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He’s almost figured out crawling - so determined. I sure won’t be posting tomorrow…even as I write I can almost taste the turkey and dressing. I can eat my weight’s worth in Thanksgiving dinner. LOVE IT. I hope you all have a great time with family and friends….life is good. My cup overflows.
Besides orders being placed the most common email I am getting right now is “I want to get a camera for Christmas. What do you suggest?” So here goes…
I recommend a dslr over a point & shoot…even if you don’t know how to use a camera on anything but the automatic mode. The basics of photography are fairly easy to learn and a dslr opens the door for so much more than a point & shoot. They are bulky, but well worth it in my opinion. As far as specific dslr cameras go, I shoot with Canon so naturally I lean to Canon. Nikon is also a great brand. I personally would stick with one of those. I buy most of my equipment at BeachCamera.com, but there are tons of great credible online stores. Locally, I would recommend Camera Gallery at 71st & Memorial. They can really walk with you through what camera will fit your specific needs.
I recommend:
any of the Canon Rebel versions ($450-$800) - This would be my #1 recommendation for most people
Canon 20D, Canon 30D, Canon 40D, Canon 50D
Nikon D40, Nikon D60, Nikon D80, Nikon D90
You will also notice there are several different lens options. To explain it in the least technical way, here you go:
18-135mm: This is a zoom and a wide angle. Numbers below 50 allow for a wide angle.
f/4.0: In simplistic terms this is how blurry you can make your background. The smaller the number the blurrier the background. I only buy lenses that are f/2.8 or smaller.
You can always invest in the camera with the lens it comes with, learn photography beyond the Automatic mode and then invest in lenses that fit your personal needs. Hope that helps….just a little note to say I’ll be doing more teaching related things next year, but a dslr will be required 
Canon is offering a rebate on certain models, you find that rebate HERE
Happy Friday! I thought I’d share a little photo tip/challenge for the weekend. To me photography is about telling a story - especially when it comes to my kids. In 20 years I will look at this picture and remember who Hudson was at 2 years. You pretty much never see him without cars in his hand and most recently he always has is Lightning McQueen rainboots on. So this weekend challenge yourself to tell the story of your kids in the details….I’d love to see what you come up with, so email me some or leave a link in the comments.
Poor you….with less pictures now some posts will have more words! I always love to hear ideas from other parents on things they do with their kids, so I thought I’d post a few of mine. First let me say I used to be a reader. Back in the days before kids I had favorite authors, favorite books, I would pour over one sentence dissecting the meaning. I have three boys. Chris had some ‘get to know you’ questions he was using for a meeting and one was “Who is your favorite author?” I asked him if Grace from the Design*Sponge counts. I no longer pour over books, instead I am pumped when Cottage Living arrives in the mailbox and I can find 5 minutes to fly through it. All that to say, my very favorite magazine arrives in November each year. It is the Samaritan’s Purse Christmas Catalog. This marks the beginning of Christmas for me. We are pretty active in social issues year round, but the Christmas Catalog is a highlight with the boys. I sat down with Corbett and Hudson to pick out what they wanted to “buy”. Hudson was a fan of milk, Corbett liked that he could help buy a house, stock a fish pond, buy chickens - he basically liked it all. What really stood out to him was a picture of a child with a dirty glass of water and a clean glass of water. Corbett’s FAVORITE drink is a warn glass of water. We talked about how some kids don’t have clean water and how we can help buy water filters and pumps to allow them to have clean water. The next Sunday my church played the following video - it is well worth your time to watch:
To bring it all home we now have a glass of dirty water sitting on our kitchen table. It reminds Corbett and Hudson to pray for those that don’t have clean water and it reminds us to give to enable them to enjoy a clean glass of water like we enjoy everyday…..
Every 21 seconds a child dies from a water related illness
If you are interested in giving to help provide clean water globally here are two organizations to consider (many more can be found online):
Gift Ideas:
1. Combine a contribution certificate with a cool water bottle as a stocking stuffer
2. Combine a contribution certificate with a new set of kitchen glasses. You can find cool old vintage ones at flea markets.
Just a reminder if you want your order in time for Christmas the deadline is tomorrow - Nov. 20th.
Just a note to all my faithful blog readers, this is the BUSY time for order fulfillment for me. Sessions have wrapped up for the year and I will be spending time filling orders for my clients. I’ll still be posting…Christmas ideas, information for next year, some exciting ideas for other things…much to come. So stay tuned, but sorry to say that there won’t be daily posts for a while.
Just because I like posting pictures and Hudson has been ignored on the blog…here’s Hudson
I took a break from the beautiful chaos that is my house and got too see peaceful little Elliot at home with his doting parents. He was such an easy baby to photograph….I love my “nephew”! We took the boys to meet him last week at the hospital. When I told Corbett we were going to go his response was, “Can’t you just take a picture of him and show me?” I guess newborns aren’t a high priority for a 4 year old boy….
Ever since we bought the point and shoot, Corbett has been wanting to take pictures all the time. He recently told me that we don’t have to be apart anymore because he can just come help me with every session. He did come with me to do the Fullingims (yesterday’s post) - and was such a GREAT helper. For a little Friday fun I thought I’d share a few from the other day…here he is in action
The outcome of that picture:
One I took….Rett chillin’ in my radtastic Eames rocker
Just because I like it. He is on the verge of crawling: non-stop rocking action going on at our house.
If you know me well, you know that if something is happening on Main St. Broken Arrow - I am there…with a bunch of boys close behind. Tonight is the annual Broken Arrow Tea-Off, 6-9pm. It is a night where stores stay open late, serve a little hot chocolate or cider and celebrate the coming of Christmas. We go every year…this time we are stopping by Starbucks first for a bigger cup (the free drinks are in those tiny cups).
The picture above is from Martha Stewart. If you know someone girly that is into candles, she has a DIY project using old teacups (which you can find at Southern Hospitality & the Hitching Post on Main St. - my 2 favorite stores). Totally random…but Martha has some great new stuff at Walmart and Micheals. I have a love/hate relationship with Martha.
