Besties Photography is Here!

For those of you who just couldn't get enough of my photographic adventures - you are in luck! My bestie Amy and I have teamed up to do a weekly photo project!

Established in 1984 and still going strong!

Besties Amy and Julie have teamed up for a year-long photography project. Each week we'll choose an adjective (from A - Z) and both take a picture of what we feel best captures the selected word. We will post both pictures side by side each week for some unplanned, but unique, combinations!

Check us out at: http://bestiesphotography.blogspot.com

Day 204 - Moola

I do find it amazing how many random things I can find around the house to take pictures of (hey - I never said they were good pictures!). I used my close-up lens here. Overall I liked the angle of this shot.

Exposure: 1/15 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 60mm

ISO Speed: 800

Day 203 - Be Delicious

One of my favorite fragrances - and I love the bottle! Turned out with a nice reflection off the dresser too.

Exposure: 1/100 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 800

Day 202 - Homemade Granola

One of my favorite breakfasts - homemade granola with milk -YUM! I love this recipe and it's pretty easy to make - only problem is that even when I double it - it only lasts about a week!

Exposure: 1/100 sec

Aperture: f/2.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 800

Day 201 - Thirsty iPod

Kept forgetting to charge my iPod - makes for some long treadmill runs! It was a late night and I was scrounging for a picture!

Exposure: 1/50 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1250

Day 200 - Camera Mittens

Woo HOOOOO - Day 200!!! Can you even believe it?? I sure can't - neither can all the hard drive space I've eaten up with 200 days of pictures! Oh well - I'm loving it and having a blast! This is a pic of one of my birthday gifts from my thoughtful boyfriend - they are gloves with open fingers (and a hole in the thumb) with a mitten that folds back so that I can take pictures outside when it is cold and still keep my digits somewhat warm! Isn't he fantastic??!!

Exposure: 1/80 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 640

Day 199 - Happy Birthday to Me

Yay - it's my birthday! We had an awesome dinner of fish taco's with coconut rice and cupcakes for dessert!

Exposure: 1/125 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 640

Day 198 - No Soup for You!

One of my most favorite places for lunch - Richard has one of the BEST soup joints in Milwaukee! I had my camera in the car today so I decided to take a few shots on my way out!

Exposure: 1/6400 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 160

Day 197 - Monkey!

I just loved these slippers that I found at Target a few weeks ago - so I bought them. A week later I convinced Ray that he needed a pair too! We would have bought Connor a pair, but they didn't have kids sizes (he got Spiderman slippers instead).

Exposure: 1/80 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 800

Day 196 - Two Shirts

Day 2 of my birthday celebration weekend and we decided to go to dinner at Corpers - I had never been before (some of the best steak in town - if you can get past the smokey supper club atmosphere)! This is what I picked out for Ray to wear - not sure he was sold on it - but he wore it (and looked rather handsome, I must say!).

Exposure: 1/400 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 195 - Chairs

We went out with a group of friends for drinks and dinner tonight to celebrate my birthday! Drinks at Indulge and dinner at La Merenda - this was our table at La Merenda. It was a fantastic night with great friends!

Exposure: 1/40 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Seed: 1600

Day 194 - Lavender

I brought my mint and lavender pots into the house this fall to see if they would survive. I'm told mint is a weed that will just go dormant (it did - brown as can be now), but I wasn't sure what lavender would do. So far the leaves are still green - just no flowers.

Exposure: 1/80 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 105mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 193 - Beautiful Sky

Now that daylight savings time has left us, getting any decent pictures in during the week is really hit or miss as its pitch black outside when I leave work. So I have been trying to take my camera to work so I can try and get out at lunch to get a few shots in. This was a shot I got of a church right next to Bradley Tech High School (on my way back from getting lunch at Soup Bros - BEST soup in Milwaukee). I did some playing with the vibrance of the colors in this one - I just LOVE the sky!

Exposure: 1/8000 sec

Aperture: f/16

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 192 - Flower Reflections

I got my hair cut tonight, and my salon sometimes has jewelry for sale. They had these awesome rings that I just had to have. This is a rink that is probably between the size of a quarter and half dollar in circumference. It chunky and funky and I loved it! It might be slightly over exposed, but I loved the look of this pic.

Exposure: 1/30 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 191 - See the Light

So I roped Ray into my daily photo today. I had wanted to play with light painting, so I got him a flashlight, turned off all the lights and told him "move around". It took a few shots - but we eventually got the hang of it! This turned out to be one of my favorite shots!

Exposure: 3.2 sec

Aperture: f/18

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 190 - Ahoy!

Ray found the cutest non-carving pumpkin decorating kits this year.... Mr. Potato Head - as a pumpkin. They were SO cute - especially baby pirate pumpkin!

