Plaza Lights

So last Saturday I went with Digital Labrador to a "photo safari" on the Plaza. In my 10 years in KC, I have never really taken pictures of the lights so I thought this would be a fun learning experience. There were a couple pros stationed around the Plaza with fun equipment to use and tips/tricks to share. They had a Canon 5D Mark II that was amazing! I didn't use it but I saw some of the images it was producing and it's truly a fabulous piece of equipment. If I had an extra $2700 laying around I would buy one.

It was FREEZING that night but I managed to hang in there and shoot for 3 hours straight. It was hard to shoot with numb fingers but I got a few shots I was happy with. I was hand holding everything because I couldn't find my tripod- which was fine because I hate lugging that huge thing around anyway.

My favorites:

Jake

Just wanted to post some pics for the grandparents!









Trixie has kept any tree damage to a minimum, Simon is obsessed with chasing the reflections of the lights and Jake just wants to eat the branches. Every so often there will be an incident involving Simon trying to "get" Trixie behind the tree, but so far nobody has been hurt. And I don't know if it's the weather, the season or the fact that my cat Gabby is losing her mind, but she has been coming out into the living room a lot these days! This is the cat who practically lives in the bedroom, only to leave for the next room where the litter box is (if we're lucky).

We are looking forward to our first Christmas with a child- I get teary just thinking about it! I can't wait to see him get excited about Christmas morning and watch his eyes light up as he see's what Santa has left him. Of course, it will be a couple years before this happens...it's still fun to think about!

Fun with a tilt/shift lens

A photographer friend of mine sent this video to me a while back and I came across it again today. I love it! It looks like a scene of miniatures but it's really a time lapse "video" shot with a dSLR using a tilt/shift lens. I believe it's all stills put together to look like a movie. SO COOL! I'm diggin' the song too...


Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
From this blog.

*About tilt/shift lenses:
A tilt shift lens looks like a complicated little piece of equipment with movable parts, but it's pretty simple to use. I've never used one on a dSLR but I played around with one at KCAI on a 4x5 camera. The tilt controls the position of the plane of focus which results in a very shallow depth of field, so most of the image is out of focus except for a small area that is in focus. The plane of focus can be adjusted to make a large scene appear much smaller, as the shallow depth of field is similar to that achieved by a macro lens on miniature. You can't get this effect using a large aperture on a regular macro lens. Shift controls perspective, and this can result in some cool effects. Shifting is used a lot in architectural photography so that there is little to no distortion of lines. You can shift the lens to be parallel to the subject, instead of tilting the camera back to be perpendicular...catch my drift? Shifting lenses have a much wider field of vision than a standard lens of the same focal length. These lenses come with a pretty large price tag- around $1100 and up.

Santa's favorite elves!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Jack

I just tried writing a whole big blog entry on this but I really can't even find the words to say what I want so I'll make it short and sweet.


In January of this year, I found my way to this blog, Multiple Baby Pileup , and it has really has changed my life. It was here that I was introduced to an amazing mom and dad, two beautiful girls Charlotte and Katie...and a brave little guy named Jack. Charlotte, Kate and Jack are triplets (how cool is that?!?!). The girls are so cute and funny! Each has a personality all their own and it's been so great watching them get bigger and bigger.


Charlotte and Katie are very special in that they have an angel watching over them....their brother Jack. On January 2nd, 2008 Jack passed away from complications of Mobius Syndrome- he was just short of 3 months old. The strength that their mom and dad have shown over the last 11 months has blown me away. There have been days where I would sit at my computer and sob over what I was reading and how destroyed mom and dad must be feeling. I began to miss Jack, a little boy that I had never even met. Just reading their story and learning about Jack and his sisters has brought me close to them somehow. I think of Jack often, and I look forward to every post on the blog.


