August in Photos

I know I'll never get around to writing everything down that we did this past August but since I finally got the majority of our family photos edited I thought I'd share some favorites.  Since I doubt most of you want to peruse all 572 personal pics (that's just the ones that I edited as jpg's and doesn't count client sessions!) I condensed it to a few collages.  I can hear all the sighs of relief.

I Heart Faces: Back to School Challenge

It was a tough call to choose my favorite back to school image from my kids back to school photo sessions, but I think this one of my first grader fits the bill.

Click the logo above for more back to school photo fun!

I ♥ Faces: Hearts Challenge: Let's Hear It For the Boys

I couldn't resist entering the Let's Hear It For the Boys theme...I happen to think my boy is just about the cutest thing on the planet!  As such I had a terribly difficult time choosing just one photo of my little guy to share, but the fun Rock n Roll session we did awhile back came away the winner.  I love that he wanted to listen to All the Single Ladies while we took these photos.  How can you resist his charm?

For more adorable boys click on the I Heart Faces link below:

Hello Goodbye

Remember when I got my first dslr back in May 2008?  In my blog post I mentioned that I couldn't wait to get it and post a million photos.  I bet I'm close!  I posted the very first photos I took with my brand spanking new Rebel and I have to say that taking a million photos has really helped me come a long ways.  Yikes!  The last blog post on this blog with photos taken with my Rebel was Grace's First Day of Kindergarten.  Certainly taking a million photos improved my skills some.  My Rebel was good to me and I learned to shoot on the scary Manual mode with it so it will always have a special place in my heart.

When I first started venturing into photography as a business and not just a (very expensive!) hobby David gave me the rule that I couldn't spend family money on photography equipment, only money I earned.  It's actually a great rule, even if it is frustrating at times.  I really think through all my purchases and spend my money 500 times before ever actually spending a dime.  Last fall I had finally made enough to either improve my lenses or upgrade my camera body to full frame.  I chose to buy the lenses first and it was a good decision for me.  I upgraded my 50mm and bought the 85mm once I realized that I'm really a prime girl.  Instead of making a big jump in camera bodies I bought a used 40D and kept my Rebel as my backup.  The 40D was a nice jump and a really nice camera, but I knew when I bought it that I still really wanted to go full frame.

This spring I realized that the only time I reached for my Tamron zoom lens was when I needed to go wider then 50mm (mostly indoors studio shoots) and I realized I could sell my Tamron to fund a wide angle prime.  When I was researching which wide angle prime to get I realized that if I could find a way to upgrade to the full frame I might not need a super wide lens.  So I sold my Tamron and my Rebel and cleaned out my business account to buy a used 5D classic.  I realize it's not the newest (the 5D iii is due to come out this fall so I'll be 2 generations behind) but neither was the 40D when I bought it.  Most of my equipment has been bought used because saving up for new would take me way too long!

I realize most of you reading this blog post are probably super bored by now and have no idea what I'm talking about.  Suffice it to say that as sad as I was to say goodbye to my Rebel I am even more excited to say a great big HELLO! to my 5D!  I am not even a little embarrassed to say I screamed with joy when I got back to the car to drive home with it.  You can ask the kids, they'll tell you just how happy I was!  There wasn't a lot of light left when we got home but I still managed to take a few photos with my new camera and had the kids mimic my excited face. 

Goodbye to my Rebel....

And a great big HELLO! to my new 5D!

Watch out world because here I come...full frame camera in tow!

Practice Makes Perfect

What a difference a year makes!  While I've downgraded from my ambitious Project 365 to a much more reasonable Project 52 I still find myself picking my camera up pretty often.  Almost every day, but not quite.  I'm mostly inspired by light so when the lighting is perfect I get itchy fingers and run outside with my camera without paying attention to what I'm wearing or the fact that everybody else is eating dinner.  I see the way the light is falling on some leaves or tree blossoms and I am out the door!  But since my yard and daily activities are pretty regular I find myself taking similar photos as last year and it's interesting to compare them and see my growth.  Turns out that practicing something every day does indeed bring improvement.

