Snapshots from our couch…and random stuff

March 22, 2012

So there were several questions yesterday and I am going to answer them all here:

1. How do I keep my camera out of the mud? I only snap a few photos and then sit it on counter inside. I can reach in and grab it without actually going in the house. I don’t keep my camera with me the whole time. I just get a handful of shots I like and then put the camera up so I can be with my kids and not behind my camera.

2. Where is the doll from in the rocker in FireCracker’s room? the etsy shop Goodbye Blue Monday…though the shop is closed now. Anyone know anything on that?

3. Who is the green fabric with the flowers by? Heather Bailey, it’s called Rose Bouquet in Emerald

4. The photos of you and your newborns….how are they done? They are mounted prints. You can ordered mounted prints from Mpix.

5. Is that a picture within a picture of a little girl we haven’t met (pointed out not asked as a question)? Nope, that is a little guy that Chris met while in Haiti. You can read about him by clicking here.

6. Is that a new Wonder Woman shirt? Nope, my mom got it from Old Navy last year. When FireCracker had her long hospital stay she refused to wear anything but her red Wonder Woman shirt, my mom got her the purple one so I could wash the red one!

7. What are you using for the shelves in your kitchen, living room, & landing? Red oak boards. I get them for cheap at a local saw mill and then my grandpa planes down one side. The underside stays rough, but the top is smooth. The idea is for the top to be easy to dust, but I never dust. I redecorate.

8. What is the pink lace fabric? Well, glad you asked. The pink was from a Target sheet and the lace is an old curtain. I sewed them together to make a pillow. One of my only sewing projects that worked the way I hoped it would.

He turned four. I remember the days I thought four was so old. Four is so little to me now. Just a little guy. A four year old little guy who melts me…and makes me reevaluate my parenting mindset everyday. How can one kid be the easiest and the hardest in the same breath?

It has been dark and rainy all week here…with exception to that short break where my kids buried themselves in mud. On his birthday I asked him if I could snap a few pictures of what he looks like now that he is four. He gave me about 2 minutes. We couldn’t go outside so we sat in front of the window.

I didn’t fix his hair…obviously. Soon I’ll take all the boys outside somewhere for their yearly posed pictures – that are torturous for all of us. Once a year. I didn’t tell him what to do, I just snapped away.

Photo tips: Blur in your pictures can be caused by several different things. The most common is too slow of a shutter speed. My shutter speed was fast enough to get sharp images when he was fairly still, but once he started jumping up and down, he got blurry. To fix this I could have increased my ISO and sped up my shutter speed.

Another cause of blur can be related to your aperture setting. When you shoot around f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0 and f/2.8 the depth of field (area of the photo that is in focus) can be pretty small depending on how close you are to your subject. In the photo below (f/2.8), I was so close to him that the depth of field really only included his mouth and nose. His eyes, which were farther distance from me than his nose & mouth, were just out of the depth of field and as a result are blurry. It might be hard to tell, but once you get used to looking for this it is easy to see.

Here’s a closer version…do you see how his nose and mouth are sharper than his eyes?

An easy way to fix this is just to move back a tiny bit from the subject. All of these photos were shot at f/2.8, but if you notice the ones where I am farther from him – there is a lot more in focus. The closer you are to your subject, the smaller the area that is in focus (depth of field).

He’s getting older. He asks every single day when I am going to go to China to get his baby sister. He is so anxious and excited. I cherish the deep love he already has for her. I cherish him.

The next SnapShop course will be April 22nd – May 13th. You can find more information and sign up by clicking here. This will be the last SnapShop I will be doing until the fall.

I currently have a handful of openings for April available. I am also booking for May and June, but not beyond June at this time. For more information on advertising, you can contact me via the “contact” tab on the top right corner of the blog.