His name is Stubb

I've no adorable baby feet for you today, only my husband's feet. The feet that, way back when we were dating, swam in my favorite lake and became intimately acquainted with the motor of our family boat. The least of his injuries, his missing toe soon became a joke:

"A walleye ate it."

or alternately, with good humor, and after lots of healing,

"Don't make aunt Sara mad!"



Someday, I will share the whole story.  But today's iheartfaces photography challenge is feet with the intention of raising awareness for Soles4Souls, so go check them out!

I Heart Outtakes

So....I showed you pictures of our little indoor beach vacation a while back, but I've saved the "best" for last. Ava took a while to warm up to that lens in her face. 

These are my first shots.

Of course, children aren't the only ones who act a little funny with a lens nearby.

  

My last one of the day. Who can resist the face of sweet Victoria, my niece?

I love the age of little eyes trying their hardest to focus.

Almost every picture is an outtake!

 

For more outtakes, weekly photography challenges and resources, check out

Cowboy Texture

Between laundry and schooling the kids and blog book editing, I am carving out moments to learn new things! Yesterday Robb worked late, the kids were busy watching movies and I had time to check out the texture tutorials on iheartfaces in preparation for this week's challenge.  I think this photo of my father-in-law is great with a couple textures, adding to the rough and tumble cowboy theme he had for our visit to Rawhide in Phoenix back in October.

I am also excited to report that I will no longer have any excuse for taking bad pictures! Any error from here on out will be operator error! I ordered a camera yesterday! Thank you Grandparents and Mom and Dad for the birthday money (way back in November) and Christmas money!

I learned a lot in that process too: be careful who you buy from online. That should be a, Duhhh, but  I've never had issues before, and tend to be trusting since we owned an internet store a few years ago and are currently developing another. I am for the little guys. But not everyone out there is worthy of my naive faith in them. Thankfully I ran into a few reviews of some sites I was contemplating buying from, but I won't give away any more than that! Look for the story soon, though!

Thanks iheartfaces for the challenges and tutorials and resources! I can't wait for my camera to arrive and begin playing and practicing!

i heart Megan's face

i heart faces photo challenge

My goals this year include learning more about photography, reading the entire tutorial of Photoshop Elements ( I think I have the original version!), and ultimately buying a new camera. (Maybe I should consider an updated version of Elements as well!)

Up til this past year, I've used a Canon Powershot (A430 to be exact...old clunky point and shoot), but more recently, I've been stealing my husband's Fji Finepix S9000 and playing around with it. These pictures were taken when I first brought it home from his office and had no idea what I was doing! It is not a DSLR, and does not have image stabilization, (grrrrr), but I'm hoping that what I learn playing with it will only help me later when I buy a step up.

I've been entering the i heart faces challenges because they spur me on to try new things and learn more. I have no grand visions of winning any contest. To be honest, I am often frustrated with my photos, and I'm not sure how much of it is my lack of knowledge and how much of it is the camera I'm working with, and how much of it is that it's the middle of winter and I'm taking a lot of inside shots with minimal light.  Oh, so many excuses! Bahh!  Pretty sure the problem is mostly operator error! And I'm so impatient when learning something new....

Sooooo, I try and try again, read up as much as I can and keep posting what I have. Please bear with me. *Grin*

And forgive me, dear friends at i heart faces, for wasting your time on my humble entry!

I am submitting this photo into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo(ha) for use in the marketing and promotion of their website.

Outtakes

Five outtakes for you today thanks to the little contest I Heart Faces has going on this week. I have many more pictures with interesting expressions, many of them (OK, all of them) who are great friends, and I wish them to remain my friends, so I reluctantly refrain from sharing their outtakes with the general public. To bad too. Their photos could have contributed to the greater good, because laughter is good medicine and cheers the soul and it would only be at the small expense of their pride!

I thought it pretty safe to post this of my son and sisters.

I am willing to risk their wrath!

My kids are so lucky to have fun, young aunts!

Megan's expression cracks me up.

Maybe it's because I know she was a bit ticked

at having to pick up shingles,

or maybe it's because I know she's trying really hard not to smile.

Eight year old personalities rock!

This one is typical.

Madison is five here

and I was just happy to get a picture

where her two middle fingers are out of her mouth

and her pointing finger is out of her nose.

A happy face, even with a tongue,

is an accomplishment!

The boy holding the football?

Yep, he's pretty much always like that!

Such a goofball!

 

 

And my favorite of all time...

I can't take credit for taking this picture,

but I can claim some credit,

because this is me. I've written about this one before,

but can't get too much mileage out of it!

For more outtakes, check out: