Photos I’ve taken that don’t suck.

Title and blog idea stolen from The Pioneer Woman. I'm not going to post anything prior to this past year because, frankly, (and I apologize to my children in advance for the crappy representation of their childhoods) my older photographs suck. Lighting was poor, angles were wrong... I have pictures that I love because of WHO is in them from the past 6 years, but none that I especially love because I think the picture is actually DECENT. Up until this year, that is. Well, I may be exaggerating slightly, there may be a few decent shots from the older stuff, but it certainly isn't an accurate representation of what I am capable of... they are more snapshots to remember events or stages in my kids lives. Not that that needs justification, it's just that it doesn't necessarily make for quality photography. I can already see that my post will not be limited to 5 photos... and probably not nearly as concise as PW's but I don't care, this is about me and what I like so... deal. :P (I'm linking them as small but the images SHOULD be clickable to see a larger sized image... should be... don't quote me on that, I suck at this html crap.) These photos are also not edited in any way, although a couple could use it. What you see is what I get straight out of my camera.



I took this shot at my in-laws home right after I got my XSi. Rusty hog trailer, not exactly the most beautiful thing in the world, but I like it. It's as simple as that. I like it.



I took this one as part of a challenge to capture the word "anatomy" in a photograph... I think ultimately I settled on another shot for the challenge, but I love this picture. She has the damn cutest nose.



This was taken while documenting pie making--sometimes I do that, photograph the process I go through to cook a meal. It can provide some really cool shots and is a challenge to me to work with my camera in poor lighting situations, learn how to get the best out of my camera. I love the reflection on the knife.



Found this guy when I was taking the trash out one day. I was so intent on the bug (and praying that he wouldn't fly into my face) that the bokeh was entirely unintentional. I just wanted to get as close as I dared and get the best shot possible. I took several and I'm really pleased with the way most of them turned out--this is NOT usually the case. haha



Searching for inspiration one day and took this shot of some junk on my desk. If you could SEE how horrendously dirty my desk is you'd be even more impressed.

(OMG this is going to be a long post... you can skip the lame commentary and just look at the pictures if you want.)



Genevieve is super expressive and I love capturing her at various times. Sometimes I wish I could capture my other girls like this, but then I guess it wouldn't be as special a trait in Genevieve.



I blogged this once before but it bears repeating. This is one of my absolute favorite shots of Adrienne. It captures so much of her personality; she's such a happy, beautiful, fun, and loving child.



Charlotte... holy crap she has grown so much since this summer! I love her expression; just kinda taking it all in, "Hey Mom, you camera-toting-freak, whassup?"



My father in law... I was trying to be discrete but he totally knew I was taking his picture. But this is one of the ways my children will remember him; him taking care of the garden, while they run and play between rows of straberries and vegetables.



This is one of my favorite poses for Charlotte, she does this when she colors, reads, watches movies. It always makes me laugh.



Adrienne, again, so full of life and fun.



Again with the awesome expressiveness. You can see why she's so much fun to photograph.

I think over the next couple weeks I'm going to have to devote a blog post (with photos) to each of my kids. There were so many more pictures of them that I love for various reasons... and I may have gotten carried away here and shared some that do, in fact, suck even though I said that they wouldn't. But this was about me and what I like... so I guess if I like bad photos... oh well. haha