My New Toy

My wonderful husband surprised me this year with a Christmas gift! Now, you may be thinking, "What's the big deal about getting a Christmas gift? That sounds like a pretty normal thing for a husband to do for his wife." But Russ and I decided long ago that we wouldn't get each other gifts for Christmas (after our 2nd Christmas together when it became obvious that we didn't NEED anything, and it was causing undue stress trying to get all of our shopping done). So after 11 years of no gifts, he broke the rule this year by getting me the new camera I'd been wanting. I'm thinking he probably bought it because he was sick of me talking about it and looking for it on Ebay and checking the Sunday ads every week and saying that I'd probably never spend the money on it. . .So it may have been a little self-serving on his part after all. At any rate, I was very surprised and extremely excited to discover my gift! I've been playing on it quite a bit trying to figure out all of the different settings and the fun things it can do. This evening I took it in the bathroom while my boys were in the bath, and here were some of the results . . .

On these next two, I was focusing on the duck so that the boys would be blurred in the background.

And earlier today I got a couple pictures of Brynn & Tyler. Look at those beautiful blue eyes--no enhancement here--they are really that blue!
And here I did the same effect as earlier where I focused on the tractor so that Tyler would be blurred. This is a Massey-Ferguson, the same kind of tractor his Papa Jim sold for, well, pretty much his whole life.

Now I just can't wait for it to get warmer so I can get outside with my new toy!