More random shots

These are just some random shots I took in the last few days, when looking for my "pictures of the day".

The honeysuckle that grows against our balcony


More books, these are just a tiny portion of the ones in our entrance hall






I guess I'm just as obsessed with Bionicles as the boys are... LOL

Old and New

This tap is at the back of our garden.

Weigh in - Week 3

At least this week it goes in the right direction! :)
Still with a gain since I started but I'm headed the right way this time.

Starting weight: 85.55 kg
Last week's weight: 86.30 kg
This week's weight: 85.80 kg
Total loss so far: -0.25 kg

Final goal weight: 70 kg

Red Robin

I was so happy to see a red robin in the garden! We don't see them very often around here and I think they are super cute. This one looks like it's still pretty young, it's all fluffly.

Playing around with my photo editor

I really like this "poster" effect from my photo editor, so I've been playing around with it.

Some miscellaneous pictures

This is the inside of the roundabout from the street fest


One of my footprints in sand


The chocolate aisle at the local supermarket! LOL


I've been taking my camera along to all sorts of places lately, which I'm sure you can guess thanks to the randomness of this post! ;)

Blue eyes

Portraits

While learning to use my camera, I've been trying to take better pictures of the boys and I have been practicing with portraits. Here are some that I found interesting.

In this one, I love that you can see myself taking the picture in Connor's eyes


I played with the colour controls on this one and also created a black and white version. I'm not sure which one I like best, so I'm posting them both




On this one of Logan I played with the colour controls quite a bit

First bicycle lesson

Today, Logan had his first bicycle lesson. He has been riding his "walking bike" like a champ for a while, so we thought he was ready. Once he learnt to deal with the frustration of having to learn (and after a major tantrum), he did pretty well for a first time. His balance is already very good thanks to the walking bike, he just needs to learn to pedal now. Here are a few pictures







Of course, when Logan was done, Connor wanted to have a go too. I was really surprised at how well he did. I did hold the handle bars a few times, but most of the time only had to hold onto the saddle. I think the walking bike has also had great benefits on him. Here are the pictures







And after the riding, Connor went to Logan for a cuddle and then Logan decided to pick him up (he loves showing us how strong he is!).

Street fest and playground

This week-end is the annual street fest in our - small - town. So, we took the boys there early on Saturday morning. Not much was going on, but the roundabout was open so they had a go at it.

Connor was in the Police car for his first round and chose a pink rabbit for his second


Logan was in a flying thing of some kind both times


Here are my three guys walking from the fest to the playground


The boys had lots of fun at the playground


I love this one, you can see Connor's crazy hair at the back! LOL

Drooling

I took this picture at the baker's this morning. I played with the colour controls and then used the posterise function. I love that effect! :)

Hand art

Today's theme: Hands/B&W

This is a detail from a canvass on which the boys have made hand art for us. They did this as a surprise with their babysitter when we went away for a week-end without them and gave it to us when we came back. They were so proud!

It's now hanging on the wall in our living room.

Blue skies?

OK, if you've been reading this blog you'll have noticed that I have a soft spot for cloudy skies ;)

So many people are extatic over blue skies! I really don't understand what the fascination is about. Really, what is the interest of an immaculate blue sky? It really isn't very interesting. A cloudy sky on the other hand... Now, that IS something fun to look at. :D

Just a couple more

This was this afternoon. I just loved the "hole" in the middle of this big cloud with the sun rays poking through it and at the top


And this is tonight at dusk

Bionicles?

We introduced the boys to bionicles a couple of weeks ago. Wow, the least you can say is that they love them! They have been obsessed with them ever since. It's constant bionicle fights in the house!

I wonder what is so appealing about them? The fact that they look like robots? The facts that they "kind of" transform?

Anyway, Logan and Connor constantly want to have Bionicles fights. They have one and I or Tim need to have another one and we all fight, bumping into each other, diving onto another one, sending big balls of fire...

I guess this is just typical boys play and the Bionicles are just the medium here. When I think about it, their play with cars or "real" animals are not that much different...

Oh, in case you don't know what a Bionicle looks like, here is one of theirs:

Pleasure

Today's theme: Faces/Shadows (no flash)

Why books on a shelf? Because we have sooooo many of them in this house that we are almost invaded. But, books bring so much pleasure in life!

More clouds

Because I just love cloudy skies. It looked interesting this afternoon so I snapped a few shots. I processed this picture a little bit. I played with the saturation to bring the blue out.

Some pics that didn't make the selection

Here are a few shots that I worked on and didn't select for my photo of the day but that I liked enough to keep.

This one is the center of a flower, you can see some pollen. I really like the mix of the vibrant colours here.


This is a close-up of a a buckle on a pair of Birkenstock. I really love the pattern on these shoes.


Some grass with raindrops on.


As you can see, I'm still working the macros, I'm taking my time working my way through my camera's features. ;)

Fire

There has been a change in the theme choosing for my group's photo challenges. So, I decided not to follow a theme today. As of next week, we will have a theme of the week.

I just walked around the house to find interesting things to photograph, still working on my macro mode. I did take pictures of different things but settled my choice on this toy dragon.

Weigh in - Week 2

Definitely going the wrong way :(

Starting weight: 85.55 kg
Last week's weight: 85.90 kg
This week's weight: 86.30 kg

Pear tree

Today's theme: Nature

Condensation

This is another picture I took as part of my photo challenge of the day. I didn't try to go for the reflections this time and I think it turned out better. I'm experimenting with the macro mode at the moment and trying not to use the flash.