My big practice session for photographing people was cancelled so I had to practice taking action shots of my husband, sister, and her boyfriend while they swam.  My first big engagement photo session takes place next week in Wisconsin.  My brother-in-law and fiancé have asked me to give my camera a whirl and take some photos of them.  I am nervous and excited about it.  Hopefully they turn out well!  Here are some photos of my family swimming in the pool with our puppies.

My sister and Herc

Colby diving into the pool

Brinkley stealing a sip of Brad's beer

The rock waterfall

My sister twisting off of the diving board

Colby flipping off the edge

Sisters

An artistic photo of my husband

Photos of Gamble Garden's in Palo Alto

I wanted to keep these photos separate from my last posting.  These are photos of the flowers in Gamble Gardens.  I also took a few photos of my parents and sister... they're posed, but I tried to get them not to post.... but it didn't work.

I just think this photo looks so cool.

Caught!

Flower montage...

"Trying really hard not to make them looked posed" shots

Visiting Palo Alto, CA

This past weekend I visited my Grandmother in Palo Alto, CA with my parents and sister.  We couldn't have asked for better weather (mid 70s to mid 80s) and I was really sad when I had to get back on the plane to come home.  While celebrating Grandma's birthday I was able to capture some photos with my new camera.  Unfortunately, some of the photos came out blurry and I'm still trying to figure out why.  For now, I'll only post the good photos!  We spent an hour at the Gamble Gardens which had rows and rows of beautiful flowers and some fruits and vegetables.  We also wandered Standford Shopping Center where they just planted some new flowers.  My Sister was in might fine spirits and spent most of the trip posing for me.

At the Farmer's Market.  It was hard to take a photo with people walking by!

My attempt at taking a photo without someone noticing.

A rose in the front yard of a neighbor's house.

Same rosebush just with more flowers.

My sister being a goofball.

First real shot where I had to get on the ground and under the flower to get the shot I wanted.

Too funny not to post.

Learning how to tweak a photo

Ok, I know the photo is a tad blurry, but that's ok because it's not the point of the photo. I downloaded Picasa on my computer and tried to modify the photo by enhancing the color and focus. I wanted my hair to stand out and I think I got that covered. Looking forward to getting Photoshop so I can try using a better program for this stuff! I'll be in California this weekend and hope to take a ton of photos so I can practice some more!