A year in pictures...

I've not always been the best blogger this year but I vow to improve - heck, I'll have a brand new subject to take photos of come March!

As a response to a posted challenge on the photography board I frequent, I've assembled my year in review photo set.  It was a bit tricky because there were a few months in there where we had only one folder of photos!

Here goes nothing:

January - Hiking in Shenandoah National Park

February - Baby Shower #1 for my cousin-in-law, Jessica

March -My pasty white feet on their first foray in flip flops after a long winter.  Shot while in Miami, FL.

April - Washington D.C. Cherry Blossom festival

May - My first foray into TTV.  This was the lavender outside in my garden.

June - Trip to Germany and Switzerland.  Two weeks in the most amazing settings!

July - Surprise! We're expecting!

August - Macie, our Vizsla, was having a good time this day.

September - Last backpack trip for a while (18 weeks pg) to Yosemite National Park.  Fletcher Lake in the picture.

October - Jesse and Jessica's wedding (cousin and cousin in law).  Great pic of the family (yes, we're that strange)

November - Nephew B hamming it up for the camera

December - 30 weeks pregnant, home made maternity shots done in our foyer.

Sno-puppy...

Mother nature was very generous the past few days and bestowed a large amt of snow upon us in a very short period of time. She was courteous enough to do it over a weekend even! However, it happened to be the weekend before Christmas when we needed to shop the most. Oh well - at least we got some good shots of Macie playing in the snow!

Approximately 30 hours and 24 inches later, we woke to a winter wonderland where snow was a high as Macies shoulders.  Lucky for us, she loves the white fluffy stuff!

The shots below were out of our Point and shoot camera surprisingly (as I wouldn't let hubs take the big expensive camera across the creek and out to the soccer field in 2 feet of snow...)

The only post processing on this was to lighten her up a bit - in contrast to the white snow she was kind of dark.

Macie...

So, I've not done a post about our little Macie in some time so I figure one is due! She's fully grown now we think and as funny as ever! She'd rather spend the day outside than inside even if it is to just lay in the grass and gather ticks (ick!).

She's turned out to be one amazing dog and we can't image our life without here.

She's growing up so fast...

This past October our pup turned one year old! Then just this past Christmas we celebrated our one year anniversary of bringing her home. It's hard to believe a whole year has passed and she's only been with us that long. She's such an integral part of the family now it's strange to think of our life without her.

These pics are from a quick walk around our house. There's a path about a quarter of a mile away that's deep (deep for us anyway) into the woods where we can let her roam for a bit untethered.

Then Mark found a great log for her to jump. We spent about a hour throwing sticks back and forth over the log while the other took pictures of her having fun.

Phew...

This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting my brother and his girlfriend and their dog, Buckley. You've seen Buckley before on here and I thought I'd show you all what our weekend was like with two adolescent dogs.

This play fighting continued most of the weekend - I don't know that either of them slept more than 10 min at a stretch, even at night!

Their crates had to be separated because they refused to stop talking to one another in the middle of the night (2am guys...not cool!)

Had to do it...

I know you're probaby tired of my dog but she's so darn cute! She's a definite comfort seeker. In a room that has basically a computer desk, book shelf, and basket of blankets, she found the softest most comfortable place:)

Pieces of Macie....

So you'll find that I take a lot of pictures of our Vizsla Macie. There are many reasons for this. She's patient (usually), she's pretty (always - but i'm biased), she's good for a laugh (or a frustrated yell), and well, she's here sitting next to me all the time and so is my camera. Like any loving puppy mommy who likes to take pictures you want to capture every emotion and funny pose she does. Well, okay, maybe I'm a little crazy but you have to agree - she's pretty:)

Yesterday she was sunning herself in our bedroom on the floor and I just had to snap a few. I call this set - Pieces of Macie:)


Whaddaya think?

Introducing the Animals!

So I know this is an adventures in photography blog but I thought I'd introduce you to a few of my friends. All the pics were taken by Mark or myself so it's still an adventure in our photography.

These are the various animals in our lives. To the left is our pup Macie - a now 5 month old Vizsla whom I've written about before. That pic was taken when she first came home with us. I'm amazed every day how more and more she starts to look like an adult. I swear, I blink and she grows!!!

The next pup - to the right - is the boxer Buckley. Buckley belongs to my brother and his girlfriend Caty. Buckley is a ball of energy and at 7 months has recently taken up eating shoes as a hobby - much to Caty and J's horror!

Macie and Buckley torment their older and much wiser but also cranker granddaddog - RC! RC belongs to my parents and is my childhood buddy. He's 14 now and still has quite a spark in him despite the terrier tumors that are so common to his breed late in life. You can see the second head growing on his shoulder in the pic.

The kitty below belongs to my in-laws. This is Bandit and she hates everyone but my mother in law. I'm lucky that I got this close without getting bit or swatted at. She has no claws which with her - is a blessing. Yes, I know that declawing is a rather inhumane thing to some folks but seriously, you've never met Bandito and if you did you'd understand why it's such a great thing!

The last picture in this group is our neighbors dog Cody. We had the pleasure of dog sitting Cody last summer (before we had Macie). Cody's a rescue from the local shelter and we think is a mix of lab and cockerspaniel. He's an awesome dog with lots of energy and was intrumental in getting Mark and I used to the 6:30am walks that active dogs need. He and Macie are best buds and play hard anytime we let them outside together.

Lazy blogger

Okay, so I vow time and time again to blog more and post more exciting information and time and time again I fail. I'm just too lazy or perhaps it's that I just dont have much to say so...I'm going to try something different. I'm going to pick a picture or two from the over 2000 images that Mark and I have taken over the last few years and use that as my muse, if you want to call it that.

This post is an ode to my new puppy - Macie! Macie is a 4 month old Vizsla that loves to snuggle just as much as she likes to cause trouble and run around!

This is the pup lounging on the couch. If you're sitting there, she's much more comfortable on your lap than on her own but hey, she'll take what she can get!

This is Macie out on a run in the snow. We took her out to our local park to let her do some off leash romping. I think she was ready to take flight here!! She's not entirely in focus but it's the best we could do with no tripod and low lighting.

Since this blog is supposed to be about our adventures in photography I'll add a tidbit about photoshop and how it helped me on the second phone (the flying doggy) to pull back some of the shadows on a very dark photo. Because we had low lighting the original photo came out really dark (I'll have to add the before later once I find it). Using the "shadows and highlights" tool in the new Photoshop CS I was able to bring out the underlying colors. You have to be really careful not to over do it or the image starts to look a little stereoscopic!