House sitting

I got the super awesome opportunity to house/dog sit for my piano teacher (who is so much more than that to me now) while she and her husband were away for Thanksgiving. Along with them being gone I got to watch Korban all day for a few days that week. :) I was there the 22nd through the 30th and it was a bunch of fun and a good experience to live on my own for a little bit. 

This little man moves so much that the majority of the pictures I took of him are just blurs of hands and feet, usually with him charging me for the camera. 

He has got some killer blue eyes.

He was being super silly during lunch one day and had me laughing which of course caused him to keep on with it.

At this point in the editing process of the pictures I had new presets for my editing software which makes the pictures a lot better in my opinion.

Their tree in the backyard had shed all its leaves which made the atmosphere feel much fallish than at my house. 

Rosie joined me outside as much as she could through her doggie fence.

Some of my favorite loose sheet music right now. London Calling from Star Trek Into Darkness and An Ideal of Hope from Man of Steel.

Sunset + birthday dinner

When I got my camera in June I used it all the time, especially when we were in Seattle. I was taking pictures everywhere and had no shame in taking my camera out and using it. When that lens broke and I had a month and a half of having no camera essentially I forgot about it and the love I had for taking pictures. When I got my new lens I had to relearn everything about manual and all the tricks I had just put into practice in Seattle. And I also forgot to take my camera out and actually use it. 

I'm determined to use my camera as much as I can and to go out of my way to use it. On December 2nd I decided to take sunset pictures in a spot I had noticed previously and I am so so happy I did. 

I always thought sunset pictures were rather cliche and I had no interest in taking photos of them until the amazing sunset up in Seattle at my cousin's wedding on the water. I realized then that sunsets are beautiful and there is something special in capturing the decent of the sun.

I took these pictures around 5 o'clock so the sun wasn't at the bottom of the horizon which meant I didn't get those awesome colors but the fall trees made up for that.

I was so concerned that this lens having a higher low aperature of 3.5 would mean I couldn't get bokeh (the circles of light in a blurry background) but it turns out I was wrong!

My camera battery was dying that night (of course) so the focus was struggling and I got this picture between shots. I used to despise photographs that are completely out of focus but since I saw this picture I realized that as long as there is still substance and shape to the picture it's perfectly alright.

I am absolute loving this sunset bokeh, more sunset trips will be happening in my future for sure.

This is one of my favorites. I love the light and the wire and the post and even the cars in the background work in this picture.

If I see tall grasses I have to get a picture of them, they remind me of Gladiator are one of the only parts of south Texas that I truly love.

The rest of the sunset was great and I wish I could've gotten it from where I was at but it was my Momma's birthday so off to dinner we went. 

Because Littie and my Dad ran the Turkey Run downtown on Thanksgiving they got buy1get1 coupons for Chipotle which was rather ironic since that's what we used for my mom's birthday last year. Except that this year my mom didn't get an awesome red and purple hat to celebrate, her loss.