In honor of Christmas (and just because it’s cute) Sputnick and Prissy got all dressed up to have their Christmas pictures taken.
As I’ve said before, Prissy isn’t one to like clothes, but she was still in the Christmas spirit.
Enjoy the pictures below and I would like to wish you and your family a wonderful, happy and Merry Christmas!
Every Christmas my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and my family all switch having Christmas dinner at each of our houses.
This year we are having it at ours, which is super exciting!
What’s also super exciting is that my parents decided to open presents last night.
Apparently I’ve been good all year (yeah, sure) because Santa was good to me this year! Haha.
I got a Nikon D7000, which is a HUGE upgrade to the camera that I’ve been using, the Nikon D3000.
I immediately took a quick few photos of my dogs (of course) and here are the pictures.
Most of these are barely edited whatsoever, which is something that is so nice, because on my D5000 I had to constantly edit out noise, sharpen, adjust contrast, etc.
Today was Thanksgiving dinner day for my Mom’s side of the family.
It. Was. Delicious.
This cake was my favorite dessert. My aunt Rhonda made it and it was mouth watering.
It’s a white chocolate pound cake topped with cherries, grapes, powdered sugar and sprigs of sage and rosemary for garnish.
She also made a sauce to go on top made of raspberries, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and zest.
I’m now going to go lay down and let this food coma subside.
Do you have pets?
Do your pets like to cuddle?
Do your pets like to cuddle when your preoccupied?
Do your pets
Okay, I’ll stop.
But my dogs do like to cuddle, especially when I’m asleep.
Normally, that doesn’t bother me because they just get all warm and cuddly beside me, but every once in a while cuddling isn’t what’s on their mind.
That was this morning.
They were bound and determined to get me up because I made the mistake of saying “treat” when trying to get a shot of Prissy.
I got the shot and the excited licks in the face.
Needless to say, my dogs like Peanut Butter and Oats treats.
Here’s what I was able to capture:
If you have any interest in photography, or get on Pinterest, then you’ve probably seen the pictures of the Milky Way Galaxy, or the super star-speckled night sky, or even star trails.
Here’s an example of a Milky Way Galaxy picture.
I’ve been very envious of picture like these for quite some time.
I’ve tried and failed, tried and failed, and etc.
I tried to take some again tonight.
I can’t seem to get the setting right or something.
Maybe it’s where I live in a light polluted town.
Or my aperture wasn’t set right.
Or I’m using the wrong lens.
You get the point.
Here’s the pictures that I got tonight.
You’ll notice that in the second and third picture I got star trails, which I accidentally got by leaving the lens open too long.
Star trails are formed due to the Earth’s rotation and leaving the lens open any longer than 25 seconds gave me trails.
It’s crazy to think that the Earth is moving that quick ad we don’t even realize it!
Have any of you ever done any night sky photography?
If so, how did it turn out?
I would greatly appreciate any tips or tricks!
This picture I took in my back yard earlier today.
It was so beautiful out today that I had to let the dogs out to run around and enjoy it.
The dog above, if you don’t already know, is my dog Sputnick.
And to me, he is absolutely the best looking dog I’ve ever seen.
His hair curls the moment it gets longer than an inch and looks like it’s made out of gold when he’s in the sun.
He’s my Goldilocks…. if she were a male.
And a dog.
I also edited this picture with Photoshop Elements 11.
I upgraded to it from Elements 9, and at first I didn’t think I would like the new layout and feel, but now that I’ve gotten used to it I like it a lot.
Adding actions, and using them for that matter, is so much easier.
Definitely worth the upgrade.
This is probably one of my favorite pictures of Prissy.
Most of the time she runs around constantly, hyper and full of energy.
When she’s not racing like a speeding bullet, she’s in a deep sleep under a blanket somewhere within the house.
But every once in a while, I catch a glimpse of her in the middle stage of her personality, when she’s just still.
It’s so unlike her, so alien but so cool.
I thank God for my dogs all the time because they bring SO much happiness. I really don’t know what life would be like without them.
This post is a sequel to my earlier post about State Street.
State Street is like the Main St. of my town, but since my town is split in tow right down the middle of State Street, that’s the name it was given.
I’ve been wanting to get some good pictures of State St. at night, so I asked my friend Tiffany to go with me, since she loves photography as much as I do.
It proved to be harder than I expected.
Pictures would come out grainy due to the high ISO needed and it was hard finding things as intriguing at night to shoot.
This is the Paramount theatre. I’m unsure of how long it has been there, but I’m pretty sure it’s been there since the beginning of State St. That’s why I added the sepiaesque filter to it.
This is the huge sign at the end of State Street that shows which side of the street is in Virginia and which side is in Tennessee. For some reason, I really love the grainy, blown out look of this picture.
This is probably my favorite that I took. It has such an eerie quality to it, but I love it!
I love this picture too. It’s of a railroad track and I decided to name this one “Which Side Are You On?”
I’ve been struggling recently with what to take pictures of and with creativity dealing with it.
So, I forced myself to go outside in my back yard and start shooting what I could.
In my head, I was telling myself “It’s just my back yard, how many interesting things are even out here to shoot? Let alone be creative about shooting it.”
I was actually pretty pleased with the outcome though!
This is by FAR my favorite that I took, and coincidentally, the best picture I have of Prissy.
She’s so active and moves all the time, so it’s hard to get a good picture of her.
The rest of the pictures are the few that I liked from the backyard shoot.
The first one is of some ivy growing on a tree. Nothing special.
The second one is my attempt in trying to capture texture. I thought it came out pretty good, but I couldn’t get the birds nest inside the birdhouse to focus at all.
The third is of some flowers that turned out way too bright and washed out. So, I just put it in black and white to try to save it.
Here in Bristol, there are two things that put us on the map: the founding location of country music and Bristol Motor Speedway.
I love that we are known for country music and usually celebrate that when Bristol Rhythm and Roots rolls around. NASCAR, however, I’m not a fan of. So when my Dad had told me that he had gotten us tickets to go see the drag races, you could imagine my hesitancy.
The races take place on a separate track from the main Speedway. The track is a quarter of a mile long and pretty thin. Not much to say about it. The cars on the other hand, were awesome.
There are two different types of cars that race on the track: Dragsters and Funny Cars. The Dragsters are the normal long-nosed drag racing cars (can be seen in the pictures below) and the Funny Cars are basically a huge motor covered by a metal or plastic hull with decals that are made to look like really nice racing cars.
Saying that it’s difficult to get a good picture of a car going well over 300 MPH using an iPhone, is an understatement. But the iPhone did a whole lot better than I thought it would do. Almost no blur, good clarity, and with the help of Camera Plus, good contrast and color. I totally enjoyed myself and can’t wait to go back next year. With the nice sunburn on the back of my neck, I guess I’ll fit in with the other rednecks there. Ha ha ha.
