5 Minutes for Mom: Summer Photography Series Week 3

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a Summer Photography Series to help other bloggers learn more about how to take great photos. I signed up for the weekly email alerts so that I can follow along. You can read more about it here.

The focus this week is on getting to know your camera and utilizing Aperture Priority mode. Here's the simplified definition from our hostess Lolli: By controlling the aperture, you can control how much of your photo is in focus (among other things!). If you have a camera with AV or A priority mode, switch to that and try some test shots using different apertures. If your camera does not have AV priority, use the Portrait mode (which looks like a lady’s head profile).

To find out more read her full post here.

We had visitors last week and my mother-in-law asked me to take some portraits of her pampered-pooch, Daffy, so that she could display them in her office. She was a great model ;)

Here are a few of my shots. All were taken with my Nikon D5000 and a 55-300 mm lens, ISO 400, f/5 and 1/200 shutter speed.

I'm enjoying the Summer Photography Series. I hope you'll join in and show us your shots!

Aloha Friday #104

 

Greetings friends, and happy Friday ;) I hope you have had a fun-filled week and enjoyed a reprieve from the heat.  It has been more pleasant here lately, though I here were in for 99 degree temps today. Ugh!

Obviously, I am not attending Blogher this year. Perhaps I'll make it there one day.

My question for today is simply: If you were to attend Blogher, who would you want to meet?


Thanks for stopping by! I love hearing from you ;) Be sure to visit An Island Life for more Aloha Friday fun.

A Thousand Words Thursday #3

Hooray, it's back! One of my favorite meme's hosted by The Mom Jen. She took a hiatus, but decided to bring it back. Be sure to join in and link up your favorite photos!

I recently discovered Instagram for my iPhone. It's free, and fabulous! (And no, this is not a sponsored post). I have to say, I'm in love with the photos I can so easily snap, and the wickedly cool actions for editing them. It takes just seconds to add a touch of whimsy or nostalgia. 

I'm also in love with days like this:

What about you? Do you use Instagram?

Wordless Wednesday

This is a shot from our visit to the museum last week which had a traveling butterfly exhibit. We had a lot of fun in the butterfly enclosure and I was hoping to get some great shots. Unfortunately, the stroller was not allowed so I had a wiggling 11 month old in my arms. My images didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but this was one of the best.

For more Wednesday fun, be sure to visit these fabulous blogs:
5 Minutes for Mom
Wordless Wednesday HQ

Be sure to enter my giveaway sponsored by Zensational Living!

Zensational Living Post Card Giveaway!

One of my favorite bloggy friends, the fabulously talented, genuinely sweet, witty and inspired Sheila from Zensational Living and Ma Vie Folle, has offered to sponsor a Zen Postcard giveaway for my readers! How cool is that?! If you haven't visited Sheila's blogs, you should. Right now. I have been a long time regular reader of her posts and I promise you'll enjoy her wit and candor, as well as her refreshing tips for balanced and joyful living.

About the giveaway: Each card is a unique print only available in Sheila's Zen Store. These beautiful cards are great to send to a friend or loved one… or just to post near your desk for a bit of daily inspiration!

One winner will receive a collection of their choice which includes two postcards each — of all 4 prints in the collection they choose. Choose from the Character Collection or the Peace & Love Collection (8 cards total).

How to enter: US and Canadian Residents Only (Leave a separate comment for each entry)
(1) mandatory entry: let me know which collection you want to win!
(1) additional entry when you “like” Zen-Sational Living on Facebook.
(1) additional entry daily when you tweet about the giveaway (write your own tweet including @BeZensational or just use the tweet button in this post!) *Tell me your twitter name when you comment.
(1) additional entry when you follow Zensational Living on Networked Blogs

Enter through Aug 5, 2011 at midnight. Winner will be chosen at random from all eligible entries and the winner notified via email.

i heart faces Photo Challenge - Water

Greetings friends! I'm linking up today for the iheartfaces photo challenge of the week. The theme is water. I captured this picture of my youngest son last week as he was enjoying a cool splash in our inflatable pool on a sweltering hot 95 degree day.   

