I will follow you.

No, I'm not trying to neglect my own challenge. I have a feeling that a few of these pictures will be like today's- not a lot of effort put forth. It's just that this puppy is waking me up a little at night and interrupted sleep makes me edgy.  And the sun isn't shining to even cast my shadow today.  No shadow.  How many hours did I spend, in my childhood, trying to ditch my shadow?! Whaddya know, I finally succeeded.

So, I'll leave you with my half-hearted attempt at capturing the one that always follows my lead, no matter what I do. (That poor sucker) If I could redo, I'd say "shadow" instead of "my shadow".  I think it would be more interesting.  Someday I want to capture a good shadow photo.

It did get light enough to snap this quick  photo.
When I started with a sassy pose, the sun ran away.
Or maybe my shadow finally got smart.
Don't blame it, either way.

Reflection

Soft.

Meet Tyson.  He has nestled into our hearts already. 

 Thank you for assisting me in the Pedro campaign, but when it came down to it- I picked the breed and the actual dog, so I figured I could give up naming rights. 

Plus, we had a family vote, and, well, Pedro wasn't that popular.  

A rose is still a rose...

We are head over heels.

I need to invite Sharyn over. *snicker* 

Street

FYI: You can always click on the photos to enlarge. 

The Strange Ranger

Over the kids spring break, we were walking downtown in the next town over and I spotted a little restaurant.  Inside, a few people were nestled around a little table.  Dusk was settling around me.  And I was itching to capture it.  Through the window.  It was beautiful.  Peaceful. But, I didn't.  It still haunts me a little.  Is that weird? Hence, the reason I was determined to conquer this "stranger" picture.  I came, I saw, I conquered, I loved.  I'll do it over a thousand times.

 Not sure if I like this better in color or black and white.  I'm a sucker for B&W. This was my favorite.  

It's not perfect, I got the door frame and the pie case, but hey.  I realized I'm also a sucker for a cock-eyed picture.  It adds a little interest. 

To do: a closer-up of a stranger. What kind of etiquette goes with that? 

"Excuse me, ma'am.  You don't know me, but I want to take your picture!" 

Or do you just snap the photo and hope you don't get arrested for something weird? 

And I'm completely serious here.  It's on a need to know basis.  And I need to know. 

I like to move it, move it.

Recently, I ran into some poppy seeds at the grocery store.  Okay, I didn't actually run into them, I just found them.  Apparently, I've been looking for seeds in all the wrong places.  (I know my sister, Tara, just burst into song when she read this, "Looking for love in all the wrong places..." I know she did, because I did.  It's something we both do.) 

The top picture is courtesy of Izzy, who- if you look closely- was able to capture bokeh in the background.  Woot!

Since I try to always have a bag of lemons on hand, I knew I was ready to tackle one of my favorites.  Lemon poppy seed bread.  Yummmmmmmmm.

(If you have a good recipe that includes real lemon juice in the bread vs lemon pudding, lemon yogurt, or the juice in the frosting- PLEASE give me a holler. This called for lemon zest in the bread, with lemon juice in the frosting.  Good, but not what I'm looking for.)  My life is about to get a little seedier.  In a lemon poppy way. It's a good thing.

For these pictures below, I meant to just put the middle picture for each of them, as they represented motion well, but I just love the sequence.  (And run-on sentences.)  The way Kaija peeks into the bowl before she throws the flour in.  Oooh. Squish those cheeks. 

 And the smile!  They both smiled after they put their portion in.  They smiled.  I would not have caught that if it hadn't been for my camera.  It paid for itself in that moment.  Ahhh, kids are happy with the little things, aren't they?

I shall be, too.  Well, once I find that perfect lemon poppy seed recipe.

There it is! Gone.

You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in and shake it all about,
You do the bokeh-bokeh and you... ahh, well.  Never mind.  SUPER CHEESY. And, some argue bokeh is pronounced more like "bouquet".  This, I learned when I was researching how to achieve bokeh.  What is it, you ask?  It's those little blurry circles of light in the background, in a nutshell.  Again, some will argue that point, too.  I've geeked out over this.

(pardon the glare on the glasses)  See it up there in the upper right hand  corner of the picture?

Or on the ice cubes in my water?

I'll have you know, I worked on Bokeh for.ev.er. I had a picture of bokeh coming from a tea pot.

(so it looked like steam) And then that's when I went ahead and deleted 171 pictures off of my computer that I hadn't burned to cd's yet.  That one included.  I died a little inside. 

While I hate to have a picture of me up here, I had to share it.  Because, I absolutely love the background in this picture.  You could see the bokeh a little better when it was in color, but I looked really washed out- so that wasn't happenin'. Zane told me he was quick trying to take the picture before I turned towards the camera.  What he doesn't know is that I knew he was taking the picture (duh, he was right across the table from me, I could see him) and so there wasn't a snowballs chance in you-know-where that I was going to look.  (BTW, if you are ever in Grand Haven, you need to try Kirby's Grill.  I swore I was in heaven there for a few minutes.)

Did you bokeh? I know these ladies will:

Leanne
Ethiopifinn
Barb
Yvonne
Cami
Katie
Ann (on FB)
Sharyn
Sue

You can find my challenge right here.