Happy Day After Halloween

With all three kids, and the hubby out for work this Halloween, I was a little bit lazy in our Halloween preparations this year. I didn't sew ANY costumes at all, like I did last year. My oldest wore her parrot costume I made her last year (using THIS tutorial from Burda Style) since it still fit. My middle wore the hand me down monkey jacket we got from Goodwill for our oldest's first Halloween, and my youngest wore a tiger costume my grandma got her from a garage sale for my oldest's first Halloween.

The kids had a lot of fun. It was sunny all afternoon and clear through the evening, but we went to an indoor carnival instead of taking to the streets anyways. My hips are just too sore most of these days to be pushing them all around in a stroller. The carnival was a ton of fun though. The girls got to play lots of games, jump in a bounce house, and we even had our picture taken while we were there! My kids look absolutely NOT thrilled to be there. BUT they did have a good time until it was clearly time for us to be heading home.

Children are so much cuter when they are sleeping

Proof.

Why hello again

Well it's surely been an awful long time since the last time I was here.

So much has happened this last year. A little over a year ago, we found out that I was unexpectedly expecting a new little baby to our family. I struggled a lot more with this pregnancy than my past physically and in some ways emotionally. I was a little bit angry that we were having another one so soon. Add to that complete disappointment when we learned I was having our third girl. (Until a couple months later, when I saw a post on ridding your bathroom of little boy smell. Oh the memories it conjured from my childhood with two younger brothers, and oh what joy that I will never have to go through that!) Physically, I am really a mess right now. My children were all born very close together. I was pregnant at each of their first birthdays even. Unfortunately that took a huge toll on my body. I'm trying to stay positive right now even though it can be difficult sometimes. I've had a lot of limits placed on my body due to sacroiliac and pelvic dysfunction, which in turn has made it so that I can't enjoy a lot of activities I used to do. I am working very hard at getting back into my photography again to help fill some of the disappointment that I am not able to ride my horses right now, but I'm also working really hard on getting back to that point.

Four months ago today, I gave my first kisses to the sweetest, most adorable little girl. She has changed my life in so many ways. I'm trying to learn to be patient with my body, which can be difficult as I am sometimes in a great deal of pain and it can be difficult to do even some tasks that should be a breeze. But it is getting better. I'm getting back into my photography and learning new things again- like this last week, I really poured myself into working on black and white conversions. I was getting so tired of it just being boring when I tried a conversion. So I am practicing and they are getting so much better.

I think I am going to start posting about other things too. Not just photos. If I can even update my blog once in a while.

But anyways, I guess it's just teasing if I post about this beautiful baby I have the wonderful privilege of knowing, and these black and white photos I am working on. So here are just a few. And yes, as you can see, Gwen still has her super crazy curly hair. Fortunately she is ok with it being kept short. Addy's hair is the complete opposite. It is so thick and full and straight and TAME. I guess will see how baby Bethany's turns out.

I Heart Faces- Summer Fun Photo Challenge

This is from the very first week of school break. My friend brought her kids over for pictures before they got bruised and scratched up from camping and roughhousing and other typical summer activities. It was a very fun experience for me, and the first time I took pictures of older kids and toddlers that don't belong to me. We had a blast!!!

This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

Figuring out how to edit!!!

I met with my friend and her adorable kids to take pictures of them yesterday. And I stayed up ridiculously late trying to figure out new editing tricks.

Don't get me wrong, the pictures were pretty awesome to start off with, but I wanted to figure out how to use layers better. I needed to learn sooner or later anyways, why not super late at night?

I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Here's a really quick before and after.

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I used a luminosity mask with a creamy color to brighten it up a little bit. The first picture on it's own doesn't really seem harsh at all, but I feel the mask really softens her face and brightens it up a lot. I'm totally in love with this picture.

Here are a some others that I took:

And lastly, my favorite :)

Our May zoo trip

We went to the zoo just the other week- it was tons of fun! I was able to get so many amazing pictures. Here are just a few of them:

I Heart Faces Challenge- Play

Do you remember a little while back I had that post with darling daughter one jumping on the trampoline? There was a pic in there that I know is just perfect for this challenge.

But then I went looking through my photos and remembered that I have a ton from just last week that I haven't even made blog posts on thanks to this amazing homecation we've been taking and I decided this was the right picture. I have so many more amazing pics from last Sunday at this park too (and I haven't even done anything about the zoo trip yet, sigh...)

You can see more pictures from the iheartfaces.com challenge by following this link:

Angela and Sean

OK OK, I know I've been really bad lately. I haven't blogged on here for a little while. Truth is, we've been on home-cation. AKA sitting around the house and doing nothing all day long.

Well, we haven't been doing nothing but we've just been taking it easy, husband included, and having family fun. Also this means that the husband isn't at work, so he's normally on the computer when I was before. Oh well.

The other day I met up with my cousin Angela and her husband. It was a really good learning experience for me. I need a lot more practice, that night I was thinking there were so many things I could have done different, and so many ways that I could have done better even. But I do know that they will enjoy the pictures I took. The lighting was very tricky and I definitely need more practice taking pictures in the sun. And way more creativity in my posing. I think next time I'll take a bunch of stick figure drawings of poses other people have used and then just go down a checklist maybe? LOL.

