Forks down and walk away!

I have been eating Christmas leftovers all week long.  Here, the last cinnamon roll falls.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

10/mm - ISO 200

1/60s - f/5.6

Nikon SB900

1/2 power

Zoomed to 105mm

Bounced up to ceiling

Gelled with CTO

Front to back

This ridiculously warm day ended in a stunning sunset, which cast a beautiful glow across the Topeka skyline.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
Top:
34mm - ISO 200
1/60s - f/5.6


Bottom:
105mm - ISO 200
1/30s - f/5.6

The end...?

Well, there are only four posts left in my 365-day photo blog.  It has been a lot of fun, and a lot of work.  Since 2012 isn't a prime year, I can't keep up "A Prime Year in Pictures."  So, I will be launching a new blog on January 1, so please stay tuned for more information!  I would love for you to follow me over there.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm - f/3.5-5.6
105mm - ISO 200
1/50s - f/5.6

Nikon SB900
1/8 power
Zoomed to 105mm
Bounced up to ceiling

A rose by any other name

A business associate of my husband's sent him a very nice gift of some wonderful olive oil, which is great, because I was running out!  What I really like is that it comes in a quart container!  Like...a quart of oil!  Ha ha ha!

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
34mm - ISO 200
1/20s - f/5.6

Holiday haze

Today passed in a holiday haze of travel and shopping, leaving me with only two photos on my camera.  This was the best of the two.  It looks like I feel - a bit fuzzy around the edges (okay, and everywhere else!) and slightly unfocused.  Tomorrow should be an interesting day at work!

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

18mm - ISO 400

1/25s - f/5

Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas, so you will have to forgive me a little Photoshopping.  I had to give today's pictures some holiday glow!

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

18mm (top) - ISO 200

50mm (bottom) - ISO 200

1/20s - f/5.6

Nikon SB900

1/4 power

Bounced up

Merry Christmas Eve!

We enjoyed another wonderful Christmas Eve dinner at my mother's house tonight.  It is our tradition to have a big candle-lit meal together, open a present, and then roll ourselves off to bed.  We forgot to light our most treasured set of candles - a set of wooden reindeer pulling a sleigh, which are running down the dark spot in the middle of the table.  But it is probably good that they got the year off, because one of them is still recovering from having most of his antlers burned off in a "flaming reindeer" mishap a few years back. Do you smell something burning?  Oh no, Rudolph!

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

52mm - ISO 200

1/20s - f/5

A little bit of heaven

My sister-in-law sent us the most wonderful set of dipped strawberries for Christmas.  I couldn't decide which one looked more delicious, so you get to see them both.  And I'm afraid that's all the closer you are going to get to them!

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

105mm - ISO 200

1/30s - f/5.6

Nikon SB900

1/8 power 

105mm zoom

Bounced back over camera right

The smells of the season

Christmas baking is in full swing today, with some chocolate Andes mint cookies in the works here, with special white chocolate-covered popcorn already finished.  The house smells so good!!

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

92mm - ISO 800

1/30s - f/5.6

Nikon SB900

1/32 power

92mm zoom

Bounced up and back away from subject

Blue-hoo-hoo

Chocolate covered cherries are a family favorite, although we are all still mourning Brach's decision to discontinue theirs several years ago.  Queen Anne's just aren't as good.  However, when my husband brought home some chocolate-covered blueberries, I just had to give them a try.  As you can see, they went fast!

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
105mm - ISO 800
1/10s - f/5.6


Nikon SB900
Bounced 115 degrees away from subject
1/16 power
105mm zoom

Connect the dots

I was going to take a nice Christmas lights photo tonight, but I forgot my tripod.  So, I was stuck doing an "interesting" shot instead of a pretty one.  This particular light display had us really baffled, until I downloaded it to my computer and studied it further.  It is actually an angel blowing a horn, but a lot of the lights are burned out.  Cory still thinks it is a turkey, though.

Strobist has a good blog post about photographing Christmas lights that I recommend checking out.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

28mm - ISO 800

1/30s - f/4

Swimming in strange seas

My fish ornament looks confused. 

