Project 52 -- Be Still

I'm linking up with Darcy for Project 52.

Click her Project 52 button above to see what it's all about!

This week's challenge:  Be Still



My photo:

My thoughts:

I know, I know.  Ducks?  Yep.  The more I look at this photo, the more it reminds me of the theme be still.  This will require some explanation.  :)

When I planned my jaunt to the Whalon Lake recreation area, I had in mind a serene lake picture with calm water, and maybe even a reflection.  Of course, I knew the word windy didn't quite describe the conditions when I went on Wednesday afternoon.  I wandered around anyway to see what I could capture that would reflect this week's theme.

I took several shots of these black ducks with my telephoto lens.  After I downloaded them, the above image provided an intriguing look at the struggle these ducks had just trying to stay in one spot.  Not only the ripples and waves, but also the almost speckled surface of the water is proof of the strong gusts that buffeted those birds.  Look closely at the bird in the center of the image struggling to stay afloat as a wave breaks around him.  He embodies what I've experienced emotionally this past week or so.  But, as I look at this image, I remember the Lord's reminder that (especially) during times like this, I am to be still.

Cease striving and know that I am God...

Psalm 46:10a NASB

The setup:

No special setup other than really bracing my arms against my body, not breathing, and desperately trying to hold my camera steady in the wind.  I really got blown around out there!  I set a high ISO and a low aperture so I could obtain a fast shutter speed to compensate for all the moving around.  (So much for the stillness of winter before spring!)


Camera settings:

• ISO 500
• Manual mode
• 70-300mm telephoto lens at 300mm
• Aperture at f/5.6
• 1/500 second shutter speed

Can you see the little whitecaps in the image below?  It's a very small man-made lake, so you can imagine the wind it took to create that!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Tea Party Treats by Chef Gregory

I first met Chef Gregory at the first SECHDF Mother/Daughter Encouragement event a few years ago, shortly before I started my photography business.  I had the delicious opportunity to photograph the incredible food he selected and prepared for the ladies at the conference.  Though the photos I gave him at that time were unedited, he used them on his website and on his Facebook page.  I was honored!  But, I also felt a little sheepish that those images did not give his yummy creations the wow factor they deserved.

So, I was thrilled when I heard that he was returning to this year's event.  Chef Gregory and his team worked diligently to provide the ladies with dinner on Friday, lunch on Saturday, and incredibly amazing tea party treats on Saturday afternoon.  Because the tea party was so special, I'm featuring the food Chef Gregory put together for this event-within-an-event.

Without further ado, let me introduce to you Chef Gregory of Perception of Elegance.

What's that he's holding in his hand, you ask?  What was he doing?  Look below.

That's just the first step!  Keep looking...

Whew.  I just gained a pound.  The strawberries were placed on pretty glass plates...

...to top off the amazing display that looked like this:

I never did get one of those strawberries.  As an event photographer, I do not partake of the food; after all, I'm there to photograph it.  :)  And although my sister Dee (whose family hosted the event) informed me that of course I would eat every meal served (I did!), the strawberries disappeared shortly after the tea party began and I was resigned to imagine just how incredible those strawberries tasted.

Chef Gregory provided many other treats, so keep scrolling down.  As a warning to you, dear reader, there will be images of strawberries throughout.  I'm so glad I kept coming back to them, photo after photo, to compile a digital smorgasbord of red, juicy images.  :)

 

As I look over the images in this post, I'm focusing on the fact that fruit is healthy for me.  Yummy fruit with antioxidants and vitamins.  The fruit was a natural, sweet complement to the other yummy treats.  Oh, but those strawberries!  But wait--strawberries are fruit, even if they have chocolate on them.  Yay!  Just one more picture of them, then.

Dee-lish!  I'm full now.  *satisfied sigh*

More food images to come soon, for there were other treats to be had at the tea party!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 2012 -- WEEK 9 -- 2/26-3/3

Project 2012 -- Week 9

February 26 - March 3

How to Link Up With Us

1.  Read the Project 2012 guidelines.
2.  Take and choose pictures--from one to seven--and create a blog post with them.
3.  Copy the code below to place this button in your blog post:

<center> <a title="Project 2012" href="http://christineannephoto.blogspot.com/p/project-2012.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx297/heritagemom12/01%20Blog/Proj2012_blogbutton.jpg" /></a></center>

4.  Fill out the little form below.
5.  Insert the URL of your blog post (not the main URL of your blog).
6.  Please visit others' links and leave comments; you will receive visits and comments in return!

My Week 9 Photos

I've decided that instead of a separate link for the linky page and for my own photos, I would combine the two posts into just one.  The links will always be at the top, so you can readily see them and visit others' blogs.  Okay, here we go...

A friend posted a picture on Facebook from the evening before, and that inspired me to go out and capture a similar scene.  Jupiter and Saturn were both visible to the naked eye!  I experimented with shutter speed, since a longer one creates blur (since the earth rotates), and a shorter one won't capture the light from the planets.  I chose the below with a 53-second shutter speed.

