Another Kodak POTD in Times Square!

I was so excited to find out that this image above was chosen as the Kodak Picture of Day for December 15th!  It was a thrill to have this picture up on the Kodak billboard in Times Square for a full 24 hours.  This image is special to me because I took it last December. My son, Thomas, was my model holding the ornament.  I used this photo as the cover for our Christmas cards last year.  I had almost forgotten that I had even entered it. 

Honestly, I didn't know about it until the big day had already passed.  Our family was so busy with the Living Nativity play that I had not checked the Kodak website all month.  I usually visit a few times a week as I really enjoy looking at the photos that get chosen.  It truly is an exciting feeling to have one of my shots chosen as one of the 365 shots that are chosen each year! 

The Golden Coin

I was asked by our church to shoot a picture of a little boy dropping a gold coin into a Salvation Army bucket.  They wanted to use the image in order to advertise for their Living Nativity play.  Even though we are new to this area and we have not seen the Nativity before, my husband Kendall is producing the play this year!  

The main story of the play is about two boys who learn about the miracle of Christmas from a salvation army bell ringer.  If you want to know more than that, Kendall says "come see the play and find out." :)  Needless to say, we are quite anxious to see the whole thing, which includes a realistic nativity scene with donkeys, camels and sheep (oh my)!  It takes nearly two hundred people working for several weeks to pull this off, but the church is amazing, how people just come together and get it done.

Thomas was our little hand model for the image above.  Poor little guy, it was rather cold, but he was a real trooper. He held as steady as he could over and over again until I was satisfied with what I captured.  Kendall was the bell ringer in the background and he was quite a trooper as well.  Overall it was a great learning experience!  I am pleased that they decided to use the image on their web page for advertising purposes for the play!

Cable Bridge

Last week we went up to Ritzville, WA to meet our wonderful friend Lynn.  We have known Lynn since our college days at the University of Idaho.  She now lives across the big pond in Cornwall England.  We feel so lucky to have gotten to have a bit of her vacation time back here in the States spent with us.  It was so fun to reminisce about our college days with her, talk about our current lives and look ahead to what the future may hold for all of us.  She leaves tomorrow on a jet plane back across the big pond to her new life in England. I miss her already! But, thanks to facebook we keep can keep tabs on each other on a regular basis. Ah, the marvels of technology.  

The above photo is what we captured on our way home from Ritzville. We have heard about the Cable Bridge since we arrived in the Tri Cities in August.  We had never really taken the time to stop and check out the bridge.  Of course since we pulling into the Tri Cities right as the sun was setting it seemed like a great time to go check it out! It was a might bit chilly and the wind was blowing just enough to make the late autumn air even more cold.  We searched for a place to park as we raced against the sun.  There is a lovely paved trail that you can walk along the Columbia River and take in all of the beauty that the river has to offer.  I got this shot from that walk way just as the sun was sinking behind the mountains.  I did not realize how immense the Cable Bridge is.  I was actually having a hard time getting the whole span of the bridge in frame. I always knew that the Columbia River was mighty but being that close to the river and seeing how large that bridge was,  made the Columbia even more impressive.  

It really was a spectacular sight. If you are ever in the Tri Cities area I highly recommend you check out the Cable Bridge.  If you can check it out at sunset that would even be better.  The sunsets around here are indeed beautiful!

Let It Snow

Lately I have been working on getting all of my images organized and backed up.  While looking through some of the images I came across this one of Thomas, my son, taken almost two years ago when we went to Idaho to visit his grandparents for Christmas. It was a fantastic vacation spent with our extended family.  The icing on the cake was when it snowed the second day we were there. All of the kids were so excited!  I loved this image of Thomas trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue.  It represents to me all of the carefree fun we had that day.  Do you remember the last time you stopped and tried to catch a snowflake on your tongue? You really ought to try it. There is nothing better than letting out our inner child once in awhile.  Just think of all the fun you can have!

COJ Waterfall

This is a little waterfall that I found on the grounds of our church. It is tucked away in a beautiful little prayer garden.  The water runs from up above the little falls from a coy pond and then makes its way down under a foot bridge then ultimately falling down to this area.  I had noticed about a week ago that the trees were really starting to drop their leaves and at the time, this little area had just a leaf or two floating in the water.  Yesterday, between breaks in the rain, I decided to venture over and see how things were progressing.  I was so excited to see all of the fall color that had accumulated during the week.  

My next goal was to experiment with leaving my shutter open for different lengths of time to see what worked the best for achieving the silky water look.  I have experimented with this technique a few times  but it is really a work in progress for me.  I plan on visiting this little water fall again as the seasons change to keep playing with getting that silky water look.  The image above was one of my favorites from yesterday. 

Just Golden

I couldn't resist posting this leaf image.  This is another shot from our walk to the local park. The light that afternoon was so beautiful. I must admit, that is one of  things that I have loved about the new area we live in...the sweet golden light that I have been seeing on these late autumn afternoons. It just bathes everything it touches giving it a wonderful glow.  This day was no exception.  I found myself looking up into the canopies of the trees which seemed to cover me like an umbrella.  I was mesmerized by all the of different shades of gold and orange.  The tree limbs and branches really stood out against the blaze of color.  It was an awesome sight that is for sure.  Fall is truly one of my favorite seasons!

An Afternoon Walk

We took a late afternoon walk with the kids this past Sunday. It was a gorgeous afternoon here in Richland.  The air was crisp and cold...invigorating really.   Kailtyn had found this little street (above) with a park nearby on a recent bike ride she had taken and she was anxious for us to see it.  She really wanted me to see all the trees that were there and see them in all of their seasonal glory.  Of course she encouraged me to bring my camera along. I feel like the most lucky mom in the whole entire world.  My kids are always telling me about something they saw that they thought I would like, usually followed up with the phrase "Mom it would have made a great picture, I wish you could have been there!"  I truly value the times that we can spend together and I am so blessed that they understand my craving to take pictures and capture the beauty that I see around me.  I hope that I can teach them to value the beauty that is around us all the time.  I just want them to learn to take the time to slow down sometimes and enjoy the world and everything that surrounds them.