059/365

Looking for spring... I've been enjoying the snow photos, but I've had enough of the actual snow. And the cold. I'm done. In that respect, I submit a macro-ish shot of one of my favorite spring flowers. With this, I've also now finished my second month... Only 10 more to go!

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS fitted with a 12 mm extension tube
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/160, f/5.6, ISO 100, tripod mounted

058/365

Starburst. I submit this sunrise photo, taken in my backyard while still in my pajamas (have to report to work at 9 today rather than my normal 6 a.m. due to the current road conditions). I had much more success this time. This was going to be my safety shot for today (it's only 7 a.m.), but I really like it so I'm done. It may look a little grainy at first glance, but if you look closely, it's little dots of light reflecting off the leaves. What a beautiful morning.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 0.4, f/20.0, ISO 100, tripod mounted

057/365

Exhaustion.  I had a lot of photos today - the snow really is beautiful. However, I have had it. Bring on summer! Apparently, the boy has had enough of the snow as well. After he wiped out, he just kind of stayed put... for a while. Time for the kids to go back to school.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/400 seconds, f/5.0, ISO 100, handheld

056/365

Today's challenge: Jump. Fortunately, we had a convenient reason for the boy to be jumping for joy. School was cancelled today - a surprise waiting for him when he woke up this morning. He's happy now because school will likely be cancelled again tomorrow as Snowmaggedon is approaching tonight. If we get all the snow they're predicting, I will probably have the day off tomorrow as well. Another trip to the sledding hill and another 300+ photos. Ok, maybe not that many this time.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/400 seconds, f/4.5, ISO 800, handheld

055/365

Snowflake. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS fitted with a 12 mm extension tube
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/6, f/11.0, ISO 400, tripod mounted

054/365

Today's challenge: Potential.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/500 seconds, f/5.0, ISO 200, handheld

053/365

Warm and foggy morning. I submit two for today - I couldn't decide.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/400 seconds, f/5.0, ISO 250, handheld

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/400 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 100, handheld

052/365

The moment of impact. The best job during a snowball fight? Photographer. Nobody throws snowballs at the person holding the camera.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/320 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 100, handheld

051/365

Today was all about Cub Scouts. On my lunch break, I had to get my son's Webelos patch sewn on in preparation for the Blue & Gold Banquet tonight. Not my favorite pic, but not a bad one. All I had time for today.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, .3 seconds, f/10.0, ISO 100, tripod mounted

050/365

Light Painting. Day 50. Enough said.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Bulb mode, 7 seconds, f/11.0, ISO 500, tripod mounted

049/365

Snow. And more snow. I do not love this photo and I almost never use flash or automatic settings, however, I think night photos of snow are kind of neat. I had seen this done a while back and what I do like about it is how the snow looks suspended in time, like low-hanging stars. And hey, I got my photo in for the day. I did say at the beginning of this project that they wouldn't all be good...

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Automatic exposure w/flash, 1/60, f/3.5, ISO 400, handheld

048/365

Snow Day! For me and the boy! Canon cancelled all operations for 1st shift so I got to take my son sledding today! I took a ton of pictures of he and his friends, well over 300. Lots of good ones, but this one, of all of them, is my clear favorite. It's not even an action shot. Well, unless you count the snow that he just blew off his hand... I may add photos to this post later (lots of processing/converting to do and I have to go back to work tomorrow), I just wanted to get my shot for today online.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/320, f/5.0, ISO 100, handheld

047/365

"Anticipation". School is already closed for tomorrow, even though as of 5:30 p.m. we barely have a dusting of snow.  "They" are predicting over a foot of snow tonight, which is really unusual for this part of Virginia - and very exciting for the kids. I took my son out shopping today for 2 very important items. A snow shovel, and a snowboard. Hopefully he will get to put BOTH to good use tomorrow. The cabinet is stocked with Dutch cocoa and I have heavy cream for making homemade whipped cream and chocolate syrup for drizzling - there will be some fabulous hot chocolate when the outside fun is over. I have already talked to my manager and requested the day off if there's lots of snow. Tomorrow, hopefully, I will have some good action shots to post.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 5 seconds, f/4.0, ISO 100, tripod mounted

046/365

Drip. My first attempt at this. I thought it was kind of a pain but a good learning experience. One thing I learned is I need a lot more light so I can use a smaller aperture, lower ISO and a faster shutter speed. I did the best I could using natural light. I probably will try this again with artificial light to see if I get any better results.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS fitted with a 12 mm extension tube
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/800, f/8.0, ISO 800, tripod mounted

045/364

Happy Valentine's Day. I have a couple photos to submit today - I couldn't pick which I liked better... The first I did at around 5:30 a.m. while the house was still dark. The second was a bit later, in time for breakfast. My son and I made the chocolate dipped strawberries together.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 30 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 100, tripod mounted

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/2 second, f/5.6, ISO 100, tripod mounted

044/365

Heart... again. I really wish I could take credit for this idea, but I cannot. I saw this done, and win for that matter, a corporate photo contest (I work for Canon). I thought it was an amazing and beautiful idea. This is my husband's wedding band, nearly 12 years old, so it's a little worn... I tried to get it to stand up like this in a bible, but it just wouldn't stay. The Lord of the Rings seemed to work better. This is the one ring...

