Me and Mine | 6 of 12

June is our most hectic of months in our family.  It includes our anniversary, my birthday, my husband's birthday, father's day, and the Little Lady's birthday.  Normally a family vacation is thrown into the mix as well.  It is always a wonderful month, but by the end, we are all a little haggard.  This June is no exception and the days whizzed by with speed, leaving me the day before my Me & Mine post with nary an image that included me. In other more honest words, I completely forgot (despite my reminder system).  [Me & Mine is a creative project I do in a group once a month]

So there we were on Wednesday.  Less than 24 hours to deadline.  Earlier in the week we spent hours upon hours upon hours organizing the toys.  It had become a disaster.  Everything was all mixed up.  No one knew where anything was.  Constantly cluttered and messy.  But most importantly, they were not playing with their toys, for it was such a chaotic nightmare.  If you do not play with it, it leaves the house, so goes my mantra.  So they had one last chance to redeem themselves.  All baskets and bins were dumped into the center of the room, and we painstakingly sorted it all.  I'm not kidding when I say hours.   Now the toy room holds all the toys in order, and shockingly, they are playing with their toys again!!!

Little Buddy is amazing me daily with his imagination, creativity, and ability at his 6.5 year old self.  I am loving this stage (while simultaneously mourning the loss of his little boy-ness).  All on his own accord, he created a new "board game" that he calls "Speed".  It includes a car track, and obstacles, and  "cards" that you draw to tell you how to move.  It has a lot of complicated rules that I can't keep up with, but he sure knows them.  We've played it a good bit this week.  He loves that!

We were upstairs in the toy room playing "Speed" when I mentioned to Little Buddy that I would need his help that afternoon on a "photography project".  He really likes to help me with those, as I call them,  when I have something specific I'm trying to shoot.  I told him I'd need him to use my camera to take some photos of me with the Little Lady, and then let her shoot some of me with him.  He threw a curve ball at me and asked "Ooooh! I have an idea!  Why don't we do it now, while we play Speed?"

Um, well, uh, because I haven't showered yet today.  I haven't even combed my hair.  Or gotten dressed.  Oh dear.  You know what?  That's a great idea!  Let's do it!

I figured if they turned out too embarrassingly awful, I could just not show them.  I wanted some more formal documentation of his first complex board game creation, so this served two purposes.  While my appearance isn't exactly what I'd want it to be, it is real, and me, and the momma they know on their daily basis.

I invested in the Black Rapid RS-Sport 2 "Slim" Sling Camera Strap when I got my new D800 and have really liked using it.  I've always worn my strap across my body, but this is significantly more comfortable.  But the added bonus is that the Slim Sport strap adjusts small enough to even fit my newly 5 year old, for real!  I put it on both kids and adjusted it to fit them, just as I'd wear it myself.  This worked wonderfully!!!  Makes me feel much better about handing over a three thousand dollar piece of equipment into little hands!

I asked the Little Lady to photograph me and Little Buddy playing his game.  That lasted about 2 minutes and she was done.  Sigh.  I took some of him playing and the details of the game.  Then we switched and Little Buddy did the photographing of me with her.  He's so good.  I really cannot wait until he's ready to learn more about HOW to take the photograph.  That is going to be so fun to share with him.

Without further ado, I bring you our real afternoon of play together.






















My friend Christine Blaylock is up next in our Me and Mine group.  Spend a few minutes spinning around our circle.  I do hope you will consider taking on this project yourself.  So important to document US with our family!



I shot these with my Nikon D800
Nikon 50mm 1.4D

camera review: underwater Nikon Coolpix AW100

My husband surprised me for Mother's Day and early birthday with a new camera.  My first digital point and shoot, actually.  But what is cool about my little P&S is that it is an underwater camera.  The Nikon Coolpix AW100.  The newer model, the AW110, is (at the time of this post) the same price within a few dollars of the AW100.  I'd probably go with that one if you were buying today- wifi and up to 18m instead of 10m).  [FYI - the AW100 was around $250 when he purchased it.  The price on Amazon seems to fluctuate a good bit.  price for the AW100 rising while the price of the AW110 falls to its lowest to date:  see here and here)].

My inlaws have a pool, so we spend a good portion of time there in the summer.  Not to mention, our kiddos are semi-fish.  I had been craving the opportunity to play with underwater imagery.  It has been a fun adventure.

Here are just a few from last week's visit to the Pool Land a la In-Laws.






