Characters

I went back to take more pictures of the reindeer because it was an overcast day and I wanted some more character shots. Here are my favorite two.....





I need a funny caption for both, please leave a comment with your best idea.

Wanna Kiss?

I knew that I was spoiling the reindeer by bringing a large box of raisins just for them, but I didn't expect a kiss for it. I'm just not that kinda girl :)

Chocolate Covered Cherries

My dad used to make these years ago when I was young, they are a family favorite. It has been a LONG time since I've enjoyed this treat. I don't know where he got the original recipe, but I got a hold of it and tried my hand at making them for the first time. They turned out great! I tripled the recipe and ended up with 150 chocolate covered cherries. They'll make tasty gifts!

Chocolate Covered Cherries

1 lb Powdered Sugar (about 3 1/2 cups)
4 Tbsp Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
4 Tbsp Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 Bottle of Maraschino Cherries (or about 50 cherries)
2-3 (8 oz) bars of Semi Sweet Bakers Chocolate

Cream butter and sugar together, adding sweetened condensed milk in small amounts.
Add salt and vanilla. Blend well, it’s best to use hand blender on a low setting. Also, if it’s too dry, I like to add 1 Tbsp of regular milk. It should be doughy, but not sticky.

Drain cherries, dry well. I would leave them on a paper towel for at least an hour. It’s okay if they are sticky, just not wet. The dough won’t stick if they are wet.
Take small amount of cream mixture at a time (about the size of a cherry) and roll it out flat in the palm of your hand, wrap it around the cherries and shape it into a ball.
Lay on wax paper on a cookie sheet.
Freeze for about an hour, you can leave it overnight.

Melt chocolate in a pan on the simmer setting (be careful not to scorch it).
Dip cherries in chocolate, lay on wax paper or in mini muffin cups.
Chill again, it aids in solidification. Also, aging the chocolate allows the center to become more liquid – makes excellent cherry chocolates.

Some options –
*add nuts to the chocolate or sprinkle nuts on top
*melt white chocolate and drizzle on top of cherry chocolates for variety

Foggiest dream come true

I mentioned in an earlier post that I wished I had taken a shot, but passed it by on the way to an appointment. Yesterday was another foggy day and this time, I set up my own opportunity with the help of my friend, Heidi. She knows about my little addiction and was kind enough to humor me.

Lady with the red umbrella....




Last night the local photo club met up at the park for some light painting. It was a lot of fun, here are my favorite 3 images.

Can't get enough

I think foggy days are the best! I hope we get just one more, I am kicking myself for not pulling over to get a shot of something that caught my eye - next time I will be late to my appointment.... if there is a next time.

Here are a few that I took and did quick edits on - thank heavens for photoshop actions (shortcuts). I hardly get time to work on my own these days with Christmas so close and so many family photos to do in between it all.

This could be 100% awesome if it weren't for all the bird poop :P






I found a Great Blue Heron (thanks to a friend who knows her birds) and it let me get close enough to notice its bright yellow eyes. If you click on any of these pictures, you might see it in better detail.


I got too close for comfort, but was lucky enough to have my camera to my eye as it was flying off.


Just a few days ago, we went to the park to do family pictures for our Christmas cards. I had my tripod and with the right threats bribes, I was able to get a couple I could actually use. Next year, I want a remote!

Jared's drawing

I love it when Jared draws some random picture in school for me. He proudly handed me this a little while ago, I had to scan it and share. It says "The bad cops chased me!" with a little illustration to make his point. I just love the expression on the face of his stick figure. I wonder what a psychologist would say about this one....... any guesses?



Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Weekend Party

There was a release party for the New Moon movie which came out before the weekend. I was asked to help a photographer with the workload and in exchange, I got 2 tickets to the event and the midnight showing of the movie. I'm going to start off by saying that I'm too old for midnight showings. I'm a morning person and I get sleepy around 10pm, BUT they were free tickets so I couldn't let them go to waste :) Plus, the opportunity to take pictures of the "crazies" was too good to pass up. We only live once, right?

The fans were interesting. Some had a little too much to drink and others were so into Twilight that it was a bit nauseating. I'm a fan of the books and the movies were pretty good too, but that's as far as I go. I'm not collecting memorabilia, dressing up as a vampire/wolf for the movie or yelling things like "take off your shirt" when Jacob enters the scene at the movies. I laughed it all off. The best part about the night and the only thing that made it fun was having my friend, Heidi, along for good company.

This event was organized to benefit The Edith Bishel Center for the blind. I would say that it did very well, there were a lot of people. Some local actors were cast to play the characters from the movie and a couple of them looked like the real thing. Here's my attempt at recreating one of the poses from the New Moon poster of Jacob and Bella.....



And here is the cast, they were a lot of fun and so good at putting up with the "twihards" wanting certain poses with them. It was REALLY hard to keep a straight face at times.

Jared won 1st place!!

'Beauty' was the theme of this years Reflections Contest, a national art appreciation program. Jared entered this photo.....



He used my spare camera and I walked with him around the yard while he took pictures of things that caught his attention. I explained a few basic ideas about composition and let him be creative. I also allowed him to pick 2 flowers so he could arrange them the way he wanted. He took his favorite flower and put it between the slats of the bench that sits in front of our house. Once we got all of the pictures onto the computer, I took a few of his photos and walked him through the editing process. I showed him some very basic things and then let him play with it. He did some wild and crazy things at first, but then got serious. I pulled up a few of the best ones and he processed them himself. I was so proud!

Here is a short video of the award ceremony. The 1st place winner got a Toys-R-Us gift card, a certificate and really nice blue ribbon. His entry will move on to a regional contest so we're wishing him luck!



And if the night couldn't be more perfect for Jared, he lost a tooth so he'll get a visit from the tooth fairy. :)

New trick

I met an older guy named Bob Davis at a photo club meeting in September. After I gave a short presentation to the club, he came up to me and handed me a slip of paper with "Harris Shutter Effect" written on it. He assured me that I would like this technique and to research it. Naturally I was curious so I did. It's a way to combine 3 different color channels in photoshop to create a colorful image. It's best for moving things like smoke, water, trains, cars. This morning I was bored so I finally tried it with water, here is the end result.....





This time I used smoke - even more fun!


I don't know what I'll do with this technique, but it was fun to try a new thing.

Another foggy morning

I was planning to crash after the kids went off to school because I was super tired and didn't sleep well. However, I could see fog out over the city and that woke me right up. What a treat! I drove to several locations around the area's bridges and found my two favorites.

I love the Cable Bridge! It's a great subject to photograph in almost any weather and at any time of the day/night, I really enjoyed the fog around it this morning and the clouds in the background.



I could barely see the Blue Bridge through the fog, but I kind of liked the effect.