I know I told some of you that I wouldn’t stop posting over here after I started my photography blog, but I’ve realized that all I posted over here was photography… I’ve decided I’ll take a break from posting over here for now. Not sure when I’ll start again. Make sure to read the other blog instead though!
Blogging Break
Nov 23
MimiBeth Photography
Nov 13
Yesterday I said to come back for a surprise. Here it is:
Yep, I’ve started a photography blog. Right now most of it is the 30 Days 1 Thing pictures, but I’m working on getting some other things up too. Head on over and check it out!
30 Days 1 Thing
Nov 12
Even though it’s not Saturday yet, I thought I’d do another review of my car pics this week.
Day 7: I was a little worried about Sunday because I had no ideas at all. That’s kind of silly, because we actually went places, unlike most days when we stay home… Anyway, I got this picture of the car on a mirror. Not gripping, but not that boring either.
Day 8: I really like this one. Partly because I like the action shots so much, but partly because the red car isn’t really the subject, but it’s still in the picture. Reminds me of the direct object, and in indirect object in grammar… Might be a really strange comparison, but it’s what came to mind. lol.
Day 9: I had no clue what to do on Tuesday. We were getting ready to run out the door right after supper, and I was running out of time. So I got down the yardstick. In case you’re wondering, the car is almost 3 inches long. 
Day 10: Went to the park with some friends on Wednesday. I got some neat ones of the car zooming off of the slide, but didn’t get the focus right… I’m probably going to try again later in the month though. Instead I just went with this — I like the angle of it.
Day 11: This just might be my favorite so far. I was doing Math, and when I saw my word problem I thought it would be perfect! I tried a few with the car zooming across the page (Mortimer was driving 50 m.p.h—not parking), but they didn’t turn out as good as this one.
Day 12: This one is kind of neat. If you look closely, you’ll notice some mistakes I made. I had actually taken two pictures–one of the pizza in focus, and one with the car in focus. Then I put them together. I do know that cars and pizza aren’t usually on the menu together, but we’re supposed to be creative aren’t we?
Come back tomorrow for a surprise!
Wordless Wednesday
Nov 10
30 Days 1 Thing
Nov 6
30 days ONE thing has been sooo fun! I thought I’d post my first six pictures and a basic summary of them:
Day 1: On the first day, I went to my desk to get my car and realized it might look nice on that denim skirt. I love how the blue and red go together! I also like the DOF in it.
Day 2: I really like this picture. It’s the DOF again! 
The only thing I don’t like about it is that white blob. I’m not even sure what it is!
Day 3: This one may seem a little strange, but it was my mom’s idea. One person commented and said ” little red corvette at the carwash?” I guess! lol. I was washing the dishes, and as I always do with the cooling racks, I had filled in each hole with soap bubbles. Mom saw me doing it, and said, “Why don’t you put your car on there?” I didn’t have an idea for later so I went along with it. It’s good to get unique pictures once in a while.
Day 4: This is my absolute favorite so far! I had a blast setting it up, and experimenting with different settings. I love motion shots.
Day 5: The day I took this picture, we were very busy. By the end of the day I was panicking over how to compose the shot! I ended up taking it to our friend’s soccer game. I like the lighting, and how there are 2 lights on each side, with all of them “sparkling”.
Day 6: There’s nothing really special about this picture, but I do like the perspective. I took quite a few today, but this one stood out the most. I had a few with reflections, and one where you see the interior of the car, but I went with this one. I’ll re-take the other ones later in the month!
If you have any ideas, comment and let me know!
Title Translation: Photography Stuff. *grin* I love that title.
Blogs: I have quite a few photography blogs (12 to be exact) on my reader. Some of them are really helpful, and others I like just because of their gorgeous photos. A lot of them are written by professionals, but I also have a few written by people my age, who are learning just like me. Those are some of my favorites.
