4 People 12 Times (plus lots of other pre-class photos)

Photographer Tara Whitney has challenged her family (and others) to pose for a family snapshot/portrait once each month for a year.  You can read about it and see her pictures here.  I've been wanting to join in, and Mother's Day seemed like the perfect day to start since each Mother's Day all I ask for from the kids is to let me take a good portrait of them and for them to wash/detail my car.  This year, I added participating in the "4 people 12 times" project.  It's hard for them to refuse me on Mother's Day.  So, here we are, in our living room on May 9, 2010.  Henry is 15; Clara (almost 12) insisted on holding her cat J.J.; Paul had to sit to fit in the frame; and I managed to get in the shot, courtesy of the self-timer.  I just used auto mode.
It was also a good to do it because I'm knee deep in pre-work for the Get Out of Auto Mode class I'm taking at Big Picture Scrapbooks. We are to take ten photos of specific things, and I thought my blog was a good place to store them.  The first assignment is a group portrait (above, auto mode, with timer).
Second picture is someone you love.  Here's two pictures of my son Henry (each taken in auto and one changed to black and white. I tried to take them in programmed mode to reset the white balance, but I had trouble getting the lighting right and he started to get impatient). The first one will be my Mother's Day Portrait of him from this year:

 Two people you love (DH Paul and DD Clara, shot in auto; note I made Paul change his shirt before I took the group portrait because the stripes were all wonky):

A flower in your yard (I shot some lavender in portrait mode):

A candid photo (the fans at Friday's baseball game, taken in sports mode):

Your favorite food (I took a picture of sushi on auto mode):

A self-portrait (taken in auto mode):

A favorite object in your home ( I chose my jewelery and had to work with my camera to get a decent shot. I put it in program mode to set the white balance to"flash"; I chose ISO 400 and the camera set 1/60th and F/4.8):

A person in action (Henry, shot in sports mode):

a landscape picture (taken in programmed mode, with WB set to bright sun and ISO to 800; camera set 1/640 and f/13).

Oh, and just for kicks, here's the portrait I took of Clara for Mother's Day:

Thanks for looking!