Four People Twelve Times (ten, if you're being picky)

Welcome back Blogger!  So, the system has had some weird problems lately.  My Mother's Day Photo Shoot post (which was up) is now gone.  I'll try to repost it.  Also, this post came up before it was scheduled to, so it's a bit incomplete.  But I don't want to try to move it.  So, here it is!  This a collection of photos taken over the course of the last year as part of my 4 people, 12 times project. Enjoy!
May 2011 (top) and May, 2010 (directly above).

June, 2010 World Cup Edition

Fourth of July, 2010

August, 2010 Lake Tahoe

September, 2010 at the Giant's game, AT&T Park

October, 2010 at the pumpkin patch.

December, 2010 at the Tree Farm

January, 2011 at Panda Inn, Pasadena

Mother's Day, 2011

Four People Twelve Times (16th Birthday Edition)

Starting last Mother's Day, I have been trying to take and post a family portrait once a month. The project was developed by Tara Whitney, and you can see all her photos and read her posts by clicking here.  I did pretty well through 2010 and even took a picture in January, 2011, but I have missed the last few months.  Last night, we took DS Henry out to celebrate his 16th birthday at his favorite Chinese restaurant, and my friend Molly snapped this nice picture.  I'll take another picture on Mother's Day this year and then post them all together.  It will be interesting to see how much we've changed over the year. If you want to see the other pictures in the series, you can click on the label "4 people, 12 times" below.

Tree Farm Visit: 4 people 12 times

Since May, I've been participating in a project called "4 People 12 Times," taking a family portrait at least once a month.  I missed November but have otherwise been keeping up.  When we took a family trip to the tree farm today, I made sure to ask someone to take our picture. It's not a great picture, and I'm hoping that I will be able to improve it when I start some photoshop classes next year.  In the meantime, I did take a few pictures that I did love.  Here's the kids playing together on a tree swing:

My beautiful daughter:

My gorgeous husband:

My strong son:

I shot everything today with my new 85 mm fixed lens.  I'm still working on how best to use it, but I like many of the shots I took, including these:

Got any favorite shots in today's post?

Four People Twelve Times (October Edition)

Just a quick post with the latest entry in my Four People Twelve Times project, in which I am taking a family portrait every month for a year.  Since I started on Mother's Day, this marks half-way through the year.  DH Paul's parents and sister came up for a visit, and we stopped by a local pumpkin patch.   Tomorrow there will be a weigh-off to see who grew the largest pumpkin this year, and the patch hosted a dinner for the contestants.  The pumpkins are huge (they fill the back of a pick-up truck). Tomorrow, I'll post the winner of the blog candy/ sports fan give-away, as well as some more pictures from the pumpkin patch.

4 People 12 Times (orange Friday edition)

I'm working on a year-long project of taking at least one family picture each month for a year (click on the label below to see the previous entries in the series).  Although this picture was technically taken in October, I'm hoping to count it as my September photo and to take another one for October.  Here's the story - 

On October 1, we went to the San Francisco Giants baseball game.  The Giants just needed to win one game to win the Divisional Championship, and we had the opportunity to see them clinch it.  All the fans got orange rally towels on the way in, and the stadium was a rocking, electric place all evening long.  Even though the Giants lost (and still haven't clinched the championship yet), there are some moments I will always remember from the night.

*The team gave out the "Willie Mac Award," voted on my players and managers to honor an inspirational team leader.  Many former award winners attended, and, as their names were called, they walked onto the field from Center Field and to the pitcher's mound. Mike Krukow (current announcer, who everyone feels like they know because he is so often on the radio or TV) got a long, standing ovation that brought a tear to his eye.  The next person announced, Dave Dravecky, brought a tear to my eye because of the way he came back to pitch after having undergone treatment for bone cancer in his arm. His arm has since been amputated, but he remains a huge inspiration to me and millions of others.

*Clara lighting up when her favorite player, Pablo Sandavol (nicknamed "Panda") came in to pinch hit.

*After the Giants hit a home run and while the Padres were warming up a new pitcher, 40,000+ fans waved their orange towels while the P.A. played "the sports anthem." Henry was beaming and said this was the best moment ever!

The Giants current slogan is "There's magic inside!" And for us, even though the Giants lost, there was definitely lots of magic going on.

4 People 12 Times (August edition)

So this is one of those cheesy photos that a vendor takes of the tourists and then rips them off by charging $20 for a package. But I'm a sucker for that sort of thing, especially since I didn't take my camera on the raft for fear of it getting wet. Plus, it serves as a perfectly serviceable photo for the 4 people 12 times series, which you can read more about in this post.  My family spent a wonderful, leisurely couple of hours floating down the Truckee River.  When asked if we went white water rafting, DH Paul replied no, it was river rafting.  When pushed as to the distinction, he said, "white water rafting is when you have to worry about staying in the boat. River rafting is where you worry about keeping the beer in the boat. All paper Club Scrap.

4 people 12 times (July 4 edition) and 5 minute photos

My sister-in-law Annie is a fabulous photographer, and she snapped this picture of us at the Surfer's Beach jetty last night, during a post-BBQ, pre-fireworks walk.  I loved it so much I decided to make it my July "4 people, 12 times" entry.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Check out this post for an explanation or click here for my second photo in the series.
In other news, Shimelle's class "Love Your Photos, Love Your Pages" just started.  One of the first challenges was to grab your camera and take a photo within five minutes.  Egad! I was in my pajamas, cruising the internet with my first cup of coffee. But I dutifully grabbed my camera and went upstairs.  I found my brother and his daughter enjoying breakfast (they're visiting from Southern California) :

I also managed to get a picture of DD Clara all dressed and ready to go to Jr. Guards:

I know her backpack is stuffed with her wetsuit, lunch and towels (all of which she packed herself).  She's wearing her Jr. Guard sweatshirt and t-shirt and holding her go-to breakfast on the run - a Luna Bar.  I love how this photo captures so much of her summer!

Four People Twelve Times (World Cup Edition)

Some friends came over Saturday to watch the opening game for the US team in the World Cup. The much anticipated match against England ended in a 1-1 tie and will be remembered for British keeper Green letting a ball dribble through his hands for the equalizer.  Our friend Molly was nice enough to snap this picture of the four of us.  I'm learning to love photos that capture the emotion of the day, even if we aren't all looking at the camera.  For an  explanation of the four people twelve times project, you can see my post here.  

Here's Molly and another friend Joan:

And the other picture Molly took of us (it doesn't look too bad small, but if you click on it, you'll see that it's pretty blurry and our eyes look funny from the flash):

Informal survey:  which "4 people 12x" pix do you prefer?

P.S. Thanks for all the good thoughts about my art journaling class this morning.  It went well!  It continues for two more Sundays.

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!