MomShots

Check out The Vintage Pearl for her new camera strap cover giveaway.  Totally cute stuff!!!

to my pity party.

Thanks for all your comments.  You all really helped me not feel so much like I am talking to myself here. 

I’m not saying that talking to myself is all that bad.  I’m pretty good company.  

I’m just saying that somedays a person needs a little affirmation.

I’ve been making a mental list of themes for next year’s posts.  I’m kind of getting excited again.  Maybe it’s just hormonal and I need to go dose up on some Vitamin B!  Who knows, but either way, your comments helped.

Thanks!

I’m feeling a little down today.  I’m a big baby.   I hate writing about negative things but at the same time they have to be said sometimes.  

My question is this:  Does anyone read this blog?  

That’s my question.  One little tiny one.  I don’t seem to have any followers but at the same time my analytics say people do stop by on a regular basis.  I’m not sure what to believe.  I do know that I only rarely get a comment.  Those are usually from my mother.  Thanks mom.

Maybe I need to get back to basics and refocus on the things us regular mom’s need to know about taking better photos of our kids.  Probably.  Good thing it is the time for new resolutions.

Anyone have anything that they are wondering about?  Anyone wonder how someone did something in a photograph?  Anyone have questions about things they want to learn about?  

I resolve to make a list of new topics for 2009 and learn about them all.

Ok…  whining done.  Please leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts. 

Before you leave here is a virtual helping of really yummy peppermint bark.  Help yourselves and have a happy new year.

I’m taking a short break right now.  I am a human superhero cape factory today.  I am in the process of making 9 capes for a horde of little boys.  I know at least three of them will be loved.  I am not sure how the other 6 will be received but that’s OK.  At least I know my boys are going to wear them silly.  That makes it worth it.

I wanted to point your attention to a post on the MomShots Flickr Group by Clint Long.  He wrote a great article about balancing your colors, including adjusting your white balance.  This is super informative and interesting.  He delves into the topic further than just the white balance.  I learned a few neat things and I bet you will too. 

Thanks for such a great article, Clint!  

You should also check out some of Clint’s Photostream.  He’s got some great skills and talent!

While you’re cruising around Flickr, add some of your photos to the MomShots Group Pool.  Come on, it’s fun!

After reading Clint’s article do you think this is too cool?  What do you think?  I’m having a hard time telling because of the blue shirts but I think it is slightly off.

Ok, now back to my superhero cape production after I guzzle a can of Cherry Coke Zero.  It is one of those nights where I need some major caffeine flowing through my veins!

Oh wait, not yet… I was thinking about something else that I wanted to share with you.  That is learning from your shots and trying to retake ones that can be improved. I have this picture of Mag that I love, however it is slightly out of focus. I just wanted to say that I am going to try to redo this. Of course I won’t get it exactly the same, but I really want to get another shot from a similar angle and as close up as this one, but in focus.

That’s my personal challenge for the next few days.

Do you have any shots that you would like to retake?  Let’s retake them together.  

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, my friends!  I hope your days are filled with friendship, love and much joy.

I am really excited about this and so I wanted to spread the word. A local warehouse art sale going on now in Provo, on State Street. You can order online and pickup at the warehouse or you can go directly to the location and purchase.

This is your chance to get a print by the nationally award winning artist, Benjamin McPherson. His classic and ever popular “The Last Supper” is available at a great price; this is hand embellishmed and framed. Other prints of his are available too.

Personally, I have been wanting one of his prints for a long, long time and now is my chance!!!

These make unforgettable Christmas gifts.

Check out Art Gift Outlet for more details.  You can order online and have it shipped if you don’t live in the Utah Valley area too. 

Seriously, how can you pass this up?!?  :)

This is kind of an exciting post for me.  This is MomShots’ first podcast ever.  Did you ever wonder what my voice sounds like?  Well now you will get to find out!  

Early this year I had the opportunity to interview a local photographer; Kiera Haddock.  I hope you will check out the interview below (if you are viewing this through your RSS feed, you may need to click into the site to view the podcast player) and check out her website.  I always find great inspiration from her photographs.  I enjoy her compositions, color and pattern usage.  I think she is very talented.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Podcast: Play in new window

I totally wish this was a MomShots contest, but alas it is not. However, Tye told me about this other great site that is having this awesome giveaway. Check out this site and enter their contest. You have to enter before December 21.

Wouldn’t that be a great Christmas present for either yourself or a very grateful friend? Yeah, it would be. Go enter!!!

This holiday season brings out so many much loved traditions.  Most families have unique activities, foods, decorations and music that makes this season so special and individualized to our families.  (Obviously, right?)

I have been thinking about this a lot lately.  This is the first Christmas in my entire married life - that’s 11 years, folks- where we will be home for that day.  I want to make it special for my family and to be honest, I’m a little bit intimidated.  I am just not sure where to start.  It might partly be that I am still feeling overwhelmed from moving but I also have big shoes to fill and big expectations (my own) to meet.

We have the tree; which in itself is a wonderful tradition.  In November we got a permit so that we could go up into the National Forest and cut down our tree.  That was a really fun time.  A great tradition.  One we will absolutely be doing year after year.

We also put together a gingerbread house the other night.  We had so much fun building it and decorating it.  We decided to eat it right there instead of keep it around as a decoration.  Much better that way, I think!

Other traditions that we are starting this year is a beautiful advent calendar (Thanks, Noni!!!) and a feast on Christmas Eve.  We will read the story of Christ’s birth and we will sing carols and discuss what Christmas is all about.  I am looking forward to this special night.  I know my children are going to be filled with excitement and wonder.  

But first I have to solve the stocking predicament.  It’s a predicament because Ben and I have conflicting traditions.  His family had beautiful handmade stockings that they brought out each year and left hung up as a decoration to be filled by Santa on Christmas Eve night.  