One of my favorites is Clicked and Captured Photography. (Her main blog has beautiful photos as well: Hannah’s Hangout.) She’s been so helpful when I email her with questions. I love it that there is someone my age that I can ask, who has time to reply, unlike most professionals.
One of my other favorites is Drew B. at MomTog. She is a professional, but she started the blog to help out other moms who wanted to get good photos of their kids. My two favorite posts on her blog are:
1. Backdrops — a great post on different background options. I love her simple idea of draping some fabric over a chair and onto the floor. Looks great!
2. Separating Your Subject From Your Background — This was one of the most helpful post I had read in a long time. After reading it (and my camera manual…) I finally figured out how to use my aperture settings. Such a useful thing to know!
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Books: The most helpful book I’ve read lately was Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Photography Field Guide. After reading it, I immediately had to see if our library had more books by him. Everything is explained so nicely in that book, with a few helpful illustrations to explain ISO, shutter speed, and aperture value better.
Another helpful one that I read recently was Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Book Vol. 1. At the start of the book, he explains that when he wrote the book, he wrote it as if you had asked him a question while on a photoshoot, and he is standing there answering. This book is very easy to understand. Some of it is geared more towards people with DSLRs, but even if you have a point-and-shoot you can still benefit from it!
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Challenges: This month I decided to join in the fun at photohuntchallenges.com. I didn’t participate last month, but since this month there are only 10 things to “capture”, I decided it wouldn’t be too hard… I’m also joining a challenge called 30 Days, 1 Item. Basically you take a picture of the same thing for thirty days. Since November has only thirty days, this is the perfect month to do it! I picked my little red corvette. This picture was from day two: (click on it to go to the album and see the rest)
The only other news is I entered a photography contest, and I made it to the finalists!!! I’ll find out tomorrow who wins. I hate the suspense. hehe. It may seem strange, but I’m actually hoping I’ll second place, because the prize is a really neat necklace with a camera on the end! It would probably the only necklace I’d ever wear.
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The Ending: I was going to say “The Corollary”, but I didn’t know if the word would really fit…. (I had just looked it up myself. My vocabulary isn’t that good. hehe) Anyway, I can’t wait for tomorrow when I get to take more pictures! Thanks for reading.
Sewing, School, and Sitting!
Oct 29
Sewing: Doll houses are so much fun! Elisabeth has made a huge one with cardboard boxes, and Emily has a Playmobil one. Right now our family room has been transformed into a town! I even set up my old Fisher Price doll house, all though it’s only being used as a storage place at the moment.
For the past couple days, I’ve had a blast making things for the dolls/houses. The dolls are only about 4 inches tall, so making clothes for them is a bit difficult. Instead I’ve mostly been making house accessories. They’ve been supplied with pillows, blankets, towels, curtains, shower curtians, and rugs. I also made a mattress with a fitted sheet, a matching pillow, and a reversible quilt. The girls want me to make more, but that was more time consuming, so they’ll have to wait. Hopefully I’ll post some pictures of my creations soon!
Here’s a tutorial for the towels I threw together really quick. Not very good, but you get the idea. (hopefully) Sorry, but no finished product picture…
School: It’s hard to believe, but we’re finishing up our 9th week of school! That means that we’re a quarter of the way done. Woo-hoo! In Math I’m learning about scientific notation and that sort of stuff. It all confuses me, but hopefully I’ll get it soon. It was very encouraging to get all my math right today, even the word problem, which was attempted without Mom’s help. 
Sitting: That should actually say “Babysitting”, but I thought it would be neat if my title had three “s” words….. :-p Two of Alison’s violin students are two little girls ages 6 and 8. They have a 2 year old sister who comes to every lesson, and I get to watch her!! I actually end up watching her and the sister who is not taking the lesson at the moment, making it doubly fun. For the past two weeks I’ve just gotten out some doll-houses and a ton of stuff to go with them, and that has kept the girls busy. We’re pretty sure that they want to get done with their violin lessons as soon as possible so they can play. lol. Friday is now my favorite day of the week!