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
105mm - ISO 800
1/60s - f/5.6

Light it up!

Tonight I enjoyed Topeka Bible Church's annual drive-up light show.  Musicians play in the windows, and thousands of lights are synchronized to the music.  It is a really neat experience.  I played with different exposure/aperture combinations throughout the show, and was happiest with a large aperture (2.2) and fairly fast shutter.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
50mm - ISO 400
1/30s - f/2.2

Faith has feet

Here are some of over 550 pairs of shoes donated to needy kids by the children of our church last weekend.  They were lined up on the sanctuary steps today, and served as a great reminder to us grownups to be generous.  I love the ones in the lower right-hand corner - I totally rocked those laces in grade school!

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
18mm - ISO 1600
1/15s - f/3.5

Night train

So the last thing I saw before I woke up in the hospital was...just kidding.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm - f/3.5-5.6

30mm - ISO 2600

1/15s - f/4.2

Cat naps

Here are a few of my men cuddled up for a long winter's nap.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

58mm - ISO 1600

1/5s - f/5

Winter? Spring?

I left work about 20 minutes early today because the sun was shining after a long day of rain and storms.  By five o'clock it had pretty much gone down, but I did get to take a pretty shot south of town.  The 60-degree weather made the outdoor shot a pleasure to take.  These shades of blues and purples are unusual for this time of year, in my experience.

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 18-105mm f/4

105mm - ISO 160

1/500 - f/4

All wrapped up

Twelve days until Christmas!  Presents are (almost) wrapped!

Nikon D90
Nikkor 50mm - f/1.8
50mm - ISO 400
1/25s - f/1.8

LOL

It was Ladies Night at Topeka Bible Church tonight, with a special Laugh Out Loud Christmas special.  We enjoyed snacks and an great performance by comedienne Kerry Pomarolli.   They are repeating the program Tuesday night, so any ladies with a free evening should definitely check it out!

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
58mm - ISO 400
1/30s - f/7.1

Spectrum

Tonight we had a special Advent version of Overflow at church.  Overflow is a evening of praise and worship held once a quarter.  It is always a tremendously uplifting experience.  This time they brought in some special lighting equipment which really enhanced the evening.  I love the gradient effect on the light panels.

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 24-105mm f/4

47mm - ISO 1600

1/30s - f/7.1

Ho...ho...no!

The North Pole is melting!  I guess Al Gore was right! 

Nikon D90

Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

50mm - ISO 400

1/30s - f/1.8

Don't burn the cookies!

This gingerbread tree is one of my favorite Christmas decorations, probably because I love gingerbread so much!  It is so time-consuming to make, I never realized how much trouble it was for my mom all of those Christmases growing up.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 50 mm - f/1.8

50mm - ISO 400

1/30s - f/1.8

We remember

Tonight I attended a special Holiday Remembrance Ceremony at Mount Hope Cemetery.  It was a time to gather and remember family and friends who we have loved and lost.  Memory candles were lit, and ornaments with enclosed messages were placed on two trees.  It was a beautiful ceremony.

On a technical note, the lights on the tree in the background are the truest exampleof bokeh that I have ever accomplished.  And I have to commend the 5D on some great low-light capabilities at ISO 1000.  Even at magnification, it is noise-free.

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f/4
105mm - ISO 1000
1/40s - f/4

Brrr!

I hope you don't think this is creepy.  I am not really a fan of the "blind angel/cherub" statues.  I am in Green Bay, WI, on what is probably a warm day for them, but was quite cold for me.  I got out for just five minutes today, and walked by this poor cherub.  He looked cold even for a stone statue.

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f/4
58mm - ISO 200
1/13s - f/8

The view from here

Spending the night on the Plaza in Kansas City.  Here is the view from my room.  My hands were too full of shopping bags earlier to take pictures, plus it is bitterly cold.  So, a hotel room shot it is!  The Plaza has been decorated with Christmas lights for over 80 years, and according to the Kansas City tourism website, the show includes over 80 miles of lights that are put up and taken down each year!

