Nikon D60

I love my Nikon D60 and I have not gotten to use it nearly enough. I have realized that my go to camera is my point and shoot for sure, I don't know if it is because I don't want to carry the weight of the bigger camera or what, but I want to commit to using that camera more often. I want to take fun photos and be able to edit them and use them for stuff.
I should see if I can find a photo challenge type a deal online that suggests something to photograph each day to add to the challenge and fun. Sometimes I am stumped on what to take photos of, my puppy gets lots of photos taken of her (which I am not totally against, but I feel like I should have more than just pictures of my sweet puppy). I know there is a photo challenge of the day on instagram so maybe I will just borrow the topic from there and use my D60 to take photos rather than my phone.
Must use fun camera more often.
Unrelated side note: It is August 3 and I haven't drank any soda yet. Seriously, I know it is only three days but it is about two days longer than I thought I would make it. YAY for small victories (yes I celebrate small victories frequently)
Unrelated side note #2: I wish I had a group of people to run with in the morning before work. I enjoy running by myself but from time to time I would love to run with folks. I may sign up for the early morning swim group this fall through our community education just so that I get my butt out of bed still in the fall and swim with a group of people, I think I would push myself harder if I did. We'll see, community ed calendar hasn't come out yet for the fall.
Unrelated side note #3: I got a new pair of shoes the other day that I am over the top jazzed about, they are giraffe print Toms. Yes, some folks probably think they are ugly for sure, but I LOVE THEM! (I am fascinated by giraffes, and so in turn love that giraffe print has become trendy. I have loved giraffes since I was a little girl and am not certain what exactly made me fall in love with them.)

New shoes that I love
Generally I am a barefoot or flip flop type a girl
but these make me excited to wear shoes

366 pictures in 2012

At the beginning of 2012 (which really doesn't seem all that long ago, but in reality is months away, time is one of those things that boggles my mind) I challenged myself to take at least one picture a day and put them into a shutterfly book (I LOVE SHUTTERFLY). I am absolutely loving this challenge. This could by far be my most favorite challenge I set for myself in 2012. I love taking pictures, editing them, and making shutterfly books! I am realizing that I am going to have to make another 2012 book to contain more of the pictures in more of a traditional photobook type format. I have taken way more photos this year than I did at this point in 2011, which was part of the goal. Part of the challenge is what to take pictures on days that I would consider 'normal' and nothing 'extra-ordinary.' Sure I have gotten lots of pictures of my sweet Dakota, which I am totally okay with, and I have some funny pictures of things like my messy desk or some new recipe I tried. The other challenge is what to choose as my picture of the day, some days it seems like I take a ton of pictures and have a hard time deciding what exactly to claim as my picture of the day. I LOVE this project. I am not yet committing to doing it another year but so far this has been amazingly fun and even better I have made it to April without missing a single picture! Which I was 99% certain by now one of two things would have happened, either I would have missed a few days or I would have given up or forgotten about this project and neither have happened.

Dakota and her BFF Luther carrying a stick together

a month in pictures

I successfully took an entire month of pictures. Several pictures of my sweet puppy and lots of pictures of the world around me. I am excited to have made it a full month, I wasn't sure I'd even make it a month. Here's to month two!!!! I am loving the challenge!

Photos

It probably seems a little strange that a blog titled 'photos' will have no photos in it. But I am going with it anyways, why?! Because I can, it's my blog.

I LOVE taking pictures, I could spend hours upon hours taking photos, my problem is I go in spurts, I take lots of photos of one particular thing or event and then I forget to pull my camera back out for days at a time. So this year I have decided to take the 365 days of photos challenge. It is the 5th of January and it is already something on my mind of if this is really do-able. I want to give it a chance because I want to push myself to photograph the every day, but I am struggling with what to shoot. I need to continue on and push through this already bump. I think I am going to attempt to post my week in photos on Saturday or Sunday pending on time and when Saturday's photo gets taken. I am excited to see what I can come up with, but on mundane days, where I seem to fill my days with getting stuff done in the office and cleaning my house, and looking forward to a new episode of Grey's, I am just uncertain when to pull out my camera. I want fun pictures, I want to be a photographer whose photos tell a story and are more than mere objects on my desk or in my house, I don't want to take boring photos any more.

This year I will push myself, this year I will conquer this challenge (allowing myself some grace - I am sure there will be days in which I will forget to take a picture) - this year I want to enjoy taking photos every day. I want to capture this year. I am excited by 2012 - looking at it from the start it doesn't contain anything monumental (graduation, ordination, or even a big move), but I am excited to see what it contains.

Now dear 2012, how to photograph you?

I did it!

I did it! I am so very proud. I went down to the Crow Wing State Park, Dakota and I walked around on the beautiful trails, taking in the crisp crunching of the leaves below our feet and I took some pictures. I love all the fall colors that are coming out and the branches that are now becoming bare and the reds, oranges, and yellows. I loved the afternoon just walking around and playing with the puppy. It was a glorious day off. Thanks be to God for a great fall days!

The Great Bunny Move....

Last night I get a text message with a message about an ethical dilemma. My new friend is a youth director in the same town that I serve in, its fabulous to know some one. I gave her call to see what the dilemma was all about. She tells me that she was out mowing her lawn when all of a sudden she realizes she has just moved over the top part of a bunny nest. (Don't worry all the bunnies were safe, they were in the hole, she had just moved over the pile of grass and leaves protecting the bunnies.) The real problem came in the fact that she has two golden retrievers who also discovered the nest, meaning the bunnies needed to be moved or else who knows what the dogs would have done with them. So we decided to move them. In the process we took a few pictures (how could you resist taking pictures of such cute bunnies... look how cute they are) and here are a couple of the photos that I took last night. We were going to move them to the arboretum here in town but when we got out to the arboretum we ran into a man and said he would help them grow and survive and then release them back into the wild.