So now to the reason for this blog entry-

A couple people have organized toy drives in Jack's memory- this one has been made super easy for you. All the toys are being donated to the Children's Hospital of New Jersey so that some little child will have a gift to open on Christmas, and so that they know Santa thinks they are special too. Please take a minute to send a toy if you can. I know Jack would love it! And if you have some time please read some more about these three little babies. You might just learn something about yourself through them.

"I'd like to thank all the little people..."

My friend Nemmie tagged me for the Kreative Blogger Award! Thanks girl, I'm flattered and you're thuper thweet! You guys should check out Nemmie's blog. She has the most amazing baked goodies on there that will make your mouth water- no joke. Nemmie could take Martha Stewart in a bake-off easily...with one hand tied behind her back. Love ya, Nems!

And now I shall pass on the award to my other favorite "chefs", Sarah at Chomping the Big Apple and Jules at Julie's Foodie.

Closer...no, closer!

I got a new lens (oh, by the way Todd- I got a new lens :o) ). It's a Sigma 28mm 1.8 and I'm pretty much in love with it. Thanks to Josh Solar for the recommendation!

So last weekend I wanted to see how close I could get to my subjects and have the image be in focus. I started at about a foot away. Everything still in focus. I moved 8 inches closer....still clear. I moved closer- about 4 inches away and it was STILL in focus! Finally I just put the lens right on the subject (not in focus) and moved back until it was in focus. How far back you ask? About 2 inches. I can focus on an object at 2 inches!

In. love.

Payton

This past weekend we went to visit my in-law's to surprise my father-in-law for his birthday. We had lots of fun and lots of good food- as usual. I had a chance to snap a few shots of my niece as she played outside in the leaves. She's the cutest, funniest and sweetest 16 month old I know!

Meet Payton.

November 4, 2008

Today will be one for the history books as we elect either the first African American President or the first woman Vice President into the White House! Can you believe it? I never, ever thought I would see this day in my lifetime- I underestimate the American people sometimes. Let's just hope we can pull it together and make the right choice ion this election.

So if you've voted- congratulations! If not, get out there and cast your ballot. If there is a line, deal with it. Men and women die every day so that we have the right to vote. Consider it a privilege. Vote, vote, vote!! (Unless you are voting for McCain, then you can just stay home! ) I kid, I kid....

This time tomorrow we will have a new President (hopefully- I'm praying for very few snags)!

Happy Halloween!

We had Trick or Treating at my work yesterday- Jake was all treat! Would it be weird if he wore this costume every day of the year...it's too cute to take off! He is possibly the cutest monkey EVER!!

I better enjoy the cute costumes while I can. Pretty soon he'll be asking to be a ninja or a monster or some freaky thing from the latest horror flic. Maybe someday he'll want to be a monkey again...no?



EDIT: I forgot to show you what he looked like when I took the costume off! Note the hairy armpits and chest :o)

Light

Saturday afternoon, Jake was laying on the couch being lazy (he takes after me in so many ways!) and I looked over and he had some really cool light falling over him. The sun was coming in the window just right so I grabbed my camera to experiment a little bit.

I'm kind of obsessed with his big head so here are some pictures of it.

I can't get this any bigger for some reason. I am hating Blogger lately!

Lil' Tiger

Our little tiger turned 6 months old last week!! He's growing so fast, which is good...and kind of sad. I miss my little monkey :o( although I love my big monkey! Anyway, Todd put Jake's MU hat on the get him warmed up for the big game last weekend- and what do you know, it's almost too small for his huge noggin. We thought we should get some pictures of him wearing it while he still can! And if he ever comes home telling us he wants to be a Jayhawk instead, after I pick Todd up off the floor I will remind him the he has been a loyal Tiger since he was a little baby and that KU is out of the question!! Unless they want to give him a full ride...then we can talk about it.










We also started Jake on veggies last night!

Yes, I'm in a hurry to get to the next step: on his 4 month birthday we started cereal, now he's on "real" food..and on his 1st birthday we will say 'audios' to formula and HELLO milk (hey, formula is expensive!!!!)

