Yikes!

Took the camera to W's gym "tumble time" today. Obviously having color cast issues with the crazy primary-colored walls, but I still liked this little face. :)

9 months old

Baby V.
I think it's safe to say that he could not POSSIBLY be cuter!

Action shot

Playing with a slightly slower shutter speed than usual to see if I could get a mostly-crisp image with a little motion blur. Not sure what I think, but love my little soccer player in action. (He really kicks the ball!)

Forget Spring...

These lovely things make me want to skip directly over to Summer.

LOOK what I got!

My Mom gave me the COOLEST thing today. This super cool Kodak "#2 Folding Autographic Brownie" - Googled it, and they were introduced in 1915, and discontinued in 1926. So cool! Talk about shooting in manual mode! From what I can tell, it's a 25-50mm f/4. I am in love. Have to find a special place for it!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Taken Saturday, 3/26

Two of my favorite men.
(We got to spend Grandpa's birthday with him! Happy Birthday, Grandpa/Dad!)

Off we go!

W was helping Mommy pack for our weekend at Nanna & Grandpa's house (well, more like taking a break, removing packed items like that little sock, and then giving a VERY sad face when told it was naptime). I think he wanted to get on the road NOW! Soon, buddy! Leaving in a few hours. Happy weekend, all!

More early Easter-ness

I have several newborn sessions in April, and with Easter around the same time, I thought it might be cute to have a new prop on hand... excuse the photo. Spent more time knitting than shooting today.

...Just kidding.

Well, I spoke too soon. Despite some of the recent posts (i.e. yesterday's "In Honor of Spring") we woke up to SNOW today. I decided to embrace it, and ran outside, dodging melting, falling clumps of snow, in hopes that this is the LAST wintry storm we have this season. So much for that tease of a 70 degree day last week.

In Honor of Spring

Imagine that you're a 16 month old boy.
Now imagine that instead of the blog watermark text,
there are a few birds sitting on those perches.
IMAGINE how excited you'd be.
You'd think that this was the next latest, greatest,
state-of-the-art gadget that all 16 month olds want to have.
It's like the Ipad 2 for toddlers.
Squealing. Clapping. Endless entertainment.

ONE and done

Monday, 3/21
Today was a travel day - all the way across the state. Being the dedicated nerd that I am, I made sure to dig the camera bag out of the back seat to snap this one - have to be sure to complete my 365! Pretty sure this is the only day all year that I've only taken one photo.

How could I not?

Sunday, 3/20
We were visiting family this weekend - check out Pop Pop blowing bubbles for his favorite grandson. How fun!

Cook Forest

Saturday, 3/19

We went for a hike in Cook Forest near Clarion this weekend.
It was hard to choose a shot - some really beautiful scenery.

!

I could not care less that this may be the least exciting photo I've taken all year. LOOK AT IT!

It is absolutely gorgeous out.

We're going out of town this weekend. I'll be taking photos every day but will post them all when we return on Monday night.

Blame it on the leprechauns...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This was actually taken yesterday, but I had to use it on the 365 to mark the holiday today. I took other photos today, so I'm still batting 1,000 for the year on this challenge!

"Never wake a sleeping baby..."

Or so they say.

W woke up at 4 a.m. inexplicably today, (the day after I wrote in his baby blog that he has been sleeping through the night consistently for months - ha!) and thus took a much longer than normal morning nap. I snuck in to wake him up, and he was OUT. He slept through about a dozen snapshots. What a little lovebug. I couldn't choose just one.

Rub a dub dub

At a 100% crop, you can see Daddy's reflection, holding the bubble wand. Fun bath time tonight!

A Review

I usually recommend against printing photos or other products with Shutterfly (or Snapfish, or Kodak Gallery, etc.) as the quality is pretty poor (go with Mpix.com!) BUT I had a coupon for a free 8x8" photo book at Shutterfly, and decided to use it for a book for William.

Certainly, he wouldn't care about slight grain in the pictures. The book turned out to be very cute - I'm happy with it. I wouldn't ever pay full price for this, but for free, love it.

He loves books, animals, and seeing pictures of himself and his Mommy and Daddy, so I combined them all here in a little book about our trip to the zoo recently.

...apologies for a pretty boring photo today, I am busy editing from this weekend!

Happy Monday!

P.S. Popping back in the next day to add this shot of W and Daddy. Safe to say he loves it!

Happy Easter! (a bit early)

Today I got to play with Nina, who is turning one this month. She was a doll in her Sunday best... but was not too interested in her Easter hat!

14 days.

How precious is this little guy? He's 2 weeks old. 14 days. 14 nights.

A brand new little man, a new person. 14 days in the big, big world.

A black & white

It was actually a very colorful day at a neat new park with our playgroup today, but I've been working on my B&W conversions. Happy little guy! Happy weekend, all!

Rain, rain, go away.

We have been cooped up in the house all day today and William has resorted to attacking me for entertainment. Little smudgy handprints on the 50mm 1.4 lens = not good!

You had to have guessed...

...that I would of course post a shot of William with the new backdrop stand and seamless paper setup today. I've only had it in my hands for 24 hours so far.
He's even cuter than the teddy bear, no? :)
Happy 16 month birthday, little man.

Sitting pretty

My new backdrop stand arrived today. W was napping when I set it up for the first time, so Mr. Bear-Bear was my first "model."
Oh, to be a product photographer. So easy with a non-moving subject!

Experimenting

This post could also be titled "I'm spoiled."

My Father-in-Law is into photography as well, and gave me a 70-200mm from the 1970's that - guess what - WORKS on my DSLR with a converter ring. Cool, right? ...except that it doesn't autofocus, which is a challenge when you're used to the ease of AFing on new lenses.

So the compression and bokeh at 200mm is lovely, of course, but when I snuck out on the porch to play with this baby during W's nap today, I was humbled. It was windy, and the tree branches were all over the place. This was hard!

I actually liked this one even though I clearly missed focus. Reminds me of a watercolor with the blending colors in the background. It looks foggy and misty, yet sunny at the same time.

So, two thoughts. 1 - Props to Jeff and those who took (and continue to take... but what kind of a masochist would CHOOSE to manually focus?!) great shots with lenses like this one. 2 - I'm glad I played around with this lens today. Created something nice and different.

Fast Food.

The homemade version, that is. "Healthy" baked fries with olive oil, garlic & paprika, with apple & maple turkey burgers on wheat buns. It's the thought that counts, right?

Lions and Tigers and Bears

...And a giraffe!
We went to the Philadelphia Zoo today - it was perfect weather, and of course I took 100 pictures. My favorites are of W looking at the animals, growling at the bears, etc., but he is a subject so often that I thought I'd keep it interesting with something a little more... exotic.
:)

Oooh!

AIRPLANE!

A "Mom Shot"

Taken Thursday 3/3
We all wear our "Mom goggles" when looking at photos of our kids. We always think they're the cutest little ones in the world (of course!) and an "average" picture may just turn out to be our favorite shot ever. I'm including this picture to remember this morning. No pressure to take a great photograph, just watching my baby be a baby and play happily.

Running Wild

The little man is quickly becoming (pun intended) a VERY fast-moving target.
I find the best light, the best background, and BOOM! He's gone.
There are many, many pictures like this one.

Main Street

I've always loved the look of a good old-fashioned barber shop.