SPS with flare

I absolutely love all of the portraits I've been seeing lately that utilize flare. I know you can add it after the fact in PhotoShop, but I really am striving to get my shots right in camera. I'd much rather be behind the camera than behind the computer!

Anyway, here's my latest attempt. Still not quite where I want it, but a fun photo none the less.

Easter Memories

Easter is coming? Who knew?

Just kidding! We know, we've just taken a very laid back approach this weekend. Our girls have asked that they be allowed to share a room again, and we've taken the move as an opportunity to paint. As a consequence, we haven't done much Easter prep in the way of decorations and the like in the rest of the house. Today was the big prep day, tomorrow the painting, and then we'll see what magic happens in the rest of the house. Our bunny doesn't come until Monday, so we've a little time, though we really like to observe Easter Sunday. No cleaning! Still, you never know what might happen at Easter time!

While I'm sanding and taping, here's one of my favourite photos from last year's Easter.

Happy Easter to you!

SPS Saturday--In monochrome!

Just playing around with my nifty fifty (I have serious love for that lens) and my girls. I had opened up the aperture and was practicing my close portraits when Princess popped up over Sweetpea's shoulder. I love the result.

Today's challenge is for a monochrome portrait, so I used the high contrast B&W preset in Lightroom and then adjusted the curves until it was just the way I liked it. In fact, I like it so much I think I'm going to have to order some prints...

Uncurl

Actually, on Wednesday my friend and photography mentor emailed me to let me know that she and her family had accepted a fantastic job offer and are moving home to California. In two weeks. So yesterday's HSMSHS prompt was curl, and let me tell you, curl I did. Right into a little ball of self pity. I'm slowly coming out of it again, being happy for her and her awesome family. So today I'm ready for a different sort of curl.

This "curl" is carved into our piano. You can see how old and loved our piano is. Yes, it needs refinishing. Right now the money is being used for lessons though. Someone should know how to play it if we're to truly appreciate it! But I love the detail and care that went into building these old monsters.

Today's prompt is "fluffy", which I keep thinking is fuzzy. Maybe because my brain is? Anyway, here's my fluffy:

And my Princess wanted to play too. I gave her lesson on how to hold my camera (with the 70-300 on it! Good girl!) and think she actually got the better photo:

Great composition girlie! I didn't even mention rule of thirds to her, but look at that! All I did was sharpen it for her in post production. No cropping!

Be it ever so humble...

...there's no place like home!

My girlies arriving after a long day at school and the daily race for the door (today they finally worked out a deal and held hands).

Adore

Our Boy adores his teddy bear...and we adore him.

(Photo taken in the fall, but the adoration only grows)

Mmmm, Milk!

(Thursdays HSMSHS prompt--though my Boy wanted to recreate Andrew's photo--our cat looks remarkably like his)

Consume

Introducing...

...my three kidlets!

When I started this blog, I just jumped right in playing along with HSMSHS and discussing my photography highs and lows. I didn't really introduce myself or my family. But the kidlets are my main source of inspiration and often my main subjects, so I thought I'd throw out some brief introductions.

(If you read my family blog you not only already know us, you saw these photos as soon as I took them this week, so feel free to click one of the links in my sidebar if you get bored.)

Oldest daughter is 7 and is known as our Princess. She IS a Princess, preferring all things girly. She would rather wear a dress every day than anything else, she loves flowers and pink and dolls and, well, princesses. She's tiny, freckle-faced and delicate, with a streak of independance wider than she is.

Next we have Sweetpea. She's 5 (almost 6) and loves life. She's always moving, unless she's stopping for a quick cuddle, and does everything whole-heartedly. She's tall, athletic and even-tempered, with an infectious giggle and a clever sense of humour. She likes to run up to complete strangers to give them a hug or climb in their lap and ask them about themselves.

Finally we have my Boy. He's my 4 year old sidekick, my mini-man and chatterbox. He came out of the womb jabbering, had a vocabulary that included "crocodile" at 9 months, and rarely stops for air. He's fun and funny, and HIS sidekick is Blue Teddy--who started talking around the same time he did but uses his very own distinct speaking voice. I have a feeling that I'll never adjust to the silence when he starts school in the fall.

So now you know us! There's also a cat, Sasha, who tends to wander off as soon as she spots the camera, and Hubby who will do anything to avoid having his photo taken.

Oh, and me of course. But I'm growing my hair out from super-duper short to a bob and it's at that terrible in-between stage, so I'm not doing self-portraits for a while.

Have a happy weekend!

Downtrodden might be more accurate

We took the day yesterday, stepped away from the computers, dragged the semi-sick kids out of the house and went for some fun. We went to the sportplex in the city and bought wristbands for the big play area and tokens for the arcade games. Two of my three have been sick this week, but they're definitely on the mend. They just have a lingering cough and they're bored and tired of being cooped up (us too) so it seemed the perfect solution.

