October 31: Day 297

Happy Halloween! We had friends over and took the kids out trick or treating in the dark. I didn't bring my flash because I'd probably blind the poor things with my speedlight so I have lots of dark photos. I appreciate the houses with bright porch lights! I'm also glad I thought ahead and did the kids' costume photo session prior to Halloween. Will definitely do that again next year!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 62 mm
ISO: 3200
Flash: Off

October 30: Day 296

Grace played her last soccer game of the season today and we also had her pizza party at a local pizza parlor. There must be a law that mandates dark terrible lighting at pizza places but at least I got a few of Grace with her trophy. She was so tickled to get one!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 48 mm
ISO: 3200
Flash: Off

October 29: Day 295

I was so excited to see some more autumn sunshine today! I spent a few minutes basking in the late afternoon sunshine with Dexter and practiced spot metering with back lighting. He was a willing subject and was very interested in the shiny white thing I was holding up towards him. For those MOPS moms who were at the meeting on photography this is a photo where I used my super high tech laminated calendar as a reflector. The thing works.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/800 sec
Aperture: f/2.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

October 28: Day 294

I nearly forgot to take a photo today. I remembered at 11:55pm as I was laying in bed thinking of what I needed to do the next day. I'm not very creative at 11:55pm and even less so when I don't even bother to put my glasses on. I'm surprised it's even a little focused! And for those who can't tell, this is a Rock Band guitar which is the game we had been playing all night.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 38 mm
ISO: 3200
Flash: Off

October 27: Day 293

This morning I could actually see the sunrise and not just gray clouds! I celebrated by taking my camera out to photograph wet plants sparkling in the sun. This one happens to be from my neighbor's front yard. Love the texture and sparkle!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 59 mm
ISO: 320
Flash: Off

October 26: Day 292

Poor Ethan was so excited for his very first round of swim lessons but once the swim instructor dunked him under water at the beginning of the lesson he wasn't so sure about it. Hopefully the rest of the lessons get better!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO: 1000
Flash: Off

October 25: Day 291

Took this photo in the last moments before the sun was too far down to be of any use. I was trying to capture some raindrops in the setting sunlight but was a little too late. Kind of like the result though, totally reminds me of Oregon and how it can rain all day and still have sunshine.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 400
Flash: Off

October 24: Day 290

This is a photo of Dexter hanging out on the front windowsill on a lazy Sunday morning. I love morning light but never seem to think about picking my camera up until the afternoon.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: f/2.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

October 23: Day 289

Before you wonder if your monitor is completely wonky or if I got a little crazy with the neon green saturation slider bar please note that Grace's soccer uniform is actually this color. It's actually REALLY hard to photograph neon green soccer uniforms, or so I've discovered over the last month or two. They completely wash out and are super easy to overexpose. So this blaring neon green uniform photo is a triumph indeed. I win!

By the way, I was using my seldom used 75-300 zoom lens. I think it's only useful for my kids' sports games since the SOOC images are pretty blah.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 150 mm
ISO: 400
Flash: Off

October 22: Day 288

I hadn't brought my camera into Indoor Park for awhile so I brought it with me today. Ethan and I were by ourselves for the first 10 minutes so I took pictures of the train set we were playing with. He loves to play with this train set!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/600 sec
Aperture: f/2.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 1000
Flash: Off

October 21: Day 287

I dare you to resist this hamburger. He's just about the cutest thing ever! Yeah I'm a bit biased as his mother, but I think it's pretty easy for us all to agree that he's cuter then all get out. For more Halloween costume photos (including some of my peacock princess daughter!) check out my family blog.
Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/640 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

October 20: Day 286

Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture of a spider web? I swear my camera thinks I'm joking when I try to focus on a spiderweb. When my camera eventually believes me that there is something to focus on the results are pretty cool though!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/500 sec
Aperture: f/2.5
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 160
Flash: Off

October 19: Day 285

I snapped a few photos of Grace before we left for soccer practice. I wanted to take a few photos of her in her soccer gear since I was a terrible mother and didn't order her individual photos from the official photo session. I did order the team photo which is hilarious! I'll have to try and get some photos of her in her uniform before her next game, it's just really hard to edit photos of her in it because their team uniform is NEON green. Seriously, if you look at it too long you might burn your retinas.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/800 sec
Aperture: f/2.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 250
Flash: Off

October 18: Day 284

I did a quick family session at the Arboretum and really like the photos of these two brothers. Love those smiles! I did use a little fill flash and probably had Mom holding a reflector since the sun is behind them. I feel like I'm improving with my fill flash out of necessity, since my reflector doesn't do the best job with more then a few people in the frame.

