Boy, does time fly!

I can't believe this little guy is already 10 months old already!  

Seems like I was just taking his 9 month pics last week!  

I snagged some quick shots because everyone kept telling me it was going to storm soon.  

Um... doesn't look like it!  

I have to be quick with everything about this kid because he's so quick!  

He was ready to get out of the truck...

And push it around the yard!

After a quick inspection first... 

"See ya, Mom!" 

Joshua is a wild man!  He is so "busy" and never seems to stop.  

He loves all things boy - wheels, cars, balls, climbing... 

he's a little daredevil too, he wants to do everything!  

He can walk really well and has been doing great for a couple weeks actually.  He just loves to push things around!  He also loves to steal Jeremiah's toys and run off with them! It's hilarious but Jeremiah doesn't think so! haha! He has this little mischevious smile when he does it.  But he really is a sweetheart, and Jeremiah is still his fave person in the world.  One of his favorite things is when Jeremiah gives him a hug and kiss goodnight, he just giggles and grins all over!  So adorable!  However, here lately, Daddy is becoming a fave.  What about MOMMY?!?!?  Pfft!  He's a firecracker, that is for sure... never a dull moment but it's always fun!

That would be "Depth Of Field".

I like good depth of field. When I have the option to control the DOF in an image, I think it unleashes so much creativity. It can really tell a story in an image if used creatively.

The depth of field is the area of your image that is in focus. When shooting landscapes, for example, you would want pretty much everything to be in focus so you would want a deep/large DOF. But when you want to single something out, you might prefer to use a very shallow DOF so that just the important stuff is in focus.

For example:

In this shot, it appears my subject is the red pole holding the chain. Even though the background is a bit blurry, it is still busy enough to be distracting. (f/22, 135mm)


So I chose a smaller DOF and now it is more obvious what you want the viewer to see.
(F/5.6, 135mm)


There are several ways to get a smaller Depth of Field. One way is to get a lens with a small aperture. Like 2.8 or smaller. This allows you to get a really shallow DOF and that buttery, creamy background blur. Another way is to zoom way in, as far as your lens will allow and then get as close as you can to your subject. Zooming in with a long lens will create a smaller DOF. Standing closer to the subject will also give you a smaller dof.

For these two images, I used my 28-135mm zoomed all the way to 135mm and I got as close as the camera allowed me to still focus. I can get this result with my 28-70mm 2.8 also when I set it to f/2.8. Since my 28-135 only goes as low 5.6 when zoomed to 135mm, it helps for me to stand close to the subject to get a smaller dof. Other items on my wishlist include the 85mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4 and the 70-200mm f/2.8... Mmmm....

But you have to work with what you have, right? So, I tell those of us that don't have these pricey glass options to zoom in as much as possible, stand closer to your subject and choose the smallest F# you can. Because we all like that pretty creamy bokeh, right? =)

Happy Shooting!

P.S. The tulips and water drops in yesterday's post was taken with this same lens on my 5D with this same technique.

Because it's just too much fun taking close-ups!
But for now, these will have to do.
More random spring things...


April Showers, right?




{Mommy Moment}
Never a dull moment with two boys in the house...

Don't worry, Joshua loves it and he holds his own quite well...

I hope these two will always be best buddies...

John is such a good Daddy.
He loves you so much you can see his heart aching to know how to love you more.
He's your biggest fan, the most fun jungle gym, the bestest superhero,
and is the first to help you devise a plan to get Mommy to give in your every desire.

Daddy loving on Jeremiah... Jeremiah loving on Daddy... just hanging out together...


And yes, there is room in his big heart to love another little monkey.
Joshua is turning out to be Daddy's little shadow.
He seems to think Daddy is the coolest no matter how much Mommy does for him.

He's happy to just be with Daddy... Daddy's happy to be with Joshua too...


The boys being... boys.

I think Jeremiah is teaching Joshua about boy things like wet willies.

Daddy figured it out before he was attacked...

He understands those boy things...
=)

I feel like a drive by blogger since I'm just going to post this and run!
Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately, I have TONS to post just no time to do so!
This summer is going to be extra busy with weddings and these very busy brothers!

Just for fun, here's a video of my little man and his oh-so funny giggle:

If you don't know what Formatting is - READ THIS!

A friend of mine went on a Mission trip to Haiti and took tons of pics while up on a mountain for a few days. That was the only time they would be up there and that was a very important part of the trip. After coming down from the mountain, he was reviewing his images and somehow ended up in the menu and the option to "format". He had no idea what this meant, sounded like something important to do so he selected "OK".

BAD.

Actually, formatting in a good thing, but for most regular point&shoot camera owners, it can be not so good. You can delete images from your card and they are gone but actually still hidden on your card. You can format and this will delete your images but also delete some of the hidden info making it near impossible to retrieve. My friend went even further... he took more images with the card. Basically, he put images over the hidden images and now those are lost forever.

