Décor

Last summer I posted about the new “thing” on the outside of my neighbor’s house.  Click here if you want to see that post.  This was the thing. 

It’s a weather station and it’s still there, but now there are more fun things to look at.

First,  is this beautiful attractive security light above the garage.

And next to this light is something even more interesting.

Want a clear shot of the owl with balloon boobs?  You know you do.

What do you think?  Like it?  Hate it? 

Here it is from the front view of the house.

The balloons look less like boobs from this angle, but I just don’t know why they are there.  I know owl statues are used to scare away other animals.  I live in the city so not sure what animal needs to be scared, but I am kinda scared of what they will put on their house next. 

I will let you know if they do.