6 months

almost seven

I snagged this almost seven year old for a quick photo shoot when the opportunity presented itself. He is always on the move and it can be tricky to get him to sit still and look at the camera, but he did it for me (maybe bribing him with a dollar and candy did the trick). I love this boy of mine!

when your sister looks like a princess

...and she lets you do a photo shoot. This was so. much. fun!

new lens

 Let me rephrase that. NEW LENS!!!!! My sweet husband gave me a lens off of my wishlist for Valentine's day and I have been having so much fun learning how to use it. These were taken with the Canon 85mm 1:1.8 lens.

This one is overexposed, but I like the composition. I have had to get used to how much light a lens that stops down to 1.8 can let in!

 I don't love the composition of this one, but I do love those chubby baby thighs!

 I took this jumping picture in the basement at night. I am impressed with this lens!

 Homemade granola bars before they were cut into squares

 Valentine roses from my love

This lens is so sharp. I love it!

birthday candles

 LIVE SNAP LOVE has a tutorial that I followed to take these photos of my daughter's birthday.

I wanted to practice before the real deal.

The boys were happy to help me get a few shots.

The real deal. I love how these turned out! After a combine 25+ years of kids' birthday parties I finally know how to take a candle picture. Yay! 

sunburst

I can't wait to play around with this technique some more and even include it in some of my lifestyle photography. 

Things to remember to create a sunburst effect:

*smaller aperture (ie-smaller than f/11)

*partially block sun with something

*don't look directly at sun through viewfinder. (ouch!)

reflection

I have been reading up on landscape photography, and while my focus will be on lifestyle, I would still like to learn the basics of how to take a good landscape photo. I don't own an ideal lens for landscape, so I debated on whether I should use my "nifty fifty" lens or my zoom lens for these and I decided to go with my zoom. They are not nearly as sharp as I envisioned, but I didn't use a tripod (which would have been helpful). I wanted to capture the reflection of the trees and the clouds on the lake in the late afternoon.

With the next two photos I was experimenting with something I learned: if the sky is lackluster the foreground should take up 2/3 of the frame and sky 1/3 and vice versa. I tried it both ways because the sky had some pretty cool clouds I wanted to capture and I also wanted to capture the reflection of the clouds on the lake.