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