We hit 108 here over the weekend. Fortunately we've had a few thunderstorms and a little reprieve from the heat. It will be a cool 92 degrees today. How's the weather in your neck of the woods? How do you keep cool in this heat?

Thanks for stopping by today. Your comments make my day!

Aloha Friday #103

 

Greetings friends, and happy Friday. I hope you have had a great week, and managed, somehow, to stay cool in this record heat.

My question for today is simply: What was the best vacation you ever had? Where did you go and with whom?


My answer: Our family won't be taking a vacation this year, as hubs is in school all summer and money is tight. I have been blessed to visit many wonderful and memorable places in my life, but my favorite vacation has to have been the year we were able to take our kids to my families' cottage on Lake Michigan. It's so beautiful and relaxing there. I love it. The kind of place that feeds the soul. I grew up spending summers there and it was a thrill to share that special place with my own children.


Be sure to enter my Blue Bunny giveaway for some free frosty treats!  I don't have many entries and the contest ends tonight.

Thanks for stopping by! I love hearing from you ;) Be sure to visit An Island Life for more Aloha Friday fun.
Link up your posts here:

Snap and Share Self-Portrait

Linking up with the Snap and Share photo prompt at Grace Loves the Beatles. This week's theme is self-portrait.

I was going to crop out some of the background: the kids' feet, hoses, my calendar and pictures on the fridge showing through the glass door, etc. Then, I decided it was a better portrait of me with all that stuff in the mix. This is me these days, camera to the eye, kiddos and chaos all about. Not artsy, not glamorous, just life with 4 kids! ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

A Thousand Words Thursday #2

One of my favorite meme's hosted by The Mom Jen is back in business. She took a hiatus, but recently decided to bring it back. You can join in the fun by posting a favorite photo and linking up.

The other day while watching the kids play out back in the pool, I happened to look up in the sky and this is what I saw:

I thought it looked just like a heart. Pretty cool, huh?

Thanks for stopping by today. Your comments make my day!

Wordless Wednesday

Greetings friends! Happy WW to all.

 I awoke this morning to a broken water heater. Awesome. But, I also awoke to a new blog design. Love it? I do! I'm thrilled. Grace from Gracely Designs did the work for me and she was simply wonderful to work with. So quick and attentive and easy. I highly recommend her skills if you are in the market for a makeover. She's super affordable too. Check out her site here!

A few pics from our recent trip to the VA Living Museum. It was tons of fun. That is, aside from the hour we spent sitting in the same spot on the highway on the way home ;/

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to enter my giveaway from Blue Bunny Ice Cream Treats. Yum!
For more Wednesday fun, be sure to visit these fabulous blogs:
5 Minutes for Mom
Wordless Wednesday HQ

Oh Snap! Sunday Scavenger Hunt Gone Wrong

So, as I've mentioned before I am trying to learn more about photography and that takes lots of practice, right? To that end, I have found and been following some new photo memes...there are hundreds! I never knew. Anyway, last week I jotted down the theme for a photo challenge and set to work taking shots for each prompt: capture the sky, every day, furry, life and blurred. I noted that my post needed to be up between Sun and Tues and to link up at Ashley Sisk's site.

So, I sat down tonight after the kids were tucked in bed to get to work on editing my images and writing my post, only to realize that my prompts were all wrong. Not only were they NOT the prompts for Ashley's Sunday Scavenger Hunt for this week, but I can't find a post anywhere that to which these prompts would apply. Huh. Perhaps I was dreaming.

Ah well, such is my life. A blur of chaos and confusion. I'm posting my pics nonetheless. I hope someone out there enjoys them.

Capture the Sky:

Every Day:

Furry:

Life:

Blurred:

~ Melissa

My Favorite Photo of The Week

I'm joining in the Favorite Photo of the Week Contest over at Through A Photographer's Eyes. This pic was taken last Thursday, on my birthday. My older kids were playing outside in the back yard and baby girl was watching through the glass door. Thursday was my birthday and this picture reminds me that the greatest gift I have ever received is the honor of becoming a mom. Though hubs did out do himself this year with buying me a fancy new camera lens, flash and photography tutorials...nothing could top the gift of those four gorgeous little souls with whom I have the privilege of spending my days.