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS fitted with a 12 mm extension tube
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/5, f/5.6, ISO 100, tripod mounted

043/364

Today's challenge: "Pretty in Pink". Admittedly, this is not a great snow photo. I did what I could in the very short amount of time I had between work and the boy's swim practice. At least it's pink.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS fitted with a 12 mm extension tube
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/5, f/5.6, ISO 200, tripod mounted

042/365

Heart. I saw something similar to this recently, fresh fruit on slate (I think it was a mango), and thought the contrast looked nice so I thought I'd try it. I know my boy will enjoy these with his breakfast. I just realized as I was entering my shot settings that I still had my aperture set from the photo I did yesterday. Oh well. I need to remember to set things back to normal-ish settings when I finish a shoot.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 5 seconds, f/20, ISO 200, tripod mounted

041/365

Starburst. This is my first attempt at shooting a starburst effect without a special filter to do just that. It's not what I hoped for, but it's an OK first try. I'll definitely try this again. I think more distance between the camera and the light source will produce better results.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 1 second, f/20, ISO 500, tripod mounted

040/365

Homework: the nightly ritual. Mondays mean cramming in as much homework as possible before swim practice (and trying to sneak in time for my photo-of-the-day). The fact that he's got his head down on the table doesn't bode well for swim. Tired boy. I do love his "thinking really hard" face, though.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/200, f/1.8, ISO 800, handheld

039/365

Today's challenge was "Pink". Something kind of difficult to come by in my male-dominated house. Even the dog is a boy. Instead, I decided to do a portrait of my son, dressed in his class A uniform for Scout Sunday.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/320, f/4.5, ISO 125, handheld

038/365

Not a technically great photo today - it's really grainy, but still cute. They could lay on the floor like this for hours... The puppy guarding his boy.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/50, f/5.6, ISO 2500, handheld

037/365

More fun with oil & water. I stopped at Home Goods on the way home to get a wide glass bowl and then Michael's for some scrapbooking paper. I had a little more time to experiment with this today and while I still need to work on sharpness and a couple other things I could be happier with, I found the results were better with a bit more distance between the bowl and the paper, shallower water (less than 1/4 inch) and also with smaller drops of oil (I kept a little straw nearby to stir things around and break up the oil). I'll keep trying.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS fitted with 12 mm extension tube
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/13, f/20, ISO 1250, tripod mounted

036/365

Light Painting. Drawing by my son, photograph by me.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 5 seconds, f/10, ISO 800, tripod mounted

035/365

First attempt at shooting oil & water. Not the best results, but definitely something I will try again. Kind of cool...

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS fitted with 12 mm extension tube
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/15, f/5.6, ISO 125, tripod mounted

034/365

Today would have been my mom's 68th birthday. My son never got to meet her. He is holding one of the few photos I have of her - her senior picture from high school taken with her red mini dachshund, Heidi.  We actually did two rounds of this photo. The first round (done in about 5 minutes, pre-piano lesson) was in front of a black back drop and the shots just looked stiff. For the second round (post-piano lesson), I wanted something more natural so I had him just sit on the steps with the framed picture. It's a bit grainy because I had to crank up the ISO as I was losing daylight, but I'm still happy with the result. I've never seen this boy hold still for so long.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I miss you every day.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/50, f/5.0, ISO 2500, handheld

033/365

Day 33: Safety shot. The day got away from me today. We had an amazing sunset that I tried to capture with my iPhone while walking my son to his swim practice. Off to bed I go. 4:00 a.m. comes painfully early.

Equipment: iPhone
Settings: Flash off, handheld

032/365

Day 32: "Fun with food dye". My son helped me with this one - he dripped the dye into a wine glass while I manned the camera. We made about 25 photos, most of which we loved... except some red ones that were a little creepy.

Equipment: Canon EOS 60D, EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS fitted with a 12mm extension tube
Settings: Manual exposure, 1/125, f/8.0, ISO 500, tripod mounted