Conclusion: (“c” is sorta close to “s” ) Well folks, you’ve just read a very rare post. It had no picture in it! (the tutorial didn’t count) That’s because I haven’t taken any pictures lately. I’d like to do a photo shoot with Alison and Emily soon, but so far it doesn’t look like it will happen very soon. 
Time for supper ! Gotta run.
Photos, Photos, Photos….
Oct 26
Last week we had the best weather! It rained a little bit, and then we had a few days with a teeny breeze, and perfect temps. The result was lots of time spent outside! We did most of our school outside, and then immediately after we’d bike/scooter around. (That silhouette of Emily is not real. If you notice, you’ll see that where the sun burst is, her skirt is still white. I still like it though!)
On Saturday evening I had a photoshoot with Elisabeth. We tried quite a few different poses and locations around the yard. Below are my favorites. On all of them I opened my PS program and did a “quick fix”, and then I boosted the contrast a teeny bit more. Doing that got rid of a gray film over the photo. Most of the time you don’t even notice it’s there until it’s gone.
Yesterday my dad told us to get our big green ball and get in the van. We all headed to the park and were going to play some sort of game. It turned into a very interesting soccer type game. The only problem was that there was just enough wind to blow the ball away every time we kicked it… We had fun though. After that we walked over to the playground. Emily played while I took pictures and the rest of the family sat on a bench.
Visit From Friends
Oct 19
We had sooooo much fun with our friends from MN! They arrived on Saturday evening, and left this morning (Tuesday). We stayed up pretty late all three nights, and did a lot of hiking, so I’m pretty tired, but it was worth it. Here are a few pictures:
On Sunday we baked a cake, and then later that night we all enjoyed the beautiful weather, while sitting and talking on the porch.
We also had a blast playing with glow sticks that night. As you can see in the one picture, we even used them as a jump rope! I did a few light drawings with them the other night, but these ones were so much neater!
Then on Monday morning we went on a hike. Actually mom, Plainjane and Emily stayed back and went to the mall instead. Afterwards we all met at In-N-Out burger and had lunch together. (no pictures of that)
After lunch we drove over Sitgreaves Pass, and went to an old ghost town called Oatman. As always we got to feed the burros. The babies were sooo cute! On our way back to the car I found a cage with three desert tortoises in it. I had no idea that they made noise! There was one turtle that paced back and forth in the cage, and another one that kept following the third all over the place. Then he started climbing on top of him! It was very entertaining!
This morning we went on another shorter hike, but I had forgotten my camera card. I was very disappointed! Hopefully we’ll get to see the S. family again soon!
Recent: Both Alison, and Emily’s birthdays were in the past couple weeks. For Alison’s birthday we had a surprise party that evening, and for Emily’s birthday our grandparents came for a visit! Both were very fun!
Also, we joined 4H this year! The group for our area started last year, and we thought about joining, but didn’t. I’m not quite sure why, but I think that it was good because now they know what they’re doing. lol. I’m only doing Photography this year. I’m also splitting the job of “Historian” with another girl. We both have to take pictures at the meetings, and then at the end of the year the group will decide how we want to display the pictures at the fair. I was already planning on taking pictures, so it worked out great!
Upcoming: This Saturday I’m hoping to go to Miss Kahoobajaz’s soccer game to take some pictures. We had gone to her first game, but since I don’t have a bunch of fancy equipment for taking sports pictures, and it was pretty dark, they didn’t turn out. This time the game is in the morning, so I should have better success.
Then Saturday evening Plainjane, Bookworm MN, and Aladybug are arriving! We got to meet them on our trip, and now they’re coming out to see us! It will be sooo fun!
Gotta run! Supper, then church tonight!
