Look ma...two teeth!

First time to show them off in a pic....So adorable!

Bubbles!

Yep, everything goes in the mouth. And yes, it's baby safe soap. :)

Buddha belly...

Mom and I drove up to see the kids one last time before her flight and we got to be there for Hannah's bath time. So much fun! I have only given her one bath here and she cried the whole time, so these are my first bath pics. I'm going to spread them out over several days, because I haven't been shooting as much with my neck issues.

Hannah usually looks long and lanky, but you wouldn't know it from this shot. What a belly! :)

She's such a flirt! :)

Lovin' her daddy's lap, but aimin' all the cute at Auntie Kara!

At last they meet...

Checking out her GG for the very first time...
Love how the light fell on their faces (new lens helps!)...
GG had already removed her pearls, but hey...she has another small necklace! :)

Four generations...

We were happy my mom could come to visit last week before she moves into assisted living (Sept). She loved meeting Hannah and we were finally able to take our first four generation pic. Which do you prefer?

Sunflower close-up...

Sunflowers...

Enjoyed these thoroughly while they lasted. Should have taken a pic of how pitifully dead they were before I could bear to throw them out. :) Such cheery flowers!
Not sure if this was the correct exposure. The window is blown out but, if I exposed for outdoor light, the flowers were underexposed. Didn't want to use flash...so I compromised with something in between and did a little work with layers in editing.

Special effects assignment...

We were given a lot of latitude here with only a few suggestions. I really wanted to do something original, so I googled and found what I thought was a pretty cool idea. By creating a special "hood" on my lens with a special shape cut out, I was able to change specular highlights in the bokeh into the cut out shape....in this case, music notes. This idea works better with the subject in the foreground (close to camera) and lights in the distant background. There was no way to set that up with the piano tho'. It bothers me that nothing is in focus except the notes, but I still think it's kinda interesting. If I were to try it again, I'd experiment with different aperature settings. I was just using what the article suggested (wide open) for the best bokeh. Considering how teeny tiny the music note cut out was, it's amazing I got an image at all. I did have to overexpose considerably. This is much easier to do with a more open shape (a star, heart, etc.). Wish we'd had colored lights too, but oh well. BTW, the instructor thought my music notes looked like ducks. Seriously?
Zoom exposure....harder to do than I imagined. Took a few tries to get something decent. Now, I just need to shoot some "real" pics of these beautiful sunflowers. I'm sure enjoying them in my kitchen!
I have Kim to thank for this cool idea. She saw it in an article with a person in the center of the fire ring. I had no subjects this day tho', so had to settle for the cross. I'm calling it "Heaven and Hell". :) My camera, on tripod, was manually focused on the cross (on a stool) and with a slow shutter speed (8"), I walked around the stool holding a candle. It was a completely dark room with no other light source, other than the candle. I'm amazed that I was not caught in the image. And, in case you're wondering, the background was not red...it was black. The red is just from the flame. Fun experiment and something I may want to try again. I'm wondering if you can write your name with a flame. Hmmmmmm.....

Hannah's "boyfriend"...

This is the last Mommy Group pic and my favorite image of the day. How cute are they?

Mommy group, Pt. 4

Samuel (2 and a half) had a great time! He was a little rascal, splashing everyone and even filling his mouth with water to spit! :)
But he nicely sat and said "cheese" when his mom asked him to. :)

Mommy group, Pt. 3

Samantha (11 mo.) in the foreground, Pete in back. Giggles!

Mommy group, Pt. 2...

Meet Sydney (9 mo.). What a little imp she is! So cute with that red hair!

Mommy group, Pt. 1...

