Day 9 - Monkey bowls, star fruit and H2O

I'm warm for the first time today. Earlier, I remembered how I got though those long D.C. winters. I lived in the bath. My tradition of hour long baths started there. My children know the rule "If you knock on the bathroom door there'd better be blood. Or their will be" So, now I'm at my desk with a hot cup of coffee and a few dark chocolate almonds to nibble, ready to go over my extraordinary day.

My morning didn't start out all that extraordinary. I was woken by a squeaking hamster telling me he had to go out. By the time I reached conciseness, piled on several layers of clothes and got him out of the transporter, it was to late. I spent the next 15 minutes (it felt like 15 hours) in the 23° morning, trying to get him to go outside so I could say "Good boy!" but I never got the chance. All I managed to utter was "squish a hamster" and "spit that out!".

After that though, the day really picked up. I decided this morning that I was going to take on the challenge of photographing a water drop. I brewed a pot of hot coffee and cozied up to my computer to watch Youtube "How to"'s. Should you be interested in photographing water drops, may I suggest you watch this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwExpFDUC9Y




Sipping coffee and learning something fun is the best way to spend a cold winter morning. By 10 A.M I was out getting my chores done. Sweat pants for the Pixie's gym uniform and grocery shopping. My awesome buys of the day? Fluffy awesomeness in Guitar Hero pajama pants! OMD are these things rad. $7 on year end sale. I got a pair for all 3 of us. We all put them on the instant I got home.

I also got a neon yellow poster board for $.69 and a fabulous $.99 Monkey cereal bowl for my photo shoot. The Pixie LOVES the bowl and will get it once I'm done with it. By 12 P.M. she and I were back home and I was setting up for the shoot.

The BFF, who's back in town *booty dances* dropped off her spawn to be sat and she came baring gifts. It's nice to have someone in the world that gets me like she does. She knows how much I adore tacky souvenirs. This is what she brought me:

                                

Yeah, I know! Right?

After she left, I finished setting up for my shoot, while sipping hot coffee in the best mug Evva! I cabled the speedlight, set my ISO to 200, my shutter speed to 1/250 and my Aperture to 8.0. I put the speedlight on my mini-tripod and I locked the focus:

I set up for the shoot by borrowing the Pixies mirrors to reflect the light, filling the monkey bowl w/ water and star fruit, tucked the neon yellow poster board behind the bowl and started the water dripping.

Notice the blue? Yeah my white balance was totally hosed. So I took a meter reading and I was ready to spend a cold & nasty afternoon in my warm kitchen learning a thing or two.

This shot taught me that all the set up in the world don't help

IF YOU DON'T FOCUS!

This would have been the BEST photo of the day were it in focus

This one taught me when trying to photograph water

Timing is KING

This is the ONLY in focus drop I caught all day

Here I learned to be flexible

I decided just to have some fun with the monkey bowl

I never did get the shot I wanted but I learned a lot

I also had so much fun it should have been illegal

To see all the shots of the day click here

Today I'm grateful for:

Monkey bowls. Best .99 I've spent in a long time.

Fluffy man pants. Totally fluffy clearance sale awesomeness.

learning something and having fun. You're never to old to spend an afternoon just having a blast and playing with water. The biggest thing I've learned is that even if you never get the shot you wanted, there is still fun to be had, lessons to be learned, and awesome photographs will appear.

big pink Vegas mugs. They rock dude.

hot baths. Getting naked in a meat locker sucks, but once in the tub, warmness is had. Can you say "Ahhhhhh" boys and girls?

editing fun. I only got about 40 usable shots but man did I have fun in post production.

tomorrow being Sunday. I LOVE Sundays. I know you didn't know that.

God not forgetting me. Even though, in all my fun, I forgot to say my prayers. Doh! Why is it that on the two days a week where I have all the time in the world, I always seem to forget to say my prayers? I really hate that. Lucky God's cool.

The Queen getting sprung! Soon she will be home and back with the royal duo. I know they've missed her. Jackson's doing great! He will be home before we know it! I have faith in him.

my man. He fixed my camera last night and let me play all afternoon. I love him to bits and pieces.

Ha! Just could not resist one more :)