Before and After
Oct 6
Last week I discovered that I had a photoshop program called Arcsoft Photostudio, that came with my camera. After installing it on my mom’s computer, it’s been fun to play around with! Just by changing a couple things, I can make my pictures look so much nicer! I used to wonder why professionals always edited their photos, but now I see why. Here are a few examples:
Number 1: I took this picture at Cedar Breaks National Monument on our trip. I thought it was a nice picture until I edited it. Now I wonder how I ever liked it! I really like how in the “after” picture, the colors are so vivid. It’s much more like the real thing.
Number 2: This one was taken at Arches National Park. Again, the orange is brought out a lot. If you’ve ever been there/are going there, you will notice that the straight horizon line in the edit is not supposed to be there. The first picture is more accurate, but I like straight lines. 
Number 3: On this one the color change probably wasn’t necessary, but I do like how the picture became clearer. I also got rid of the post in the background. 
Number 4: This picture was taken Friday evening. We were at a Homeschoolers/4H BBQ and had a blast. When I took the picture I was afraid it would be dark and blurry, which it was…. The edit is a quite a bit better, but if it was any larger it would like pretty grainy. (don’t you love that hair? It reminds me of Pippi Longstocking. lol)
Number 5: This one I took yesterday afternoon. Same location, and same girl. Too bad her hair wasn’t still in pig tails. *grin* I love how clear the edit is!
On most of them all I did was boost the contrast and saturation, and then sharped them a tad. Now I’ll probably edit all my pictures before posting them.
Giveaway
Oct 1
Head on over to Marie Madeline Studio for a giveaway! The winner will get a beautiful quilt!
Pictures
Sep 29
So far, with one more day to go in the month, I’ve taken over 1200 pictures… *faints* Now I’m going through the process of deleting a bunch. lol. For the past week I’ve been writing a post but I keep getting writer’s block so I decided to start all over.
Recently I found a great photography site that has a forum with tons of different topics. I was browsing through them today and found this. I decided I’d try it. I probably took close to 100 pictures (the camera was on burst mode–as long as I held the shutter down it would keep taking pictures) and got about 2 that were good…. The one below is my favorite. I’m probably going to try it again tomorrow after reading some more tips.
I’ve also been practicing getting the background really blurry. I’m hoping to practice more on people soon, but this will have to do for now:
And, I took some shots of Alison during Family Devotions the other night. Well, to be exact, they were taken after devotions because Dad said that the camera clicking was distracting… I was editing it, and it got too sharp. I was too lazy to go undo it, so here it is: (notice that she got her braces off?)
And lastly, last week we went to the library. I got a few more photography books, and loved the first one I read. After that the other ones didn’t seem as good. I’m starting to think that to take good pictures you need a good tripod — and a wireless shutter button thingymajig — and this and that and this and that. Well, you get the idea. :-p This picture is a little more “greenish/yellowish” than I normally like, but again, I was too lazy to photoshop it…
Next month I’m hoping to participate in a Photo Hunt. I haven’t decided if I’ll just do it on my own, or link up with them. The hard part for me is that I can’t drive, so I have to take the pictures the few times that I go out and about. It should be fun, though!
Fun with Dad
Sep 23
Last Friday Dad took us on the first bike ride of the season. Sorry the picture isn’t the best. I was riding one-handedly, trying to get a good picture….
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Then he took us to the lake.
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The other morning I looked out the window and saw Dad pulling Emily in the wagon. I don’t think I had ever seen him do that! Our wagon doesn’t get much use, and when it does, it’s often to haul stuff around…. I went outside and took a few pictures:
I love you Daddy!
Lake Day
Sep 20
This morning our whole family went to the lake. When we got there, no other people were there so we had the whole place to ourselves. It was so nice! This was the first time that I ever took my camera, and now I think I should do it sometime when we go to the island. I could get some neat action shots!
Elisabeth and I spent a lot of time playing in the sand. We had tons of fun trying to dig tunnels, and tons of holes. The problem was that the sand was so wet, most of the time whatever you were trying to build would collapse… It was fun anyway. Alison and Elisabeth tried to build a castle/moat type thing, but the moat had to run up hill and never got any water in it. Finally they gave up. (I had already tried that and given up earlier. lol)
We saw tons of red ants, the Mallards, a heron, seagull, and a group of some sort of quail. Over all it was a great morning and I’m so glad we got to do it!