Another trick I've been using on the last few family sessions is to use my longest focal length and a larger aperture. That way I get more bokeh (blur) in the background and have more leeway in my focal range.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO: 500
Flash: On

October 17: Day 283

I had a session in Eugene this evening and we managed to fit quite a lot in one hour, including a few individual photos of the three kids. This little cutie is one years old and super easy to photograph! I was using my flash and reflector to bounce a little more light in her face since I had the sun behind her.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 51 mm
ISO: 400
Flash: On

October 16: Day 282

I've been meaning to take a photo of a board game all year and I always forget! This time I remembered while we were playing Tobago with our friends Pat and Katie after watching Grace's soccer game.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 40 mm
ISO: 640
Flash: Off

October 15: Day 281

I swapped with a photographer friend to do each other's family photos. We met at their family farm at sunset and played around with getting some sunflare photos. It was a challenge since I'm used to using a reflector to light up only one face and not a flash to light up five! My favorites were from the end of the session when I did some silhouettes.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/400 sec
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length:75 mm
ISO: 250
Flash: Off

October 14: Day 280

Can you tell what's wrong with this photo? Look closely. Notice that Grace is sitting in a blue car seat. Yeah, I totally put my kids in the wrong car seat and didn't even realize it until Grace pointed it out to me. After I buckled them both in. I decided it wasn't worth the hassle of moving everyone around and so they ate our McDonalds dinner (treat for an awesome dentist visit!) in the wrong car seats on the way to the craft store.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who's ever done this. I swear this is the first time!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 62 mm
ISO: 800
Flash: Off

October 13: Day 279

I took photos of a friend's little boy at a local vineyard on a gorgeous fall evening. I took the opportunity to play with some sunflare! For more photos from this session check out my photography site.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f/18.0
Focal Length: 37 mm
ISO: 800
Flash: Off

October 12: Day 278

I am absolutely thrilled to be able to take photos of Grace with both her eyes open. It seems like such a little thing but for us it's huge! Her right eye is still slightly pink which I guess is due to the enlarged veins in her eyelid as it heals. Apparently it takes awhile to completely heal. I love this photo I took of her. We were just sitting on the kitchen floor petting the cats and she told me some stories. With Grace I get better photos when I have her tell me a story rather then have her smile. I prefer natural photos of my kids where I actually recognize their facial expressions!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 63 mm
ISO: 640
Flash: Off

October 11: Day 277

Grace putting together a puzzle on the kitchen floor.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO: 16000
Flash: Off

October 10: Day 276

This is a photo from Ethan's third birthday party Sunday afternoon. We invited a few kids over for a casual party which included a Spiderman pinata. Ethan was super curious as to how it worked and as always it proved to be a popular activity. Candy always is.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO: 32000
Flash: Off

October 9: Day 275

Recently I have become much better at admitting my weaknesses and focusing on my strengths. Cake decorating is not a skill I possess, however I am quite good at mixing up a store bought cake mix. I made up for the store bought cake mix and made homemade frosting (which I am still using up...one cake and 26 sugar cookies later...). Remembering the great Pink Birthday Cake Disaster of 2008 my multi-talented husband volunteered his cake decorating services to decorate Ethan's basketball cake. I baked the cake in a glass bowl which worked surprisingly well.

I'm glad my husband is man enough to decorate his son's birthday cake. I think this photo is incredibly hot!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO: 16000
Flash: Off

October 8: Day 274

I had three mini sessions scheduled for Saturday and had to cancel due to lousy rainy weather. I was able to do one last minute this afternoon so now I only have to reschedule two! You may recognize a few of these little girls, they've been my subjects a few times now. Who can resist those smiles?

I did wind up using a little fill flash for this one to keep my ISO as low as I could. I don't like having to use flash and prefer natural light but use it when I need to.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO: 640
Flash: On

October 7: Day 273

We wound up buying a Dairy Queen ice cream cake for Ethan's birthday so we could eat it at home in our pajamas instead of bringing the whole family to the restaurant. Grace helped me pick out a football themed cake and we sang Happy Birthday before Ethan blew his candles out. He was thrilled to get to blow out his candles! I did use a flash for this one because our dining room gets pretty dark and I didn't want to have to use ISO 3200.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO: 800
Flash: On

October 6: Day 272

I finally got Ethan's hair cut today so we made a last minute decision to run out to the Arboretum for some decent three year old pics. The lighting was great, setting was lovely, but we had to dodge a high school long distance running event. I'm assuming it was a competition since I saw several different school uniforms, and in any case we were limited in what parts of the park we could use without being in the way. I was happy with several from the less then ideal photo shoot but this is my favorite!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 33 mm
ISO: 800
Flash: Off

October 5: Day 271

I snapped about four quick photos of my friend's daughter who was sitting next to me watching the girls' soccer practice. This one is my favorite, even with the blown out detail on the side of her face.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 60 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

October 4: Day 270

A quick photo tonight. Detail shot of my attractive autumnal mantel display.

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 68 mm
ISO: 3200
Flash: Off

October 3: Day 269

I took this photo right around sunset on the beach. I never get a chance to play around with silhouettes because I don't have a clear view of the setting sun from my yard so it was fun to play. We were visiting David's Aunt Diane and Uncle Ed and they brought us to this great out of the way beach access. Fewer people and no stairs!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: f/10.0
Focal Length: 37 mm
ISO: 200
Flash: Off

October 2: Day 268

I took this photo looking up into the late afternoon sun through the neighbor's decorative grass. I love me some sun flare!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/400 sec
Aperture: f/20.0
Focal Length: 54 mm
ISO: 400
Flash: Off

October 1: Day 267

Today we took Ethan to watch the Trail Blazer Fan Fest and he ate it up just like he did last year. The boy loves basketball! This year we sat 10th row back, center court. It doesn't get much better then that!

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 40 mm
ISO: 3200
Flash: Off