My Week of Photos - Some of my favorite things

This week, for my week of photos, I decided to share with you some things that I enjoy doing. I know that some of you reading this blog may not know me in real life. So I thought this might give you a glimpse into some of the things that make me happy. 

Now in the course of one week, there is no way that I can photograph all of my favorite things. But these things I am sharing with you are some of the things I enjoy doing around my home.

ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/160 sec with 50mm lens

I love to cook and bake! Each week, I try to plan dinners that I know my family will love to eat. As a stay at home mom, it is one way we can save money by not eating out so much. Plus, many times, there are leftovers which are great for lunches the rest of the week.

ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/640 sec with 50mm lens

Most weeks, usually about three times a week, I love to get out in the morning for a brisk walk around my neighborhood. When I started tracking my walks using the MapMyWalk app, I was walking just over 2 miles a week. Now I am up to almost 6 miles a week! I don't have any particular goal in mind, I just know that getting a bit of physical exercise each week is good for me, especially with as much as I love to bake!

ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/100 sec with 50mm lens

Did I mention I like to bake? 

ISO 800, f/2.2, 1/40 sec with 50mm lens

Even though I recently cleared out a full bookcase of books in my home, I still love books and I love to read. When my kids were little, I loved reading aloud to them. We read so many picture books and classics that make up a special part of my home library. Today, I am usually reading at least three books at any given time, nonfiction is book form and fiction on my Kindle. Want to follow along with what I am reading? You can find me on my Goodreads account.

ISO 800, f/2.2, 1/100 sec with 50mm lens

If you have been following along with my Kickstart to Clutter Free posts, you know that I love to do craft projects! And recently, my love for doing craft projects has come in handy while fundraising for Compassion sponsor trips! My daughter and I are just starting to plan for a trip in January 2017 so stay tuned to hear more!

ISO 3200, f/4.5, 1/60 sec with 50mm lens

One more thing to share with you is my love for music. This particular piano is the one I learned to play on many years ago. I don't spend as much time practicing as I ever used to as a child, but it is one thing I am glad I learned to play.

So, that is my week of some of my favorite things! I hope you enjoyed this little peek this week.

What are some of your favorite things?

Kickstart to Clutter Free - Day 12

Last summer, after reading Kathi's book, Clutter Free, I cleared out one whole bookcase of books and had my daughter help me go through the clothes in my closet. So for today's Kickstart to Clutter Free challenge, I was able to clear out some of the other items in my closet.

As of this morning, my closet looked like this:

I was quickly able to find 25 items to remove from my closet

There are still many things I would like to clear out of my closet, but I keep reminding myself that this is just a start.

So the before and after picture don't look much different, but I do know that at this point, there are 25 less things in my closet!

I am so excited that I only have two more days to complete on Kathi's Kickstart to Clutter Free eCourse challenge! If you are wanting to clear out clutter in your home, you should definitely look into Kathi's eCourse. I know it is making a big difference in my home!

My Week of Photos - Night

This past week, the theme for Easy Camera Lessons was night photography, so I decided to follow along with their theme again.

Night photography turned out to be a bit of a challenge. I had to actually plan things. I couldn't just pick up my camera anytime of the day, because these photos need to be taken when it is dark outside. This theme did allow me to be a little more creative than usual, and I did learn a couple of tricks along the way.

And for this week, all photos are straight out of the camera with no edits.

0.6 sec, f/1.8, ISO 100 with 50mm lens

This was my first attempt for the week. These solar lights hang right outside our back door, so they were pretty easy to quickly snap at dusk.

1/3 sec, f/1.8, ISO 100 with 50mm lens

Without venturing too far from the house, these canning jar solar lights are in our backyard and made a great subject.

1.3 sec, f/4.0, ISO 800

Since there is only so many interesting subjects I can photograph at home while it is dark, I headed out with my DSLR and my tripod to see what I could find around town one night.With all the rain we have received lately, there are quite a few areas with lots of standing water still. I love the reflections in the water and the shades of blue in the sky and water.

15 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200

For this one I left the shutter open a bit longer to get streaks of light from the cars on the freeway. If I had brought my longer lens along, I could have zoomed in more on this one.