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 50mm – f/1.4

50mm – ISO 400

1/60s – f/4.5

Where's Fenton when you need him?

I have a herd of deer on my living room walls.  Apparently they are my theme this Christmas.  I promise not to post pictures of Christmas decorations all month-long, but I am getting ready for a trip tomorrow, and didn't get to do much else tonight.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

32mm - ISO 1000

1/8s -f/4.2

Deck the halls with...deer?

No, I didn't go hunting this weekend and bag a 10-point buck.  Every year my mother holds a "December the First Party." It used to religiously be held on the first, but now we just go with the first Sunday of the month.  

She makes a great meal and we decorate the house together.  This year we are going with a red, white and deer theme.  There are two deer in the shot (and at least nine more outside of the frame).  Can you find them?

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 24-105mm f/4

47mm - ISO 2500

1/40s - f/4

Hail Gladdening Light

Hail Gladdening Light / sun so bright

Jesus Christ / end of night / alleluia

We are singing this song at church this weekend (Joyous Light).  It rather ironically came to my mind while I was turning off the electric candles on the stage after service.  Hey - safety first, people!

  

Nikon D90 
Nikkor 50mm - f/1.8

50mm - ISO 200

1/30s - f/3.5

Blech!

Christmas is my cat's favorite time of year because he gets to play with all of the Christmas decorations.  Whenever he hears the first rustle of garland coming out of the box, he comes running.  Here he realized that it doesn't taste as good as it looks!

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
58mm - ISO 200
1/30s - f/5


Nikon SB900
TTL
Bounced up

Cheese!!

When someone asks "Will you take my picture?" always say "Yes!"  There will be plenty of people the rest of your life who say "You aren't going to take my picture, are you?"  This guy was a lot of fun - full of smiles!

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 24-105mm f/4

55mm - ISO 200

1/50s - f/4

Canon 580EXII

1/8 power

Zoomed to 55mm

Bounced up to ceiling

'Tis the season

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is our annual trip to Strawberry Hill, a Christmas tree farm just west of Lawrence.  We decided to make the trek out there late this afternoon to pick up a fresh wreath for the house.  Here the proprietress is creating a bow for me.  I tried to figure out how she did it, but couldn't.  I am hopeless at bows.  The wreath is on the wall right above my computer, and I will be enjoying its fragrance for the rest of December while blogging.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
45mm - ISO 200
1/30s - f/4.8

Sweet goodnight

Tomorrow my family will say goodbye to my beloved aunt.  My mother baked us these cookies from the first recipe Aunt Barbara shared with her.  They are sweet, in more ways than one.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

105mm - ISO 200

1/40s - f/5.6

Nikon SB900

1/16 power

105mm zoom

Bounced up

Tram City

Detroit is one of my favorite airports, partially because of the red tram that runs across the concourses.  (And partially because the shopping is good!)  Here is the view from the back of the train.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 50mm - f/1.8
50mm - ISO 200
1/25s - f/2.8

Not-so-scenic NYC

You probably wouldn't believe that I spent most of the day in NYC, based on today's photo.  We were unfortunately doing photo-unfriendly activities today, so my camera took a long snooze in a parking garage.  I spent most of the day feeling like I had forgotten my right hand somewhere.  Finally, after returning to the parking garage, and desperate to find some photo, any photo, we attempted to visit Liberty State Park.  Across the Hudson in New Jersey from the city, it supposedly has fantastic skyline views, but the park had already closed.  So we snuck in, evading security, and took one or two shots of a building or two between a bunch of boats.  As skylines go, not so much.  Oh well.  Here's hoping I will be back there soon!