Take today for example.  Remember this photo from last year's Project 365?  I know a lot of people really liked it.  It was taken on April 5th last year, just a little over a year ago.

I just took this one 30 minutes ago while my kids ate hotdogs and were watching Mulan.  I see improvement. 

Here's another one from last year.  I took this last March of the lilies on our side yard with the setting sun as backlighting.

And here's one from two weeks ago with a similar subject and lighting.  You may confuse this with a jungle or large shrub but it's actually our backyard grass.

Here's one of Boo I took last March:

And here she is again last month:

 Here's a photo of both my kids I took at the end of last April:

And here's one I did of the two of them last week:

 

I'm excited to see where I am a year from now, progress is always exciting!  

I ♥ Faces: Sunflare Challenge

This week's I Heart Faces Challenge is Sunflare which is something I have a bit of a love affair with.  Too bad I live in the Pacific Northwest where pretty sunflare is less available during the rainy season (9 months out of the year)!  I triumphed over mother nature last month and snuck some photos of my kids at sunset (i.e. 4:30pm) in the empty field behind our house.  Take THAT rainy season!

For more pretty sunflare photos check out the link below:

I ♥ Faces: Anything But a Face Challenge

I'm sharing a recent photo of the week from my Project 52 blog for this week's Anything But a Face Challenge because I still really LOVE it!

For more Anything But a Face photos check out the button below:

I ♥ Faces: Hearts Challenge: Red

And just for the fun of it, sharing a photo from a December session with a friend's girls wearing their pretty red Christmas dresses!  This little girl has the most adorable curly head of hair, but her expression in this photo just cracks me up!

For more Red Photos click on the link below:

I ♥ Faces: Hearts Challenge

This week's I Heart Faces theme is hearts so last week's Valentines session with my kids was perfect! For more photos from this session you can check out my photography site.

Click on the button below for more hearts photos!

Winter Sunshine

I know I haven't updated this blog in awhile but I thought I'd share some photos from tonight's impromptu photo session. I was scouting out a location for a maternity session this weekend and found this little gem around the block from us. I will DEFINITELY be coming back to this spot in the future! I had my camera with me to check out the lighting and I bribed my kids to get out of the red wagon to let me take photos of them with the promise of chicken nuggets and chocolate milk. Surprisingly Grace was my more willing model and I got a few nice ones of her with real Grace smiles and not cheesy ones!

These were all taken with my new (to me!) 1.4 50mm which I am LOVING! Gorgeous color and bokeh and it's super sharp. These are all edited in Lightroom and then I used a Paint the Moon freebie action. I've been doing a lot of dual editing these days, it takes a bit longer with the extra step but I'm pretty happy with the results.

I ♥ Faces Week 46: Silhouette

I haven't participated in I Heart Faces photo challenges in awhile, but when I saw this week's theme this photo immediately came to mind and I just had to share it :)

This was taken last month when I did family photos for a photographer friend. You can see more photos from the session on my photography blog.



To see more pretty silhouette photos click on the I Heart Faces link below:

Neglected Ethan

I realize I've barely posted anything about Ethan in awhile and I thought I'd make up for it a little. He turns three in about a week (!) and I think I may be in denial. That is until he starts acting like a three year old and then I remember how the so-called Terrible Twos have nothing on the Terrifically Awful Threes. Tantrums, hitting, calling me Poopy Mommy, and all around grumpiness has turned my sweet baby boy into an alien. I think I want my baby back!

Of course he's also developing some positive skills and traits so all is not lost. He's halfway potty trained, having the peeing in the potty part down but still skeptical that pooping in the potty is the way to go. I can't wait for him to decide that pooping in his underwear isn't all that fun. He loves to help me and thinks helping to fold the laundry is the most fun thing to do. He can be very loving and tells me "I like you Mommy" about 100 times a day. Makes all the less pleasant parts of the day kind of melt away doesn't it?

By the way I took these photos yesterday to try out my new photography prop I scored for fifty cents at the church rummage sale. It's an old wooden chair from the nursery and I wanted to try it out with a model. Ethan is still my easiest to photograph subject so naturally his photos turned out great. I did photograph Grace but those turned out a little different. Let's just say she has developed a "look" for "why are you taking my picture AGAIN?" and it's not quite as pleasant as Ethan's willing grin.