[57] Moon, Jupiter, Venus

I noticed that the above and below images have my new copyright watermark on them.  They should've been changed to my normal proofing watermark, but oh well.  After a cold evening shooting the planets, it was back indoors to shoot some food.  :)

[58] National Pancake Day

[59] Cinnamon rolls

For Leap Day, I wanted to capture some jumping.  Thomas was extremely happy to oblige.  We started in the kitchen with him jumping straight up.  Nothing spectacular, but except for his shirt, it looks like he's floating!

[60] Floating in the kitchen

Then we ran to the cloudy and drab outdoors to capture some more spectacular shots.  Click here to see the whole jump sequence.  Yes, that is our patio table.  Yes, it is glass.  (Fernando told me we were crazy to try that; I hadn't even thought about it at the time!)

[61] Happy Leap Day!

We had thunder, lightning, and hail on Friday!  It was the first storm of the year.

[62] March hail

I love the below close-up of the hail, which was pea-sized.  There's nothing exciting about the shot, but I managed to capture a splash to the left of center.  I thought that was pretty cool.

[63] Hail on the stoop

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 52 -- A Great Leap

I'm linking up with Darcy for Project 52.

Click her Project 52 button above to see what it's all about!

This week's challenge:  A Great Leap

A quick note:  After my photography class Thursday night, I was all set download, edit, and upload my images for this week's challenge.  When I walked into the house, I looked into the dining room and saw the computer in pieces--hundreds of them--all over the dining room table.  The new computer components they had ordered arrived late that afternoon; as soon as I left for class, they began the change-out process.  I didn't get a computer back until this afternoon!

My photo:

My thoughts:

For this challenge, I chose the obvious photo--a literal leap.  My son Danny (18) is the acrobat, and would have been happy to jump for me.  However, he had lots of homework to finish for his college classes, so he was unavailable.  Thomas (you may remember him from last week's challenge), was very happy to oblige for this particular challenge.


The setup:

All this shot required was decent weather and our patio table.  Oh, and a very jumpy teenager.  :)

I wanted to freeze Thomas' action (as opposed to blur), so I set the ISO as high as Ellie could be set, and then set the aperture wide, but not too wide.  When I was ready for the multi-exposure shot, I set the focus on the edge of the table, then hollered to Thomas to run and jump.  I chose the above shot from the third jump series.  Below you can see the entire series of shots.


Camera settings:

• ISO 1600
• Manual mode
• 50mm portrait lens
• Aperture at f2.5
• 1/640 second shutter speed

End note--my husband just walked past, saw the photos, and exclaimed, "He did that over a glass table?  You guys were insane."


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Mothers and Daughters

For three years, the Lord has blessed me by opening the door to allow me to attend this wonderful event, hosted by SECHDF.  I've spoken of it--and blogged about it--a number of times in the past, and I get to blog about it again here.

For two days, mothers gather with their daughters to renew friendships, be encouraged by a guest speaker, participate in craft times together, and share fellowship meals together.  The two-day event culminates in a Mother/Daughter Tea on Saturday afternoon.

This post is my big picture post, an overview of the weekend together.  I have future posts lined up to share specific things from throughout the two wonderful days, and those will be appearing over the next few weeks.

Preparations continued all the way up until people started arriving.  Name tags were being cut out...

The speaker table was being set up...

Holly completed some last minute work on the tea party decorations...

And Miss J meticulously decorated the tables in the dining area.

The photographer's table.  That's mine.  :)

Greetings.

My sister D (below) and her family put on this event.  She is an amazing, wise, Godly woman.

Leslie Ludy was the featured speaker for the weekend.

Lots of activities in the craft room.

One little guy among all the girls!

Precious capture of mama and her baby girl.

Friday night dinner.  Yes, it's teddy bears and cloud wallpaper.  The serving line ran through the nursery, since there was a record crowd in attendance.

I love capturing mealtime candids.

Chef Gregory catered the event (he gets his own blog post soon!).  These are his cakes for Friday evening dessert.

The way these girls were crowded around the cake, you'd think they hadn't been fed in two weeks!  I asked them all to line up so I could get their picture.

Saturday began with another speaker workshop.

More crafts in the craft room throughout the morning.

Time for lunch!  Whoever set out these water bottles was a neat and tidy person.  I didn't move a single one for the below shot.  I love when things are in order.  Yes, I notice the one water bottle on its own in the background.  Perfect.  :)

Miss S (below) is D's daughter and also did a tremendous about of behind-the-scenes work to make this event a success.

Yeah, sometimes people figure out that I'm aiming the camera at them.  :)

I "caught" this young lady watching my slide show from last year's Mother/Daughter Encouragement.  I was tickled that she spent the time watching, so I took her picture.

The weekend ended with a fabulous tea party, parts of which will also get another post.  If you wonder where my food photography is, keep in mind that there was a lot of food throughout the weekend.  It'll get its own post.

Remember that wide-awake little guy from Friday (above)?  He was all tuckered out by Saturday afternoon.  So was I.

Stay tuned for my detail posts of the Mother/Daughter Encouragement weekend!



Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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