Baby Sprout: Weeks 16 and 20

We tried to have a "It's a girl!" celebration photo shoot like we did with Levi, BUT it was about 7 degrees out when we tried---and we just do not look happy because we were freezing.  So maybe later?

Playing in the Leaves

So after selling some lenses I rarely used, I was able to re-buy a Nikon F100 35mm film camera.  So glad I did.  I love, love this camera.  

The first roll I shot out of it was pure magic.  Seriously, these are some of my favorite photos ever.  It may just have to do with the fact that it is two of the people I love most having a crazy, fun time together.  And of course the tones of film.  I shot these on Kodak Porta 400 rated at ISO 200 developed at Indie Film Lab---if that means anything to you.  Enjoy my picture heavy post: 

Real Life

This is my life... messy room, zany kid.  I love it.  PS That third one down--I have no clue what is going on with the color.  It does not look that way in Lightroom or where it is saved on my computer.  I saved every photo the same way...anyone know what is going on?

Watching TV

Toddler For Sale

For Sale:  2 year old boy with adorable smile, whines a lot, fights bedtime, and needs potty trained.  

PS I hate editing.  Worst part about photography.  I suck at color, and I don't want to learn.  Makes me want to shoot film and pay labs to do all my color corrections.

People Pictures: Exercise 1

Last October, I made this really extensive list of goals related to photography in 2013.  Well, 2013 did not go as planned---which led to some loss of motivation, loss of heart on the matter.  I actually did accomplish about half of those goals though so that is good, right?  I am starting to work my way through a book called People Pictures by Chris Orwig.  It is not a technical skills book, but more of a creativity focused, pushing art and comfort kind of book.  The focus is on creating authentic portraits.  My favorite subject is people.  I love all types of photography really, but what speaks to me most are portraits that tell stories and evoke emotions.  And that is also what I want to shoot.  So the book is going to really stretch me.  Some exercises are simple, some are rather involved.  Most of them involve taking photos of people (weird), and a few are more introspective exercises.  I hope to share my journey on here, but there are 30 exercises, and they are not ones that just happen in a day--so it may take me years to work through it all.  But I am starting :)  Basically, it is really intimidating because I will be taking photos of people that -oh are not my son :)  I am hoping to grow in three ways through the exercises.  1.  Getting myself more comfortable and confident behind the camera--thus learning how to make subjects relaxed and real. 2.  Getting better at "making" photos, not just "taking" them. 3.  Creating photographs that do what I mentioned above: "Tell stories and evoke emotion."  So if you know me well and live within a two hour radius, I may be asking to take your photo...be kind, I am nervous too!

Exercise One was pretty simple.  The goal was to make a very basic portrait with a ten minute time frame.  Shoot at the lowest aperture for the lens choice, and manually focus.  I forgot about the manual focus prompt when I was shooting, but did not go back to redo.  I chose my friend Leslie who was visiting for the day.  In reality we spent about 5 minutes because we had a 5 month old and 2 year old present.  I placed her in the corner of my stairwell because it was simple and I liked the light and how it produced heavy shadows.  She says she is not photogenic, but I think she looks beautiful.  The second one is her real smile, which I love.  I think we were talking about how she posed for a mutual friend doing a photography session in...uh.."special circumstances." ;)

101 in 1001: Done!

Our finish date for our 101 in 1001 list was April 10th of this year, I just have not updated it.
We accomplish 75% of our goals, which I feel is a success.  I am going to leave the link up over on the right for a little while, but will be replacing it with something else soon!  So click over there to see what we accomplished, and what we failed.  Nothing else was added since my last 101 post besides the check to Big Brothers Big Sisters for everything we did not accomplish :)  

"Oh no, castle fall down."

After work fun with Daddy.

The Blankenbakers in Fall

Took some fall photos of our friends a couple weeks ago...

 We ended with Levi and Mordecai having fun on the Merry-Go-Round.