Exposure: 1/200 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 189 - Boo!

Happy Halloween! What a great day for pictures! Ray was kind enough to head out with me and drive around the area to take pictures of pumpkins and decorations and everything in between! This house was completely AWESOME - they decorate like you wouldn't believe - so awesome! This pic's turned out pretty cool - it was just dusk so the light was perfect!

Exposure: 1/160 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 188 - Home

It was a beautiful fall night with a beautiful sky. This is a shot down my street. It was a gorgeous evening and the sky was beautiful. I tried to get a few pics of more of the sky, but it needed more.

Exposure: 1/1000 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 400

Day 187 - See Spot Go

Ah yes, the fire hydrant in my front yard. The not-so-subtle "don't park in front of my house" sign, and the neighbors dog's place to poop (oh - and they NEVER clean it up). Not overly exciting - but with this aged preset and a bump on the saturation - I kinda like it!

Exposure: 1/320 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 186 - Fall at Dusk

It was dusk, and I loved how the edges of the leaves looked against the fall sky.

Exposure: 1/100 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 185 - Whatchu Lookin' at Willis?

So home from work sick with some yucky stomach bug and I'm working from Ray's house. Well his neighbors apparently have a "family" of some sort living under their porch, so they have hired someone to remove them. This little guy was in the trap most of the day. I actually felt really bad for him - the would scrunch into the corner of the cage when we would drive down the driveway. Someone came and got the trap that day - so I'm sure he was just moved to a new location.

Exposure: 1/80 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 105mm

ISO Speed: 200

Day 184 - Sheet of Leaves

I was driving home from Ohio today and battling with a stomach bug - to needless to say I did not get a photo in today. Drawing from my stash a few weekends ago - I loved this one of leaves on a bush - they sat in flat sheets off the branches. The dim color adds to the overall composition of the shot.

Exposure: 1/1000

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 200

Day 183 - Big Brother

Amy and I attempted to take some pictures of her friend Carisa's kids - Ty and Gavin. Ty was hamming it up, but Gavin was not so interested. I did get a few interesting shots that were a bit less traditional. I used a vintage grayscale on this one.

Exposure: 1/1000 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 105mm

ISO Speed: 200

Day 182 - A Day in the Park

Amy and I took the kids to the Metro Park today. We thought it would be a great day to set some pic's of both kids... but Elise had other thoughts. This is one of the very few shots she let me take from afar. A few short minutes later she was yelling at me "buh BYE, buh BYE" making it clear that she wanted the camera go to away! Of course I had no intentions of letting a 2-year old tell me what to do - so I kept taking them anyhow! I used an aged Lightroom preset on this pic.

Exposure: 1/500 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 105mm

ISO Speed: 400

Day 181 - Stripes and Dots

Day 2 in Ohio and it got late before I got a picture in. I just loved Beckett's socks - the challenge was getting him to stop kicking! I was only somewhat successful as it's a bit blurry from his moving!

Exposure: 1/20 sec.

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 105mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 180 - Vintage Starbucks

I journeyed to Toledo, OH today to spend a long weekend with my bestie Amy! We had a full weekend planned of playing with the kiddos, taking pictures, going out to eat, taking pictures, celebrating Beckett's baptism and taking pictures! The 5.5 hour drive demanded at least one stop at Starbucks! This has an "aged" Lightroom preset applied.

Exposure: 1/25 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 105mm

ISO Speed: 800

Day 179 - Fall Pots

Getting ready for winter - moved my herb pots to the patio table until I decided what to do with them. I kinda liked the yellow light of the backyard spotlight!

Exposure: 1.3 sec

Aperture: f/8.0

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 178 - Haze & Leaves

Today is a cheater day, but its been a while since my last one! Good thing I had lots of great pictures from this past weekend. I took this one while playing around with different aperture settings for the same shot - this one was my favorite of the group as it kept some of the detail in the background.

Exposure: 1/250 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 200

Day 177 - Vroom Vroom

Last minute photo idea tonight - trying to capture the motion of a remote control car. The challenge was driving the car while taking the pictures!

Exposure: 1/40 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 105mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 176 - Forrest for the Trees

Last day up north this weekend and I got this shot in just before we left. I loved the lines of the trees with the backlit sun.

Exposure: 1/2000

Focal Length: f/4.0

Focal Length: 24mm

ISO Speed: 200

Day 175 - Forrest Feet

During a walk in the forrest today, we came across some props for the haunted hayride they run at night. I loved how the branch was winding around the feet.

Exposure: 1/1250 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 200

Day 174 - Trailer

We were up north this weekend so I had some new opportunities for photos. Today I was using a flatbed trailer as a subject. I liked the overall composition of this shot as well as the depth of field.

Exposure: 1/60 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600