Before The Excitement Begins

Later today I'm leaving for camp! I just got back (on Sunday) from attending camp, now I'm going to work there!

 Awesomesauce!

Seriously fun stuff there, guys. At Camp Jim, I mean :D

These photos are a small peek at what I've been doing this past week:)

My dog had puppies (praising God that they're all sold to wonderful homes) and they are almost five weeks old. So yeah, that's been fun and interesting:)

 

For our Fourth of July we had a campfire, set off some fireworks, ate a special cake that my sister made (it was red and blue with whipped cream frosting and cherries on top. Just YUM.), and generally talked and laughed.

This photo would've been perfect if he had moved the sparkler a little to the side, but, this way is interesting I suppose:P

     Yes, I love puppies, so they deserved another picture:) This one is "Tonka." He just has to be the cutest, of course, I say that about all of them, but... 
     Oh, and this post is named such because I am so excited for camp! My first time being a counselor. So, I'll need a lot of prayer you guys, working with 8 to 10 year-old's can be super fun but it's a lot of responsibility for me. 
     Before the excitement begins, I must pack:)
See ya soon raccoon!

A Mini-Look at Aperture

Dia duit (hello from the Gaelic Irish) friends, fellows, followers, family, and foreigners.

Here is a lovely orange:

The orange has nothing to do with today's topic :P 

I am here to show you the effects of aperture (app-er-cher) on photos. 

Low aperture (f/3.8)

High aperture (f/16)

You should take note that the higher the aperture number, the smaller the shutter opening becomes:

That's the only confusing part: remembering that small fact:)

All right! Any questions, comments, or concerns will be dealt with kindly addressed below. 

:)

My Favorite Irish Holiday

     (First of all, how awesome is this new design? Storyteller was great through all my indecisiveness and silly requests and such:) Shout-out to Storyteller for overcoming my fear of blog change!)

     

     So anyway, Happy Saint PATRICK'S Day! 

(Just got a new graphics editor and I love it! BTW, this is a rare moment, but I did not take this photo:( It is a super detailed HDR of the Chicago River dyed green for S.P. Day!)

     Yesterday I went around taking photos of anything green and then I used color selection to only include green. :P Here's the pictures:

Unfortunately, although I have seen their work everywhere (all my left socks are missing, as well as three of my pots of gold)  I was unable to catch a leprechaun with my camera. :( 

Ah Ireland, I would love to travel there, being part Irish:) I never have been to the Emerald Isle, so obviously I didn't take this either...  Someday I will!

  

In Other News: "I'm Back!" (And Christmas!!)

Hey y'all! 

       My lack of posts is glaring me in the face, but be assured this is not for lack of suitable pictures! The only logical solution for this photographer to pursue would be to post more photographs!
       Yep, I was just doing my English homework... Anyways, I think the problem has been that I have too many photos; they have been sitting in folders on my pc for a month (and I keep taking more!) so I will have several "Themed" posts coming up... 
This should be interesting! Today's post is: C H R I S T M A S !

We just put up our tree and I LOVE it! It's real so it has that beautiful pine-y, woods-y, snowy smell; and it looks gorgeous! Don't believe me? Here's the photos!

Decorating the tree! With the colored lights blurring and the interesting shadows (I accidentally set the aperture at like f/5 so this is a lot darker than I would have liked) this pic does look neat. 

This looks blurry for some reason, even though its not *shrug* It is very noisy, I know!

As everyone must have seen somewhere before: Christmas lights pictures!

I really like the bokeh on this one; it's the Christmas tree lights! These two are my favorites of the post! The colors are Christmas-y and bright, without being obnoxious-ly neon and blinding:)
 I know, I'm using a lot a dashes today... 

When we lived in Tennessee, we got some "Tennessee Volunteers"
Christmas  ornaments. 

Almost done...

I'll leave you with this lovely bokeh. And that, my dear followers, is the end of this post.

Wooo! Can't wait till Christmas!

Watermelon Summer :)

I was eating lunch and looked at this piece of watermelon with the lines of seeds
and just had to get my camera:)

Ah, the cool, crisp, taste of watermelon goes well with the hot days of summer!

My Nikon D5100 takes pretty good macros!

Set these up on my back porch around 3pm and used my tripod to steady my camera.

That's all for now, Flashed!

Around My World

I was out picking raspberries and saw a couple dragonflies zooming around the leaves. I ran back inside to get my camera, hoping there would be one left to shoot. This one was just sitting on a leaf, I snapped about six pictures and this was the best one.

 It's pretty hard to see exactly what to focus on, so I need more practice with macro:)

While I was outside on this beautiful day, I looked
around for other shots. I'm not sure what this
plant/tree/bush thing is, but the berries (not edible)
were really pretty!

Experimenting with macro in my big backyard! Top and bottom pics \/  /\

Linking to Friday Shootouts Blog!

/\ The coolest things happen by accident sometimes! This bee flew by the thorn flowers just as I pressed the shutter! :D

This picture was taken a few days before the others, at a friend's house on North Battle Lake. It is the wheel of the dock, they have to pull the dock up out of the water each winter so the ice doesn't damage it. Just thought it was pretty neat:)

The corn here in Minnesota is tasseling and is very beautiful! The golden corn and the bright blue sky before sunset was a wonderful contrast! Had to on the car bumper to get the depth better:)

That's all Flashed for now!
Eli

"The Bowler" in Fargo, North Dakota

      Went on a family trip to Fargo to go bowling! I didn't do too good, 81 and then 58:( but I had fun and did get some interesting shots between turns:)   
                                                    Here's my favorite: 

I used the color selection tool on my Nikon D5100 to focus the attention on the red bowling shoes. The flakes in the flooring are extra cool-ness and add some more depth to it.

    Motion shot; just playing around with shutter speed. I think he got a strike that time!

I loved how the color schemes all went together really, um, flashy:)

We were one of the last families to leave, it was really fun!

Until next time; Flashed!

eli

Some Older Pics

While going through all my pictures, I found a few that I really liked that I took a while ago, and since I now have a blog, I decided to put some pics on it!

This isn't one of my best pictures, but I really like how it captured the motion and energy of my little brother and "Bear." I took it with a regular p.a.s. (Point And Shoot) digital camera (This was before I got my DSLR:). 

       

Bear and little Sasha: Awww!

I sorta like abstract; fun to set up:)

April 16th, 2011 Illinois 

Our old backyard in Tennessee in late winter 2010. This was when I really started to like photography.

I have too many pictures to put on here! Anyway, this is from 2011 in my old backyard by the creek.

Building with Marshmallows!