Canoe

Drew took the girls for a ride in the canoe. The weather has been beautiful.

Cutie boy

This is a picture that I took yesterday, so I am cheating a little, but I have been wanting to take pictures of Mack when he is in a talkative mood. He was smiling and giggling for Grandma in this one.

Potato Derby

Today was the ward potato derby. Each family was given a potato to carve to specification. We added tires and it was ready to race. Ours was Darth Tater. We took 3rd place. That's one good lookin' tater...

Turtle

Matt found a small painted turtle in the pond this afternoon and the girls loved it. Maggie named it 'froggie'.

Ferns

Shot at Webb Mountain

Manhattan Temple

I went to the Manhattan temple today. It was quite the trip. If you look closely, you can see Moroni. Drag the shutter for the blurred taxi.

Birdseye Road

Who knew that there was big sky in CT?

Webb Circle

While driving to check out Webb mountain, near our house, I saw this cool old barn. The sky finally turned out nice because I remembered my polarizing filter. Miracle! This picture is typical beautiful New England scenery.

Mack

Mack is three months old today. I set up my little studio in the kitchen. I used black sheets for the set up. I used push pins and a cork board to get the background up then put his boppy under the sheets to prop him up. There is a single flash into an umbrella triggered by remote. We had to do it in two takes because Mack didn't smile much the first time around. After he had a nap and ate, we tried again. We got some really cute shots.

Runs with Maggie

SO many cute pictures of Maggie today. She is just so expressive and with that curly red/blond hair! Sometimes I have one or two pictures that I like from the days shoot. Today I had half a dozen that I could have posted.

Slack line

Uncle Jason is in town and he has set up a slack like (maybe an inch and a half wide line of webbing). Quincy has a good sense of balance and loves walking on the slack line with daddy.

Father & son

This picture is about passing on life's lessons from father to son - like Star Wars hacks.

Covered bridges

Even though it was raining, we drove to see some cool covered bridges around Sharon. I read about how to make a sepia tone look in photoshop online. I am not sure how I like it yet.

Camping in VT

This is a picture of Drew trying to make us a dry spot. It started raining shortly after we set up our tent and rained until we left two days later. I was wet and cold. When mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy...

Please note

I am going out of town for the next few days and won't have access to a computer. I will be shooting though, so I will have some new pictures on Friday.

Brushing teeth

We do this every once in a while... Maggie is pretty persistant. That is Quincy's artwork on the wall.

East Village Rd

My Mother's Day treat was a chance to go shoot by myself. I have seen this cool old barn and truck on East Village Rd and finally got to photograph it. My fisheye lens gives the image a little bend.

Maggie's shoes

These are Maggie's new sandals. If they look funny it is because they are on the wrong feet. She always wears them that way. When I try to get them on the right feet she just says, "It's okay, Mom. It's okay..."

Mags

Technically, this was very simple - dialed down and bounced the flash. The colors (and the cutest girl) make this picture.

Fog on Pond

Mack woke me up at 5:45am this morning and after feeding him I looked out the window. Fog has settled on the pond and it is beautiful. Nothing too techinical about this one, just pretty.

Another sunny grove

This time with the sun behind the trees. I used a little fill flash for the foreground. This seems like a good way to capture that cool diffused light through the leaves. I will move on to another subject tomorrow, promise.

Sunny grove

There is something about the way that the sunshine hits new spring leaves that really strikes me. They sparkle almost. I saw an Ansel Adams (which I searched in vain for online) of an aspen grove with the sun coming in from behind. The light and leaves were breathtaking. Whenever I look outside and see the leaves sparkling I think, "I should photograph that." Here is my first attempt to capture the beautiful light in a grove of trees. I don't think that it is totally what I wanted to see... I am sure that I will try again.

Jumping

Today I tried to freeze action with my flash. I haven't tried doing it in a long time, so it was a good review for me. The girls were willing subjects and the trampoline seemed like a great place since they love to jump. I shot manually - including my flash. I dragged the shutter at 1/25 and stopped way down at f22. ISO = 100 If I am ever going to use this skill on the fly, I need to practice more. I think that I shot about 30 images to get these few that really worked. Maggie was quite the blinker.

Quincy

Today we spent some time at the Beardsley Zoo. It is a great zoo for small kids. We had fun.

first posting

So, I've decided that I need to start shooting more - like everyday. I went into the backyard during the kids naps and photographed for about 20 minutes. Here is my fav of the day.