Happy Birthday, Baby J!

I can hardly believe it has been a year already! Baby J had 2 birthday parties, what a lucky duck! The first one was in Michigan. My camera died during that one, so I still need to get pictures from my Mother in Law. I know, some photographer, right? Letting my camera die and all... anyways.


Tonight was her second birthday party, and it was wicked cold! We had it at the park so I didn't have to clean my house. Great fun!

 

My Precious Inlaws

We recently took a trip to Michigan to visit my inlaws. We only get to see them once a year, and last year my brother-in-law and his wife Emily (yes, there are two Emilys in our family!) had a precious, busy baby boy named Carson. He is absolutely adorable. My mother-in-law messaged me before we came, asking if we could do a photoshoot for them. I was really excited about it! It's a lot of pressure though, and I wasn't sure how it would go.

We shot a LOT of pictures. I'm still going through and editing the keepers, but here are my favorites so far:

(This one is my fave....)

Fireworks Photography

I am in Colorado, the state that is burning to the ground. My heart goes out to those who have lost their homes, and the few that have lost their lives. Fortunately, there is  peace in the storm. Check out this post by Stephanie Hillberry on a really beautiful perspective on the fires.

With the dry weather and concern of starting more fires, most of the cities in Colorado cancelled their fireworks shows. I am so glad, though, that my hometown decided to keep ours up. We tried out a new spot  we have never been to, and I think it was our best view yet. There weren't any trees blocking the view, we had plenty of room, and we actually saw a lot of the low fireworks we normally have missed in our old spots. 

I read this article on shooting fireworks and gathered my gear, determined to capture some beautiful shots of fireworks this year. Most of my shots last year were blurry, out of focus, and just all around not very interesting. This year I really focused on making sure I set up the camera well, adapted my shutter speed accordingly, and made sure my shots were in focus. Here are my favorites:

I love the feel of a photo of a family watching the fireworks.... 

(This was my favorite shot EXCEPT a guy walked past me during the shutter, and to avoid him I moved and bumped the tripod, which is why everyone on the bottom is doubly present. DANGIT! Hence, cropped image below...)

Here are the techniques I used:

-TRIPOD, TRIPOD, TRIPOD. Seriously, you can't hold a camera that steady for that long, no matter what you do.

-"Bulb" mode or 30 second shutter speed. Bulb mode is when the camera opens the shutter when you push the button, and closes the shutter when you let go. This allows several fireworks to be exposed, instead of one at a time. My favorite shots had a 30 second shutter.

-Flash - for the shot of the people watching, I actually used my flash. This actually helped light them up just enough so you knew they were there, and then I left the shutter open to expose the fireworks.

It was a great day! Blessings!

Candid Shots

Here are some candid shots from yesterday. I figure the more I pick up my camera, the better my photos will be. Enjoy.

 (Getting darker outside, even an ISO 1600 wasn't enough to make the pictures light)

10 Months Old

Baby J at 10 months. She is FINALLY crawling, she says a few words like Mama, Dada, Nana (which we figured out is food) and she is really getting a personality! I love every moment with this little girl...

PS - photography - I am SUPER excited that all of these photos are STRAIGHT OUT OF THE CAMERA. Except for the watermark, no work was done in Photoshop or any editing. This was one of my first shoots in manual mode, and I am SO happy with how my photos are turning out!

Seven and Eight Months

Baby J has had a lot of milestones over the past couple of months! She finally started sitting on her own, she is talking more and more (though only says "mama" when she's upset....) and got her first tooth this past week! She got to wear her first homemade Easter dress (matching Little Miss C, made by Grandma). She was also sick on Easter with a fever of 104.5 and had her first febrile seizure that afternoon. (Big Man E had them too, don't worry, she is okay). She is forever putting little things in her mouth so we are working on big Brother and Sister to not leave their stuff everywhere. She also has been left at home without mommy a few times over the last couple of months, which can be really hard for me sometimes but it's also kind of a relief. She was SO attached to only me for so long, and it's nice now that she will let other people hold her and play with her. My new favorite thing that she does is play peekaboo! It's absolutely precious! And she loves when the silly stuffed animals my mom buys sing to her, they make her laugh like crazy.

Six Months Old

Baby J may be almost 7 months old, but I took these earlier in the month. This month she learned how to ROLL everywhere. She is starting to sit a bit on her own, but still needs help. She says "da-da-da" and "ba-ba-ba" and blows raspberries. She laughs and growls a lot and she loves to play with diapers. She is getting rather clingy though, and often cries unless I am holding her. She is also 100% a Mama's girl. If I'm in the room she wants me. If I'm not around she's okay, but as soon as she sees or hears me she starts crying. For the most part, though, she is a happy, wonderful baby.