Chalk (151 of 365)

I snapped this when we were out drawing on the driveway with chalk. I decided to go with this as my picture of the day because, even though they don't match perfectly, I really like the vibrant colors.

New Hat (150 of 365)

New Hat (150 of 365), originally uploaded by lighthack.

Off to the Mall (149 of 365)

Ava work up from her nap yesterday and was all ready for a trip to the mall wearing her bird dress and bird barrette (I wish all of the bird barrette showed up in the picture; it's cute). I snapped some shots of her and really liked the way this one turned out (I like the "pose" and all of the lines). I put the word "pose" in quotations b/c Ava is still a bit young for posing (i.e., she won't sit still :.). When processing it, I went for a washed out, "high-key" look similar to what I've seen in a lot of clothing catalogs lately.

BTW, she had a great time at the mall. She's not much of a shopper, but she loves seeing all of the people.

Gardenia (148 of 365)

Truckin' (147 of 365)

Sun (146 of 365)

Sun (146 of 365), originally uploaded by lighthack.

Sorry for the lack of uploads the last few days, I've been busy with work.

Textures (145 of 365)

Textures (145 of 365), originally uploaded by lighthack.

My Little Angel (144 of 365)

I promised myself that I wasn't going to do another Ava picture this week, but when I was looking through my memory card at my photos from today, this one jumped out at me and wouldn't let go. In my mind, this shot is why f/1.4 prime lenses are such a beautiful thing. I shot this with a Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 wide open and just love how the shallow DOF softens the non-focal areas and gives a glowing, angelic quality to the shot. I really love how this shot turned out.

Dad & Ava (143 of 365)

By popular request...here's a picture of me and Ava. Some of my wonderful contacts (all of you are wonderful) reminded me that I didn't have a single picture of me and Ava in my previous 142 pictures in my Project 365. Well here you go. I look kind of dorky, but that's ok...we were having fun. BTW, this is the face you get when you tell Ava to smile -- she's very enthusiastic about smiling lately. :.)

Testing the New Sandbox (before the sand)

I was putting together Ava's new sandbox and Ava decided that she wanted to try dancing in it for a little bit (so I decided that it was picture time). I thought it was really cute, but the background was distracting, so I worked with the photo to sharpen and color boost the focal area (Ava) and de-focus and de-saturate the non-focal areas. It's not perfect, but I kind of like how doing this gave a bit of a 3-D feel to the photo