Lunar Eclipse

I am a morning person and decided that I would get up at 4:15 to watch and hopefully photograph the lunar eclipse this morning. Not a big fan of that early. I crawled back into bed around 6:05. I did not realize it was that chilly out until I came back in. That was my excuse for going back to bed - had to warm up. Anyway, below are some of my attempts from the eclipse. Definitely need more practice at shooting at night. Most of my exposures were 8-15 seconds with f/22. Except the first one which had a faster shutter speed since the moon was so bright to start.

Moon starting to be covered. Shadows already being seen on the moon.

6 Months Session

I had a 6 month old session last Friday night. I had so much fun during the shoot. He has so many different expressions and I tried to capture as many as I possibly could. I already heard from the parents who got to see the proofs online yesterday and they are happy which makes me very happy! Below are some of the images from the session.

"Are we done yet?"
He was looking up at his dad.

The first time I got to try out my new yellow wall.
I got a thumbs up at the end:)

St. Ursula Academy at Ursuline Academy

What a hot game yesterday! I think it was hotter yesterday than Wednesday. By the end of the game you could see these girls were beat. Lots of subs throughout the game. They even broke the action halfway through each half to give both teams time to rest and get some hydration. Ursuline won 3-0. Here is hoping for cooler temperatures soon.

I love this header but hate the background. The field was right next to the parking lot so not much choice for me. The the sun was setting behind me which forced me to shoot from the side of the field looking at the parking lot.

Watching the ball all the way.
Love the expression.
Saves from both keepers.

St. Xavier at Lakota

So the finger crossing worked and the rain stayed away. Instead it was hot and humid. While I was pretty hot on the sidelines I can only imagine what the players went through to play in that weather. The Bombers pulled off the win with one goal. I enjoyed being back out at the games and am looking forward to the new sports season. Below are some images from the game.

Right after the start of the game.

A really nice diving header.
These 2 battled a lot together.



A backward save.
Heading the ball away from the net for a clear.

Fingers Crossed

Here is hoping for no rain today between 4 and 7 pm. I know we need rain but I plan on photographing the St. Xavier at Lakota Freshmen soccer game today at 4:30. I will only be able to do that without rain. Apparently I misplaced my rain covers for my cameras. Ended up ordering new ones yesterday and they will not get here until tomorrow evening. So keeping my fingers crossed for now.

Anniversary

Today is my 8 year wedding anniversary. Yeah us! While today is pretty rainy right now our wedding day was gorgeous. Mid-70's and sunny. I just want to tell my husband that I love him and appreciate all the love and support he has given me over the years. Here is to many more anniversaries!

Picture taken by random vacationer while we were in Nassau.

Wedding

On July 22 I assisted Neysa with a wedding. It was an outdoor wedding and it fell on a beautiful day. The couple were great. I wish them nothing but happiness. Below are some images from the day.

A quick shot from the bride's room before moving on to hang out with the guys.

Preparing the marriage certificate.
The groom getting ready.

A little help from his mom.
The bride with her mother.
The happy groom waiting for his bride.

A little trouble getting the ring on.


Love the different style of cake.
"You lost that lovin' feeling"

Abbreviated Vacation

My 10 day vacation was cut short because of Hurricane Flossie. My husband had to travel for work so I was tagging along. I started in Coronado Island, CA and was to move on to Honolulu on Wednesday. Instead we headed back to Cincinnati on Tuesday night on the red eye (10:15 pm) out of San Diego. While moving the plane for take-off a maintenance light came on. The plane could not be fixed in time to take-off before the noise restriction hours. Luckily we got re-booked on a flight leaving at 6:15 in the morning. Which meant waiting about 4.5 hours in the airport until check-in and security opened back up. Had trouble checking in and did not get a seat assignment. Which meant we were not guaranteed a seat. After going back through security - oh did I mention that every time I went through security had to do the extra special security route. Pat downs and your luggage unpacked and checked. Everything electronic gets tested. Of course I had several pieces of camera equipment so it took awhile. All the agents were great though and were careful with my equipment and friendly. Get the gate and get asked if we mind moving to another flight through Atlanta instead of Salt Lake City because of overbooking. They both got in at the same time so not a big deal. The gates were even next to each other. Got to Atlanta and that plane gets delayed an hour because of maintenance issues as well. Finally get into CVG and had to find our luggage. It made it there via Salt Lake City. Finally I am home. I think I was up 36 hours with maybe 10-15 minute catnaps at the airport and on the planes. One of these days I will figure out what day it is and where I am out. Until then I am off to get more coffee and to start unpacking. The above picture is from the beach outside the hotel where we stayed.

Updated 08/23/2007:

We did get to see the Del - we stayed there since it was the only place that had room for us during our entire stay. Very crowded at times.

I do have high-res files of almost every image posted here and can definitely sell prints from them. I will contact you offline.

Nature

I found time to post for my friend in Columbus who always lets me know an email he likes my images but never comments :) I told him the other day that I was a little crazy to go outside in the wonderful 95+ degree day to take pictures of some birds hanging out in the shadow of my bushes. These birds have made an appearance in the shadows for the past 3-4 days. So I took my 300mm lens and used my 1.4 teleconverter to get as close as I could without actually getting close. I skipped the monopod I use most of the time when using this lens. It is a manual focus lens and tends to get heavy pretty quickly. So the first 2 images below are the birds. Wish I could have circled the block quickly and sat in my neighbors yard for a better angle. The rest of the images were taken yesterday from my kitchen window. A hummingbird was flying all around one of my honeysuckles so I grabbed the same combination of equipment and took a bunch of shots of it. Decided to stay inside because the heat and the fact I was close enough indoors.

I snuck a little closer
A short break.
Diving in.

I like it even though the main focus is not the bird.

Floor Project

The floor project is finally finished. The floor itself has been done for awhile but like most projects it spanned a few other projects. Adding the molding meant painting the baseboards as well. And while putting the flooring in the walls were marked up. So that meant painting them as well. Truthfully I think they needed it anyways. So all but one wall is painted. Trying to decide on the color of that wall but it means that I can start putting the room back together. Yeah! Below are some pictures of the finished floor.