One Month Bonus

We made it a whole month, here is a bonus picture of my husband hard at work! Bring it on February!

Day Thirty One

{Home Protection} An eagle watching over his nest.  I took a photo almost identical to this one a couple of months ago, however I wanted to take one to share with ya'll!

Day Thirty

{SUNday} It has been so beautiful here the past couple of days.  Sun again today.  Our friend Adam took us out on his boat this morning, when the wind chill hit your face you were reminded that yes it is indeed still January.  Sunshine is fun for pictures.  I took so many more sun flare pictures, so I will leave you with two pictures.  The view of town from the water and my favorite shot of the day, sun flare from a little island. 

I have been working on adding a vignette in photo shop.  The outline in the first one is too sharp, obviously I am still trying to master it... along with most things related to photoshop.

Day Twenty Nine

{Sun Flare Saturday}  It was so beautiful out that I decided to work on my sun flare shots today.  We are now done with the earth work on our lot and... drum roll please... they start building on MONDAY!!! That is if we don't get the predicted snow and freezing rain, fingers crossed!

Day Twenty Eight

{Southeast Style Sunset} I feel like I either post landscape shots or lame-o inside shots.  I guess it is time to branch out, as I leave you with a landscape shot. Happy Weekend!

Day Twenty Seven

{Please Shine Down on Me} Mister Golden Sun was shining down on us today, so beautiful.  I love taking pictures like this, the only thing better is when you can see the rays breaking through the clouds! I played with my white balance too, go me!

Day Twenty Six

{Baggage} My lovely teal Coach handbag is overflowing with junk.  Can you say photo op?

Day Twenty Five

{Cupcakes} Not going to lie, today's picture was forced.  Hoping for some motivation for tomorrow.  I made cupcakes so I could take a picture of them...lame-o!

Day Twenty Four

{Dominoes}  We play A LOT of dominoes around here.  A couple of years ago while visiting Sever's grandparents we were reintroduced to the Mexican Train game of dominoes.  If you come to visit our new home in Alaska chances are we will suck you in too.  Game nights keep the mind sharp and the soul happy. 

Day Twenty Three

{Tied Up} We drive past this boat everyday on our way out to the lot.  Each day I think to myself, I should pull over and take a picture...a nice old rusty boat makes a great picture.  Today when I drove by there was an eagle sitting on the piling next to the boat, I really thought to myself...I should REALLY pull over and take a picture.  I kept driving but soon turned around, eagles don't just wait for when it is convenient for the photographer, hello!  I am undecided on which photo I like best.  I think my favorite is the one with only the bow of the boat, what do you think?

 

 

Day Twenty Two

{Sewer Line} As witnessed earlier, we are building a house.  Today we woke up and it was blowing 40 mph and raining side ways.  Around 2 o'clock the sun was out and it was beautiful.  Crazy southeast weather. We spent the day putting in our sewer line, I feel so fortunate that we are able to do all this work ourselves. We will be doing all the electrical work and plumbing ourselves too, should make for some good photos!

Day Twenty One

{Friday Night Lights} It wasn't raining so I decided I wanted to do a night shot.  It was pretty dark, but since it gets dark around 3:30 I guess that is expected.  We'll try this again in the summer.  Happy weekend followers!  Thanks for all the comments, I am trying to keep up, but you guys are so motivating and awesome!

Day Twenty

{Totem Pole} 

Day Nineteen

{Man's Best Friend} Sever spent all day out in the cold and wet working on the house.  Moser was very excited for his return home this afternoon. Sorry for the grainy photos, it is so dark here I had my ISO cranked way up.

Day Eighteen

{Oatmeal Cookies} I love to bake! Not all people actually enjoy this trait of mine because they claim I try to make them fat...say what? Well, contrary to popular belief, I am not out to increase gym memberships.  I simply fell in love with cooking and baking at an early age and continue to find comfort in being able to make from scratch a well balanced delicious meal every night for my family.  Dessert is a bonus too.  Today I decided to make my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe, it can be found on the Weight Watchers website, that's right...  :)

Day Seventeen

{Bird's Eye View} We woke up this morning and everything that had melted yesterday was ice.  It was a mess.  It wasn't until this afternoon that I was able to get out of the house.  On my way into town I passed this eagle sitting on top of the cross at the Lutheran Church.  I called Sever (my husband) and had him direct me to a higher location for my photo op.  The sky was really bright so my picture isn't as good as I would have liked, but a cool capture anyway!

Day Sixteen

{3's Company} It was pouring down rain today, we didn't get those 18 inches of snow... shocking!  We are very happy the weather is warming up so we can pour the foundation for our house next week!  Lazy Sunday picture, watching the Seahawks.

Day Fifteen

{Walking in a Winter Wonderland} Remember those 18 inches of snow?  Well, they have arrived, we don't have the complete 18 inches in fact we probably only have an inch... but it continues to snow as I type.  We went for a winter walk around the lake this afternoon. I had intentions of posting a series of pictures from our walk but decided to only post my favorite (you can find the rest of the pictures on our family blog).  Hard to limit myself to one photo a day sometimes :-) 

Important side note, I have only been shooting in manual lately and I am actually quite obsessed with getting my setting where they need to be for the best capture! So very exciting!

Snow makes Moser crazy!  He LOVES to run around and eat it!

