Weather. Week 9 - 52

Today I drove from the north shore of Long Island to the south Shore.  It doesn't take long (maybe 20 minutes).  As I was heading south I could see a thick band of bright sunny light coming from the ocean and above it there was a thick dark black cloud.  When I finally arrived at my destination I grabbed my camera because the lighting was awesome.  I love the dark dark clouds ahead combined with the light coming from behind me.  Moments after I took these pictures the heavens opened.  And minutes later it was over and the skies cleared up.  Weather...

Games. Week 8 -52

I needed a break from snow related pictures. We went away for a long weekend with our lovely friends and we played games.  Game after game after game.  Of course even though I got a great flash (canon speedlite 430 EX)  for Christmas I still haven't found the time? patience? or brainpower? to actually figure out how it works. Can anyone help me with that???  So I took all of these with no flash and a very high ISO.  So they are seriously grainy.  Below is a picture of Seb playing "Celebrity" trying to describe a famous person to his team.

 Still playing celebrity but you might see the remnants of a previous game on everyone's foreheads (3 spot Harry)

The next night we played Telestrations.  It involves drawing pictures and guessing what your neighbour might have drawn.

Someone drew Wonder Woman but she got no points because her neighbour thought it was the tooth fairy.

Of course as the night progressed the games got sillier and sillier.  How about this one? You had to pick up an empty bag of goldfish with your mouth... but no body part (other than your feet) could touch the floor.  Each round gets progressively harder as you chop off another inch from the bag.  

Through all the silliness this darling little dog rested quietly.

Of course these may not be my greatest pictures, but I think I have the greatest friends.  Lucky me.

Shadows. Week 7 - 52

The snow made for great shadows so that inspired the theme for the week!  Here is my Shadows in the snow - self portrait!

 Of course I had a couple of other favourites... love this one of Charlotte struggling to walk through the snow!

I always get confused about my camera settings when shooting in the snow so I challenged myself to take lots of pictures of white on white in the bright sunshine.

This is the view from our back deck of the sun rising in the morning.  So pretty.

 And I am obsessed with birds walking on the lake.  My new favourite subject!  I just don't get why they don't fly to Florida.

Finding Nemo

We got somewhere between 24 and 29 inches depending on your news source.  Either way, it was a bucket load of snow.  Awesome for sledding down our front hill.  Not so awesome for leaving the house.. at all... for 48 hours counting.  Still, I will take Blizzard Nemo over Hurricane Sandy any day of the week.  I couldn't stop clicking obviously.  This is our back deck!

I love twigs/branches covered in snow...

Of course the best part was the fun we had.

Seb pulled the girls around in the sled

Charlotte thought about how best to climb Mt. Everest

Noone got to play in the house though...

The wrong kind of snow

Some days I just like having fun playing with the camera.   The idea of having this little London bus driving through the snow on our lawn just tickled my fancy.  It also happens to be a reject from a "red and white" theme I was working on this week.

Straight lines Week 6 - 52

Any guesses what this is?  I love doing photo projects because it makes you see things you would normally never notice.  This is just our outdoor table and the snow had partially melted.

My commute from work

I drive an hour to work.  I have long stopped thinking about it as a painful commute.  It's actually very pretty.  I pass farm stands, wineries, rivers, every type of church you can imagine.  I also found a short cut down a windy road that crosses a little bridge.  If the sun is shining when I drive home I always look out to the left as I go over the bridge because it is spectacular.  The sun hits the tips of the reeds so that they all look like little glints of gold. Yesterday I finally pulled over and took a picture.  It doesn't do it justice but at least now I have it captured.