Week 42: What's the pointe?

What's the pointe?, originally uploaded by Visions By Vicky.

The point is my youngest daughter just went "en pointe" in ballet this week. This has been a goal of hers for a very long time and she's absolutely thrilled that she's made it.

This photo was not taken on Friday but on Wednesday during my daughter's first pointe class. I then added some digital painting effects to the photo in Photoshop.

Date Taken: October 21, 2009
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm f2.8
Exposure: 1/160
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Exposure Mode: Auto
White Balance: Auto
Flash: Off, Did not fire

And a few more to share ...

During Class


Pointe shoes come in all sizes!


After class - tired with aching feet but oh so happy!

And yes, I missed a few weeks - oops!

Week 39: Blessing of the Animals

Blessing of the Animals, originally uploaded by Visions By Vicky.

Yes, once again this is not a Friday picture. I knew this weekend was going to be filled with family events on Saturday and the annual Blessing of the Animals service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church on Sunday so I decided ahead of time to share something from either Saturday or Sunday.

The first Sunday of each month is a special service for the families of St. Martin's and October is always the service honoring St. Francis and includes blessing of the animals. I take pictures every year at this service for the yearbook and this year was no exception. Most of the photos have students from the school in them so I won't share them on this blog but this one is of one of the dogs brought by a school family to be blessed today. Meet Snowball - he is 11 months old, very active and very friendly and spent most of the service trying to go meet the other dogs in attendance. He did stand nicely for his blessing though:

Technical Details for 1st Photo
Photo Taken: October 4, 2009
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm f2.8
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: f/14.0
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: On, Fired
Program Mode, Spot Metering, Auto White Balance
I was alternating using Manual and Program mode due to lots of dappled sun and shadows.

From the hymn, All Things Bright and Beautiful (
Text: Cecil Frances Alexander Tune: Royal Oak) which was our opening hymn today ...

All Things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful:
the Lord God made them all.