"JOY OF LOVE" - DAY ELEVEN

Day Eleven of the "Joy of Love" Photography class was to capture...

"Dreams"

This is a photo that I actually took a couple of weeks ago, but it fits this assignment perfectly.

The week before Christmas, my husband and I made the mistake of "Just Looking" for a new house, and this is what we found....

A 250 year old farmhouse. We immediately fell in love, and have been doing everything possible to make it our own. But for now, it's just a Dream.

"JOY OF LOVE" - DAY TEN

Day Ten of the "Joy of Love" Photography class was to capture...

"Space - Where They are Comfortable"

My husband doesn't have a favorite chair, and I know there was no way he would allow me to capture him on the toilet (LOL!!). And, his truly most comfortable space is not attainable for photographing... a Deer Stand, so I had to go with where I think he is most comfortable - the Kitchen. My husband loves to cook, and he is very good at it. At the end of a long day, working on dinner helps him unwind. He also loves cooking for our friends and sharing with them dishes from his hometown of New Orleans.

Since he's at work and, truth be told, it would be hard to capture him whipping something up because our kitchen is so small, I decided to just take pics of the space. I wanted to work on the tips that Kelly presented in her video about how to shoot in "Manual" mode.

I focused on ISO, and shutter speed. I had my kit lens on the camera for these shots, so the aperature was somewhere around 5.

I took this shot from up in our loft, which overlooks our first floor.

It's amazing, with just those few little easy tips Kelly taught me, how much better my photos look.

Here's some of the Yumminess my husband loves to prepare... Fried Shrimp Po'Boys. I took this picture a year ago. Even though I didn't really know what I was doing, I think it's a pretty good shot.

"JOY OF LOVE" - DAY NINE

Day Nine of the "Joy of Love" Photography class was to capture...

"Passions & Hobbies"

My Husband is definitely a "Fall"... and I don't mean his "Colors". He lives for two things that cooler weather brings - Football and Hunting. As soon as the Super Bowl was over Sunday night, he said... "I can't wait to next season!" Well not really, because his Pro-Football season ended once the reigning Super Bowl Champs, the New Orlean Saints, didn't make it to the NFC Championship. But anyway, I digress. Basically he LOVES Football and Hunting. So I decided to focus on the Hunting Passion, since there is a prime example of it hanging over my fireplace.

Don't you love how I captured the "Catch-Light" in it's beautiful brown glass eye?

I took these pictures yesterday afternoon around 4:30 and the lighting in this part of our great room was perfect.... so... I also took these way cute pics of the boys.

They thought it was hilarious to be sitting way up there.

"JOY OF LOVE" - DAY EIGHT

I know, I know, you're asking what happened to Days Six and Seven. Well, I've tucked those assignments away for later. Day Six was to capture "Who They Love" and Day Seven was to capture "Generations". Since we have no family nearby, those two will have to wait

Now on to Day Eight...

"Gift from the Heart"

Well, my husband has given me Many wonderful gifts, including the most precious - the gift of becoming a Mother, but for this prompt, I decided to feature the first gift he ever gave me.

When we first met, almost eight years ago, I was living in Tucson, and he was here in Virginia. We actually met in Iowa at a business training seminar, and basically, it was Love at First Sight. Just like out of a movie. The first time I flew to the East Coast to see him, was 4th of July Weekend, and we planned to spend it walking around DC and visiting all the Museums. I guess he wanted me to be comfortable for our two days of sightseeing, because he gave me these...

Last year ('09) for Christmas, he gave me a new pair and told me I could get rid of those old ratty ones. I told him "NO WAY". First of all, they're not ratty, and second of all, I will never part with the first gift he ever gave me. Out of the kindness and generosity of his heart, we wanted to ensure my comfort.

VALENTINES

Week before last, I spent a couple of minutes one day, trying to capture a picture of Luke holding a particular pose...

Grey was not to be left out. I got his shot with one take.

And why do you ask, was I trying to capture this pose?

Well, I guess these Valentines were all over Blog-land last year, but I didn't see them until this year... and as soon as I did, I knew that I wanted to make them for Luke's Pre-School class.

Are those not the cutest things you've ever seen? Of course, Grey doesn't have any classmates to give them too, but because his picture was so cute, I made a couple of them for him to give to some of our neighbors.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

"JOY OF LOVE" - DAY FIVE

Day Five of the "Joy of Love" Photography class was to capture...

"What You LOVE to HATE about them"

Well let me tell you, as soon as I saw this topic, I knew EXACTLY what my "HATE" would be - even though it wouldn't make for very exciting photography.

There are Two things that my Husband does, that absolutely DRIVE. ME. CRAZY!!

I LOVE to HATE this about him...

1. He NEVER re-hangs the dish towel - he always throws it on the counter.

... but more importantly

2. When using the microwave, he ALWAYS opens the door before the set time runs out, therefore, the "Clear" button needs to be pushed to reset the Message Screen. He NEVER. PUSHES. the "Clear" button. When I go to use the microwave, there is the never ending scrolling message, and "I" have to push the "Clear" button.

Trying to capture that scrolling message was a little difficult.

How hard is it to push that button? Or better yet, wait 'til the time runs out? However, if that would cause your food item to burn, then maybe a more appropriate time should be selected.

