Taking Dominion Tea Party

Photos from a "Taking Dominion Tea Party" I attended yesterday with several friends and their daughters from church and our homeschool group. More details about the tea party can be found on my main blog. [ click here ]

Post processing: defog via unsharp mask (learned "defog" from Stacy's blog at The Land of K.A.) and also adjusted the curves and contrast a bit.

Happy Independence Day!

Taken last week with my Lumix DMC FZ-18 camera
A Phoenix church does its fireworks the Sunday before the 4th

We enjoyed a wonderful Independence Day celebration with several families from our church ~ a BBQ potluck at our Pastor's family's home. Below are some pictures from our fellowship time together:

Our pastor grilling hot dogs, kabobs, and burgers

2 layer (red/blue) Jell-O Stars! Mmmm....
Couldn't resist taking a shot of this!

Terry Productions: An Independence Day Puppet Show

Having Fun With New Camera!

I can't believe the difference in the quality of shots with a DSLR from a P&S camera! I've been playing around with the various settings and took these two shots today. Ken Rockwell's site has been a great help to me, especially in setting the exposure compensation and optimized image settings. I love the color saturation from Nikon images!

I did not do any post processing, with the exception of a tiny bit of sharpening -- only because I wanted it as clear as possible. Even if I didn't sharpen it more, the shots were still quite sharp. Amazing!

New Camera & Assignment: Feet

I am so excited! I purchased my first, new DSLR camera yesterday -- the Nikon D40. Woo-hoo! The D40 was the most affordable, and with enough features that I wanted for a beginner photographer like me. Also because I was too impatient to wait to purchase the D80 or D300 (and because my dh didn't want me to buy a used or discontinued model). :D

I've already taken some pictures and it is so awesome. Of course, I have a lot to learn with this camera. It's a lot different from the Panasonic DMC-FZ18 I was using (an ultra zoom p&S). Our son now has the FZ-18 and is excited to learn as well. I'll post some of his shots in the future.

The purchase came in time for me to take shots for the current DPS assignment: "feet". I had a difficult time finding a creative shot for it -- maybe because I was too enthralled at all the new features to learn on the D40. :) (Gabe, I even tried your suggestion but it wasn't working for me. LOL). So I opted for the traditional shot.

The above photo is a shot of our son's feet dangling from his loft bed. I had to do some post processing to get it a little sharper (remember, I just got my camera? ;) ) and also to add a vignette. But not bad for a first DSLR shot, I think. :)

Off to have more fun with my new camera.... :D