Well, my girls had fun, but maybe the Boy isn't on the mend as much as we thought. He whined most of the day. Everything was "too hard". The climbing appartus was too tall (not really, he's played on it just fine before). There were too many kids. The games were too hard. He was just having a bad day. I remembered that the HSMSHS prompt was beaten, so I took this photo of him by one of the games, feeling as beaten as a 4 year old gets.



The good news is that I took him in the car with me for a drive and let him have a big nap. When he woke up, he was sunny and happy again. Phew! At least little boys don't stay beaten for long!

Today's prompt is "silhouette", so it's into the archives I dive or I'll be posting this late again.



And a bonus, because silhouettes are fun!

Contemplate

Been finding it tricky to come up with photos to match the HSMSHS prompts this week. So today when the prompt was "contemplate" I threw my hands up in the air and gave a cry of frustration. My mojo has left the building.

Thankfully, my Princess heard me and asked what was wrong. I told her I needed "a picture of someone thinking about something" and she immediately went, "Oh, like this!"

Yes, sweet girl, EXACTLY like that! I'm so glad she's home on break to get me thinking again!

Construct

Construct: To build or erect something by bringing together different elements.

I have a home with 3 small children, so you'd think there'd be no end of construction materials. Here's a secret though: I LOATHE Lego, ken*ex and all the other stuff. Always have, though I had brothers who ADORE it as much as I hate it. Maybe part of the hatred stems from how many times I stepped on something small and sharp on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night?

I did try to be a good mom at first. I bought blocks of all types and descriptions, including that pre-cursor to Lego, the Mega Blocks. I sat on the floor and played with my kids, encouraging them and showing them some ideas for how to use it. They hated it as much as I did. The only thing that really stuck were the wooden blocks, because you can make pretend furniture out of them, and the MegaBlocks characters. (Because TIGGER. Also, PRINCESSES.)

That all changed at Christmas this year though. Santa brought them this super cool and wildly fun marble race game. You can construct different courses with different obstacles and then race your marbles through them. THIS my kids love. Hey, I love it too! I just grabbed the camera as soon as I saw the prompt and snapped a photo of the current construction, a two-tubed course courtesy of Sweetpea (DD2).

Mascot

The prompt today at HSMSHS: Mascot.

For me, it can only be this guy. My son's best friend, blue teddy. Complete with worn off fur and chewed off nose. Since this photo was taken a couple of years ago, he has also lost his ribbon and a lot more fuzz. His nose has been repaired 3 times now. There's no one we love more, no one who represents my son and his childhood better; and by extension our entire family. You kind of have to know him to understand, but Blue Teddy has become our family mascot. We don't go anywhere or do anything without him. I even use this photo as my avatar on MSN and used to use him on discussion boards.

Piling up

I was so excited to be all caught up with HSMSHS, and then yesterday it got away from me again.

My youngest and oldest are both down with the flu. Middle child had her turn last weekend, so hopefully it will stay confined to the two of them.

The prompt yesterday was piles--and let me tell you--I've got piles! I have laundry piles out the wazoo. We've been having water issues for over a month now (repairman comes next week--fingers crossed!) so laundry has been backing up a bit anyway, but with kids taking turns being sick...well, I've got piles of clean stuff waiting to be folded, piles by the washing machine waiting to to in, and piles stacking up in the laundry baskets. It's not pretty, and I'm not sure how taking a photo is going to help anyone. I'm not sure it's something I want a solid memory of.

So I'm going to be digging out a bit today while nursing my sickies. If I get a chance for relief I might get brave and snap a few photos, even get over to the site to see what today's prompt is, but I'm not making promises.

It's been one of those weeks.

Magnetic

I picked this little guy up at a craft show shortly after I was married--one of my very first fridge magnets. He was just so happy and cheerful. You could say he drew me in.

And then I started having babies. And what did those babies want? That's right, my gingerbread fridge magnet! I used to put him low on the fridge door and my oldest would spend hours playing with him and the letter magnets I also had by that time. Then along came the next one, and she decided he was good enough to eat. You can see some scrapings left by baby teeth if you look closely. So I had to move him up out of reach...which didn't stop either of them. They quickly learned to push a chair over to the fridge to get their ginger magnet back. Clever kids. I'd chase them away and move him around, thinking if he as on a side they'd forget about him. But they always found him. It became a little game, seeing if they could get him away without me noticing. He regularly went missing, only to be found in a toy bin or under a table.

Now he holds school papers on our big family white board. Still happy to be a part of things. He doesn't go missing anymore, just smiles his happy smile on us.

Snow much fun!