Photos, Sewing, and School
Sep 17
What you see in those photos is everything we’ve been doing the past week. In the middle photo I was trying to get a silhouette, but those things never work for me. I’m almost about to believe that you have to be a professional photographer on a beach to get it to work. grrrr. Any suggestions? I do like how the picture turned out though!
You might have noticed that quite a few were taken from the ground, or above the subjects. I’ve been doing that more lately because I already have pictures of these same people in the same places and decided it would be fun to get a new perspective. I’ve gotten some neat ones from the ground but after a while it gets old. I wish I had a hang glider or something that would help me take pictures from above. lol
I’m very excited the next month I’m going to get the chance to shadow a photographer in her studio for a little while! There will be so much to learn if I’m every going to take pictures for people so this is a great opportunity!
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In other news besides photography… The hat that I linked to in my last post turned out as a flop. Somehow the crown was bigger than the brim. When I sewed it together I ended up with an ugly pleat in it. For now it’s stuffed in a drawer and I’m not going to try that again for a while. I hate wasting fabric.
Also, we’re finishing up our 3rd week of school! Since we’re using ACE we get new books every three weeks. I love getting a new clean book to start with. Today I panicked when I had to take my English and Bible tests, only get get great scores on them. I still have to do the Science test though…. :-p But I’ve been doing better in math which makes my school days and mom’s days better. lol. I think that backing up a few weeks this year really helped.
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I’m off to go do the dishes, and then hopefully I’ll sit down to my pile of letters building up. I’m hoping to write about 9. But then, since we don’t have any stamps maybe I won’t do that today after all. ;-_
The other day I read this blog post about how a mom turned her daughter’s homework assignment into a really neat project! I liked her idea and decided I wanted to try it out.
1. Take tons of pictures. Not just any kind of pictures though. They all need to be of circles.
2. Fight your photoshop program for an hour or two to get your collage just right.
3. Admire your work and think Maybe I’ll do one of squares sometime down the road.
I did realize that the Scrabble tile in in corner there is not round. “O”s are supposed to be round though so I left it in. I liked how it looked.
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At them same time I was taking circle photos, I got distracted with the Scrabble tiles and had tons of fun! The only think that I couldn’t do and that I really wanted to do is make a word tower and take a picture from the top. The most I could stack was 4…
After some simple but fun ones I got more creative:
(It’s too bad that there aren’t any question marks in Scrabble. lol) I sorta ran out of ideas after that, and I had to go to bed so I quit. If you have any more ideas let me know, and maybe I’ll try them out!
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The only other thing I’ve done lately was to clean up our sewing table that always looks like a tornado is sitting on top of it. lol. Now that it’s clean I enjoy using it! I’m making this adorable hat right now. I even have the same fabric! I’ll probably post a picture of it when I’m done. Ta-ta for now!
Vacation Highlight
Sep 6
One of the things we did on our trip was to meet Plainjane, BookwormMN, and Aladybug! We had emailed and talked on the phone so much that it seemed like we already knew them! It was soooo much fun being with them and touring their barn/garden. We got to get the horses saddled up and then go riding, pick carrots and dig up potatoes, tour the sauna, play in the backyard, walk to the river, play with the dog Elsa, take over 200 pictures, go to a museum with them, and lots of other fun things.
