Camp

Ahhhh....week one of our three week camping adventure is over. It was a GREAT week...lots of fun, lots of relaxing, lots of eating, lots of drumming, lots of running....and most of all lots of visiting with friends.

We have moved onto week two. This is Jessalyn's first week of camp! Josh was a camper at this camp when he was 9 as well. She is all ready and very excited. Of course, I am not actually leaving the campground because I really didn't feel like packing up the van just to turn around and come back for Camp MACC next week. Although, Jessalyn would really love it if I left:) In the meantime, I have been elected Jr. Camp photographer, as well as drummer ever now and then...and bathroom cleaner.

Today was a very quite day between the two camps. The campground was pretty much empty so we took the opportunity to do a little photo shoot with the boys. It was fun...for me at least:)

Beach day with the Dundores

Even though it was super hot, it was BEAUTIFUL at Ellacoya today. We got to go and share the day with the Dundore family. Not sure what happened, but I didn't take one picture of the kids in the water, or even the amazing scenery that we were able to look at all day. Silly me. I did get the camera out for a few pics when we got out of the water for some snacks.

The kids got along great together...I hope to get them together again soon!

A few of my faves from the day...

















Brown/Dundore boys...(minus Owen)


Seven great kids!!


I can't wait until August when I do an 'official' photo shoot with this family!

Its a chair.

At the Jamesons I spotted Owen with his eyes on this little decorative chair. I just knew he wanted to sit on it, and I could see the thought process in his mind. Before he could make a move, I yelled over to him saying "don't even think about it". He replied (with a very matter of fact attitude) "Its a chair". He was then encouraged by the owners of the chair to go ahead and sit in it. He thought it was great.

Right when I started snapping pics, I had in mind a bit of vintage post processing..and this was what I came up with. I just might have to put them together in a story board of some sort!

4th of July

We had an awesome 4th of July weekend! Josh and I (well..mostly Josh) cleaned out and organized our garage. Josh started working in there at about 10:30am and wasn't done until about 10:30pm.

Sunday started out with a service at Hesky Park..and then a super fun relaxing day at the Jamesons (Jakes parents). We relaxed by the pool while the kids played and swam and played and swam. Lots of yummy food...a chair massage by Ian for everyone and then ended the day with fireworks here in Meredith.

I didn't even try to take pics of the fireworks last year because I was so frustrated with my attempts the year before. Having a much better understanding this year, I decided to give it a shot. I have to say..I am closer...but still not quite there yet!

My issues stem from the fact that one of the legs to my tripod is currently duct taped on..which makes for a very flimsy tripod. Its more like a bi-pod. The second thing that would help is a remote for my shutter. Much of the camera shake in my pics came from the initial shutter release...which is partially the fault of my duct taped tripod! I suppose with a more sturdy tripod, the shutter release would be less of an issue.

Anyway..you can see that in most of the pics there is some shake with the initial firwork, but then you will notice that the ones that came behind it (with my camera set on a 2.5 sec shutter speed) were much more crisp.

I'll take this as a victory:) Next year will hopefully be better!

Camera settings:
ISO 200
f16
SS 2.5 sec
(I also used my polarizer filter to help with the amount of light let in with such a long shutter speed)

Here are a few of the better ones...yet still not quite what I want, but definitely closer! I posted a bunch on smugmug too.
http://brownjelo.smugmug.com/Other/Fireworks/12806982_WDPJW#923343154_UkfnC

Boys

Some pics before heading to the beach today:)