Practicing on vacation

For the last week I have been on vacation with my family. We had birthday parties, fireworks, campfires,  and just had lots of fun. I took lots and lots of pictures during that time. Here are some of my favorites that I want to share

The first group of photos is from my nieces birthday party. I took lots of photos of the day but have been trying to practice on my portrait shots. These were all taken using natural light and my 55-200 mm lens

This is my niece Lexi, she was lounging in the tire swing and looked up at me. I love how focused she is and also the contrast between the grass and the road

Another shot of Lexi, she was leaning against the tree and I zoomed in, love the simpleness of the background

My three nieces Lexi, Nicole and Alyssa -- had to wait for the right moment but I love all their expressions

I read in an article that sometimes you can get interesting expressions if you have your subject scream. I love this one of the girls :) 

Alyssa was standing on the swing and just watching some of the other kids. I love the different colors of the background and how it fades behind her 

Lexi was sitting on the jungle gym watching us. I love how focused she was

I did ask them to pose for this one -- they have the cutest smiles 

We also had fireworks and a campfire at the end of their party

I loved the colors and the different textures in this shot 

the green smoke was awesome and for ground fireworks they went pretty high

this one is all about the color too 

and finally our campfire -- love how the light made the pit appear bluish 

On Tuesday my niece Nicole and I took a walk with our cameras. There was a little butterfly who tagged along with us....

I couldn't believe it just stayed on her finger -- it was tiny but very awesome 

she was trying to put it on her nose, but it didn't want to leave her finger 

I was able to get some really nice close ups 

We eventually got it to go on the nearby tiger lilies and I was able to get this shot -- I love all the colors

this little red school house is along the road that we were walking on. I had to go across the road and up the hill a bit to get this but I like it 

this simple white flower just caught my eye 

I loved the way the light hit this maragold and I used a very shallow depth of field to make it stand out 

found this heart in a tree behind my sisters house 

another of our campfires -- I just loved the color of the flames in this shot 

On my last night we went to a picnic at the summer resort that we all used to work. There are several beautiful lakes and the sky that night was amazing. I took lots of shots of the water but here are a few of my favorite ones

I took this one around 5pm. I loved the texture of the clouds in the sky and reflected in the water

this was closer to 7:30 when the sun was starting to set. I love how well the colors carried over into the water

about the same time, but the sun was reflecting a little more -- I love how bright it is along the horizon line and than also right at the front of the picture 

People were taking boats out. I was thrilled to be able to get this silhouette of the canoer. 

During my trip we also went to a little zoo. I got some really great pictures there too but will wait for the next post to share some of those. Thanks for sharing my pictures with me 

Fireworks

Thought I'd see what I could capture with my DSLR from the fireworks show last night. I had a pretty sweet spot several hundred feet away on a hill that was not crowded. I cropped a few of these and tried some different ISO's and shutter speeds but am pretty pleased with the overall results. There are quite a few this time -- but I took a lot of shots just to get the practice in. It was fun and I feel like I learned from trying different things. Enjoy and thanks for sharing with me

one of the first shots I took -- it was around 9:15 so there was lots of blue in the sky. I used about 3200 ISO so I could use a faster shutter speed. the light pole was in the way so I moved a bit later on 

I liked the how I caught the bloom on this one but not quite bright enough went to an even higher ISO .... 

and caught this -- brighter blooms and I liked the symmetry in this shot

loved all the dots from the previous fireworks in this one 

loved all the different textures in this one and how it spreads across the sky on the left 

all about the colors and size and again love the dusky blue of the sky 

it was worth having the lights in the bottom to get the contrast of shapes 

just some shots near one of ends of a song -- loved the different colors and blooms

same as above 

love the spiky ones and then the red and white against the dusk -- love it 

using the high ISO and a shutter speed of 1/500 helped me catch these next few 

love the smokiness at the bottom along with all the different colors

this is all about the green 

i was shooting so much I'm not sure how I got this one, but I liked it 

increased the ISO to HI ( which is shown as good for Dusk) and love how the blue pops out

liked how the white streak interrupts the pattern on the right ...

this looked like a flower and stem

used an even faster shutter speed and it brought out the purple in this flower 

this is all about the shapes

loved the streaks and the dabbles behind it 

a low shot -- so happy I got the timing perfect

loved the shapes and the streaks were the icing on the cake 

this is all about the yellows and it was getting darker which made them pop even more 

timing again 

this is a lower shot and I caught it just as the streaks were coming up - love the green

the smokiness of the green and the lines of the white made this one a keeper

just loved the overall feel of this 

again its all about the angle. I shot this from a low perspective

the blue in this one was wonderful 

this was all about the multiple blooms 

these were so bright I thought it was not going to come out-- really loved the depth that the smoke adds to it 

the line up was perfect and the bright white was nice 

again its all about the depth -- and the layers of lines 

the streaks and the colors make this one look electric to me 

really loved the lines on the bottom and the right 

its so busy its just cool. I love all the lines -- kind of reminds me of pine needles

another low shot and the vertical crop seemed appropriate

the multiple textures made me choose this one 

love the different colors the sharpness of the lines in the middle and the red dots on the top and left 

the timing of the streaks and then the blue cutting through made this a keeper

I was watching the streaks and then the bloom popped making it perfect 

As I said I took a lot of shots but really loved how trying different things with the camera works out. I love it all and hope to keep practicing and getting better. Thanks for sharing with me.