Since I took around 250 photos, it was hard to choose which ones to post. I ended up picking only 6, and then combining them into strips. In the first picture I was the only one awake that morning (some rooster crowing in the distance woke me up — by the way, they don’t crow only once. They crow and crow and crow…. ). We had all stayed up till about 1:30 the night before and were all very tired! (The second night there we only stayed up till around 11:30.) In the second picture we had hiked though a jungle of weeds down to the river. Everyone just happened to be staring at it. I like how they all sort of glow around the edges. I don’t think I need to tell you about the third picture…
We had lots of fun digging around in the garden. The girls didn’t mind because it was less work for them later. In the next picture, Emily happily displays the carrot that she picked, and then ate. In the second picture I was laying down on the trampoline while Anna bounced. It was soooo hard to get a focused picture while trying not to get jumped on, and while bouncing all over the place! lol. Then lastly is Alison riding Amber’s horse. That was so fun!
Staying with these friends of ours was definitely a highlight of our vacation! They’re hoping to come see us soon, too! I can’t wait.
Hmm… Sounds like an interesting post. I’m sure you’re wondering what “phraugs” are (how do you spell that again? lol). Well, I’ll get to that later!
Bucky Balls: So a few of you have heard about my buckyballs. They are really a lot of fun! For those of you who don’t know what they are… Bucky Balls is a cube of 216 magnetic balls. Each one can be separated from the rest, enabling you to make many different things! To get ideas, all you have to do is go to YouTube and search for “magnetic cube”. They’re good time wasters! Here’s is a tea-cup on a saucer:
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School: On Tuesday we started school for the year. This year we’re using mostly ACE (Accelerated Christian Education). My sisters are using a few other curricula, but I’m only use ACE and Teaching Textbooks for math. I love ACE! I think that having the PACES is really nice –you don’t get overwhelmed with one big book. Instead you have 12 little books for each subject. It’s a very organized curriculum, which we’re not used to, but I really enjoy it! Elisabeth and I have worked ahead a bit just for fun.
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Shopping: On Monday, Mom dropped Alie and me off at Alie’s violin lesson, and then she went to Kohl’s. When she picked us up again we found a couple new blouses and skirts for us! We ended up having to exchange the skirt for a different size, but while we were doing that we ended up getting another one. I usually don’t like shopping, but if we’re getting me clothes I endure it. hehe. We’re looking for some nice blouses for me, because I really like wearing them instead of polo shirts, or t-shirts. The blouse I’m wearing right now is brown and reminds me of shirts that UPS drivers wear. 
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Violin: A while back I got a violin. Alison has sorta been teaching my younger two sisters, so now she is helping me. For the most part I’ve just played around, sometimes playing hymns, sometimes playing Suzuki music. My mom posted a video of us all playing “When We All Get to Heaven”. Tonight I had fun playing songs with Elisabeth. We were both having a great time and getting all tripped up with bowing directions and slurs… I’m hoping that someday soon I’ll be able to play for church instead of playing the flute for church. Or maybe I’ll take turns playing the violin and flute… Who knows?That’s a ways down the road anyway!
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Phraugs: Finally. I’ll tell you what phraugs are. Most of the time they’re spelled frogs. This year in school Emily has Word Building. She was complaining that the words they gave her were too easy: ”I already know how to spell frog!” After mom told her that they start with easy words and get harder, we all told her that if she didn’t know how to do phonics and word building, she might misspell frog. She might spell it frawg, phrawg, phraug, phrauwg (does that even spell frog? lol) or some other bizarre way. She assured us that she would never spell frog that way, but that’s how we got our new spelling. It wood bee phun two right a post the weigh I just wrote this sentence though. Wouldn’t it? Or maybe I’d come up with new spellings.
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Anyway, I’ve got to go to bed now. I’ll try to post more pictures soon.
Trip Photos
Aug 21
I decided that since I had so many photos to post, and I couldn’t decide which ones to post, I wouldn’t post them! Instead, I’m just picking a few random favorites to post. If you want to see more of the scenery, go to my mom’s blog.
I’ll probably post a few more individual photos, but I liked all of those and thought they looked fine small.
You also have probably noticed that I’m changing my template again… I’m trying to find one that I can post really big photos in without squishing them… I’m pretty happy with this one and will be customizing it over time.
Amy