Favorite Pictures of 2011

Well, at the end of December (2011), other photographers were picking out their, "Best of 2011," pictures, and posting them on their blog.  So...I am going to pick out some of my favorite pictures from 2011.  Although, I will only include pictures I took with my, new and awesome 60d Canon camera(50mm 1.8 lens), which I got July, 14th...so it isn't a full year... just to set that straight.  Here they are!  This is going to be fun..I'll put captions with the pictures!

These first pictures will not include my photography jobs...I will put some pictures of those shoots at the end.  Here we go!...be prepared, it is a long post!!!

This was a "special" picture. ; )  It was the VERY first picture I took with my new camera!

Trying what I had seen done before, with the piano, and blurring!

I started at first using manual focusing...now I never really use it, much easier using auto focus! 

This is looking out the little security hole in our hotel door in Branson, on our little vacation w/ Grandma and Grandpa. The hotel is one where the doors open to outside.  That is our Ukon in the picture. : )
We went to a family member's wedding, before that though we went to Branson!   

This was at the wedding, I edited out the background and put in a picture.(that I didn't take)  The "real" background was the gym wall.  I really liked this picture, the way they are looking at each other was un-posed, and it was one of my favorites!

A kiss I was able to capture!!!   Haha, the man tapping in front, it does distract but...

The Cake...this was a shoot that I took twice, and the second one was a LOT better.  So the lesson was, always take two + pictures of a subject.  It might make or break that certain picture.

My Locket!

I like this picture's sharpness, the B&W contrast, and the...mood, or feel, thoughts of what this picture could be representing....an afternoon of drawing... 

This was from the parade where G&G G. live.  I think he looked at me as I was taking the picture!  I don't remember if I cropped it, I may have.

This was using back light from the setting sun, and using my pop up flash.  I thought it was so cute!  Wesley is adorable!

My awesome piano!  I love playing!!!

Sleek, and perfect.

This was a, "Naked Lady," flower...yeah weird name!  In like three or four days it went from this short budded shoot, to a tall "naked" stem with a cluster of pretty flowers on it!  The flowers made for AWESOME pictures!

I really liked how this one was focused...and the bracelet was made by a lady in Kenya, I think...and those are the good smelling lilacs from the lilac bush in our back yard! <3  I did this 8x10 with this verse I loved, framed it and it is hung on my wall.

A feather Wes, found!

A rose, and some photoshop actions!

More fun with some free actions.  

Neighbor's puppy...cute ! : )

Little Sister!

This is my bowed psaltery!  It is set up like a piano, with the white notes on the right(left above), and the 3, 2, 3 sets of black notes are on the other side.(right above)   The bow is laying on top.

Fall colors!

The blurred flower behind the, "in focus" one, kinda looks like a reflection in a mirror.

I had Rachel, run, and jump. This one turned out good!

Dad's blue pickup, cute little sister and fall colors.  Cute picture!

The apricot tree's fall leaves...that tree has many different colors...Green, yellow, and red! ; ) 

A Bobcat skid steer from Dad's work, on a trailer, here at home.

The teeth of the bucket!

The background I think is a little to busy, but it is kinda neat too...

The apricot tree again!  Love this picture, so sharp. 

I was practicing my, "wedding" photography.  It didn't turn out too bad. : )  I actually use the eye shadow out of there, and my makeup bag is the pink thing underneath. 

Me, in the mirror!  

Several pictures from this great shoot with my little sister.  The scarf made for cute pictures!

Love!

This turned out good...the tree looks beautiful!

Ballet Shoes Ornament. 

Last winter and this winter, I have noticed that there are/was, AMAZING, Pretty, sunsets!!!  You would't think that there would be pretty sunsets in the winter...well, especially this year, that would be, WAY OFF. ; )  Only God could do something like this. 

"Midwest" Peppernuts mom made, and Christmas lights Bokeh!  

Rachel with a hat Jonathan made for her, using the, "nifty knitter."  Love this one!

These are the, "real, and best" peppernuts! ; )  They are sooo good!   The peppernuts are more like a really dense cake,  they are not hard like the peppernuts people make around here in the Midwest...mom did make some though. ( pictured above)  They are cut out using a donuts hole cuter. 

Then after they bake, you dip them in powdered sugar frosting!  The family would usually do them in red and green, but we didn't have red, or very much of it or something, so this year, we kinda broke that, "tradition," we did blue and green. ; )  I helped dunking them in frosting...the younger kids did this too...  Kinda fun dunking the peppernuts!


Now for some business pictures.

I took her picture to use for her business picture....and she is using it!  This was for free though. : )

Dennis Jernigan Concert...first real "paid" job and I enjoyed it!

"You are my all in all," I think it was the first song he did.  He had everyone sing...neat!  And, I actually played a beautiful arrangement, that I love, of this song at my graduation. 

C - Family Pictures!
I was happy with how I did, at this shoot...and they were good posers. : )

A friend who is also a photographer, Kayleigh, asked me to help her photograph an event.  We had fun!

Saw a friend from dance there helping/volunteering, Miss H.

I went with Dad, and Robert when our church poured a concrete slab for a shed.

Our yearly pictures!  This was the first year that I took them with my new camera!

Credits to Mom, she took this one! : )

My brother took my pictures!

And for the last picture, here is a little thing I tried!  I'll will tell about that in another post...neat?!  Yeah! 

P.S.  One more picture...this is called night photography.  You set your camera to have a, long shutter speed.  This means that the shutter is open longer, and allows more light in to the camera...with the use of a tripod, (so there isn't too much blurring, because the picture takes a while to record) you can take pictures at night!  Because there was so much light let into the camera, there are stars in the picture, that I couldn't even see!

~ Sarah