• Old & New: feeling nostalgic, the quilt is something I made 13 years ago. The baby is much newer. – <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://statigr.am/p/198538662240314245_2840247"><img src="http://distilleryimage1.instagram.com/8f709f74a5d611e1989612313815112c_7.jpg" /></a>
• Rolling Thunder is starting to roll in – <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://statigr.am/p/198523225280602897_2840247"><img src="http://distilleryimage1.instagram.com/4687249ea5d211e1ab011231381052c0_7.jpg" /></a>
• Something I can’t live without, gas. No really! My life would come to a complete halt if I couldn’t fill up the tank…sadly. #connectwithpc – <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://statigr.am/p/198026567962845689_2840247"><img src="http://distilleryimage5.instagram.com/6cf38300a54811e1abb01231382049c1_7.jpg" /></a>
• There is no accounting for taste but I think this is the ugliest building ever. #latergram – <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://statigr.am/p/197996044913729839_2840247"><img src="http://distilleryimage7.instagram.com/f4286420a53f11e180c9123138016265_7.jpg" /></a>
• Our eyes are 100% a-ok! (big smiles!!) – <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://statigr.am/p/197704822382911717_2840247"><img src="http://distilleryimage1.instagram.com/1f8e76b4a4ef11e1abb01231382049c1_7.jpg" /></a>

• Waiting for his eyes to dilate but all looks good so far. Yeah!! – <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://statigr.am/p/197638344736498585_2840247"><img src="http://distilleryimage1.instagram.com/ac088372a4dc11e19e4a12313813ffc0_7.jpg" /></a>
• Lil’ guy has his first eye dr appt today so with time to kill, after dropping all the school kids off, I get to treat myself to a bagel and coffee with my sleeping buddy. Best part? They were playing on of my favorite Pogue’s songs. – <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://statigr.am/p/197596484785660635_2840247"><img src="http://distilleryimage3.instagram.com/0dddcb9aa4d111e18bb812313804a181_7.jpg" /></a>
• A treasured st. Gerard medal – it’s been with me through all 7 births. #connectwithpc – <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://statigr.am/p/197257157983592922_2840247"><img src="http://distilleryimage6.instagram.com/df15af98a47211e180c9123138016265_7.jpg" /></a>
• Playing hide and seek with the sunset. I haven’t played in a long time but this is my contribution to @kimklassen ‘s #texturetuesday. And it was all done on my android phone.:-) – <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://statigr.am/p/196809796463354773_2840247"><img src="http://distilleryimage1.instagram.com/b422ddfaa3f611e1af7612313813f8e8_7.jpg" /></a>
• Grabbed a coffee and snack with hubby before daughter’s band concert. Just us and the 6 month old…a special moment! #connectwithpc – <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://statigr.am/p/196533271503561362_2840247"><img src="http://distilleryimage2.instagram.com/f408c0d0a3a911e18bb812313804a181_7.jpg" /></a>

It’s such a joy to be back on Texture Tuesday! It’s been a long, long time since I had anything to contribute so it is with lots of joy and pride that I present the image above. I used Kim’s texture from the weekend, Epiphany and did the entire thing on my android phone.

That’s right! All android, baby! (Okay, I still have iPhone envy, I’ll admit!)

I finally found an app that does layers and blend modes — Stacker Pro. It’s a bit glitchy and kind of awkward to use but it gets the job done.

Because I’m always shocked when I stumble across my blog and see that huge selfie on the screen. Awk! So, time to update and include some new shots.

I’m having lots of fun with Instagram now that it is finally available for Android. I’m @jdmaleski over there. It’s great because it’s purely mobile and since it’s baseball/softball season and I am away from home and the computer I still get to play around and practice photography.

Now, I know what you’re thinking and I do still get out the big-girl camera (a lot — though much less frequently since I finished the 365 in November) but with Instagram I still get to play and practice seeing and it forces me to do more story telling, I think, since the cell phone camera comes with lots of limitations.

But for the time being, it works.

Looking through my photostream several times, I finally realized what was missing: me!

Being the designated photographer puts me behind the camera a whole lot more than in front of it. So I decided, for Kat’s next lesson, to turn the camera around. I also needed to update my social media pictures and I had been dying to try out tethered shooting now that I’ve finally upgraded to Lightroom 3 (just in time for LR4).

There were several technical difficulities I had to figure out (like Lightroom not shooting “live”) but in the end I managed to get some semblance of a studio going and managed to get a few decent headshots. Boring, but decent. Then my preschooler came home, saw the setup, and immediately wanted to take pictures. So I let him. He directed me and I let him snap away with the wireless remote.

The results? A lot more fun. Less worry about the right angle of the head, the right angle of the flash, the stupid background, the shadows, am I even in focus (my eyes are so screwy these days I can’t tell??!!).

In the pre-Tommy setup, I was being careful and studious. And then, when Tommy took over the directing, it was fun. More play — less work. And the pictures were better too. Not necessarily appropriate for what I needed, but more lively. More real. The trick would be to translate that sense of fun into the more serious and routine shots.

And in the end, I got the best picture of all — one that truly captures an emotion. I’m smiling from ear to ear over that shot. And that’s what it’s all about, right?

I’m so far behind Kat’s lessons for the second part of her Finding Your Eye course — so this post is my attempt to catch up before Lesson 4 comes out tomorrow.