My review of the Nikon Coolpix AW100 underwater camera?  I'm a fan.

I've never owned a point and shoot.  I went from a film SLR camera (the Nikon N65) to the digital SLR camera (Nikon D70, to D90, and now D800).  I'm used to having the ability to manipulate my camera and be in control.  The Coolpix AW100 has an exposure compensation button, which in my opinion rocks.  I'm not at the mercy of the camera's opinion of proper brightness in my image.  If it is taking images that are too dark - I can adjust that button to take brighter images.  I still need to play with this more, but I certainly like having that knob.

There is a place in the menus to adjust white balance.  I haven't tried this yet, so we shall see how the performance goes.  But again, awesome to have that knob.

There is also a macro button where you turn macro On or Off.  I still need to play more, but I'm guessing that allows me to focus on things more close up than the regular full frame of focus.

The battery life seems exceptional.  I take hundreds of images in a session of shooting.  It hasn't failed me.

The video has been fun to play with as well.  I will post soon with the videos we've played with.

For $250, I'm a happy camper.  However, I do want to disclose the difference between what the camera generates SOOC (straight out of camera) and my finished images.  I don't think you can go shooting and expect to get the same images I am without some post processing work.  White balance is still a HUGE issue.  This shouldn't be surprising.  You are under water... surrounded by blue.  At least, in the blue vinyl liner of my in-law's pool.  I'm certainly no expert, but I've had to do significant changes in white balance and skin tone in post processing.  If you want this kind of an image, you will need photo software like Photoshop or Lightroom where you can change the tones hugely and easily.

(I have a theory right now that the colored blue liner of the pool makes the image clarity through the water less than with a concrete pool.  The images we took in the Disney hotel pool in May were much, much better and clearer than the ones we took in our in-law's liner pool.  My idea is that since concrete is by its very nature a more reflective, and neutrally colored, surface, the available light in the water is more.  Better light - better images.  Plus, being surrounded by the blue liner means a by nature full scale blue color cast on everything, just just here or there.  More experimentation to prove my theory to come!  I at first thought that perhaps the water was clear enough in their pool - I don't think that's the case now though. The water is perfectly clear - but just doesn't seem to show that way with this camera.)

I have included the SOOC and edited of each image below, just for your comparison.  Obviously I need more practice with this, and more practice with consistency.  Yet I think the edited is leaps and bounds better than the SOOC.
















I shot these with my Nikon Coolpix AW100 Underwater Camera.  All links are affiliate links.

Feisty, Fickle, Beautiful and (almost) Five

I have a difficult time choosing one single favorite of anything.  I find decision making to be an excruciating process (which incidentally played a significant role in my failure to be a good chemical engineer).  I find all flowers to be one of God's most wonderful blessings on this earth.  But if you held me up against a wall at gun point, I'd probably be able to say with confidence that the Peony is my very favorite flower. 

The previous owners of our house had planted some peonies at the corner of our patio the Springtime before they departed.  It was awesome to watch them sprout through the earth mere weeks after we moved in, and then burst forth with four blooms.  Yes, just four.  I had no idea that wasn't typical and was thrilled with my four stems.  

The next year we had a few more blooms.  Each of the subsequent seven springtimes we've enjoyed our peony plant (apparently there are more treelike peony plants, and some more shrub or bush like plants.  I wouldn't call ours either... just a bundle of weak stems poking out of the earth...), it has granted us with more and more blooms.  This year our harvest was bountiful.  I only wish they bloomed for longer than a week, so we could enjoy them better.  We had five vases on our patio table, filled to bursting with blooms.  But oh, what a lovely table we had.  (I don't bring them inside because they are covered with tiny ants. )

Shawn was about to mow the grass and I went out to make one of the last cuttings of ready blooms off the peony plant.  There weren't many left yet to bloom.  They were so perfect, so beautiful, so lovely... and I was out of vases.  It was that beautiful time of day with the beautiful sunlight...  that our mature trees block in most places.  I bribed the Little Lady with the promise of an ice cream sandwich if she let me play with my camera.  The Lady is a sucker for ice cream sandwiches.  (Lucky for me we actually had two left!)

