A few things

Way too many orders of business for one blog post. But what the heck, here we go. Feel free to bail out at any time.

1. Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's
I've *ahem* lost the battery charger for my big camera. Tragic (or fortuitous?), I still have my old camera. And after falling off a 100 year old chair, which earned me a 5 inch long dandy of a bruise on my thigh, and tossing that XTi across the room where it left a quarter inch deep gash in the table... it seems to be working better than ever. Lucky, lucky me.

Stacked up:
(this was taken with my full frame)


Winter Wonderland:
Look! We got some snow! What a bizarre winter.


Sweet:
I think Arnold has a girlfriend.


Hole:
Hey Bean, were you trying to get that cupcake into the big hole on your face? You missed.


Frozen:
I mean, not really.... frozen. That hen could be in my freezer, you know. Not that I would do that, or anything.




2. Clickin' Moms

Friends, that button on the side of my blog, the one that looks something like this...


That's an affiliate link. If you decide to become a member, and if I have been the one to introduce you to Clickin' Moms, please... please. For the love of all things photography.... click through my button when you join so I can receive credit for referring you.

If you have questions about the forum, email me. oldnicholsfarm(at)yahoo(dot)com

I'll convince you that your photography will become fabulous overnight, and you won't have to put any work into it whatsoever (at all). Ha. Hahaha! But really, it is an amazing resource.



And, yes, they have a week-long trial membership for only $10.


3. Flickr

I thought it was obvious by now, but apparently not.

I. am. on. flickr. Add me as a contact, friend, whatever. Really, it's okay.

When left-clicking is enabled for a photo on my blog, it'll take you straight to flickr to see activity/comments on that image over there. If you care about such things.


4. Project 52

There is a tab (button thing, click!) under my blog header that says Project 52. This is my little year-long photography project for 2012. Just something to keep pushing me. I'll update that page with a new photo weekly - probably Saturdays since I am a master procrastinator.


5. Carsen's Courage

I love this beautiful lady. I love her sweet family. I love her adorable kid. Her selfless determination to give him the very best of every opportunity is inspiring to say the least. Life isn't easy for Carsen, but what he has overcome already... brings me to tears.



I'm not only lucky enough to know them in real life, but to be related.

Kelly is hosting a Thirty-One bag giveaway - a great excuse to check out her blog.

If nothing else, read this post: Carsen's Courage.
(if you click, read the entire page, and have a box of tissues handy)

Late to the party

Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's!

1. What is it?



It's Arnold, the flying-trapeze circus chicken. That's what it is.

2. Children or Fur babies sleeping



3. Joy

This one only comes out of hiding when the house is very quiet.



4. Window

Taken through a wet window. Oh, MalWart, how I love to hate thee.



5. Half

That light in black and white

Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's!

1. Inspired by a Book or Movie

Grandma and Grandpa went to Alaska. Grandma and Grandpa took our little video camera along. Grandma and Grandpa showed our kiddos lots of cool movies they made, including... tugboats.

These two are headed out for a ride in their tugboat. I wanted to come too.



2. Brown

This is the best dog ever.



Except when she chews the trim off our house and kills fawns and destroys my broccoli plants and steals bread from the chickens and digs holes where I least expect them and eats the neighbor's cats and gets sprayed by skunks.

What a life.

Yeah. Otherwise she's pretty awesome. And pretty photogenic too.

3. Hazy

Mmmmm... warm hazy late September afternoon sunshine... And, oh, what's that? My kids are not only playing together nicely, but they're actually having a smashing good time? Yes, thank you. I will.



That light in black and white? Yes. Yes I will.



4. Coffee or Tea

I'm not a coffee or tea drinker, but once in awhile I add a pinch of that instant coffee stuff to my hot cocoa.



5. Linger

After church... the kids drag their feet through the gravel, hide in the bushes, and hunt whatever small creatures they can find. The wind and sun are both strong. We linger.

Random issues

Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's! It's been awhile since I played.

1. Seeing double/two

We've fallen in love.

I will send them out to the barn... I will send them out to the barn... I will send them out to the barn... I will...

Yes I will. They've only been in the house a week. It's not an issue (yet).



2. Whatever

Socks with my off-brand Crocs. Crocs? Is that even how it's spelled?

I've already proven that I'm a fashion queen.

*sigh* Whatever.



I have control issues. I had to painfully force myself to switch to shooting in plain old jpg for my own day-to-day pictures. Three weddings worth of RAW images to process pushed me over the edge. (I am not a wedding photographer. Just had a few opportunities to test the water.)

3. Sweet

I have attention issues. I forgot to change back to RAW format when we were under the mixed (artificial and natural) lighting in the coop.

