Day 47 - these boots were made for walkin.....

Ok, I couldn't resist putting this picture in here. I had many other pictures to choose from , but these shoes are just so very cute looking. Obviously you are looking at a pair of Brendon's new shoes, and while he can't walk yet, they do help in keeping his socks on his feet which he so happily kicks off. I picked these ones out because they are some of the colors that I like and thought the baby would look cute in them as well.

I took this closeup shot on top of a glass case coffee table that I made, I think it makes the shoes look as if they are floating off of the page or that this photo was edited in Photoshop or the like, I assure you it wasn't. I arrange them this way and used the light coming in from the sliding glass door to create the shot that I wanted.

...and that's just what they'll do.....

Day 46 - ooo,rock me amadeus....

Wow, the temperature outside these past couple days got very nice and all the snow is melting. I am happy to see the sun and feel this warm weather. This is a bit of the rocks that flanks the stairs that head to the backyard on the side of our house. I placed these there sometime in the fall because it was mostly just dirt and everytime it rained the dirt ran down the driveway. Some of these rocks were very heavy! Now it creates a nicer cleaner look when the heavy rains come into town.

I like the way the shadows came together in this shot with the sunlight hitting the rocks and creating a unique effect. I contrasting dark and whites is also something that I think looks good in this photo. I was trying to show a little bit of nature popping through the otherwise cold winter we have been having.

...amadeus, amadeus.....

Day 45 - daddy mac will make you jump, jump....

What to do in the hospital to pass the time besides watching the television and taking care of the baby. Crossword puzzles of course. We did this as well as watched tv, so I guess it wasn't instead of. We have a good time together doing these puzzles and when Michelle gets stuck, I help her out. For some reason I have all of this trival knowledge in my head and that's just what they are looking for.

So a close up shot (of course right?), of the puzzle, where I purposely went for the blurring of the top and the bottom and went for clarity on a few of the already finished clues. Nothing too special on the camera settings here, just a few tries at the right angle and distance from the page I needed the lense to be.

...kriss kross will make you jump, jump....

Day 44 - well, don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan....

Dinnertime for Michelle. She got some decent meals there actually, I was surprised when she said they tasted ok. I ended up having a lot of dinners from the cafeteria downstairs which also had decent food for a cafeteria in a hospital that is. Here we have some fruit, soda, I see a roll , and I think this may have been a spaghetti dinner under the blue covered plate, I forget what she had.

I opted to use this shot with a closeup again because it was a unique shot of the day. The lighting in the hospital room worked well with the camera and didn't require and longer shutter speeds or flashes (which I try not to use until I get the external someday).

...so eat it, just eat it...

Day 43 - baby love, my baby love....

We were still at the hospital day 3 at that point and we had visitors and gifts! These were from Uncle Dave and Auntie Dawn. They came to visit their new nephew and Brendon was happy to see them! Not a lot of options for taking pictures when I was in the same room for 5 days with Michelle so I had to be creative and I have lots of pictures of Brendon to share and I will be posting them on a different blog site.

I took a few shots here, I played with the shade to let more sunlight in and get less shadows and a better brightness to the shot. So cute all of the things people have bringing for the baby to wear , I thought I'd capture a little of that in this photo.

...I need you , Oh, how I need you....

day 42 - and runnin, runnin and runnin, runnin

Awww, cute.. heh heh.. I thought they were so cute looking when Michelle was holding the baby yesterday I had to try and get a few shots. Little baby Brendon is on his 2nd day of life and just happy as a clam, although he doesn't like these little feet out in the cool air of the hospital room but it wakes him up enough to get him to eat without falling back asleep.

The picture looks darker than the .raw version which gives the true colors of the photo, but I used the macro feature on my telephoto lens to snap this shot and I think it came out quite well with the lighting and the detailing of the wrinkly feet, ha ha.. What else can I say about this shot, they are so adorable..

...let's get it started, hah.. let's get is started in here....

Day 41 - Welcome to my world.....

Baby Brendon is here! Welcome this adorable little boy born February 4th at 9:22am. He tipped the scales at 6lbs 14oz and 17.5 inches tall!! We had a little scare there in the beginning and he had to come out in an emergency c section! Both Mom and baby are doing just fine now and Brendon is as happy as can be. Daddy is very happy and excited to see his little bundle of joy.

He is pretty quiet and only seems to cry when he needs his diaper changed or he is a little hungry. He doesn't have a huge appetite yet, but it'll get there. He's had a few visitors so far and a lot of congratulations on Facebook from his fan club!

The shot is simple and focused on the star of the day! I love all the pictures I've taken of him so far. He seems so peaceful and innocent and he definitely is. A nice shot , nice lighting, cute overal.....

...won't you come on in....

Day 40 - the ending of an era.....

While cleaning out the Verizon Wireless kiosk the other day I decide since another big box store is biting the dust I'd get a picture to memorialize it. It is amazing what has happened to the economy in the past couple years and the changes that is has affected on both businesses and the individual. Perhaps the U.S. will become less of a wasteful society after our recovery begins and we will realized the value of something and be less materialistic. One can hope anyways...

Again I opted for the close up shot. I had another that included the whole sign but also some of the sky and I didn't really like it because of that. If you look closely you can see the snowflakes falling as it was snowing when I snapped this shot.

...and the turning of a page....

Day 39 - i've got my orange crush....

Yummy. Something nice and fruity to go with lunch yesterday. It was a nice weekend we didn't do much besides the shopping with gift cards, so when it came for what can I possibly photograph today, I saw this nice bowl of juice orange slices freshly separated I couldn't resist both the photo and eating them.

I like doing macro shots if you couldn't tell and this is no exception, although I'm not using the macro feature of my telephoto lens. This is just a point and shoot with a little rearrangement of the bowl for optimal light and a little movement of the orange slices to get just the right shot. It's amazing something so ordinary can look so different when you get in real close and see the real thing. I'll have more extreme examples to follow sometime this year.

...collar me, don't collar me...

Day 38 - the year of the ox....

Needed to get something to eat yesterday before we went out to spend some of Michelle's gift cards. We stopped at the Ho Ho chinese restaurant in Smithfield. There's not much to this place, not much selection on the menu either, but we had tried to go somewhere else and they were closed so we stayed here. I know Michelle felt bad because I didn't like the food, I don't think she did either. Sorry honey. I still liked the company :)

I looked around at the decor and saw this banner hanging across from our table and thought that would be a unique picture. So I took the shot and figured with the low lighting it would come out blurry or I would have to retake it, however it came out fine on the first shot. I like the colors and the lighting on the picture with the dark edges. I noticed the spot of food on the fan he's holding after the shot, I wasn't sure if it was there before I took the shot so I had to look in the camera to make sure. It doesn't detract from the photo, but , the fact that I noticed is annoying to me at least. Overall the shot came out the way I wanted and as it was a quiet day for photos this was the shot of the day I decided to post.

...The Ox is thought to be the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work.....
(Chinese New Year was 1/26)