Just Because

Easter Pics Part Two

OK, so the top photo on here I've already put up on this blog, in the post about darling daughter's crazy hair. But these are actually closer to Easter Pics than what I had posted before. These are from a couple days after Easter, when darling daughter number one's rash had pretty much just disappeared. I got them dressed up cute and headed over to my mom's (she has way more widnows than I do) and started snapping away.

Easter Pics Part One

I have a confession to make. I didn't take any pictures of the girls on Easter. Darling daughter number one had a cold sore from earlier in the week. And it turns out cold sores do weird things to little kids. Like make them break out in a huge rash all over their little bodies.

So I went to church with darling daughter number two by myself, and taught our Sunday School class (dear hubby and I teach the 16 year olds) with the baby in this gorgeous ring sling I made for her. 

These pictures were just before her birthday when she turned two. The days aren't very long in February, unfortunately, so the light was a little bit challenging but we made it work. Tomorrow I'll post the baby's photos.

Setting up quick and easy baby photos

There's a pin floating around on pinterest I saw for taking baby photos using window light, but I really haven't felt like it's safe to do on your own, since it uses a bed, and unless your baby is too little to roll over, we all know beds + little babies/ crawling babies don't mix. I saw another pin on how to get a nice bokeh with the backdrop. So I've combined both pins into one that's safe to do in all circumstances- even on your own. Worst thing that could happen with this setup is that your baby will roll off your blankie.

Of course, you will need a big window- or just LOTS of windows. A sliding door is even better since the set up is on the floor. If you're using windows the blanket needs to be further away from the wall, since there will be a little bit of a shadow, but it will still work just fine on the floor (my mom has the perfect room for this with a big wall full of windows). Then I drape a big blanket over the coffee table since darling daughter isn't too big yet, flatten it all out, and then pull the blanket out so that it comes down and forward in a nice curve. Voila! (I also put the bumbo and a light foam chair on top of the coffee table so the blanket doesn't slip)

However, make sure you get the wrinkles out that aren't supposed to be there if you can, because they can be super distracting with this setup. Trust me, I know.

Then I use a 50mm/ 1.8f, plop DD down and snap away. Well, I used to snap away, now I take more time to sort of look and plan things out instead of spray and pray. The reason I use a 50mm prime is because it has a great aperture, and there isn't any lens distortion. Even if I had an 80mm (which is supposed to be the best for portraits) my room isn't big enough to get portraits with that much zoom, plus I need more money before that can happen. I know a lot of people will use a 35mm for baby pics, but it will cause some distortions.

I got this super precious one of her, but it isn't perfect. She's starting to get too big to use the coffee table for the backdrop, and I didn't line this one up quite right, so you can see the foam chair up behind her. B&wing the pic hides it for the main part, as well as the really wide aperture, but I wish I'd planned the pic out better. I still love it though! She is so sweet.

I use this same setup with my toddler too, but I use the kitchen chairs flipped around backwards instead :)

Trampoline Fun

Yesterday I posted a photo for a challenge that I took of darling daughter #1 a few weeks ago.

We had so much fun that day! And she figured out how to jump on the trampoline with both feet that day too.

I heart faces photo challenge- Wind

OK, OK, I know it isn't really wind in the traditional sense. But darling daughter #1 just does such an awesome job in creating her own wind when she's jumping around all over the place. We had so much fun outside that day. 

You can find other fun entries at iheartfaces.com

Where am I going?

I'm sure all of us at some point have done some sort of hobby where you have that potential question nagging at you: "where exactly am I going with this?" I've had two hobbies just right off the top of my head that will eventually necessitate that question. The first one was horseback riding. That was easy, of course I wanted to go pro. There really isn't anything like doing what you love doing all the time. I never really took photos until I had my own kids, and I started taking photos of my first daughter when she was itty bitty because we didn't really have very much money at all. Then I started taking more and more pictures, and slowly getting better and better.

I first picked up a dSLR and started taking pics with it on AUTO a little over 2 years ago. My pictures are SO much different now. I've since learned about shutter speeds, apertures, ISO, white balance, you name it. Sometimes I look back at those pictures and really can't believe how good I used to think they were- they would look completely different if I were to take them now. But I did the best I could with what I knew when I took them. And I just keep taking more and more so I can learn and practice more. It's amazing how much I've learned in such a short time.

I've had a lot of people ask me why I'm not running around and doing this as a pro. Honestly, I don't feel like I'm quite ready yet, but I'm getting there. I want to get to the point where I can, as an amateur, feel comfortable taking photos of other people first. Yes, I do understand that amateur = for free. But I'm OK with that, because I'm still learning so much. I do see myself going semi-pro, but it isn't going to be tomorrow. Besides, I do sort of need more than just my children and my sister's family in my portfolio anyways.

In the mean time, I'm just going to keep practicing :) I will be taking pics of some of my friends and their families soon though, and some family members that haven't had portraits done in a very long time. I'm so excited but nervous at the same time. 

Oh, and here's a super cute picture I took the other day of my kids and their cousin. Aren't they just SO sweet?