Meet Ziggy

My niece's new "puppy brother".

Meet Ziggy

A Few Blurry Birthday Pictures

She choose her own birthday outfit....

Be it a fire fighter uniform or Sophia the First princess dress... if it makes you happy...Live it up.  

Bubbles - Lessons from a Three Year Old

Step one: Find the bubbles in their natural environment.  If you can, try to integrate into the bubble pack.  If you are careful, they may never even notice you are there.

Step two: Attempt to think like a bubble. This is best done by dancing, singing, and just being happy.  Remember, you must be the bubble.

Step three: Include others in your journey to bubblehood. You must pass on your knowledge of bubbles.  This is most easily accomplished by bubble ray gun.

Final note...one is never too old to begin a bubble journey. ;)

Lesson Learned: Pay attention to your depth of field when working with bubbles.  Keeping your lens wide open can give you nice bokeh effect with the bubbles.  It can also make it difficult to get both your subject and the bubbles in sharp focus (this is doubly true if your working with a toddler running around).  Knowing which matters to you more ahead of time can help making adapting to the moments a lot easier.

A Little Play Time

What is this...

 

Oh I know...it goes on my....

A little help here?

It worked!

Fantastic!

 

Liz & Alan

Last week I celebrated my birthday by inviting friends to come over so I could take random pictures of them.  Being friends, they put up with this kind of thing.  Photos/stories will be posted as I get (if I get) approval from folks.

Liz & Alan

I've known Liz since high school...



She is independent, beautiful, and wickedly intelligent.

Not too long ago, she met this guy...Alan.



I don't know too much about him, yet in spite of that, I think it's safe to say he is friend approved.  Because when he's around, this happens:



And that is all I need to know.



Note to Liz - I said need.  Different than want.  Still want to know everything.  ;)

Don't forget to Check the Weather!

Wake up at 4am. Clean the house. Rearrange the furniture. Set up the light kit.  Check. Check. Check. Check.  Confirm that the weather is suitable for travel….ummm…Oops.  One quick phone call and an open palm slap to the forehead later… and I’m sitting in the middle of my room with a free day ahead of me.

The snow may have postponed today’s photo shoot, but by George all that set up was not going to be for nothing.  Enter practice time.  Except for those pictures taken during Christmas, this is the first I've gotten to play with my new lighting kit.  Four lesson videos later (Yea for Lynda.com) and I’m ready to give it a shot.
When I first started, hubby was away.  That left me...

 

 

Cougar Girl...

 

and Storm Girl...

Then hubby came home...

 

and the whole family officially became part of the action.  :)  

Overall, I've got to say...I really think I'm going to like being able to take photos indoors after the sun goes down.  Extra bonus...lighting kit means that while it was -2 outside, I could stay nice and toasty warm inside without loosing a day of shooting.  Oh...yea...I think I'm really really going to like this.

Lesson for the day: Always Check the Weather!

Kittyerobics

Whew...it's been a while.  Lets start it slow with a little kittyerobics....

First stand tall....



 Get ready.....



and stretch.....



Good job! Now off to find a treat and a warm spot to curl up for a nice nap.  :)