Jenny invited some friends to swim last week. SO FUN! What a blessing to have such sweet friends. There were 5 babies and 1 toddler, including Hannah. All the babies enjoyed the water...no tears...and every one went completely underwater at some point. I loved having all those cute subjects in one place! Pete (11 mo.) loved watching Samuel (2) splash! Just curious....does it bother anyone that these top 2 pics are left-side heavy...sliding off the frame? I tried the angle, because it seemed to capture the crazy fun of splashing, but now I'm not so sure...Maybe it bothers me some because there are 2 people on the left and only one on the right. Maybe I should have tilted the other way?
Love how quiet Pete got after his swim...So serene....Love their hands in this pic too. .

Through the looking glass...

These are the last of my experimentation with perspective. I thought the eye pic was fun, but my instructor was less than impressed. Said Jenny should have held the glass farther away to make her eye look even bigger. Tried that....couldn't see the detail in her eye...so... whatever! :)

Perspective homework, Pt. 2...

Kara mentioned this idea that she'd seen in a magazine and we thought it was fun.

Perspective homework, Pt. 1

I thought I would enjoy this assignment, but found it extremely frustrating! I had what I thought were good ideas, but found them impossible to execute. Or, what I could accomplish didn't look as I'd imagined. For instance, I never got what I really wanted on the fridge shot (food in focus, myself out of focus). It just couldn't be done with an 18" minimum lens focus and it was challenging to frame the shot when I couldn't get behind the camera to see what I was getting. That said, I think the assignment was valuable, because it forced me to think of unconventional angles and more creative ways to view a photo. Hopefully, I'll remember that in the future. These are a few of my attempts (after many failures). I'll post a few more tomorrow.

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting...

If you point that camera at me one more time....Hi-yah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who's your pool guy?

Crystal clear...thanks to Bob!

About face...

What's she thinking? I want to know, 'cause she looks so serious.

....and moments later, she's flirting!

Caution...

Check it out...

Uh-oh... :)

New lens...

I liked Kim's hot shoe flash much better than my on camera flash but decided, for now, I'd rather buy a faster lens for low light. LOVE it!!! Shot this wide open (f/1.4) so the DOF is super shallow. Maybe too shallow for portraits? Better be sure my focus is right on! And I'm guessing I'll have to close down some if there's more than one subject. At any rate, I'm looking forward to experimenting.
Caught this in a chance moment when she glanced up towards the skylight as Jenny was dressing her. Love how the DOF turned our ratty old carpet into a soft, warm background. And yes, I am so in love with that face and those gorgeous baby blues!

Delight...

Kim took this, but I'm posting it because she captured a sweet moment. I'm without make- up, scraggly-haired-after-swimming, tongue-out-blowing-raspberries, and I don't even care (much :D ) because it's all about Hannah's precious expression. Can you feel the unconditional love and simple joy?
Kim may be wondering why I cropped so much of her well-composed pic. :) There was a window in the background with really distracting highlights...and I converted to b/w because of our very colorful sofa. Love that sofa in real life, but I wanted this pic to be all about Hannah's face and, in color, it's all about the sofa. :)

Holding Hannah...

Thomas was SO gentle and sensitive. I love his sweet expression and his arms so carefully wrapped around her...and that Hannah kept turning around to interact with him! I think someone wants a little sister! :)
And the rascal here...he always has that mischievous little twinkle in his eye! Soon after this shot he told his mom to "come get her off me". :)

Cousin capers...

Loved watching them interact. I sometimes wonder if I'm missing the actual experience when I'm busy trying to capture it on camera. But later, I see in pics something I might have missed in real life. Love how you can see the unique personality in each child's expressions...
This was my first time to shoot multiple kids and it was really fun!!! Thanks Kim for letting me try your hot shoe flash!

Cruisin'

Cracks me up!

Slide!

Cowabunga, dude!

Underwater mystics...

Jon's gesture is so similar to what he did in Lisa's "You are healed" shot...funny! Kim, maybe seminary is in his future? :)
And Thomas looks like he's practicing levitation! Future illusionist??
Used auto on these and I still think it makes the water look cloudy. Jury's still out on which setting I prefer...decisions, decisions....