So this is just a simple shot that I took with my iphone. I was too busy at the time to get my Nikon out, and yes, I nicked off the top of her head, poor girl. It is not the "best" photo I have taken this week, but my favorite nonetheless.

~Melissa

Summer Photography Series Week 1

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a Summer Photography Series to help other bloggers learn more about how to take great photos. I signed up for the weekly email alerts so that I can follow along. You can read more about it here.

The focus this week is on getting to know your camera and utilizing settings other than Auto. For me, this is actually in perfect timing with the "Know Your Camera" class I am taking through Love That Shot. I have been shooting in Aperture Priority mode on my Nikon D5000 with a new 55-300mm lens and playing around with the depth of field to get some shots with that lovely bokeh in the background. (If you aren't sure what bokeh is, here's the definition from wikipedia: "In photography, bokeh is the blur or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.")

Since I've taken about a bazillion photos of my kids and the flowers in my yard, a trip to a park on the river provided some new inspiration.

These were taken with an aperture of 5.6.

This was pure luck. I was trying to get a pic of all 4 kiddos together and happened to spot this moth on a nearby flower.

It was fun chasing this little squirrel about trying to get close enough for a good shot without spooking him off. I'm glad I got one with him looking at the camera.

This one was taken from farther away with a longer focal length so there isn't any bokeh. I thought she was lovely though and I love the greenery in contrast to the bronze figure.


Looking forward to checking out the posts of other participants. Come join the fun!

-Melissa

Aloha Friday #102

 

Greetings friends, and happy Friday ;) It has been a long and exhausting day (long story...not blogable) suffice it to say I'd rather move on to better things. I'm just getting to my email and have some catching up to do, but I love visiting my Friday friends so I'm posting this quickie ;)

My question for today is simply: What is your all time favorite ice cream treat?


In the spirit of today's post, be sure to enter my Blue Bunny giveaway for some free frosty treats!


Thanks for stopping by! I love hearing from you ;) Be sure to visit An Island Life for more Aloha Friday fun.
Link up your posts here:

A Thousand Words Thursday - It's Back!

Hooray, it's back! One of my favorite meme's hosted by The Mom Jen. She took a hiatus, but decided to bring it back. Join in!

Blue Bunny Review and Giveaway!

Is it hot enough out there for ya? Yikes, the summer heat has set in. It's so hot that even my kids (who practically live outdoors) will only go out for 10-15 minutes at a time. It's that time of year when the pool and ocean have lost their cool and start to feel more like bath water. Summer swelter has set in!

The other day, in the midst of the summer heat, a super cool, dreamy treat showed up on my doorstep. A big beautiful frosty package of Blue Bunny ice cream treats!

Blue Bunny has a tasty new line of mini treats. They're adorable, snack-sized and super-yummy! I received a box each of the new Blue Bunny Mini Champ!® Mini Swirls Ice Cream Cones, Mini Variety Ice Cream Sandwiches and Champ!® Mini Swirl Birthday Party Ice Cream Cones.

We tasted them all...immediately of course, and I don't think we could pick a favorite. They were all so good. Did I mention how cute they are? The birthday cones tasted just like birthday cake and would be perfect for any party.

The kindly folks at Blue Bunny have offered a giveaway so that I can share the sweetness! One lucky winner will receive a coupon for a free box of Blue Bunny treats! I dare you to find a better way to cool off ;)

To enter and leave me a comment telling me which Blue Bunny treat you'd like to try. 


For extra entries:
Subscribe to my blog 
Follow me on Google Friend Connect
Add my button to your blog or add me to your blog roll 
Become a Fan of Serendipity is Sweet on Facebook

Share this post on any social network (Facebook, twitter, stumble, etc.) and leave the link.

Follow me on twitter (leave your twitter handle)

Fave me on technorati

Comment on any of my other blog posts and let me know you did

Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry and a valid email address. Open to U.S. and Canada only. Winners will be chosen by random integer selection. The winner will have 48 hours to claim the prize or a new winner will be chosen. Contest will close on July 21, 2010 at 12:00 AM EST. Good Luck!!!