-random- I took the first photo while playing around on the camera at my desk and seeing the reflection of my desktop in the granite. I tried to capture the flower from my desktop. The fstop was on 2.8 I think- that is why everything around it is blurry and the middle of it is in focus.


This second photo I didn't take with the G11, I took it with my Iphone4! After spending some time outside searching for clues about what attacked our patio cushions, Ryan found a bunch of these feathers. A bluejay is dying, molting, or whatever attacked our cushions is also attacking the birds...

-Urban Farmer's Market- *would have had time to take more photos but fusionpita ruined our experience - I would never give them another second of my time!

I love fall & winter

-Housewarming party- My friend, Janice, bought and set up this pretty display of Crave Cupcakes for my housewarming party.


-Winter Street Studios- Fun photos while walking around the studios



awkward photo but I find it hilarious- every time I took one photo, Jonathan would get closer and closer to Ryan - this was the last shot I took of them

More experimenting with the f-stop on moving water. 

(Frio River, Garner State Park, Texas)

f-stop 2.8

                                                                     f-stop 8.2

Keeping fish is a minor passion of mine.  It's not easy as some people think, but harder than keeping up a tank is taking pictures of one.  After about a zillion shots and 1/2 a zillion adjustments, this is the best as I got.  Back to the drawing board for sure.

This is the summer evening light shining through the Mamossa tree in my backyard. f-stop of about 3.2 and a long shutter speed because there wasn't much light.  Hardest part was keeping the camera still.  It was a major issue for both these "shoots," so I know I need to invest in a tripod.  

Daniel & Ann's wedding The weekend before Ryan and I went to California, we traveled up to Austin for the awesome Anniel Wedding. I am so thankful that we got to be there for this wedding and see two great people celebrate the way they did. I couldn't help but smile at how much fun and love they have and how much everyone there loved them. It was such a fun and amazing wedding! Here are some of my favorites. I had a hard time trying to take photos during the ceremony because the light coming in from behind them was so bright so most of those came out blurry but some ok..


The beautiful view/location


Their first dance


Cute baby Merissa


And their yummy cakes!

Anh & Loc's Wedding My entire family made a trip out to Orange County for my cousins wedding at the end of August. It was fun to have so much family together and the wedding was beautiful! We probably get to see our family in California once a year (more often with all the family weddings) so I hope we get to see them again soon. My cousin was such a gorgeous bride. It has been a while since I have practiced taking photos in manual so most of these are on some sort of automatic setting. Can't help it with big events!

I took this photo while standing behind the photographer who set it up. There is too much light coming in from the window but still a beautiful photo.. I'm sure the professional one turns out a lot better than mine!


This one does not have proper lighting but I thought it was pretty because I saw her friend make this bouquet.


I caught this photo while walking out of the house and caught the photographer setting up another picture. I tried to snap a photo before they moved- this is my new cousin, Loc, and my other cousin's girls.


In this last photo, I took it in manual settings while slouching down in the pew at church trying to get both images in. I wish they were a little bit more blurry or more sharp. Something is not quite right with the photo but I thought it was worth capturing. I tried- still like it.

Okay, it's Stacy here. Kimmy and I are sharing the blog but I've not exactly done my part. I'm finally posting some of my pictures.

I have to admit that Kimmy's photographs are amazing. I am hesitant to even post mine next to hers because mine look so pathetic compared to what she's done. She definitely has an eye that I don't have. But I have fun and this is what it's all about, right?

The first is the water fall at the Butterfly house at HMNS. If you look at them you will see a significant difference in the clarity of the water. The f/stop is at .8 in the first and .4 in the second. I personally like the second one the best, however according to our "photography teacher" an f/stop of .8 freezes water...I guess I did something else wrong...

The next two photographs I took at Sea World in San Antonio. The colors and light from the water are amazing. Because it was such a bright day I was able to have a really fast shutter speed and shoot quickly. The quicker the better when you are shooting kids or animals. Shamu was especially challenging. I tried the entire show to get a good jumping shot and this was as good as I got. Everything else was either too slow and too fast. I will admit I switch to auto during the Shamu show. It was just happening too fast for me to keep up. In the picture of my nephew feeding the seal I'm in manual and somehow it all came together. Perfect moment, perfect shot, not to quick, not to slow. Two seconds later and the sardine was gone and so was the dolphin. I particularly like the light and color in this shot. I'm finding I like taking action pictures a whole lot better than still life, however should the trend continue I'll need a lot more skill and maybe some better equipment because it's very challenging.

The sky After I started to become more interested in taking manual photos, I started to look at the sky a lot more than I use to. At least I feel that way. The colors as the sky is changing from day to night are really pretty and the bursts from the sun through the clouds are fun to try to capture. Nightime photos of the moon and stars are not coming out well at all though. Not ready to invest in a nice tripod yet, so sky photos are all I'm going to get now. The first one is over the hill at Miller Outdoor Theater, waiting for Little Shop of Horrors to start. The second one is on the drive home from a fun afternoon in Conroe at a friend's house. I'm glad only the trees came out blurry and not the sky!

-Cancun- Ryan and I spent 4 days in Cancun at an all inclusive resort trying to soak up some sun and enjoy the beach. I didn't use my G11 much while I was there and traveled with my smaller point and shoot for the most part. Here are a few I took on our last day there.

I need to work on trying to do multiple spot metering. One picture is focusing on properly exposing the bottom portion of the photo and the other is focusing on the sky. Either way, I didn't get the picture I wanted on manual, but still nice.


This is me playing with the camera while laying out along the lazy river.


I liked the symmetry in this one.


And finally, I loved the view we had from our last lunch at the resort. We had a great time there.

-Kham & Sok's wedding- My family grew up with Kham's family so our families have known each other for a very long time. He was my brother's best man and my brother was his best man. It was a beautiful wedding! I kept switching back and forth from manual to auto when other people would take pictures, but I think all of these were in manual mode. The one of the kids might not be because it was at the reception and it was a bit too dark in there. Here are some of my favorites though:

Had a lunch date with Marisa and cute baby Violet. Asked if I could practice and take some photos of her. I need to try to see what would be better pictures and learn how to change settings faster with a moving baby and upclose photos! Violet was such a cute model though. Thanks Marisa!! ISO-100, f/3.5, and 1/25 or 1/30 sec.