Tackle It on Tuesday: Civil War Event Photos

April 22, 2014

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie, a sweet little film camera that I took to Outdoor Education Camp in the fifth grade. Since that time, I have owned many other cameras and have learned a lot about photography. A couple of weekends ago, our family attended a Civil War event at my favorite location just west of Yosemite. The location is absolutely beautiful!

On Saturday, one of the battles took place during twilight when the light was amazing. Since we are members of the group, I was able to gain access to hang out by a tree on the battlefield during this twilight battle to take pictures. I won't bombard you with a lot of photos, but I will share a few of my favorites:

See what I mean? So incredibly beautiful here!

I had to include this photo because my son is in this one. He is the fourth one from the left.

I haven't finished editing all of the photos I took that weekend, since I did take over 300 pictures. This is one reason why I take quite a few photos, so I might capture one like this...

...or like this one...

...and like this one.

So I didn't quite finish tackling all of the photos I intended to edit, but I did delete over 200 pictures. After editing about 20 pictures, I have another 50 to edit to finish this project. And I really need to finish editing these photos since I am going to be paid for some of them! Yay!

For this next week, I want to start going through some of our bookcases. This is just one of many full bookcases we have in our home.

It has been a while since I have homeschooled little ones, so it is probably time for me to clear out some of my younger age books. But it is so hard for me to get rid of books! So I wonder how many books from this bookcase I can let go of? Be sure to check back next week...

My Empty Shelf Challenge Update #1

March 19, 2014

When I was a kid, I loved to read (and actually, I still love to read!) In our home library, I have my battered, well-loved paperback copies of the Little House series of books that were read many times as I was growing up. During high school though, reading became a chore as we were 'forced' to read what I considered dry literature and then write about it. To this day, I find it hard to write reviews about books. Sometimes, it is just simply hard to put into words how a book has affected my thinking and my outlook on life.

But like I said, I still love to read and can devour many books over the course of a year. At the end of last year, Jon Acuff announced a challenge on his website, The Empty Shelf Challenge. Basically, start with an empty shelf on your bookcase, and as you finish reading books through the year, you add them to this empty shelf. At the end of the year, you can see all the books that you have read!

Now, I have never been one to make book lists before. It would have been really great if I kept a list of books we have read during our homeschool years, but we haven't (and I do really regret this, but anyway...) But, I do have a Goodreads account which makes it very easy to now keep track of books that I want to read, as well as books that I have finished reading.

I set myself a goal that I would like to read 24 books this year, which easily breaks down to two books per month. So, how have I done so far with the challenge?

Well, since the challenge was announced at the end of December, I have completed 12 books! You won't see all of the books on my shelf, since I am working my way through books on my Kindle also. If you didn't click the previous link, here is the list of books I have finished so far:

The Reluctant Prophet by Nancy Rue
Unexpected Dismounts by Nancy Rue
Too Far to Say Enough by Nancy Rue
My One Word by Mike Ashcraft
Notes from a Blue Bike by Tsh Oxenreider
Whispers of Hope by Beth Moore
The Warrior by Joyce Swann
Understanding God's Heart for Children by Jennifer Orona
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
Working with the Poor by Bryant Myers
The Hole in the Gospel by Richard Stearns
Sycamore Row by John Grisham

It is never too late to start a reading challenge. There is even a Pinterest board you can join to share the books you are completing this year.

Four Photos, Different Settings

March 6, 2014

One of my goals for this year is to work through a couple of photography books, continuing to educate myself on how to be a better photographer. Right now, I am reading through 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson. The first section of the book covers 'Defining Exposure'. Since my freesia bulbs have started blooming, I took my camera out to the backyard and took these four photos:

I had my camera (Nikon D3100) set to manual mode so I could control the aperture and the shutter speed. You can see a big difference between the first photo and the last photo.

In the first photo, you can see more details in the whole photo (including the weeds that are now growing with all of the rain that we have had!)

In the last photo, the center flowers are in focus and the surrounding area is blurred. This last photo would be a great one to add a Bible verse to along the top (hmm, just might have to do that!)

Do you typically shoot in manual mode? Which photo is visually appealing to you?

Tackle It on Tuesday: Understanding Exposure

March 4, 2014

Time for Tackle It on Tuesday! Last week, I shared that I was hoping to make it through the first chapter of 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson.

Understanding Exposure Table of Contents

Between everyday rehearsals for the play, a full day conference on Saturday, and taking my daughter to two of her performances over the weekend, I only read the Introduction and the section on 'What Is Meant by Exposure'.

Even though I didn't read very far into the book yet, I did actually pick up my camera last week and try one of the assignments! I hope to share what I learned a little later on this week.

So for the upcoming week, my house has been poorly neglected over the past few weeks with our very busy schedule. I haven't taken the time to put things away when we get back home because there has been so many other things that need to get done.

Junk mail and paid bills that need to be organized

I think this stuff multiplies while we sleep!!

There was a lot going on around here over the last couple of weeks!! So now that our schedule is slowing down a little bit, I really need to take some time this week and clean up a little bit of the clutter. I know this won't take very long to clean up, probably just 15 to 20 minutes a day. I may even set the timer and put on some music while I clean up these clutter piles!

How do you tackle clutter in your home?

Empty Shelf Challenge

December 26, 2013

Do you like a good challenge? I know I do. So when I read about Jon Acuff's Empty Shelf Challenge over on his blog, I just knew I needed to join this one!

I love to read, so that part of the challenge would be easy for me. However...

...trying to find an empty bookshelf? That is a bit of a problem in our house. You see...

...most of our bookshelves are quite full, some are even overflowing. But, I moved a few things around and...

...I now have one empty shelf to start the challenge!

I love that Jon encourages us to start the challenge now! Why wait until January 1st? So here are a few books I am currently reading: 'Crazy Love' by Francis Chan, 'The Reluctant Prophet' by Nancy Rue (reading this one on my Kindle), 'Working with the Poor' by Bryant Myers and others, and 'Understanding God's Heart for Children' by Douglas McConnell and others.

Now what I should do is go around my home and make a list of all the books I hope to read this year...