Fishing boats and barges...

My Dad mentioned to me that he wanted me to take some pictures of the kids by the smokestack on his boat. He and his brother had posed for similar pictures back in the day and he wanted some of the next-next generation. I say that because I don't recall my sister and I posing for shots by a smokestack, but I also don't think we had a fishing boat in our possession back then. I could be wrong though. It has been known to happen.

Anyway, eager to shoot some photos that had a purpose, I loaded up my family and headed over to Grampa Paul's marina. The light was good, the kids were kind of willing, the backdrops were plentiful - I was giddy with joy! I shot so many photos that I absolutely LOVE. I don't think I barely said a word to anyone, (sorry for that!) I was all over the place drooling over location opportunities and little things here and there to take artsy shots of.

So be prepared for photo overload, but come on - how could I not post these?

The planets were aligned just right or something, because Evan was the only kid who wanted to pose for me. Normally, he is the last one that wants anything to do with the camera. I think it had something to do with being able to check out all of Grampa Paul's cool stuff.

There were so many cool things to photograph. I may have to do a whole series on my photo blog titled "Rope".

And some of my latest favorite photographs EVER! Face-in-hole shots! These are going to have to go up on the wall somewhere!

Grampa Paul and his Mini-Me's!

The kids had a great time running around, and so did I! We will be back soon!

Narcissus

Oh Hailey! You are a firecracker. I don't know how it is possible to be so frustrated by someone one minute and thoroughly in love and smitten the next.

I captured these photos of you checking out how you looked in all of your "pretties" before we were headed to a football game. I succeeded in relaying to you the fact that all the pretties were a little much for the football game. The fact is that all the pretties would be a little much for dinner with the Queen of England. You settled on your giant purple heart necklace. The one I like to call "the heart of the ocean".

We went out to lunch today with the "ladies", but it was just you and I for a bit while we waited for the others to arrive. As I sat across from you in the booth watching you sip your water and color scribbles with the crayons, you just seemed like such a big girl to me. It was such a special little treat to get to spend some one on one time - just me and my girl.

They say clothes don't make the man...

And it's a good thing.

The boys went over to our neighbor's house behind us the other night to run through the sprinklers. When I took my eyes off of my chicken to look over the top of the grill to check on them, I saw Spencer running around like a crazy man and Evan running around like this....

And neighbor Mom was out there watching them.

I yelled to Evan to tell him that I was pretty sure he had put his bathing suit on inside out. Spencer yelled back to me that it looked like Evan was wearing a diaper. I yelled to Evan to come home and I would help him fix his suit. Evan yelled back to me that he wasn't coming home because he didn't care what it looked like. OK then. I tried.

And just because little sister doesn't like to miss a photo opportunity lately (I KNOW!) she decided to trailer park it up a bit for the shot.

Not-so-secret Garden

We ventured out on our annual trip to the Meijer Gardens earlier this week. It was a gorgeous, hot and humid day. A perfect day for running around beautiful gardens, splashing in the fountains and fiddling with camera exposure.

I didn't take many photos of the scenery because let's face it - we have been going there for years - it is a ball to go there, but it hasn't changed much. I was much more interested in portrait type shots with my kiddos. There are so many awesome venues around there, if I lived closer I would definitely have to have the season pass. My lucky kids would be running around that garden every other day!

I came so close to getting the photo of Evan that I am dying to have. In the photo below he is laughing his Evan laugh, but since I was experimenting with exposure, I had the wrong exposure and it got a bit OVER exposed. The black and white tends to remedy it a bit.

Hailey was having a wonderful time on our visit this year. Last year she cried during the majority of our time there due to the fact that her parents were trying to break her toe. I couldn't resist taking pictures of her with her giant flower in her hair. I think the giant bird's nest was her favorite place to be.

One of the newer features of the children's garden is a little log cabin that is filled with games like chess and checkers and old fashioned toys. The kids also spent a lot of our time in here trying to figure out the toys made of wood and string. There was no plastic to be found!

This is my attempt at a collage in Photoshop. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted. It has been a long time since my class.

The kids favorite sculpture is the giant "dinosaur" eggs. You have to walk down a "secret" path to get to them. They were even more thrilled to discover a real live Blue Heron looking at the eggs as well. Can you spot him? Later that night when I was tucking Evan in to bed, I asked him what his favorite part of the day was. His answer: Watching the Blue "Erin".

It is always a fun day and a learning experience in one way or another. We all look forward to our visit every year.

Searching for deals one garage at a time

I have had the bee in my bonnet to go garage saleing for a while. Especially since I missed our neighborhood garage sale a couple weeks ago because we were out of town. I like to browse my neighbor's sales to see what they are getting rid of and I love to have my own garage sale and see what people actually buy. Garage sales are cheap entertainment - with hopefully a bit of money to boot.

I read a blog where the author is an avid garage saler and every Saturday she posts her finds and how much she spent. I don't know if my purchases are interesting to anyone, but I figured I would give it a try.