Today is Saturday, which means it's time to pull out the portraits! I love this one for several reasons:

1. Practice session with my long lens turned out just fine--lots of great photos to choose from.
2. After spending close to an hour shooting each kiddo, this last shot with both of them feels like some kind of bonus prize.
3. Happy, snowy kids!
4. They're mine! We moms always love photos of our kids.

We're off to winterfest today, so more snowy fun photos tomorrow!

Even a fairy princess can have a bad day...

Sometimes it's hard to come up with a clever title

Just playing a little HSMSHS catch up.

Yesterday's prompt was "Instruct" and I thought of a good one--Monday's are Princess' piano lessons, so I'd go with her and get a sweet shot of her with her teacher at the piano.

Then scccccccccccrittch! (it's that needle scratching sound)

The piano teacher called late afternoon to reschedule, as she'd just come from the dentist and was feeling poorly. There'd be no piano instruction.

Fortunately for me, I was quick enough to grab a shot of something that has been happening more and more around here:



Yes, those are all three of my children, gathered around Hubby in the office as he instructs them on the fine art of playing RPG's.

They love every second.

Do they come see me when I'm spending hours on Photography websites? Well, yes, but they ask who that is, and when I don't know leave. But give them some "dire wolves" and a few elves and they'll stand around for hours, giving advice and asking questions. As someone who's never figured out the appeal of those games, it baffles me. But it delights me that they enjoy doing this with Hubby and that he can share something he enjoys with them. Plus it's got to be fun to have your own cheering section every time you get in a battle, right?

Now for today's prompt:





That may not look much like fruit to you, but that's the preferred form of fruit in this house. We buy plenty of fruit in both it's natural and frozen forms, but the absolute favourite for the kidlets are these fruit cups. Sweetpea's favourite is the peach, and the Boy loves the "country berry", but they'll both eat all the flavours, and we go through a lot of these each week. (Princess hates fruit in any form. She's a challenge!) We're careful to only get the unsweetened ones, and pick them up in bulk when they're on sale, or the President's Choice version in a pinch (half the price but half the flavour options too). So in my space, this is what fruit looks like.

And the Boy was doing quite the little dance of anticipation while I did my imprompu photo shoot this morning. As soon as I got my photo, he got his fruit.

Portrait Practice

I've been booked for sure as the second shooter at my very first wedding this summer, and of course I'm nervous. I'm making lists and checking them twice and I'm spending hours on flickr and various blogs and photography sites gathering info and ideas.

Most importantly though, I'm conscious of the fact that what I need most is practice, practice, practice! So yesterday while the kids were lounging on the couch I pulled out the camera. I sat on the floor in front of them so they could still see and started shooting. Here are a couple of favourites:

I had on my 50mm 1.8 for all of my shots, as I'm still getting to know it better. I did my favourite lens exercise: set your camera to AV, choose a pretty stationary subject, and then open your aperature. Wide open! Take your shot. Move your dial one stop, shoot again. Do this for every single f-stop. You'll get a real quick feel for what the lens can do and what settings you're going to like. Of course, you should do it again and again at different distances, but it's a great exercise and you'll really know your lens when you're done.

Anyway, both of the above shots were taken at f/2.3, so I guess I know what makes me happy.

Guess what I'm practicing for here?

(Don't you love how she's willing to hold out her hands for me but not take her eyes off of the television?)

So while I'm practicing and playing, I'd love to know a couple of things:

1) Who's your favourite wedding photographer? Why do you love them? Link me up!

2) What editing software do you use and why? I'm still trying to choose. I downloaded the trial version of PSE7 before Christmas and played with it a bit but really spent most of my time weeping and wailing and knashing my teeth. I'm going to download Lightroom today and see if it annoys me less. I can't afford the full version of Photoshop. I'm even considering Gimp because--FREE! Of course I prefer to get the shot as perfect as possible in camera, but everyone needs a little buff and polish, right? I want to be comfortable with whatever software I choose long before the wedding so I can edit quickly but carefully, so I'm going to have to decide and buy in the next month. (I just don't think Picasa can handle it.)

Thanks everyone! Have a happy weekend!

Not so square....

HSMSHS is up a little late today.

Why? Because my Hubby, who most people assume is totally square, decided to be fun and spontaneous today. He got up and got ready for work, went out to start the car...and it wouldn't start. Something about batteries losing power in -32C temperatures (yes, that's before the windchill). So he had to come back in the house and work from home. He worked steady through the day, and then came out of the office at around 2:30 to say he was going to try the car again. It started, so he was off to town to see about getting a booster for the next cold day. Then he suddenly stopped and said "let's do something fun".

Woah!

Unexpected, and all the more exciting because of it. The kids wanted to go bowling, and off we went! So here is my square for today--with our abysmal scores. I should be ashamed, but I had too much fun!