I format my cards all the time. BUT only after I've downloaded the images onto my computer. Then burned a copy onto a disk. Then let CARBONITE back up my computer. Then make sure they really are on the disk. Then I reluctantly delete. Then I double check that all my images really are backed up on disk and computer. Then I finally format. lol I am not usually so obsessively worried but I do take percautions since I have client images to handle and I don't want to miss a moment of my kids!

Here is one explanation that was pretty good about all this formatting stuff:

First off, deleting an image and formatting are almost the same procedure, the big difference being that a format is a mass delete of all the file headers ( a delete is a single file header erasure), as well as the file table.

What's a file header?

Basically, cards have sectors.. or areas. Think of them as plots of land. Some houses take up more land than others, and everyone has an address.

Well what if all the addresses were erased. the houses would still be there, but how could you find a house?

When you format, you simple erase those addresses, not the DATA itself.

You can recover from a format or a delete, since a delete is the erasure of a simple address

HOWEVER, this is only if you do not start writing to the card again. if a file hearder (address) is available.. then you will be writing over old data, since the camera believes that area to be empty (Becasue it has no file header).

In fact, this is important when throwing out old hard drives with any sensitive data. You need to do a SECURE delete. That is to format, then write blank data (a bunch of zeros) to each area of the drive, then format and repeat. DOD (Department of Defense) standards are 3 passes like this I believe. Some places do 7. I've heard one does 43 passes like this.

So what are the key points in all of this:

1) if you delete or format a file or card, and need it back, STOP USING IT IMMEDIATELY. put it away, put in a new card, keep shooting.

2) when you go home, get recovery software. I use Lexars. It's free, and I mention it in my blog.


THANKS MAX!!!
(His cool blog is RIGHT HERE.)

So all that to tell you to NOT FORMAT until you understand all of this! Formatting is good to give you a nice clean card again but it can be difficult to recover images once a card is formatted. Not necessarily impossible, but difficult.

Hope this information helps someone!

And since a post isn't as much fun without pictures, here are a few of my boy from a while back when I bribed him to let me shoot him in his boots
(this was way back before they were a part of his EVERY outfit!):



Playing with a little fill flash:

My sweet boy...

The Lollipop Bribe dance...


Have a great weekend!

Christ is Risen!

OK, so I know it's not Easter anymore but you know what? I will celebrate my Risen Savior EVERY day! He's that AWESOME!!!

I knew it was going to be a jam-packed, crazy-busy day but the morning was so beautiful I had to capture something that day! I didn't know if I'd touch my camera the rest of the day and definitely didn't want to miss out on the glorious morning sun!

Nothing overly exciting, but a little sunflare action going with my lilacs...


The morning busy-ness flew by and we were just about on our way out the door when I remembered I hadn't snapped any pics of my boys in their fancy Easter clothes. And you know you have to do this before you leave the house because you never know what they'll look like 10 minutes later! So I just threw them on the couch and shot what I could.

Jeremiah loves his new 'Dancing Clothes', as he calls them ("Don't forget my necktie, Mommy!") and Joshua was so cute in his little linen preppy-ness:

Not so cooperative but they are forever caught on film, right?

But I was happy to capture this sweet little moment between the two best buddies:


Good thing I snapped those few images before church because as soon as we got home and got ready to eat dinner I had to put Joshua down for a nap and leave Jeremiah to boss Daddy around and decide what he wanted to change into next...










Yup, you guessed it.












Superman was ready for action (and an egg hunt!)...

Complete with boots and hat.

*Groan*

Will anyone believe that this kid has any other clothes???

Joshua decided to play football with Daddy. He started with a tackle attempt:

That failed so he dropped down to a three point stance:

Really, he is still unsure of the grass and only touches what he has to of it!

Jeremiah raced around and hunted down all 47 eggs Daddy hid in record time.



Can't wait for Joshua to get big enough to hunt with him so it doesn't look so lonely and selfish!

Jeremiah finding the very last egg:


It was a beautiful day and we are so blessed to spend time with family. We are VERY blessed to have each other. Praise the Lord!

I'm trying to archive some old images left on my computer and I find all kinds of stuff. Here are some images I meant to post on the blog but never did for whatever reason. They were all resized and watermarked and ready to go but failed to see this page. Well, here they are in all my randomness!

My friend Tracy's puppies (aren't they so cute?!):


I had these grand ideas for pics of Joshua in this pumpkin but ended up not really liking any of them but here are a couple. These were taken in OCTOBER of 2008! Go me, the Slacker...

Poor baby stuck into a pumpkin. I feel bad now! lol He's changed so much since then!


Random shot I took of this tiny flower a week or so ago...


Couple months ago? We decided we really need family pics so we all gathered and shot a few at my in-law's. Here are just a couple outtakes from the kids with Grandma and Papaw...



