M. Sullivan Photography

A New Perspective

msullivanphotography — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:36:00 +0000

I took a short detour on my drive into work this morning. After dropping the kids off at school, I was determined to get a shot of the spectacular colors from the morning sky. It didn’t quite happen. Now that the days are getting longer and the sun is rising earlier, I’m not able to get out the door before the best part of the sunrise has faded. However, I was able to get some interesting shots along the Lakewalk in Canal Park once the sun had peeked over the horizon.

Sunny Start

Rise And Shine

The Sun's Rays

The Tree

City Scape

I guess I can’t complain that with each day there is more sunlight. After weeks of it being dark when I leave for work and dark when I come home, it would be nice to have a little extra daylight. Some warmer temperatures wouldn’t hurt either. A quick look at my weather app says that it is currently -4 degrees with a windchill making it feel like -29 degrees. Spring can’t come soon enough for me.

Filed under: Landscapes, Photos Tagged: Lake Superior, Landscapes, Photography, Sunrise

An End To “Spring”, CleanWare, Basketball & An Angry Bird

msullivanphotography — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:33:45 +0000

With highs near 50 yesterday, today’s weather was a bit of a shock to us all. I think we were hoping to ease back into winter slowly, but instead we have snow, wind gusts over 30 mph and wind chills in the negative digits. Hard to believe I took Daphne out for a walk last night in capri length athletic pants and a light jacket. The beautiful sunrises also came to an end this morning when the cloudy skies took over. I did catch these photos before work yesterday morning. It was calm on Lake Superior which led to some great reflections on the water.

Reflection

Mirror Image

Calm Waters

Blue Sky

Along The Boardwalk

The kids have been busy with a number of things in recent weeks including Sebastian’s invention project. He was given materials before Christmas break to document and create an invention to display at his school. He had to keep track of his time, the process, trial and error, cost along with documenting the problem and solution that his invention was designed for. Sebastian’s idea was to create a product that could keep meal time tidier. Silverware creates a mess if you lay it on the table. If you put it on your plate, it can slide off and make messes on the table, floor or your clothes. Sebastian designed two utensil holders that clip onto either side of your plate to hold your messy silverware. He used small Tupperware containers, magnets and clips and came up with a very cool product. He displayed his “CleanWare” invention and a poster board at school yesterday. Here’s a snapshot of his display.

CleanWare

When he wasn’t busy with his invention, Sebastian has been busy with basketball. He plays for an area youth rec basketball league. His division is made up of 5th and 6th graders, although his team has only 5th graders. The height advantage of the other teams makes it a bit challenging – as shown in the picture below.

Tip Off

He has a great coach and an awesome group of kids on his team. It’s been fun to see the progress they have made since the season began in the fall.

Shooting For The Basket

Sophia finished up her last swimming lesson before Christmas and has now jumped into gymnastics. She would have liked to do both gymnastics and swimming, but it would’ve been a bit crazy to have two sports and religion class during the week along with homework. I don’t have any pictures to share of her gymnastics class, but did snap a few pictures of her new hat last night. We found the hat during a quick trip to Walgreen’s during the holiday break. A big display of several of these plush hats were positioned right inside the door. Of course once Sophia had it on her head, it was hard to say no. I did actually say no..at first. By the end of our mini shopping spree, Sebastian had found a cool sock monkey and Sophia had an adorable Angry Bird hat.

Happy Angry Bird

Sad Angry Bird

"You Lookin' At Me" Angry Bird

Filed under: Daphne, Gymnastics, Landscapes, Photos, Weather Tagged: Basketball, Family, Lake Superior, Landscapes, Photography, Sunrise, Winter

Fire And Ice

msullivanphotography — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:57:24 +0000

It was another colorful sunrise this morning. Not quite as spectacular as yesterday, but certainly worth taking a moment to enjoy the beautiful winter morning. The ice in the harbor was shifting creating groaning and cracking noises. It was an eerie sound, but the sun reflecting off the ice made it quite picturesque. I’m glad I grabbed my camera before I left for work.

Fire And Ice

Birds In Flight

Ice Breaking

Reflection

The Sun's Rays

Filed under: Landscapes, Photos Tagged: Lake Superior, Landscapes, Photography, Sunrise, Winter

A New Year, Another Sunrise

msullivanphotography — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:05:49 +0000

I’ve been MIA – busy with the holidays, cleaning up from the holidays, an unexpected trip to the northern-most part of the state, Sebastian’s invention project, the kids’ ski races, getting back to work and the kids going back to school, along with a side project/job that I’ve taken on for a friend. Although our holiday break took some unexpected turns, we did have quality time with both sets of parents (grandparents) and a short visit with the Sullivan cousins. We found time to see a movie, play some games, enjoy our new Christmas gifts and spend time together as a family. Now that we are back into the craziness of work and school, it was nice to stop and enjoy a couple of beautiful sunrises this week. I neglected to bring my camera with me on my drive to work both yesterday and today, but borrowed my company’s point-and-shoot to capture these images this morning.

January Sunrise

Painted Sky

Here’s a family photo taken with Sophia’s new camera at our traditional New Year’s Eve dinner destination – Famous Dave’s. We spent some additional time next door at Adventure Zone playing games, winning tickets and exchanging tickets for two stuffed monkeys, two tops and a few other plastic trinkets. Fun was had by the kids and the parents.

Happy New Year!

The kids spent the earlier part of their New Year’s Eve at Chester Bowl participating in the ski races. Mike and I were busy trying to stay warm at the bottom of the hill, but eagerly cheering on both of them. Sophia had two excellent runs that put her in the middle of nearly 20 kids in her age category. Sebastian outdid himself by placing second in his category. Here are the YouTube clips of their races.

Filed under: Family, Photos, Skiing Tagged: Christmas, Family, Lake Superior, Photography, Skiing, Sunrise, Winter