20 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200

This one is up the hill a bit from the freeway looking east toward the mountains. I love the streak of light heading up toward me as that car's headlights were coming my way.

15 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100

Have you ever heard of light graffiti? For this one, I just set up my DSLR on a tripod in our backyard, set the shutter speed to 15 seconds, set the self timer to go off in 2 seconds, then I stood in front of the camera with a small flashlight and continually make the shape of a heart with the flashlight facing the camera. This one was fun to do!

Bay Bridge photo from 3 years ago

My all time favorite night photo has to be this one I shot while on a photography field trip of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Hopefully I have a chance to take more night photos soon.

Have you ever tried night photography?

Kickstart to Clutter Free - Day 11

Getting closer to the last day of Kathi's Kickstart to Clutter Free challenge! Today's challenge is the medicine cabinet. Our 'medicine cabinet' lives in two areas in our home, one shelf in the kitchen and one drawer in one of the bathrooms.

So let's see the kitchen area first:

This shelf is where our vitamins and pain relievers live...or so I thought:

Once I pulled everything out, I was kind of surprised with how much was living on that shelf. So I checked dates on the bottles and boxes, and put back everything that I was keeping. Here is everything that I didn't put back:

Not sure why I was keeping all of those care and use guides, but they quickly made their way to the garbage. And the outdated benadryl?

Added it to my shopping list because it is something we need to keep on hand.

With the kitchen shelf cleared out, it was time to clear out the drawer in the bathroom:

Yep, this drawer is a mess!

My kids are 21 and 16, so I know we have no use for Baby Orajel, not even going to think about how old that tube is! Why is the towel ring hanging out in the bathroom drawer? Who knows, definitely something to give away. And that old instant thermometer? It doesn't even work anymore. That ended up in the trash.

Ah, much better!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to attend Kathi's Finally Clutter Free events. She is a big believer in that when we overcome clutter in our lives, we are free to become world changers. One way that she is a world changer is by sponsoring children through Compassion international and sharing about her experiences at her events. At the last two events she has held, 12 children have been sponsored!

Not only do I encourage you to give Kathi's eCourse a try, but give it a try so you can clear out clutter in your home and become a world changer for a Compassion child today!

My Week of Photos - Focus

At the beginning of this year, I was determined to start taking pictures everyday with my DSLR. I started out following some daily photo prompts, but honestly, sometimes those daily prompts just don't inspire me.

So, I was happy to find a new Instagram account to follow called Easy Camera Lessons.  They also have a blog and a YouTube channel where they have been sharing weekly photography tutorials and tips. This past week, they shared a lesson on 'How to Start Loving Your Auto Focus'. And since I enjoyed focusing on just black and white photos last week, I decided to 'focus on focus' for my DSLR photos for the week.

ISO 800, f/1.8, 1/100 sec with 50 mm lens

Simple objects make great subjects for photos because you can move them around to where you want them. 

ISO 200, f/1.8, 1/320 sec with 50 mm lens

Some outdoor light in the backyard and a few apples were fun to play with. I moved the focal point over to the left on the one apple in the front, then placed the other apples toward the back of the bench.

ISO 1600, f/2.2, 1/60 sec with 50mm lens

Chess pieces always make great subjects for photos. I made sure the board was getting some good window light and moved the focal point in the camera over to the right this time so the castle was the one piece that was in focus.

ISO 100, f/2.0, 1/200 sec with 50mm lens

The whole valley is filled with blooming trees right now, so I took a bit of time on Sunday afternoon and found an orchard to photograph some of the blooms.

ISO 200, f/2.8, 1/50 sec with 50mm lens

I love the look of the pink blossoms against all the green. By moving the focal point over to the right, the blooms are in focus with most of the background out of focus. This is also achieved by the wide open aperture.

ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/200 sec with 50mm lens

Not the most exciting subject, but I loved all the blurred out colors in the background. And by focusing on the window frame, you can see a lot of details in the chipped paint and the rusty window hardware.

This wraps up my week of photos focusing on focus (try to say that three times fast!)

Were you able to pick up your DSLR this week? What types of things do you like to photograph?