Jeremiah waiting not so patiently for us to take the pictures already.


{Mommy Moment}

Jeremiah functions better when we have a checklist of how our day is going to pan out. So I scratch one up for him every day and he loves to check off each item as we complete it and draw pictures of what we are doing.

But this day he decided he didn't want breakfast so while he sat at the table staring at his food, he drew these pictures and wrote what he was feeling about breakfast...

(He eventually ate breakfast and I didn't take this pic until we completed a few more items, in case you can't tell. lol)

Can you see where he drew his breakfast too? Here is his still life model:

(It's an un-grilled cheese sandwich! lol)

Then he decided he would just make his own checklist for the day...

"Boo!" means we are going to play hide and seek. Other items he can't spell so he drew include hiding Easter eggs ("with no candy inside" as he explained to me), playing pirates and playing with his tools.

He's so funny! I love it.

These are tiny little flowers I find in my yard. They are weeds but they are part of the mint family. I remember Ecology in college when we learned that a "square" stem meant it was part of the mint family. The stem isn't a smooth cylinder, it has four sides. You can feel them when you roll your fingers around the stem. I'm not exactly sure what these are called, they are just really cool looking up close...

Makes me wish I had a Macro lens to capture these tiny things! Here it is with my finger in the shot to show you just how tiny it is...

Itty Bitty:


I shot these images FOR.EV.ER. ago! I can't even remember taking them it was so long ago. I have a TON of images backed up that I want to share here but life gets busy, ya know? I will still try to catch up on some things as soon as I can!

{Mommy Moment}
Jeremiah's class at church on Wednesday nights talked about God's beautiful Earth one night. The teacher told me later that she asked Jeremiah what we could do to keep God's Earth beautiful and he replied, "Make Grandma and Papaw feel better." Grandma had just gotten home from the nursing home then but he knew she couldn't play like they used to. *sweet kid*

There are a few "rules" about composition that are generally followed. You are never tied to these rules, they merely serve as a guide or starting point because when added, they increase interest in the image. However, there are many cases where the rules are "broken" and the image is better for it. But today we will talk about a basic one: Leading In. Actually, I don't know if there is another title for it, I'm just going to call it that today. haha

You eye naturally reads an image starting from the bottom left and up to the top right. It just naturally does this even though you may not realize it. One composition "rule" is to have a lead into the image. We'll start with this image:

(I just snagged some older images that aren't to great in many ways but serve this teaching point well so get over it. lol)

His hat tail leads you into the image starting from where your eye wanted to enter the image. But it also stopped where your subject stopped so your eye doesn't just wander off the page.

The dark red in the hat and his dark eyes contrast with the white background so your eye stops at his head. There is nothing distracting in that corner to make you keep going. The viewer will look at this image, start with the fun hat and end at his cute face and stay at his face. Exactly what you want them to do. Once you hit his face, it's hard to bring yourself to look at the arms, you want to stay at his face. Especially if it's your kid. Then it doesn't matter what the rest of the image is, Grandma will want 10 of these. lol And if they stared at it long enough they might examine the other details in the image like those chub rolls and nakey bottom. =)

This next one doesn't have the same exact angle leading in but it also leads in...

Again, his dark eyes and skin tone keep you looking at him and not going off to the top right. His arm might lead you next down his body where you notice the nakey.

Sometimes you break the rules. Sometimes you just use another rule. It just depends on the image and what you want the image to say.

This one doesn't really use the lead in. If you want to stretch and say his hat is leading in, go ahead. But this image really uses another one...

Another rule I don't know if it has a name. lol Sometimes you can keep the interest of the viewer but creating a frame of sorts. This "frame" is created by the subject. You start following his hat up to his head and it bends and goes back down his body to the hat tail/ball and then around and around again.

Again, you may not realize your eyes are doing this but you will stay looking at the image longer then if it had nothing keeping your interest on the subject.

These leads in and around don't have to be so obvious. Sometimes you will not even notice you are doing them but you like what you see.

If you want to take better pictures, you need to look past the cute face making you love the image and focus on some other aspects. But never stop taking pics that aren't just so perfect because you will miss some that are awesome because of the cute face.

Some random other examples:

Leading in and stopping at the contrast of her face/dark hair...


Kind of leading in up his back and stopping at the contrast of dark eyes and huge light forehead. lol

Framing:


I see that I need to decide on a topic for Friday much earlier so I can post more updated images and not the same ol' images that you've already seen on this blog. SORRY! I will include one new one in the MM section at the end of this post, K? =)

Any Q's? Any suggestions for future Fridays? Leave me a comment!
(If you are not a blogger, you can click "anonymous" and leave a comment that way. Just include your name so I know who you are, please!)

{Mommy Moment}
(New image!)

Seriously... these lashes should be illegal, right?