Do I sound bitter? I don't mean to. In all actuality, my Wonderful Husband does MOST of the cooking, so I will forgive him of this one minor flaw... and well the towel thing too. LOL!!

"JOY OF LOVE" - DAY FOUR

Day Four of the "Joy of Love" Photography class was to capture...

"What They Wear"

When I saw this upcoming prompt yesterday, I immediately knew what picture I wanted to take. I wanted to show what my Husband wears around his neck, as a Memorial to two very special people we have lost.

He wears two Crosses. The smaller Cross is for our son Max, Luke's twin, who passed away at the age of three weeks on October 2, 2007. The other Cross is for his Mother, Yvette, who passed away last March 4th after a ten year fight with ALS. He NEVER takes them off.

Now, since I haven't really shown the "Love" for my youngest so far, I thought I would feature him today.

What Grey "Wears" are Hats...

and he likes to wear them low. Usually covering his eyes.

This one is my favorite. I wish it was more in focus. Hard to capture sharp images of a little being always in motion.

And now just for FUN...

What They Wear...

Thanks to their Grandparents who live in New Mexico, the boys always have Cowboy Boots just like Daddy.

"JOY OF LOVE" - DAY THREE

Day Three of the "Joy of Love" Photography class was to capture...

"Then and Now"

I've only know my husband for about eight years, so we haven't changed that much - other than us both gaining weight. Since I don't think he would appreciate me taking pics of his love handles, for this assignment, I will focus on my children.

My oldest, Luke, arrived almost 3.5 years ago, Seven weeks early. It was a Tuesday... September 11th @ 12:33pm. He weighed 4lbs., 6oz. and was 15" long. He was SOO small. His head was about the size of a medium orange. I thought for the "Then and Now", I would capture the comparison of the Size of his Feet Now to how tiny they were Then.

We took this picture a few days after bringing him home from being in the NICU for three weeks. He was about the same size as his Mother's Heartbeat Teddy Bear.

He's now obviously much larger than that Teddy Bear, but still small for his age, and Totally Healthy!!

Another great thing about this particular photo, is that it documents his love of his brother's crib. We cannot keep him out of it. He thinks it is his own personal trampoline.

My youngest, Grey, arrived 21 months ago, after an easy full term pregnancy. It was a Thursday... May 14th @ 7:58am. He weighed 8lbs. even and was 21" long. We were shocked that he was as big as he was, and it took us awhile to get used to him being a "normal" sized newborn.

It's comical to me to see his footprints compared to his brothers. Plus, his "Now" feet aren't all that much bigger than his "Then" feet.

"JOY OF LOVE" - DAY TWO

Day Two of the "Joy of Love" Photography class was to capture...

"How They Look"

I was excited to do this particular assignment so that I could photograph my husband. He's not one for having his picture taken, but he happily obliged for the sake of "homework".

I wanted to capture some of his distinct features...

like his eyes - a piercing shade of blue-ish, gray-ish, green...

and his Fabulous Gray hair. He's not called "Silver Fox" for nothin'!

And most distinct feature of all, his Cleft Chin, which he has generously passed on to our two boys. I think he looks SO HOT in this shot.

However, even though I LOVE all those sexy distinct features of his, this is usually "How He Looks"...

Almost ALWAYS with sunglasses on. Whenever we're having our picture taken outside, I ALWAYS have to plead with him to take them off.

Then there's my first born - Lucien. He gets his Green Eyes from his PaPa Faucheux.

I just LOVE that single. tiny. Freckle. on his right check. I just want to eat it.

And of course, the Cleft Chin.

Then, there's my baby, Grey. He was napping when I was taking the above shots, and by the time he woke up, my DSLR camera battery had died. So his One shot was done with my Point & Shoot.

He has the Cleft Chin, though not as prominent as his brother. He also has a dimple in his left cheek - don't know where he gets that from. But the one feature he has that defines "How He Looks", is his head of blonde curls. Actually, it's more of a Mullet of blonde curls. He's going to need his First Haircut soon... I will be so sad to cut his "Babyness".

A NEW GAME

The boys have started playing a new game that I call "Help Me".

Basically, Luke falls down and then calls out to Grey... "Help Me"!! Grey diligently goes to Luke and offers him assistance.

I wonder how long it will be until this "helping" gets Old for Grey.

PUPPY LOVE

Luke's all ready to give his little girlfriend, Laci, her Birthday present tomorrow. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate.

"JOY OF LOVE" - DAY ONE

For the month of February, I have signed up for a FREE online photography class called...

Day One - "What They Do"...

Today's Prompt was to capture a loved one doing "What They Do".

My Hubby getting ready to head out for the day. He's an outside salesperson for a flooring distributor. Really HARD job to have and keep due to the current economy, but he KICKS ASS!!!

Nothing really special about this pic, but the lighting is great, and I LOVE the color of his hair. He's been gray since his teen years, and it helps people think he's older than me, when in actuality, I'm 8 years old than him. Sorry, if that was TMI. LOL!!

Now, for my other Loves, well...

they climb!! And yes, the bookshelf is bolted to the wall. They have a huge sliding glass door in their room, so there is wonderful natural lighting.

And, they also play.

This is actually a rare moment of them playing "Well" together. About 10 minutes after this picture was taken, I missed photographing another RARE moment, when they actually PICKED UP the blocks. That NEVER happens!!