I collected those freshly cut and newly opened peonies into a little mini bouquet and ran her off to a lone spot of sunshine in our neighbor's yard.  I shot a few images.  And then I remembered video on my new camera.  I remembered how I'd wanted to play around with it... make a short little video compilation.  So we played a little more.  We eventually moved to our front yard... across the street into another neighbor's yard... We had an absolute ball playing with those peonies.  And then the Little Lady and Little Buddy enjoyed their ice cream sandwiches while I cleaned up from dinner.  

Never could I have imagined that little round of playing would culminate in this video.  I love it so much, so deeply, so profoundly that my heart was racing out of my chest when I finished creating it.  I'm not kidding.  I confessed this to a fellow photographer who has entered that world of video creation and she knew.  She knew exactly what I felt, and she called it a rush.  Wow.  That's it.  Precisely it.  What a feeling.  

This could not possibly capture her little almost five year old essence and personality any truer.  This is her.  Totally her.  What a priceless treasure this is for me.  For us.  

(above is the HD version.  If you are mobile, click here to see the mobile friendly version)

Again, I selected a song of Mindy Gledhill's to be the soundtrack to her video celebration:  "See the Good.".  The lyrics seem to fit her like a glove. (find the lyrics at the end of the post)  Boy, is she Feisty.  Fickle.  Not quite ladylike.... yet.  But in the song, what a wonderful reminder to always see the good in her, to see the good in her strong willed personality, and know the good she will do one day because of it.  And to realize the impact the comfort of the knowledge that those around her love her unconditionally makes.  May we always seek to See the Good in all others we encounter.

"See the Good" by Mindy Gledhill

I am quite the feisty thing

No I'm not the kind of girl you'd bring

To meet your mom and dad,

But honey I'm so glad

You choose to see in me the good and not the bad

There are times when I forget

My p's and q's and lady-like etiquette

But you don't get uptight

No you don't get mad

Because you see in me the good and not the bad

People come and people go

About a dime a dozen, row by row

They're here today and gone tomorrow

And I don't want just anybody,

I want someone who's gonna love me

For the fickle person that apparently I am

Mine is not a perfect past

I've made enough mistakes to last me

For my whole life through

But all because of you,

I try to keep my chin up when I'm feeling sad

Because you see in me the good and not the bad

I shot these with my Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f1.8
Nikon 50mm 1.4D
Sigma 30mm f1.4
Video created in iMovie 11

you anchor me back down

I have always believed that imagery and music go together, like white on rice... like peas and carrots... like pie and ice cream... like popcorn and coke.  I would also include salt on watermelon, but apparently I'm in the minority on that one.  Both music and a photograph can invoke emotions in our hearts.  Yet when you combine the two, the emotional impact is more than doubled, more than the sum of its parts.  Our heart strings are given full on assault, and oh, how I adore that feeling.

As I sifted through the 162 way too many images I photographed of the Little Lady dancing with bubbles in the golden light, and submitted to the failure that I am at culling, I realized that these worked together to tell her story.  Yet that story wasn't complete without a soundtrack.

I wholeheartedly adore the music, lyrics, and voice of Mindy Gledhill.  Her works of art combine so masterfully with imagery, which generates a piece that holds such power.  As I clicked through the bubble images, the lyrics to "Anchor" came to mind.  The world spinning around.  Restless souls.  Thought strange, told to change, and yet, wouldn't have me any other way.   Accepted.  Loved.  Adored.  Anchored.   I feel like this song describes the Little Lady so very, very much, so very, very well.  I do hope you enjoy the slideshow/video.  I enjoyed creating it and relishing in the beauty and joys of that evening, all over again.  

"Anchor" by Mindy Gledhill

When all the world is spinning ‘round 

Like a red balloon way up in the clouds 

And my feet will not stay on the ground

You anchor me back down 

I am nearly world renowned 

As a restless soul who always skips town 

But I look for you to come around

And anchor me back down 

There are those who think that I’m strange

They would box me up and tell me to change

But you hold me close and softly say

That you wouldn’t have me any other way 

When people pin me as a clown

You behave as though I’m wearing a crown

When I’m lost I feel so very found

When you anchor me back down 

[Chorus]

When all the world is spinning ‘round

Like a red balloon way up in the clouds 

And my feet will not stay on the ground

You anchor me back down

I shot these with my Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f1.8
Nikon 50mm 1.4D
Sigma 30mm f1.4
Video created in iMovie 11

The Lady and the World's Best Bubbles

My children have no idea that bubble solution doesn't always come by the gallons that your momma mixes up at the kitchen sink. We've used the World's Best Bubbles recipe for years and the kids LOVE it, as do any other kids that come over to play. So for years, I've wanted to beautifully capture this with my camera. And for years, I've come up lacking.  Never capturing it quite how I wanted.