Rules (Sunday):

Don’t really feel like I have any rules or “musts” or “shoulds” when it comes to photography. I certainly have habits that I try not to succumb too (when I think about it). For example, I shoot a lot in portrait. Yes, I mostly take photos of my kids, but it almost seems second nature to bring the camera up to my eye sideways! And even when I don’t, I find myself switching to it, as though I prefer the tall frame for my compositions. Prefer, or am just more comfortable with? At any rate I do try to remember to shoot both portrait and landscape frames.

Artistic Inspiration (Wednesday):
I wasn’t able to get to a museum or art gallery this weekend. Too many other events going on to allow me the luxury of several hours without little ones. We do have plans to go to the National Gallery of Art this weekend (they have a photography exhibit I want to see). At any rate, I did go to Mass and our church is very much a place of artistic inspiration.

The stained class is traditional and very beautiful but it’s the stations of the cross that I really find inspirational. They are done in a naturalistic way, but slightly stylized. The figures are slightly elongated and very graceful. Espcially the hands. At the 12th station before Jesus dies, he tells John, “Behold your mother,” John’s hands subtly but distinctly point directly at Mary, standing opposite of him. At the final station, kneeling next to Jesus’s tomb, Mary’s hand are held in a way that emphasizes their emptiness. I love the composition of the each image — the artist used a strong diagonal composition throughout and there is a lot of tension within each frame as well.

I’ve never been able capture the images to my liking. The light is poor and I never have my tripod with me and I just feel a little funny taking pictures inside the church. Especially if anyone is in there praying. The camera feels like such an intrusion.

In my work: (Sunday)

Lately in my own work, I have tried very deliberately to compose along the diagonal (or at least recognize it as I’m framing the shot). I’ve had very amounts of success. One trick that really helps me is the cropping tool overlay in Lightroom. In the develop module, once you have selected the crop tool, you can cycle through various crop overlay screens by pressing the letter O. I find the golden spiral and the diagonal overlays very useful in deciding what is the most powerful crop of the image. No matter how much I think I’ve gotten the shot framed, I almost always find a better picture through cropping in Lightroom.

Kat’s Photo-Heart connection seems like a wonderful way to go back and look more closely at your photos from the previous month. This is the first one of the year and it was an easy pick for me.

I’ve got so much catching up to do and cleaning up to do but I had to be sure to post this today. I love this picture. Probably, mostly, because it’s my little guy (any picture of a mother’s child will make her heart sing) but I also really love the black and white, the high contrast and the tiny baby, lying there, so vulnerable.

So I’m a little late to the one word party but better late than never. At least I hope so — because I’m late, a lot. Anyway, I really like the prompts in Ali Edward’s class so I thought I would share them here.

I choose Silence because it’s the opposite of my life. My life is busy, hectic, noisy and sometimes chaotic. That’s not going to change anytime soon — until the last kid is out the door. But if I focus on the silent spaces during the day and evening then maybe I will be able to hear. Hear not just myself and my thoughts but the call to be and the voice of the one calling me.

With this word I would like to invite, calmness, space, expansiveness, growth, hearing, and knowing. My goal is be a whole lot more Mary and a whole lot less Martha.

How will I do this? Well, this week I’m just trying to drive in silence — turn the radio off, put the phone down, and just hear the quite (at least once the little kids fall asleep). Baby steps.

It’s also pretty easy to spend some silent time just looking at our new baby. Even the little kids are just fascinated by Daniel and spend time just silently absorbing his newness. I used several layers of Kim Klassen’s Embrace for the Texture Tuesday link up this week. It’s a nice texture and complimented the warm and ethereal mood I was trying to evoke.

Wow! What a month this has been. : )

Daniel made his entrance to the world a few days ahead of his scheduled induction. Which was a real blessing because I was dreading labor (those pitocin induced contractions are killer!). It was actually a very easy labor and delivery and by 2:40 am it was all over and I had an 8 pound 11 oz baby boy in my arms sweetly nursing and lovely warm blankets wrapped around my legs.

After one week to recover it was time to get ready for Christmas. Following on the heels of Christmas, I had the 14 and 8 year olds birthdays (just family parties — friend parties to follow in a few weeks) and then New Year’s. On our final day of vacation, I find myself looking forward to a return to routine, a little more quiet around the house, and a less-rich diet– even though I’ve got enough ham and turkey leftover to feed us for a week or two…

After much thought and consideration, I did pick a word for the year. Big surprise but my word is silence. I have a post in draft on that topic — maybe I’ll get it up tonight.

I’ve also been working (or attempting to work) on another photography project. Actually, I should say my partner, Cheryl, has been working on it, while I recovered from the birth and tried to get my act together between everything else. It’s called Faith-filled Photographers and our goal is to offer prompts and tutorials every week that focus on how our Christian faith inspires our creativity and our photography. Check us out here! Cheryl has done a great job really setting the groundwork for the posts.

Okay — now to attempt a Texture Tuesday shot. I’ve got lots of baby pictures that I can use!

Ten days until the baby is born. The good thing about being induced is that you get to know exactly when you will go into labor. The bad thing about being induced is that you get to know exactly when you will go into labor. Until then I’ve really slowed down — getting some small things ready to go — washing baby clothes and trying to find a place to put them.

Enjoying just being able to sit when and while I can.

Starting to miss the 365 project — ready to pick up the camera again. Reading a great book — The Art of Photography.

Photo is softly textured with Kim’s “Not too Shabby.” Happy Texture Tuesday, everyone!