$5.50 - Two pairs of footwear, shelves, ceramic turkey and a crock. I am hoping the suede boots will fit Hailey next fall. They are so darn cute and look like brand new. If not new, at least only worn once - probably for a family photo shoot or something. (Come on - we all know we have done that!) I got the crock for fifty cents for my Mom. She makes homemade cheese spread around the holidays and is always looking for receptacles. I spotted the ceramic turkey at a garage sale where nothing was priced. Seriously - how annoying is that? I commented to Trent that I wondered how much it was because I kind of liked it for my turkey collection. He looked at me completely dumbfounded and said "Turkey collection? Since when do you have a turkey collection?". I told him that I only had four turkeys so it really wasn't much of a collection YET - but this would help. I only have it on display between Halloween and Thanksgiving - the time of year that he is gone every minute with play stuff. While I was carrying around the turkey to ask how much it was, I spotted these pink crocs in a box full of soccer cleats. They were in good shape (a little dirty, but they are crocs - soap and water - good as new) and would most likely fit Hailey in a year or two. I picked them up with my turkey and walked over to the couple to ask how much the things were. Turkey - fifty cents. Sold. Crocs - fifty cents. SOLD! The man who was holding the sale with his wife had to ask the "Grama" to make sure that they were not his Granddaughter's shoes. The Grama told him that she didn't think they fit her anymore. I was hoping that I wouldn't get chased out to my car because Grama just sold her Granddaughter's shoes to me for two quarters. Shoes that you can buy in the store currently for 24.99. Not to mention she had about eight dollars worth of Jibbetz on them. You would think that the crocs were my deal of the day, but at the last house we stopped at I saw these shelves (also not priced - seriously!), I asked the seller how much she wanted and she told me a dollar. I asked her if she meant a dollar a piece. No, just one dollar for all three. SOLD! I figure I can spray paint them black and hang them in my den with my new black shelves.

We also gave the boys each a dollar to spend on whatever they wanted. Spencer got two books at a quarter each and a Batman puzzle for fifty cents. He put together the puzzle already and it is missing a piece so that pretty much stinks. I was proud of his choices though - no annoying crappy toys that he didn't need.

Evan spent his whole dollar on a recorder. He is still young and didn't quite understand the concept of why Spence got money back when he purchased his first book but when he paid for his recorder he didn't get change. They loved buying their own stuff though so we figured it is the perfect time to figure out a chore chart and start giving them some sort of allowance to spend on days like today.

And the worst deal of the day award goes to Trent. He bought this game (at Spencer's urging) for $4.00. I think it was new in the box, but still - SO not worth that. I told him that he should have told the people he would give them two bucks for it. (This was the same house that sold me their Granddaughter's crocs ;)) He will definitely have to work on his garage saleing techniques!

We had a lot of fun and got some good deals. Anyone up for garage saleing next weekend?

Eavesdropping

This afternoon Evan went to his first birthday party for a friend without us and more importantly without Spencer. Since the birthday boy is a neighborhood kid that Spencer spends just as much time as Evan with, Spencer was a bit bummed that he didn't get to go. Actually totally bummed. I mean a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese - where a kid can be a kid - we are lucky he didn't curl up into the fetal position and cry his eyes out.

Evan on the other hand felt like he was Mr. Big Stuff. Going somewhere cool that his big brother didn't get to go - what could be better?

After Evan got home I heard him walk into the computer room to talk to Spencer.

Spencer (not bitter and genuinely interested): Hey Evan! How was the party?

Evan: So fun! I wish you would have been there.

Awww.....I love when I see (or hear) things like this that make me think that they are becoming best friends.

Decent exposure (get it?)

I was on an awesome photographer's blog the other day and was glancing through her FAQ section. I was a little shocked but more jealous to read that most of her shots are SOOC (straight out of camera). She does not Photoshop or saturate colors - she said that she just finds the light and figures out how to manipulate it to get her photographs (that are simply AMAZING).

That is my main issue with photography. I can visualize the pictures I want in my head. I can compose a shot like nobodies business. The light is what gets me almost every time. I get lucky now and then, but it is simply sheer luck - I am in no way master over my lighting situation.

I decided it was time to do something about that.

While we were at the Meijer Gardens yesterday (pictures are coming...soon) I decided to try to tweak my exposure a bit and see what would happen. I was really happy with a lot of the shots I took, but unless I look up the properties of every photo, I don't know what I shot with what exposure. Duh. I don't have the ability to compare and contrast. So today while I was watching Hailey play in the pool I figured it was the perfect opportunity. Just so you know, these photos are nothing at all special. In fact if you are still reading this post, you may want to stop. These shots are for my own benefit - part of my self inflicted "homework".

All of the following photographs were shot with the exact same camera settings - the only difference was the exposure.

Shot at "normal" exposure
+1 stop

+2 stops

Back to normal

-1 stop

-2 stops

(and this one looks like it would have been cute)

These last two are just because my baby girl is so stinkin' cute!

Baby Mirabel is a little overdressed for the pool, but Hailey insisted that she watch her swim.

In my opinion the photograph shot at the +1 exposure stop looks the best and that is not the shot that I would get using my camera in its "normal" settings. I am much more comfortable changing exposure settings now - I learned a lot in my trial and error.

I will soon be Master of the Light!