Weekly Header Challenge -- Something Old

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

I'm joining the group above for this weekly challenge.

Visit the other participants' blogs to see their entries!

Theme ~ Something Old

Chosen by Tom.

Here is the image I used for this week’s theme:

Something old, right?  Well, this is my dad, and he's 85 years old.  I'd love to be able to say "I'm 85!" one day.

Every year since my son Danny was born, my dad cheerfully partakes in a double celebration with his grandson.  My dad was born April 13, and Danny was born on April 16.  Here was this year's cake, made by me:

Lots of laughter as we attempted to sing Happy Birthday in one key!

Finally, here I am with the two birthday boys.

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- 50

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ 50

Chosen by me.

Here is my uncropped header image and the reason I chose this week's theme:

This is Cake #2 made by my friend Becki--she sent it home with us after a surprise party.

I turned 50 a few days ago!  Yes, hard to believe since I still feel like I'm 16 on the inside--though my body tells me differently, lol.  Our town turned 50 this year, too, and they put up large "50" signs around town to celebrate.  I thought we'd visit one of the signs and have a photo shoot.  Although I didn't snap the shutter, I fixed all the camera settings and gave Fernando photography lessons with each pose.  This is one he did a good job on.

For my 50th, I decided I'd have more than one day to celebrate this milestone.  Here are a few treats from this past week!

Andy's Ooey-Gooey Concrete.

Here's Becki's first cake.

My friend Tressey brought these over for me.

I have more pictures of my birthday week--which isn't over yet--but I'll save those for another post.  Hope you enjoyed my birthday week sneak peek!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge - Right Place, Right Time

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Right Place, Right Time

Chosen by Tom.

I panicked this morning, because I totally forgot that it was Headbanger Day!!  Then I checked my Lightroom catalog, and realized--I had already designed a header for this week, and uploaded all my photos!  Everything was ready to go.  So here I am, barely on time once again.  Here is my header, full image style:

These football pictures are definitely a matter of being in the right place at the right time.  Fortunately, I was the team photographer, and I was allowed on the sidelines.  Right place, check.  I have tons of great images, because of a little luck called the right time.  Many plays were way across the field, or my lens didn't zoom enough, or...  But I have a good number of images where the play happened close enough to me, at the right angle, to make the images great.

Many Right Place, Right Time images are a matter of finding your spot, anticipating what's going to happen, then waiting.  With a little luck, you'll get that shot at just the right time.  Here are the rest of my images; some have been featured as header images in the past, simply because they were taken in the right place and at the right time.  Enjoy!

The below shot was pure luck--we were at Andy's (frozen custard shop) with another family, good friends of ours who were moving.  We were there for one last ice cream together (we had introduced them to Andy's frozen custard after we met them).  I had brought my camera to snap some pictures when we heard the whomp-whomp-whomp of military helicopters landing at our local airstrip a mere three blocks away.  Shot between the trees, right after dusk, silhouetted against the sky--sweet.

Cubs win!

Sneaking the camera out for a restaurant shot.

Butterfly landing on purple coneflower.

Boat tour going under the Thousand Islands Bridge.

Girl water-skiing on Lake Bonaparte.

Now I kinda want it to be summer again.  Hope you have a super day!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge - The Dark Side

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ The Dark Side

Chosen by Katney.

I want you to know that I really debated with myself over this week's header.  My first thought, obviously, was Star Wars, and although I could find some related images, my mind wandered just a little to the...dark side.  Yep--my header portrays just one aspect of the "dark side" of my family.  Jacob's 23rd birthday was in January, and we turned off the lights to get a good candles-in-the-dark image.  He decided to have a little fun with it, and the image turned out quite dark and creepy, as you can see below.

Major creepy, huh?  Welcome to my family.  ;)

To get the horizontal aspect of the header, I had to crop a lot out.  But I really felt this image best portrayed the theme.  Sorry, folks!  Now on to some happier dark images.  Here's the actual cake-and-candles image I took at Jacob's birthday:

 
On an evening out for ice cream with friends, we spotted several military helicopters coming in for a landing at our local airport.  I snapped this great image below--the darkness of night, plus the darkness of nighttime military maneuvers.

