Happy New Year!

Dear friend, 

My wish for you is that you enjoy a safe and joyful New Year's celebration surrounded by loved ones and great friends. I wish you all the very best in 2012! I hope your year is filled with love and laughter, good health and good times, success and prosperity, and peace of mind. I hope you have a chance to chase your dreams and find your bliss; to worry less, to achieve more and to find yourself filled with gratitude for the many blessings you are granted.

Happy New Year!

Shoot, Edit, Submit Weekly Photo Entry

The other day I headed downtown to catch some photos of the river, and as I was leaving I realized that I have never tried to shoot downtown at night. The buildings are all outlined with lights for the holidays, so it's the perfect time of year for such a capture. I ended up dragging the whole family back downtown for a night shot. Most of the shots I took were less than stellar so I'll be heading back for more practice soon. I wish they had a little more clarity. I probably needed to use the remote rather than pressing the shutter release by hand, but this one turned out OK.  I'm submitting it to Kim and Misty's Shoot. Edit. Submit. challenge as my pick for favorite photo of the week. 

And, I was thrilled to find that I made it into last week's top 5 among some stunning pics by some super talented photogs. Wow! Thanks so much Kim and Misty!! Your weekly link up is always so inspiring ;)

Top 11 of 2011

Looking back over the past year, I find that I am so grateful to have discovered this passion for photography. I have captured so many memorable moments of my children and our daily lives. These I will cherish for a lifetime. And thank goodness I have learned so much! It is interesting and eye-opening to reflect on how my images have changed over the past year. In the beginning of 2011, I was on full auto and knew very little about any of my camera settings. Over the summer I started to explore, and then devour all the info I could find. I am so thankful to all my blogging friends and my family for their support and encouragement! It means the world to me. 

It was really tough to choose 11 favorite photos of my kiddos from this past year. So many moments tug at my heartstrings. I did manage to narrow it down though, and here are my pics:

Here's to another great year, and clicking it up a notch!  ;)

Mama's Got a New Lens

To say I had a fantastic Christmas would be a total understatement. It really was a blast, though utterly exhausting. And, I totally cleaned up in the gift department. Hubs really treated me to some fabulous presents. I received a new 50 mm f/1.4 and some HDR software to play with - yea! happy dance ;)  He also gave me some new clothes. The guy knows how to make a girl happy!  So, I've been having a grand old time playing with my new gear, and I guess the pressure it on to click it up a notch! Here are a few of my first attempts:

 The tree in HDR: (the blown out blob at the bottom is my "gift of light" decoration.) I really didn't have my camera set up properly for this shot but it was fun to play with. I have much more to learn!

 Fun with my new 50 mm:

What was your favorite gift?

Linking up today at debduty.com. Stop by and check out her gorgeous pics!

Also linking up at Rachel's place. Pop over to check out this talented and witty mama.

Thanks for stopping by today. I wish you and yours a safe and Happy New Year!

Down By The River

Yesterday I took drive down to the river to play with my favorite toys - my camera gear of course ;) For today's Communal Global I'm sharing a few of those pics. I'm glad I decided to go yesterday afternoon, because today has been a total rain out. But, it has been a good day for snuggling in...and catching up on laundry.

What's it like in your neck of the woods?

Holiday Rewind

Christmas was exhausting, but tons and tons of fun. My oldest broke his record, and woke up at 4:13 AM! I shuffled him back to bed, but slept with one eye open until 7 AM when we (Mom and Dad) were finally drug from bed. It was so much fun to watch their joy as they unwrapped each gift, and being able to spend time with our extended family made it priceless. Here are a few pics from the past few days of festivities:

Stop by Gina's blog for more Monday Rewind.

I hope you enjoyed a wonderfully happy holiday with your family!