...The light wouldn't be right (and life during the pretty light here is never really convenient for bubbles.  there is dinner to cook, dinner to eat, dinner to clean up from, the list goes on),

 ...She wouldn't be in the mood to cooperate (otherwise known as, as soon as I walked out with my camera, she took off to do something else) and if you know me you know I don't contrive photo opportunities.  They must be real and genuine.

 ...Her clothes would be completely whacky (which I always let her do, and I LOVE about her, but they don't always make the "remarkable" images I had in mind),

I tried.  You have no idea how many photos of the kids doing bubbles I have stored on my hard drives.  Yet they were never exactly what I wanted.

We are adjusting to summertime and everyone being home all day long, together, every single day.  Before dinner last Tuesday, the Little Lady untwisted the balloon animal she received from the dentist for a good job, and was inconsolable. I held her, and tried to calm her because I can at least understand that she's super disappointed about losing her toy. But many,  many tears were shed.  I seem to have a limit when it comes to tears shed in a day, and I think she used most of them up in that session of crying.  Shortly thereafter she sat down to dinner and told me, in her entitled tone of voice, that she didn't like what I'd put on her plate.

I.    was.     done. 

I calmly told her to get up from the table and go to her bed, upon which she broke down into complete hysterics. She wailed for ten minutes when I went up to talk to her about her rude behavior.  She was so worked up she could hardly speak and I had to help her calm down for quite some time with mutual deep breaths.  I had to summon the emotional and mental clarity to deal with these irrational tears, for being with them all day, every day, is draining this introvert of her energy, with ferocity.

We made it through dinner somehow, and Shawn let me choose:  he could stay and help me clean, or he could take the kids outside and let me be alone and clean it by myself.  Guess which one I chose.  Surrounded by a messy kitchen from a tasty dinner, with my hands immersed in hot, soapy water, scrubbing pots and pans, I glanced out the window above the sink.  The Little Lady caught my eye; she was at the very far edge of our driveway, with the Bubble Wand.

Shawn and Little Buddy were playing kickball in the yard, but the Little Lady was alone in all her curly haired glory, waving the bubble wand over her head and creating cascades of bubbles, in this beautiful little pocket of sunshine.  We have a most awesome backyard for the kids to play in, but we are surrounded by a forest of tall, mature trees that completely block "golden hour" light.  But there was a pocket that revealed itself and shone straight through to where she was.  It probably took me 3 seconds to decide. I dried my hands, picked up  my camera, and ran outside to document.

It was worth it.  So worth it.

When half an hour earlier she had been crying to the point where I wondered if she'd need her inhaler, she was now relishing in the magic of  bubbles at the golden hour of sunlight.  When half an hour earlier I was trying to muster up every ounce of patience I had running through my veins so I didn't lose it on her, I was now relishing in her beauty and joy and what I was able to do with my camera.  What a difference a few minutes can make.  At first she was wearing her pink camo hat from Bass Pro Shops, along with sunglasses and her tennis shoes and trademark socks pulled up high.  Then she offered to take them off for me, since I was taking pictures.  Thoughtful, isn't she? I think she's figuring some of this picture stuff out.  I took her up on the offer.

I'm not sure if it is just the joy of finally getting outside after being stuck inside during the cold winter, of if it is the joy of having a camera that focuses again, or perhaps both.  But oh, this did my artist soul and heart good to shoot.  I shot way too many.  Way too many.  I will chalk it up to learning.  But this was some mighty fine teamwork, if I do say so myself.





















(I use BlogStomp for my photos for my blog posts and I've been having some trouble with it, since getting my D800.  Here's an example.  No idea why and how this image below looks soooooo blurry.  I've spent too many hours tonight trying to battle, so I will try to fix it later.)


















These images may not adequately demonstrate how awesome this bubble recipe is, so i wanted to show two images I shot LAST May, in 2012!    Of course, we've learned that there are other factors involved, like humidity, that affect how the bubbles behave.  But truly, this three ingredient (that you probably already have in your home!) recipe is too amazing.  I usually mix up a double batch - the kids go through it fast when it is making awesome bubbles.

 FIND THE RECIPE HERE.




I shot these with my Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f1.8
Nikon 50mm 1.4D
Sigma 30mm f1.4