Winter can be a dark time, and we certainly had an endless one this past season.  Here was the view out of our front living room window early in January.  (You can see the shape of the angel on top of our manger.)

And here was the view out of the same window in April.  Long and dark winter, that was for sure.

There's a lot of light reflected on these evening storm clouds over our neighborhood, but there's a slightly menacing feel to them as well.

I love the below image, even though it was a mistake.  Really.  I think it looks like a dark, misty scene, with fog and shadowy trees, and some weird lights floating around.

Here below is almost the same scene.  I had been setting up a pre-fireworks image, and wanted to test the shutter speed.  I recall I had it at 3-4 seconds, and got a nice image (below).  I then pressed the shutter a few minutes later, and started to move the camera, forgetting that I had it on such a long shutter speed.  The above image resulted, but it actually turned out pretty cool.

After all the darkness and creepiness, I leave you with this cute image:  my friend's daughter, playing hide-and-seek after their house had been emptied for moving, peeked out from the darkness long enough for me to get this cute image.

What dark treasures await me at your blogs today?  I'm off to see!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 2012 -- April 8-14

Project 2012 -- Week 15

April 8 - April 14

How to Link Up With Us

1.  Click here to read the Project 2012 Guidelines, and to get the code to place in your blog.
2.  Fill out the little form below (insert the URL of your blog post, not the main URL of your blog).
3.  Please visit others' links and leave comments; you will receive visits and comments in return!

My Week 15 Photos

I used my camera in spurts last week, and got some good images.  It was a week of celebration!

I brought my camera to church, hoping to take a few photos.  I did manage to take a couple of the stained glass in the beautiful chapel we use for services.

[99] Stained glass message

For Resurrection Sunday, our family gathered together to celebrate that HE IS RISEN!  We enjoyed grilling, while also celebrating my dad who turned EIGHTY later in the week!!

[100] The Grillmaster

[101] Happy Birthday!!

[102] Eighty years!!

Then I set my camera aside for a busy week of preparations.  Friday was the culmination of all that prep work.  One of Friday's events was my photography presentation to our local 4-H Club.  I had several students thank me for coming, and tell me that I did a fantastic job.  I was thrilled to be able to share with them some of the things I've learned over the years about taking good photographs.  They were a great audience!

[103] Presentation to the 4-H group

Later on Friday, we had several people come over for Game Night--games, laughter, singing, laughter, talking, laughter, eating...  You get the idea.  My parents "happened to" stop by, and my dear friend Nan had brought cupcakes, other dessert, and ice cream to celebrate--once again--my dad's 80th birthday (which was actually that day, the 13th).  Below, my mom (with Nan) brought in the cupcakes while singing to my dad (that part of the house is really dark and I didn't have my flash--this was the best I could do!).

[104] Second celebration

Saturday was a day of recovery, and the Lord ordered our day as a day of rest, clearing our schedule of commitments so that we could recover from a hectic week.  Jacob was the only one who had to work--he went in for eight hours' work at a local police department for his college internship.

Later in the day, 7:30pm or so, clouds started rolling in.  I notice stuff like that, since I'm frequently at my kitchen window which faces southwest.  My camera happened to still be sitting on the counter, so I grabbed it and took a few shots.  The below clouds rolled through very quickly; within five minutes this particular formation was completely gone.

[105] Cloud waves

I hope you also had a great week, with great images and more importantly--great memories!!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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You Can't Skate Through Life...

...but you can have a party with them!  (Roller skates, that is...)

What fun to shoot a roller skating party--especially a surprise one!  Yes, I got on skates.  No, I did not shoot while on skates; Ellie is too important for me to risk it.  ;)  Either way, shooting this event was a blast, and a challenge.  Think tons of people, lots of action--the fun part.  Then think low light, or next-to-nothing light--the challenging part.  Both ways, it was the highlight of my week.

The initial surprise

Tressey's husband Marc scored big-time with the surprise!

Some of us over-40 folks needed a lot of help...

Marc shared memories of and sentiments to his beloved wife

Then, like a first dance, Marc and Tressey took a skate around the rink a few times...

...which then inspired other couples to get back out onto the rink.

There was a cake--

and a speech--

--and lots of fellowship, games, and fun.

Happy birthday, Tressey!!

Capturing the moments of life.

Christine

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