My baby with one of her "beebee peep". So sweet.



Sticking my fingers in my ears while singing "la la la" and blissfully ignoring my white balance issues by slapping the ill-fated jpg straight into black and white... sweet. Okay. Not really sweet, but it works. Sort of.

4. Space

The always variable amount of acceptable minimum space between these two brothers fascinates me.



The amount of acceptable minimum space between the Older Brother and The Bean is not variable. Ever. It's starting to become a real issue.

5. Bright

Did I say I have attention issues? My goal here was to take an artistic picture of grass. Don't ask.



He was sitting on a gigantic round bale of hay (grass). I was just a little distracted by his bright shiny eyes.

The rooster is shooting blanks

Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's!

Bet you can't guess which two I took with my loyal old malfunctioning mess of a Canon Rebel. No guessing if you cheated and peeked!

Photographer friends, don't miss my big giveaway!

1. Emotion

Mother of the groom. And yes, I have the rights to post this photo. Doesn't she look young?



2. From a Flower's Point of View



Can anyone tell me what these flowers are? They're along the side of our road.



3. Natural Frame

Red Rooster, Red Rooster. Only one chick out of fourteen eggs? For real? I don't think it's fair to blame the hens. What am I going to do with you?



4. Letters

I'm afraid this is going to make you all insanely jealous. I'm sorry.



That classy thing is on the side of our house. As in, covering up the space where a window used to be.

"Baked Goods
Baked Fresh Daily
Priced to Save
You More"

Sometimes I wonder if we could get any more white-trash around here. But I'm sure it's entirely possible.

5. Bliss

Summer. Bedtime. Playing with the bus for just a few more minutes.



Just enough available light. Capturing her at this exact moment.

Bliss.

She took her own picture

Photographic Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's!

1. Classic Still Life

Classic, I don't know. Too bad it wasn't "bokeh bonanaza". The Lilac blooms aren't really flowering yet, so I focused just in front of the few that were.



2. Self Portrait

I did take a number of self portraits this week, some that I adore and some that are hilarious, but I have something way better for you.

Let me set the scene:

The day had been much too long and overstimulating, it was way past bedtime, the car ride was nowhere near over... I had exhausted every trick in my bag, including cycling through every ringtone on the phone. I was determined to keep her from going off the deep end. Finally in desperation, I handed her the remote, slapped my big camera into automatic and aimed it in her general direction.

What a mom won't do when the situation requires it...

She fired that thing like it was a machine gun.

And gleefully too.

May I present to you...

The Bean's very first self portraits:

(I swoon)







Her brother's expression pretty much sums up our entire day week.

3. On the Floor

No detail escapes her notice. And she won't stop noticing it until I notice that she noticed it. All you moms know exactly what I mean.



4. Lines

If The Bean's selfies didn't count for item number 2 above, well then, here you go. With a bunch of lines.



5. Fresh

One of you dear readers will notice immediately (you know who you are) that these aren't my tame domesticated baby asparagus. I scored them in my jungle of a swampy backyard, so I had every right to pick them.



One of you will be thrilled (ummm...you also know who you are) that I hid them from my family, so they won't be forced to endure I won't have to share the toe-nail clipping flavor amazing flavor of such a rare delicacy.

It snowed. A lot. Again.

Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's!

1. Time

There is about 2.5 seconds of time between when the Bean wakes up grumpy from her nap...



... and when she decides to "Eee Heeeeeeee!?" (see kitty)



2. Poetry

I could post a self portrait where I pretend that I have quiet moments to read.



Or I could be totally honest and get out my word magnets, and make up a fantastic little poem straight from the depths of my heart.



Really. We got another twelve or so inches of snow. It's the middle of April.

Enough already.

3. Outside

Assuming all this snow melts and we don't get any more, and assuming my garden swamp dries out sometime before July, my seedlings will go outside.

I realize that might be assuming too much.



More likely the Bean will see them from approximately this angle as she decides to grab one and dump it all over the floor.

Don't ask me how I know.

4. Zoom!

From my archives, taken the end of February.



5. Isolation

I can't decide. I can't decide.

I'll post them both.



Both taken Friday evening.

Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's!

1. Vanishing Point

Mid-March, around here, we reach the point where all hope of Spring vanishes.



2. Square Crop

The warmth of sunshine through a window on a cold winter day, while I'm zonked out in my chair pretending to read books to the kiddos = glorious.



3. Under

My cilantro that some of you have been drooling over. Under lights.



4. "Welcome to the Jungle"

There was really only one option for this. The only question in my mind was how many creatures would be involved.



And really, a container of oatmeal and discarded ducks? With alligators about, you just never know what to expect.

5. Calm