Week 17

Week 17. Princess for a day. Uh-uh, not going to happen.

So, instead, I took some eyelash shots of the boy-child. First one made the cut, the others are just for added cuteness, followed by a shot of Chaz in the biff-baff (or silly term for bathtub).

Week 16

Last week's theme was 'furry friends'. Self-explanatory:

This week's is "princess for a day". Someone want to tell me how I'm going to interpret that one, living in a house of boys!?

Baby Caleb

Finally, now that my life has calmed down a bit, I was able to finish up Baby Caleb's newborn photos. Big thanks to his parents for letting me invade their home for a few hours, and to Mr. Caleb for being a fantastic baby to photograph. All of this practice sure helps me! And it doesn't hurt that he is ridiculously gorgeous and so very easy to work with. A few of the shots:

Wook at those widdle wips! Sigh.

Week 15

I thought Week 15 would be a bust. Charlie had been sick for a couple of weeks with a cold, but Friday he wasn't himself and Saturday he was going from seemingly okay to cranky and ill-looking. By suppertime he was sobbing from head pain and fell asleep at 5pm (not normal). We spent three hours in the ER Saturday evening. He was diagnosed with the beginnings of a raging ear infection. When he went to bed at 11:30, his left eye looked a little off. When he woke up crying at 3:45, it was half swollen shut. We knew this meant periorbital cellulitis (which he had at 19 months old), so we were at the hospital by 7:30 am, and by early afternoon, his IV was in (ugh. UGH UGH UGH.) and antibiotics were coursing through him. Eye was swollen shut. Kiddo was miserable. Mama was anxious and fretful. He stayed in until Wednesday at noon. I did not even think about Project 52 at all until today. This week's theme was 'how others see you', and I lamented to my husband that I had no sweet clue what to do. He said, "Most people look at you and immediately notice your height." Hmmm....true...so we took a shot with the wide-angle lens to accentuate that.

On a good note, kidlet is almost back to normal. I, however, am completely exhausted from long days in the hospital and sleeping three nights on a pull-out chair thing that was not made for HUGELY TALL people like me.

Week 14

This week's Project 52 theme was 'Fusion'. The suggestion was to either interpret that however you want, or edit a photo using MCP's Fusion action. I don't use actions very often, but I had downloaded the free "Mini-Fusion" action and decided to use that. My kid has been sick with a nasty cold for eight days, plus I had a newborn shoot (I'll post a few of those later this week), so I have had absolutely no time to plan or execute a 'fusion' photo. Instead, I snapped this one today of Charlie, hanging handmade Easter eggs on his bedroom window, and used the mini-fusion action on it. Voila:

Here's hoping I'll have more time and inspiration next week.

Jenna.

I had my first newborn session a few days ago. I love it when my friends have babies so I can practice my photography. ;) This is little Jenna, seven-and-a-half pounds of pure cuteness. She's the brand-new daughter of an old friend of mine. I am still working on getting a steady, consistent workflow in editing, but hopefully this beautiful face will disguise the mistakes. ;) The best part of it all? During the three-hour shoot, I was able to visit with two good ol' friends from way back (third grade, to be exact). Thanks, Melanie and Patti. :)

Sigh. Babies. Love 'em.

Yes, I have the world's most beautiful nieces.

It's official, folks. I have the coolest, prettiest nieces in the world. I asked my 12-year-old (!!!) niece, Tori, if she'd model for me, and she did so willingly, in the bitingly cold wind. She traipsed through wet fields, shivered as the wind whipped her hair, leaned against things, and even got down on the ground for me. She indulged my desire for "moody" photos, too. One of the reasons I wanted HER to model is that she's one of those girls who looks gorgeous when she's not smiling (note: I am not one of these people). And she looks gorgeous smiling, too. Well, really, she just looks gorgeous. Have I said that enough? Here are a few of my favourites. I couldn't narrow them down, so, uh, here are a LOT of my favourites, actually.

Two things I learned from this session: one, I think I am really going to like this new lens, and two, I would happily trade hair with this girl. Look at it!! So pretty. Thanks again to Tori (and her parents for lending her out, especially on a day that was already insanely busy).

Hockey gals!

Confession time. I had a bad session. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to take photos of one of the local women's hockey teams - the Cougars - at one of their final practices for the season. I happily agreed and burst into the dressing room with my camera gear and a big smile. Then I started shooting. Immediately I realized that this was not going to go well. The lighting at the indoor rink is poor. The air is cold. My lenses refused to focus properly. My shutter speed dropped even with a high ISO, and the constant movement you'd expect with women dressing for hockey became a blur. I became horribly distracted by trying to get my darn photos to just TURN OUT. Once they hit the ice, things did not improve. I planted myself in one of three places (inside one of the boxes, and at either end of the rink) and shot. Hundreds of photos. More than half of them were pitiful. Thank goodness for understanding ladies!! I felt awful about their shoot becoming an Epic Fail, but they were gracious about it all. I hope they enjoyed the shots I did manage to make, even if they aren't up to par. In any event, I really had fun watching the Cougars scrimmage. One thing is for sure - every single one of them could skate circles around me! I will likely post later this evening or tomorrow as well. I borrowed my niece for a couple of hours last Friday to practice, but I don't want to post them until they've had a chance to see them. And tomorrow - my very first newborn, in the form of 10-day-old Jenna. Squeeeee!1!1! A few hockey pics. Many thanks to the Cougars for being good sports. I could tell they absolutely love playing, and that's inspiring to me. :)

Week 12

Project 52 - week 12, already! Time flies. This week's theme is 'jewelry box'. Eurgh. I have plenty of jewelry, but not a lot of it is meaningful. I mentioned this at my grandmother's house tonight, and immediately found myself with her, standing in front of her dresser, looking at old jewelry (I inherited my love for this kind of thing from her). So I snapped a few photos of my favourite pieces. The first is the wedding band of my great-great-great grandfather's first wife. It is inscribed with their wedding date: June 7th, (19)04. The second is my grandfather's mother's necklace. I was a bit reluctant to ask Gramps if I could take a photo of his hands holding the necklace, since the last time I took a photo of his hands, it ended up in a magazine ;), so I said, "Gramps, you'd do anything for me, right?" Got a "Sure will!" out of that without hesitation, so those are Grampie's hands with great-Nannie Helene's necklace. Third is a pair of delicate silver bangles of my grandmother's. I wore them on my wedding day.



Thought I'd throw in another photo: Charlie in his new hat.

In other photo news, my new lens (smc DA* 16-50mm f. 2.8) arrived today. Oh, it's a beaut! Sadly, my camera seems to be back-focusing or something a bit, as my photos are not in focus far more often than not. Grumble grumble. I don't want to send my camera away, but I may have to. I've put purchasing the K5 on hold until later this spring, so maybe I'll do it then and muddle through now by taking a gazillion photos of the same scene in order to get one in focus. Sadly, I didn't know this last week when doing a photo session and ended up with a poor selection of barely-passable photos. Bummer.

I'm hoping to get out for some practice lots over the next few weeks, so check back for updates!

Week 11 + extras

It's been somewhat nice here this week, so I've been getting out a lot with my camera. Today, on a leisurely walk, I snapped a photo of my kiddo in his uncle's barn, which worked for Project 52's theme: dark and light.

I also snapped this of old chokecherries clinging to a tree. I added a texture and erased back the berries. I liked the effect.

I added a radial blur to this one, and again, liked the effect, although it could use some fine-tuning.

I have to include this one, just because it's cute:

Finally, macro cat-tail fuzz:

Prepare thyselves: I have ordered a new lens and I imagine once it arrives I'll go absolutely nuts for a few weeks!