Dillierama

Best Shot Monday

This was one of my favorites from the other day when I was trying to take a portrait of Alex.

Best Shot Monday

Our city had a hot air balloon festival on Saturday. I figured since my son has a near obsession with helium balloons, that he would just loose his mind over the hot air variety.  For the most part he did except when they'd shoot the fire into the ballon, then he'd wrap his legs as tightly around my waist as possible and bury his face in my shoulder. 

In the evening they had a "balloon glow" where they'd put up the ballons and the fire would light them up.  It was really cool.  I took lots of pictures from both the morning lift off and the evening glow, but for some reason, this is my favorite.

Best Shot Monday

This is not the best picture I've ever taken.  This picture, if you don't know my son, probably doesn't even say anything to you.  But to me, it's a triumph!  That thing in his hand?  It's a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  THAT HE ATE!  The whole thing.  Without complaint.  There was no flinging of bread on the floor, no squishing of peanut butter in the fist, no rubbing of jelly in the hair.  He didn't even try to shove the sandwich down his diaper.  He just smiled and happily ate his entire sandwich (well, it was just a half sandwich to begin with, but for a kid who eats a maximum of three bites at a meal, on a good day, a half a sandwich may as well have been an entire roasting pig).  I'm still in shock.

Best Shot(s) Monday

I went on a hike with a photography group at the Albion Basin over the weekend.  I took about 150 shots and liked three of them.  I am terrible at landscape photography, and even after spending three hours surrounded by beautiful scenery, I came home with further proof that, for whatever reason, landscape photography is just not my forte.  I can't seem to find my subject and all my pictures look flat and boring.  I think my problem may be that I get overwhelmed by how beautiful the scenery is and I try to get it all in one shot.

Anyhow, here are the three I liked:

Best Shot Monday

Forget Bob the Builder, it's Alex the Builder!

Best Shot Monday

A rare moment of peace.

This was taken late Saturday afternoon.  John and I had escaped to a matinee (Transformers, more than meets the eye) and left Alex with his aunt Heidi.  She came over right at nap time and I expected him to crash shortly after we left and sleep until we got back, allowing Heidi to do some work she'd brought home for the weekend.  When we came home, Heidi told us he didn't sleep a wink and spent the entire time tormenting her dog Doobie.  Poor Doobs.  About 20 minutes after she and Doobie left, he zonked out on the couch looking so angelic you'd never know he'd spent the afternoon throwing toys at a Cocker Spaniel.

Best Shot Monday

I shot this while trying to walk the Jordan River Parkway, at 3:00 in the afternoon in 90+ degree heat.  We did not make it very far.  All of Alex's yogurt covered pretzels I'd brought him for a snack melted.  There was a gigantic fly harrassing me the entire time, buzzing around my ears. A bee flew down my shirt and I freaked out causing Alex to laugh hysterically.  Basically it wasn't all that fun, but, I got a pretty picture of a flower.

Best Shot Monday

I just love the smile in this one.  He's happy about his new mohawk hairdo.

Best Shot Monday

I'm going to start participating in Best Shot Monday over at Picture This.  I may even get into Theme Thursday, you never can tell.

I picked this shot from last week because it reminds me so much of everything summer.  Playing outside, being cold and wet from running in the sprinklers and not wanting to go inside, so you just drink from the hose.  It's also a cute shot of a daddy/son moment.

The object of my affection

After much research and an obscene amount of fondling different dSLR camera models, I finally decided that the camera that best fit my needs and our budget was a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi.  I made my case to John, as I have almost weekly for the last year, about why I simply NEED a dSLR (this week's argument included such things as our upcoming trips to Boston and San Diego, pretty spring flowers and of course Alex) and surprisingly, his response this time was "Why don't you take a ride to the camera shop and get one?" So I did.

Even after exhaustive comparison shopping, when all was said and done, I still ended up spending more than I wanted.  I should have just bought it on line.  There's no one pressuring me into buying stuff I don't really need.  I did OK though, along with the camera body and basic 18-55 lens, I bought a 2GB memory card and a lens filter.  I survived the hard core sales pitch on the dangers of not buying the service plan (including but not limited to; running over my camera with the car, having my dog chew on it - I don't have a dog, having it snatched by wild animals and buried in the woods only to find it days later after worms and insects have infiltrated the camera body and lens), but they got me on the frequent shopper membership.  I did walk away with free photography classes that I'm starting next week which I'm very excited about.

Even though this purchase was well researched and in no way could be considered an impulse buy, I still suffered a bit of buyer's remorse.  I called John from the parking lot of Inkley's in a panic, absolutely certain that I'd sent our family into financial ruin with my purchase.  John assured me that we wouldn't go broke or loose the house because I'd bought a camera and to think of it as my 2006 year end bonus (we like to joke about my being employed by John now that I'm home full time.  Complete with monthly reviews, quality checks and year end bonuses).  All the anxiety went away once I took my first few pictures with the new camera.

 

I fell instantly, madly, wildly in love with my new camera.  So much so I would have slept with it resting next to me on a velvet pillow last night if it weren't for Mr. BoogerBeak still feeling sick and needing to be cuddled by Mommy all night. 

Now I can stop training Alex to smear boogers all over Grandma Jen's Nikon D80 so that I can innocently offer to wipe them off, only to steal away it.  Jen, your camera is now safe.