The Moment

This is how we spent all day yesterday:We watched, excitedly all morning long. We monitored various news channels and web sites, we Facebook-ed and Twittered. Our kids waved flags and danced around. And we celebrated a new day.

I Really Want to Title This, "Dude!" and Then Give You a High Five, but That Might be Too Nerdy

50mm, f/2, 1/125, Nikon D700 (not mine), SOOC except for yogurt removal from her face

See those eyes? And that creamy skin? And that awesome exposure? Well...for me it's a photo that had me literally jumping up and down because I was so excited by it. I've been working on my exposure and focus lately through my 365 project and I really feel like I'm making some progress. I'm also going through a massive photo re-org to clear some hard drive space and have a workable catalog of photos. This process has been really interesting since I am looking at every single photo I've ever taken. I get to see how far I have come, technically, compositionally, and how much more comfortable I am with my camera.
I'm getting there...

Click over to Mother May I to see other inspiring photographer's Best Shots today.

Just Me.

Self Portraits for Theme Thursday. Click through to The Land of K.A.

Memory Lane

Otherwise known as "I am going through all of my 2008 photos and deleting junk to get more hard drive space!"

Also: OMG can you believe how little she was last January???

Overwhelmed

The lack of posting has been due mostly to laziness. I was doing really well posting every day for November until one day I forgot. Then, once I forgot once it was really hard to get back into it.

And every time I went to post, I didn't have any photos to add since I have so many just sitting on my hard drive taking up space waiting to be edited or deleted.

And now this week I've been sick and actually stayed away from the computer - I know, I really didn't feel well.

And now we're having bunches of company this weekend and my illness and subsequent spousal illness has brought all preparations to a halt.

But - my Christmas Tree on Facebook has some ornaments now, so there are some successes around here.

Here are my adorable children during a field trip to the Air and Space museum, which I took them to by myself after being dropped off, so there was no possible early escape in the event of a meltdown. We had a great time. And four year old boy + big airplanes = AWESOME.

Jack can now read the word, "Lockheed." Once we studied it on this very first airplane, he could read it on any other sign in the place. He will also tell you that this Black bird is his favorite.

The barrettes in her hair? Stayed in during this very first exhibit, then they were ripped out with a handful of hair and stuffed in my pocket.


One of the highlights for Jack was these cases of model planes. At the first one he had me read the names of every plane in the case, all thirty or so of them. He also would like me to know he would love to have some of these to play with at home.

Manual Focus = Not for Myopics

I tried my hand at manual focus yesterday. I put my dad's 50mm f/1.4 lens on my D40x and figured I'd play with it and see how it went.
Verdict: People with poor eyesight should not use manual focus.
In general I trust the camera's focusing over my own eyes, so manual focus was tough. Also, I kept the aperture down to 1.4 most of the time, so it was really hard to find my focus area. I found that if I set the focus ring all the way to...I don't know what it's called, but it's the not-infinity end, where you're focusing at the closest range. So I set the ring there, and then moved my head forward and back until my subject was in focus...or until something was in focus.
And the when I pulled it all up in Photoshop this morning..I'm surprised by what was in or out of focus.

A Year Ago...

Just for fun, let's look at some photos from November last year:

Sarah was still fully into her "grumpy period" and on this particular morning, her saint of a brother was trying so hard to cheer her up. He held her hand and helped her get whatever toys she wanted and showed patience that far exceeded his 3 1/2 years. Oh my gosh, he was only 3 1/2!!!

Feeling better with every "favorite" animal or baby they could find, she was happy, then, to pose for a few pictures. Oh my gosh, she looks like she still had gaps where teeth hadn't come in yet! And her hair was so short!

This is a picture of a bag we were decorating for dad's birthday and this was the first time without any help that Jack wrote the names of everyone in our family. Now he writes with smaller letters and can spell many words and now almost always follows our names with our last name.

Imagination

I have often said that Sarah lives 90% of her life in her imagination. She only ever has one foot in this world, and the other firmly planted in a castle or in the Banks's house from Mary Poppins or who knows where else.

She is always singing or talking to whichever imaginary characters are passing through her play. Anything that is remotely vertically-shaped becomes a person: pencils, chapsticks, spoons; she rarely colors, but instead stands up the crayons so they can talk to one another. She carries around unsharpened pencils as people.

Often she tells me she's the "mom" (and that unfortunately I'm the "grandma.")

She fills purses with necessary accessories and strings beads around her neck and clomps around in heeled dress up shoes.

Sarah is connected with the spirit in every thing that we adults just pass by. She befriends animals and pats flowers and talks to trees.

I know that someday she will come down out of fantasy and have to surrender to reality. But until then I will enjoy watching her imagination unfold.




Imagine what else you may find when you click over to The Land of K.A.

Best Shot in the Dark

I took 188 photos at the Mummer's Parade on Saturday. I took 188 photos in the dark with a few attempts at flash, but mostly in the dark. I took photos of things with flashing lights and with all subjects moving. I shot at HI ISO and with my 18-55 kit lens. So, photographically speaking it wasn't the best or even a little bit like a good photographic opportunity. But I had a lot of fun.

Click over to Mother May I for more Best Shot Monday.

Boo!

The princess wouldn't wear her crown, the storm trooper wouldn't wear his mask, nor carry his blaster, but they had a great time!

I don't know who enjoyed themselves more...the kids with their bags and bags of candy treats or the dads with their wagons filled with potable "treats" just for dads...