And yes I know he needs a haircut. David told him he looked like a hippy and Ethan thought that was hilarious.

I ♥ Faces Week 26: "Pets"

So I'm cheating and sharing a photo I'm recycling from my Project 365. I'm too consumed with editing last Saturday's wedding photos to take a new pet photo! Plus I really like this one of Zoe. She spends a lot of time napping on my pillow just like this. Don't forget to click on the logo below to check out some more pretty pet photos.

"Downtown" Photo Shoot with Grace

I did a "downtown" photo shoot with Grace this afternoon which was actually a lot of fun. Usually taking photos of Grace really tries my patience but when I get a chance to photograph her one on one she does pretty well. Especially with ice cream as a motivator. Never underestimate the power of Dairy Queen as a bribe.

Grace wore her pretty dress that my mother in law sewed for her last week and I hauled the super heavy 70-200 lens with me downtown. I had a specific alley in mind to use and it happened to have perfect lighting and plenty of space for me to work with a long zoom. I'm not used to posing my kids other then plopping them on a stool to keep them still so it took us a little bit to get in the zone. Once we got going Grace did a great job posing for me and seemed to enjoy herself!

I've had an obsession with mary janes for a long time. I LOVE them! Which probably explains why I really like this photo. It was totally worth laying on the nasty pavement.

After about 20 minutes she was all done so we headed to Dairy Queen and split a small pink blizzard.

Lest you think that I forgot about Ethan this week I thought I'd mention that pretty Ethan photos will hopefully be coming soon. He just got a haircut tonight that he desperately needed. Now that he looks like a little man again I'll attempt some nice photos. In the mean time, here he is in all his shaggy glory. Please note that I did not choose any of his attire today and the cowboy boots were a garage sale score from this morning that he refused to take off. I promise he'll be wearing something that at least matches for his nice photo shoot!

Mission Impossible: Photographing my children TOGETHER

If you ask any portrait photographer if it's easy to photograph their children I'll bet most of them say "heck no!" My children are pretty used to the camera by now. My son is a dream child to photograph, he cooperates by looking at me while sitting still and smiling. My daughter on the other hand, has better things to do with her time. Like look anywhere other then at me, only smile with her mouth open as wide as possible, or flapping her arms like a bird. Taking photos of her is probably my biggest challenge. No, scratch that. Taking photos of my children together is my biggest challenge. Why is that? Because my normally cooperative son can't stand to have his sister give him a bear hug or sit within two feet of him. My daughter becomes more cooperative, but only because she can tell how annoyed her brother is when she displays sisterly affection. It drives me nuts.

Yesterday I decided to risk the odds and attempt Mission Impossible. I sat both the kids on the stool in the middle of the soggy grass barefoot so that they weren't tempted to get off. Neither child likes to walk in the mud with bare feet so this forced them to sit next to each other without moving. Yes, I'm a mean mother. Then I tried to get them to interact without killing each other. As per usual Grace was more then happy to smother her little brother in kisses and hugs. And also as usual Ethan detested it. Then my very smart super intelligent husband opened the office window behind me and made the kids laugh. They smiled real smiles and didn't even seem to realize what was happening. I may have to try this trick again!

Here's the outtakes...very minimally edited. For the best of the bunch head over to my Project 365 blog.

I ♥ Faces Week 16: "Collages"

This week's I Heart Faces Challenge is "Collages". I looked through some old collages I've put together and decided to go ahead and make a new one. I chose last year's Memorial Day Weekend Baseball & Barbecue for my theme because it's time for me to start planning this year's party!

For more fun collages click on the icon below:

Sunflare Progress

I know you're all wondering how my progress on mastering the art of sunflare in photos is going. I have to say that I'm getting better but I still have room to improve. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll have had enough chances to practice to get the technique down pat! Tonight I practiced on Ethan swinging which was moderately difficult since he was a moving target. Of course he wasn't moving very fast because he's new to the "big boy" swing. The focus on the eyes is what I need to work on, the rest I'm feeling pretty good about!