Sweet treats

I made a ridiculously sugary dessert tonight, and shot the sugar as it was melting into the corn syrup.

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 24-105mm f/4

105mm - ISO 200

1/60s - f/4

Canon 580 EXII

1/16 power

Bounced up and back

Sick kitty

Our cat, Pyrite, was feeling a bit under the weather tonight, so I took her picture before Cory took her into the vet.  Hopefully she will be back home soon!

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 24-105mm f/4

105mm - ISO 400

1/25s - f/4

Seeds of envy?

Can you tell that after a full day of meetings, errands and cleaning I didn't find much inspirational material for my blog today?!  We were cleaning up the garage a bit, and I ran across some spilled grass seed.  Some of the seeds appear to have green paint on them, which I thought was a bit odd. 

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 24-105mm f/4

105mm - ISO 1250

1/30s - f/4

Birds on a wire

Monsters Inc. is a great movie.  But for me, it paled in comparison to the animated short "Birds on a Wire" that ran before it in theaters.  It was so cute and funny that it completely spoiled the actual movie for me.  I thought of it today when I was headed to Maple Hill, KS for some dinner and saw some birds settling in.

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 24-105mm f/4

55mm 0 ISO 100

1/1600 - f/4

Fairy dreams

As a little girl, I always wanted to believe in fairies, but was too logical to sustain the concept for very long.  This is a little statuette of a fairy on a lily pond, with a backdrop of some water lilies that I shot last weekend.  I just like her dreamy expression, and the way the light is cast on her face and the lily pad in the background.

I'm not sure if this second shot works or not, but I like it.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

Top:  70mm - ISO 800

1/20s - f/5.3

Bottom: 105mm - ISO 800

1/20s - f/5.6

Trash Mountain

Today I had the privilege of working on the tech team at a benefit for the Trash Mountain Project, a Christian organization that cares for children and families who live in trash dumps across the world.  These people make their living scavenging, sorting through piles and piles of refuse on the chance that they can find something to sell.  It is not unusual for someone to spend their whole lives, from birth to death, in one of these camps.  It is a desperate, dangerous existence.  

Trash Mountain Project is currently operating schools, kitchens and medical clinics at dump communities in Cambodia, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, but with approximately 1,000 of these communities throughout the world, there is much work left to be done.  Their mission is to "[bring] children and families living in trash dump communities into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by addressing their spiritual, physical, emotional, and educational needs." Below are photos during the set-up time and the dinner.

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 24-105mm f/4

 Top:  28mm -ISO 3200

1/10s - f/4

Bottom: 28mm - ISO 640

1/25s - f/4

Dusty mulch

Today I took pictures at Sharefest, a city-wide service project, in which a network of churches around town worked on landscaping projects at many of the city's schools.  I had a difficult time with the strong light throughout the morning.  I normally avoid these times of days in my photography, because I have such little control over the light.  It was a good experience because it showed me an area that I need to work on.

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f/4
32mm - ISO 200
1/1250s - f/4.5