First Photos of 2012

My daughter had the great idea to take a walk today up the little hill near our house. I think the official name for it is Grand View Park, the kids used to call it Our Favorite Hill, I have heard others call is Turtle Hill.

There were more people up on the hill then I had ever seen, must have been some tour group. It was a spectacular sunset (hence the name of our neighborhood)and it was fun to play around with the Lensebaby 3 I had on my camera.

I was showing the kids how to use the tilt and shift effect on the Lensbaby lens to make the streetlights appear distorted and really liked how the darkness of the tree branches contrasted with the warmth of the sunset and the city lights. They were not terribly interested in a photography lesson, but did think the photos looked cool, so I guess I was somewhat successful.

Looks like a good start to 2012 for us, so far, one good day, I say that is just about perfect.

My kids will not be happy I put this one on the post, but I could not resist. This was at the end of some fight they were having about kicking sand or something. I told them to act like they actually liked each other.