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
45mm - ISO 200
1/20s - f/4.8

Early signs of the season

It is that time of year - two days after Thanksgiving, and the Christmas carols are already ringing through the mall.  Another sign of an early Christmas is the annual blooming of the family Christmas cactus.  Jessica's cactus started as a cutting from my mother's plant, who started hers as a cutting from my Grandmother's.  So who knows how old it actually is!  It blooms every year, sometimes at Christmas, other times at Easter, and some years not at all.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 50mm f/1.5

50mm - ISO 200

1/125s - f/1.8

Crafty Cathy

Jessica and I spent an enjoyable afternoon painting today.  She is doing a fun series of four paintings of a tree in winter, spring, summer and fall.  The spring one is pictured below.  I like the dreamy, idyllic look that the 50mm brought to the scene.  Although in this case, real life was pretty idyllic too!

Nikon D90
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
50mm - ISO 200
1/200-f/1.8

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a busy, delicious day, with lots of turkey, stuffing, and of course, dessert!  Here is a before-and-after of one of the desserts, and a bonus photo snapped by my husband of my sister Jessica and me as we rushed around putting the finishing touches on dinner.  A lot was going on, as you can tell by our motion blurs!

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

Top:  26mm ISO 200 1/30s f/4

Middle:  105mm ISO 200 1/30s f/5.6

Left:  18mm ISO 200 1/30s f/3.5

Nikon SB900

1/8 power

Variable zoom

Bounced up

It was a cold, windswept afternoon in Hockessin...

Okay, so this is Newark, not Hockessin.  I just like saying Hockessin.  And we were there earlier in the day, so that counts, right?  This is one of the buildings on the University of Delaware campus.  Delaware is so rainy and wet that moss grows everywhere.  Everywhere. 

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
32mm - ISO 200
1/30s - f/4.2

Jammit!

Tomorrow we are making strawberry jam.  So tonight, the mission was to drown several pounds of berries in sugar in preparation.  It smells delicious - I was begging everyone to go out and buy an angel food cake so I could dig right in!

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm - f/3.5-5.6

105mm - ISO 200

1/30s - f/5.6

Nikon SB900

1/8 power

105mm zoom

Bounced up

Trio for a duo

It has been a nice day of relaxing at my sister's house.  We roused ourselves enough to do some shopping and get a bite to eat at a nearby Italian place. And of course we couldn't say no to the tiramisu!  (Or the chocolate torte, or the limoncello...)

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm - f/3.5-5.6

32mm - ISO 200

1/30s -f/4.2

LOTR

Some parts of Delaware in the fall make me think of the Lord of the Ring movies; especially the scene in the first one when Frodo, Sam and the other two Hobbits spend what seems like 20 minutes running down the longest hill on the planet.  The parks and natural areas have some of the tallest trees I have ever seen, and this one was especially interesting because so much of its root system is exposed.

Nikon D90
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
50mm - ISO 200
1/80s - f/1.8

Pizza pie

Tonight's dinner was provided courtesy of my brother-in-law Ben, who made us pizza.  He really isn't that messy of a cook; we just threw some flour on him for the shot.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

50mm - ISO 200

1/20 - f/6.3

Nikon SB900

1/8 power

50mm zoom

Bounced up to ceiling

Vacation begins

Every year my husband and I take a Thanksgiving-week trip back East to see my twin sister and her husband.  We have been doing it for eight or nine years now.  One of our traditions is to have dinner at one of the first restaurants they ever tried when moving to Delaware.  

Why did they pick it?  Well, let's just say that the sign, on a dark stretch of highway, is pretty inviting!  It actually took me about five years to realize that the name of the restaurant isn't actually EAT (but instead Jose's Border Cafe).

Nikon D90

Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

50mm - ISO 200

1/10s - f/6.3

Fly away

Just a pretty picture today - too busy packing for vacation!

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

105mm - ISO 200

1/15s - f/5.6

Follow this thread

I love old wooden spools of thread.  They are so much cooler than the plastic ones of today!

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

105mm - ISO 200

1/30s - f/5.6

Nikon SB900

1/16 power

105mm zoom

Bounced to camera right

Nifty fifty

I read an article that challenged me this weekend to spend some more time with my 50mm lens.  Its fixed distance can make things a little more challenging, but the nice big aperture is a real plus. This is a photo of a railing and it's shadow on a stucco wall.  I love the clean lines and the color palette.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

50mm - ISO 400

1/20s - f/1.8