I figured sweet potatoes would be a good starter food- sweet, good texture...and that's what everyone was telling me to start with. So I did. I have a video of this truly amazing event (insert sarcasm) but I really don't feel like trying to figure out how to get it on the blog, so you'll have to settle for a picture instead.

Happy 6 Month Birthday Jakey!!

I've been tagged!!

I'm just giddy with excitement!! Thanks Leslie! I really wish I had some witty things to say, but I don't.

5 Joys
1. My son
2. drinking beer and eating nachos at a (winning) Royals game with Todd
3. spending time with my family and friends
4. the early days of summer when the weather is just warm enough to drive with the sunroof open and the radio blasting
5. the first snow, where everything has a light dusting and the world goes from dark and mean to soft and clean

5 Fears
1. something bad happening to my son
2. my house burning down
3. family dying
4. my teeth falling out
5. terminal illness

5 Obsessions
1. reality TV
2. LOST
3. RB
4. money...even though I don't have any
5. my son (duh, we all saw that one coming!)

5 Surprising Facts
1. Some weekends, I'd rather go to bed early than go out.
2. I've been to 33 US States. I was lucky enough to have a photography job that took me around the country for three years and I got to see some really amazing places...and some not-so-amazing places.
3. I have VERY vivid dreams with super saturated colors and textures. Sometimes they are so weird it freaks me out, more often than not actually.
4. I love the smell of skunks, plastic, gasoline and Pickle scented scratch-n-sniff stickers.
5. I hate that more than one goose is called "Geese" but more than one moose is not called "Meese". What is up with that?!?!?!

Ok, now passing the torch on tooooooooo....

1. Julie at her Julie's Foodie
2. Jocelyn at The ZOG Blog
3. Michelle at The Hoopers
4. Courtney at Cjeanette’s Weblog

Very exciting news!!

So this weekend is going to be awesome, awesome, awesome! First, my friend Layna is going to be on Deal or No Deal this Friday! No, not as a briefcase girl (although she is hot enough to be one) but as a contestant!!! She's going for the million dollars and there are 6 million dollar cases this time! I'm praying for some big bucks for her, she deserves it so much. Tune in to watch, NBC 8pm Friday October 10th.

(I told you she was hot!)

Second...


My friends Sean and Ashley are getting married on Saturday!! I'm so excited for them. I love them both so much and I wish them all the love and happiness in the world. Congrats Sean and Ashley!! (sorry, I don't have a picture of them on my work computer).

Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead

Saturday was a fun day! Todd and his brother Scott went up to Nebraska to watch the Tigers slaughter the Huskers and left myself and my sister-in-law, Mary, to fend for ourselves. It was a beautiful day out so we took the kids to Deanna Rose Farmstead for a little while. This was my first time visiting and I was extremely surprised to see how cool this place is! I had no idea. It's much bigger than I thought and they have some really cool animal displays. Best part? It's FREE!!! You can fish, watch a cow get milked, feed baby goats with bottles (I'm totally doing this next time!!!), ride horses, sit in the butterfly garden...so much to do! And ina couple weeks they are having some Halloween events too. Check it out! And while you're there, leave a few dollars in one of the donation boxes so this place can continue to stay open. Did I mention it was free? Here's some shots from the outing.

Payton and Mary

baby Jake with a baby cow

baby Jake with a big cow

Bugs eye view.

Milk for the nerves? And all this time I thought it was wine for the nerves...hhmmm.

\

He's got his daddy's eyelashes!

Jake, me and the goats. Look at his face!!! He can't figure out what is going on...

See that little girl in the background? We ran into her later in the day. As we were walking by her, we saw that she as feeing the goat something. At that very exact moment her dad (grandpa?) was talking to someone on his cell phone and says "Oh my God, she just gave a goat a cookie!". I about fell down laughing! I'm laughing now just thinking of it!! It was funny. I guess you had to be there.