Day Fourteen

{Berry Cold}

Day Thirteen

{Skiff Run} Chilly evening and by chilly I mean 16 degrees with 18 inches of snow predicted. A cold skiff ride over to Pennock Island.

Day Twelve

{Chilly Sunrise} On my way to work this morning I got a quick shot of the ferry leaving town. So pretty.  Sadly the clouds are rolling in and I think that means snow, which is not good for building a house.

 

Day Eleven 1.11.11

{Tragic}  I couldn't help but think of that poor little girl that lost her life in Arizona over the weekend when I saw the flag outside of school flying at half-mast.  Praying for all those involved.

 

 

Not the greatest picture, but the meaning, huge.

Day Ten

{Determination} Alright, who hasn't taken a picture and thought to themselves, I can do that better?! This buoy spoke to me yesterday, I attempted a picture with my zoom lens, which was all I had at the time, but it just wasn't as good as it could have been.  I went back down to the harbor this afternoon to tackle the buoy again. 

 

And, since I am a teacher and like to learn from my mistakes, here is yesterdays picture! 

 

Don't worry, I only got a few weird looks from fishermen. "Hey, lady...you enjoying the weather."  Thankfully, the owner of this boat was not around :)

Day Nine

{Icy Waterfall} It has been really beautiful here the past couple of days, sunny but very cold.  Today, we drove out the road so I could take some photos.  Sever lead me to this beautiful frozen waterfall.  I could have sat there all day if it wasn't so bloody cold outside. 

 

 

Day Eight

{Sunset} A star burst sunset, yeah!  I was so happy to see how my shots from this afternoon turned out!  I finally mastered the star burst!

P.S. Why do my photos look so grainy on blogger, the picture looks so much better in photoshop.  ARGH, my header is giving me a head ache too.

Day Seven

{Photo Opportunities} Our dog, Moser, LOVES apples!  This morning I was cutting up apples for my lunch when I decided to take a picture of Moser with an apple.... I had him sit nicely so it was a good angle and...

I looked through my lens to find that he had grabbed the apple!

Day Six

{Home Construction} We are very excited to be building our first home and for today's picture I took a few pictures of them working on the earth work today.  Notice the weather improvement from yesterday :)

My husband working on the geo grid wall. 

 

Ready to ROCK and roll...

 

 

And, by 3:45pm it is dark and they continue to work. 

Blog header help!

I was trying to be sassy and change my blog header, but both the pictures came out blurry?!  Does anyone know how I can fix it?

Thanks for your help!

Day Six coming soon :)

Day Five

{Compare and Contrast}  The teacher in me decided to do a little compare and contrast with you for today's picture.

Today's weather forecast, courtesy of The Weather Channel... 39 degrees, feels like 30. Heavy rain with winds out of the SE at 17 mph, gusting to 30 mph.  Really it doesn't sound THAT bad, does it?  My husband, the Alaskan says it really isn't even a storm.  While on the other hand I am about ready to head to the storm cellar, if only we had one.

Cut to the chase already, right... Today's picture was taken at the beach.  It really is a horrible picture, shot in auto sans flash.  I was soaking wet and the wind was blowing so hard, I also didn't want my camera out in the rain.

 

 Picture two was taken from the same beach just one month ago.  Can't wait for this dark, cold, winter stage to be over! 

Day Four

{Shit Kickers} The boot of Alaska, made by Xtra Tuff.  It doesn't get more Alaskan than this my friends.  My first trip to Alaska did not happen with out a trip to the M and N store in Astoria, Oregon where my Dad insisted on buying me a pair of these designer work boots.  For those of you who don't know, I am a girly girl.  Hunter boots from Nordstrom just won't cut it here.  I proudly wear my "shit kickers" however, do not wear them as my everyday shoes (like my husband).  Going out to dinner, going to work, going hunting, going fishing, going on the airplane...no matter where one is going they ALWAYS wear their Xtra Tuffs.  Disclaimer: "Shit Kickers" is a name given to these beauties by my husband... by no means said to offend anyone.

Day Three

{Resolution} I honestly think resolutions are silly, by the third week in January the gym starts to thin out, if you know what I mean.  However, there is one thing I really need to get over... my fear of flying.  I currently live on an island in Southeast Alaska, the only way to get out is by plane or boat.  My family lives in Oregon, so flying is the only option.  My husband jokes that we are going to start taking separate flights so he won't have to deal with me clinching the seat in front of me every five minutes.  To his credit I do fly much better when I am alone, because I have to keep it together. Here's to being a better traveler in 2011!

Day Two

{Labrador Retrievers} One of my favorite things to photograph!  Moser, our chocolate lab is full of personality and I am sure he will be featured many many times over the next 364 days (one day down my friends).

Moser has been at the kennel for the past 2 weeks, we were very happy to have him home yesterday!  The bummer about Hawaii is you can't take your pup with you.  

 {Confession}  One picture a day is great but two pictures a day, even better!  This is Buck, my in laws black lab.  He was literally licking the table for 15 minutes, splinters anyone?

 

Both photos shot in manual mode, how did I do? Buck has a huge shadow on his face and Moser's picture has some noise.  But hey, progress! 

Day One

Back to reality.  Hard to imagine we were in Maui last week.  Here's to a new year full of adventure and photo opportunities.  Hopefully this first post will get the excitement out of me, I was trying way too hard to get a great picture, then I was reminded that it is going to be a long 365 days if I wait for the best photo opportunity! Happy New Year to all!