Photographing Snow at Night

How to take pictures of the snow at night without using a flash of any kind:
Make sure you're shooting in one of the Manual settings (Manual, Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority), and set your ISO really high... to atleast 800. I shot the following photo at ISO 1250. So fun. I could have done better and actually captured the little snowflakes instead of little streaks if I had played around with the settings a bit more, but my camera was getting soaked, so I felt rushed. Yes, I take a lot of pictures of our sidewalk. I can't help it! It's pretty! :)

This, obviously, was during the day (taken out of our car window while in the driveway, actually, hah)... but I shot high at ISO 800 to capture the snowflakes. So pretty! :)

Max's Baptism

Patrick and I are Godparents. It was fun to get all dressed up and everything. Today, Patrick's sister, Sarah, and her husband, Nick, baptised their youngest son, Max (he was born right before our wedding back in September).

I love an excuse to get together with family, friends and good food, so today was no exception! :)

The snow this afternoon was AMAZING! Ohhhh, my goodness - it was like storybook-snow! Or Christmas-movie-snow! Ugh. It was perfect. I was euphoric, haha. Perfectly fat, fluffy snowflakes floating down everywhere. It was just so beautiful. I still can't get over it, hah.

Yale's getting so big. He looked really cute in his little blazer and collared shirt.

Gettin' Gwocewies

(I cut my bangs.)

Learning to Play Guitar and Finally Some Snow that Sticks!

Patrick is helping me indulge my inner musician. (I'm a really good singer, and he's teaching me to play guitar. :) My fingertips are really sore from playing tonight for the first time in a while... I learned my first song, ever, though! Well, the intro, anyway. It's "Don't Call Me Peanut" by Bayside. I'm proud of myself. It's so fun! I can't wait to get my own guitar with SOFT strings, hah.

How cool was it that we had thunder, lightning and fresh, pretty snow this evening?! The roads were absolutely terrible, but I love driving standard because being able to downshift makes me feel safe. Oh, and maybe I'm the only one who didn't always know this, but when the roads are slushy, it's much easier to get moving from second gear (rather than first) because the tires are much less likely to spin. ;)

Oswego is so pretty.



That's the stairwell going up to our house... I love our sidewalk. It's just pretty, haha. Everything looks so pretty covered in fresh snow!

Art Therapy

I need to make time to paint more. It's therapeutic to me..
I need to create fine art. It's vital to my happiness.

A Chilly Afternoon at Rice Creek and Fallbrook

A nice day which involved a couple hours of exploring trails at Rice Creek with Patrick, my stepmom, Debbie, my brother, D, and all of our dogs! Oh, it was so fun. The chilly air was crisp and refreshing, and the canines all had a blast. They were pretty much deliriously happy, haha. You can see it in the pictures. It was really cute.

We were out there for about 2 hours... As soon as we got back to the cars, it started raining/sleeting... Talk about perfect timing!

Turkey Shoot

I'm vegetarian, but this game is mind-numbingly addicting, haha.

Click the picture to play.

Farnham Unplugged

Thursday, Patrick and I photographed an awesome fundraising event for Farnham Family Services, one of Step One Creative's non-profit clients. It was held at The American Foundry - an absolutely fantastic venue that does a wonderful job at every single event we've been too.. weddings, fund-raising gala... and this year, the Oswego-Fulton Chamber of Commerce's holiday dinner social will be held there, too! I can't wait! The food is excellent, the musical performances were top-notch, and there were some beautiful art pieces there, as well. It was such a great event to be a part of. Good music, good food, good people... and all for a great cause.

The painting of the Fair Haven Bluffs is mine. :)

Visual DNA ... This is fun.

I love analyses that tell me things about myself in a much more simple and eloquentl way than I could describe myself, haha.

This one is based on your selection of themed images. The accuracy of mine is RIGHT ON!

Visual DNA


Here's a sample of the first "question".

Old Forge for the Afternoon with Patrick and the Boys

This morning, Patrick and I decided to take Jade and Jagr to the Adirondacks for a few hours. We haven't had time to make it up there at all this year (despite having plans numerous times, but other stuff always came up, so we had to keep putting it off). Well, today was finally our day, and it was lovely! We left around noon, spent a couple hours hiking McCauley Mountain and walking around Old Forge's sweet little village, and then we headed home at, like, 5.

The boys had an absolute BLAST. First, we stopped at the Moose River. I couldn't believe how high it was! I was hoping to be able to walk out on the rocks like we always do and get some really nice shots from the middle of the river, but that definitely was not going to happen, ha.

So, we headed into Old Forge and went straight to McCauley Mountain. Jade and Jagr bounced all the way up the mountain together, and we pretty much had to stop them from having any fun on our way back down because we were afraid they were going to way over-do themselves and end up being really, really sore! They just don't know when to stop, hah! So, to wind down, we headed back into the village and took a nice, relaxing stroll along the boardwalk by the lake and then headed home. :)

The photo below was just one of those photo opportunities that randomly presents itself, hah. We were sitting in roadwork on 104 East heading out of Oswego around 12:15 or so, and I just had to photograph this scene. Nothing exciting, but it was lunchtime, and just like the simplicity of the moment.

Umm, this is in Osceola, just before you get to the State Forest.

This is somewhere on County Route 17 in Redfield..

I love this shot of Patrick getting the boys excited on our way up the mountain. Jade's ears look so cute. :)

Doberbuns! They were quietly watching a deer. They're so polite, haha.

A shot from almost at the top of McCauley Mountain. 

The cool, gentle breeze up there was Heavenly... So was the view!

Ahh, me and my babes.

Heading back down the mountain..

Oh my gosh, these girls were so cute! When we got back into the village, Patrick spotted these does walking down the sidewalk. How cute is that?! I quietly walked over to them, and they didn't mind me at all. It makes me sad that they are so trusting of people, though... Anyway, they were beautiful, and it's always neat to be accepted by wildlife like that. :)

So sweet!

This was adorable! We were heading back across town to go home, and as we were walking across the bridge, Momma and her fawn were walking across the bridge, too! The dogs were FASCINATED by this, haha. They didn't know what to do with themselves! So cute.