Best Shot Season

Fall is unequivocally my favorite season for photos. The skies are bluer, the colors are more varied and the cooler temperatures makes everyone more comforatble outside. This weekend we had the opportunity for a much needed day of family adventures. Just the four of us, we set out with no real immediate destination, took the scenic backway and visited a lot of our favorite Maryland spots.

We started at the Washington Monument State Park which has a short uphill trail leading to a big stone monument with a great view. Sarah fell asleep in the car, so my husband dutifully carried her up the hilly trail and even all the way up into the monument where she woke up at the top, confused and wondering how we would get down from there.


We continued on for Halloween costume shopping, an ice cream snack and a visit to another park. A wonderful, fall family day.

Click for more Best Shot Monday at Mother May I.

Is This Called Workflow?

A lot of blogs I read have special camera and photography related posts on Saturdays. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking that I will keep up any kind of regular posting on any regular topics, or that this will actually get published on Saturday, but for now, let's talk photography.

Today's topic: workflow

I think this is the term for the process a photographer goes through to take images from camera to final edited form.

As I am still fairly new to photography I am still trying to figure out a workflow that works for me. Right now, it looks like this (and by right now, I mean as of today where I have been shooting in RAW for four days now):

1. Copy NEF (RAW) files to the hard drive.
2. Run them through a converter to change them to DNG (digital negative) files. A converter is necessary since I am using a D40x camera with an older version (4) of Photoshop Elements.
3. Import all the DNG files into the Photoshop Elements Organizer
4. Delete all the clutter photos, the junk, the unfocused, the stuff that will never be worth looking at and is just taking up hard drive space.
5. Select the photo(s) I want to edit and open in the Photoshop Editor.
6. Edit using Adobe Camera RAW editor. Here is where I just move the sliders around until the colors look the way I want them.
7. Open in the Standard Editor. Crop. Sit and wonder what else to do since I fixed all the color and stuff in the RAW editor.
8. Save as a psd file or a jpeg. I save psd when I think I may want to go back and edit differently at another time. Jpeg if I'm just done.
9. Groan because it will take me ten times longer with RAW to edit the hundreds of photos I take in a week.
   
10. Drop the photo(s) into the Flickr Uploader.
11. Get a snack.

I have a few thoughts and questions for the other photographers out there:

• If I shoot in RAW, not only is the file huge to begin with, but now I am saving up to four files of the same image (NEF, DNG, PSD, JPEG) Do you other photographers have all this? Do you sell your photos just to buy hard drive space? Do you ever delete the NEF or do you hold onto it in case you would want to go back and re-edit from the beginning? Maybe only for the "good" photos?
  
• I have now taken over 12,000 photos with my camera, so my file numbers have started to repeat. Since 10,000, I've been changing all the file names to a word + date + number. What do you all do?

Fall, Fall, When will the Temperature Fall?

I love the fall. I love the food, the baking, the leaves, the back-to-school, the new TV shows, the bright blue skies, the pumpkins, the ample photographic opportunities, the weather--
Wait, not the weather. It is still hot. I don't know why, but when did October become the new late summer? Our windows are open, but the temperatures still hover above room temperature. I am still sweating every time I run the oven to bake and I still have to wear T-shirts with no layers. My kids are still wearing shorts and sleeping with their windows cracked and little sweat beads on their foreheads. I know that I will probably complain when it is too cold all winter, but please, I want to enjoy fall!

Fall into more posts at The Land of K.A.

Photography is not about light. Photography is about life.*

Every time I read or hear that photography is all about light, I am a little discouraged. Not because I disagree, but because I don't really know exactly how to manipulate, use, or adapt to the light in a situation to get a certain result.

But I can capture life:


*This post at Shutter Sisters quotes Brooks Jensen.

You Should've Seen the Other Guy..Har Har

Grandmothers: She is just fine. She slipped in the bathtub the other night and landed on her eye. It swelled up and turned purple immediately and she was distraught that it hurt to lay down on that side of her face. Now she barely notices it's there, rubbing her eyes and going about her business.

Monday

I just love watching these three together.

More Best Shots today at Mother May I.

Summer

This summer has been a really good one. My kids are at really great ages.

Four is just the right age for getting to do fun stuff and being able to enjoy it and articulate and converse about it. Four is also such a great age where I get to hear Jack's take on things. He has his own ideas and thoughts and way to see the world.

Two has been challenging, but for Sarah and I two has brought language where before there was only crying and fussing and grumping. Sure, there are a lot of tantrums and throwing oneself on the floor, but at least there are words to go with it, so I can chuckle as I stand my ground that no, when you throw your first snack on the floor I'm not going to serve you another. But in other ways, two has been charming and delightful. Sarah lives 90% of her life in imagination. She is constantly talking, telling stories, comforting her babies, being a princess, and who knows what else, since I don't understand half of it. But she is such her own person who will not be swayed by anything you say or do and in fact will make a stand to do the opposite of whatever you want her to do (and thank goodness for reverse psychology, it is my number one tool for two).

But I have really enjoyed this summer. It has been hectic and busy, and my children have really mastered the art of sibling bickering, but we enjoyed being together as a family a lot.

I love this one, can't you just see the steam coming out of her ears?Oh, and the yell, the "I do not like something with every ounce of my being" yell.

Today's Theme Thursday is Summer, click over to see everyone else's summer photo wrap-ups.

My Best Shots

I love this sunflower. I love this, I love this, I love this.

And one of my favorites from the crazy ton of beach photos I'm trying to wade through.

For more Best Shots today, click over to Tracey's.