My family didn’t have stockings - not in the same sense as Ben’s family.  Our tradition was to run up to our sock drawer and find the biggest, best sock to use.  I had a red and white striped sock that I like to use year after year.  After we found our socks we would race down to our living room and everyone would find perfect place to position our sock.  Santa would always fill them with wonderful things, candy, toys, nuts, a mandarine orange (note to self:  buy mandarine oranges today), a toothbrush and always a silver dollar (additional note to self: also find silver dollars).

I love that tradition but I think I am going to make stockings this year.  But we will see.  I am quickly running out of time…

So… The MomShots Tip for this post is to remember to photograph your traditions.  It is nice to have a visual reminder and to re-affirm what your traditions are and why they are special.  When our children are grown they will love to see those photographs.  They will remember the things that made this holiday season so magical and exciting for them.  We will also be reminded.

Isn’t this a cute shot?  This is from when we drove out to the snow so the kids could play in the snow.  This is probably B’s first attempt at making a snowball.  Either she is making a snowball or getting ready to eat a huge mouthful of snow.  Both are very probable.

Really this post is not photography related.  It is a story from my life that I think is kind of funny.  I hope you will enjoy it and maybe get to know me a little better.    Read on…

I decided that I wanted to enter Shelle at BlokThoughts’ contest.  It is called Don’t You Hate it When and you tell stories about things that have happened to you and people (that means you) go vote on (for) it.  Previously I hadn’t any ideas of things to write about but then the snow has reminded me of a story that I think fits the Don’t You Hate it When boot.  

Here’s my story:

When Ben and I were engaged, we were living outside of Bellingham, WA.  I grew up in that area but Ben grew up in Southern California; Hesperia, California to be exact.  The High Desert.  Hotter than blazes in the summer and briskly cold in the winter, but not snow country.  I don’t think Ben had ever driven in the snow.  Ever.

So that winter it snowed.  It snowed a lot.  We had about a foot and a half of snow that fateful day. 

Now in some areas of the country when it snows, the roads are cleared with grand efficiency.  The snow is whisked off the road and this ice is swiftly dealt with.  Not so in Whatcom County.  Especially out on Gooseberry Point.  When the roads are covered in snow, they stay covered in snow for a good solid week until the one county operated snow plow can triangulate its way out into the boonies and sluggishly push the snow off the road.  

We get pretty adept at driving in the snow.  I had a bit of confidence in my snow driving abilities.  I loved my then-fiance’ but I didn’t have the same amount of confidence in his snow driving abilities as he had.  

One such snow covered day we found some reason why we had to risk the roads and drive into town.  The reason escapes me now, but I am sure it was a good one.  A very, very good one.

So Ben and I bundled up and excitedly got into his little white Toyota Tercel.  A car that had probably never seen a snowflake in its life since he borrowed it from his parents in SoCal.  We were ready for an adventure and a chance to spend some time together.  

As we slowly backed out of the driveway, I knew we were in for an adventure.  Ben kept saying, “it’s just like driving on sand.  It’s no big deal.”  

I kept screeching, “Be careful!  Watch out!  Go slower!”  

As we got into a slow grove, everything seemed to be going well.  Ben was having fun testing his limits.  I was enjoying the steady flow of adrenaline that was pumping into my bloodstream because my wonderful fiance was having fun testing his limits.  A fishtail here.  A half broodie there.  That sort of thing.  

That is until the road had an incredibly tight hairpin curve down a little hill.  We managed to inch our way down the hill’s crazy curve while somehow managing to avoid going into the ditch.

Now is the time when I should mention the ditches.  These aren’t your little city gutters or even a little foot deep hollowed out indention on the side of the road where a little road run-off might play.  These are 3 to 4 feet deep ravines on each side of the road that help to keep the swollen Nooksak river and Mount Baker’s melting snows from flooding the valley down below.  These could be considered major aquatic thoroughfares in some parts of the world.  These suckers are deep!

So we are now at the bottom of that little crooked hill and the road is relatively straight.  Ben is driving pretty well.  I am screeching at him pretty well.  We were a good team.  

He is still so excited about driving in the snow and he had not tested his limits far enough so he continued to swerve and skid around the snowy, icy road.  This straight stretch of road, with little traffic was too tempting for him as he gunned it and played around in his little white steel toboggan.

We were both laughing at this point and enjoying the winter beauty of the country.  That is until we slowly, ever so gently started sliding off the road and gracefully landed in the ditch; nose first.  

We mightily heaved our doors open and climbed out of the car.  Standing in knee deep snow we surveyed our predicament.  The back wheels of our car were not even touching the snow anymore.  The nose was buried in snow.  We were genuinely stuck.

Then a large, beat up, grey, kid-napper style van pulled up behind us.  He carefully stopped and got out of his vehicle.  Sauntering over to talk to us was a grungy, bundled up man with a beard and sandy colored hair poking out the bottom of his ‘Made in Nepal’ stocking cap.

As he walked up to us he started talking.  Maybe ranting, even.

“My friends all call me Alaska Joe.  I am such a good snow driver that they have all nicknamed me Alaska Joe.  When ever it snows, my phone rings off the hook because everyone wants Alaska Joe to drive them places.  Drive them to the store.  Drive them to town.  Drive them to their mothers.  Alaska Joe gets asked by everyone to drive them all over.  

Alaska Joe is such a good snow driver because he is careful and slow and doesn’t take risks.  I understand the snow and the snow understands me.  I am Alaska Joe! 

Now it looks like you need some help here.  You need someone to pull you out of that ditch there.  It looks like it would be a pretty easy job.  Just tie a rope onto your axel and pull you out.  No problem.  Alaska Joe could do that.

But I won’t.  

I saw you driving back there.  You were swerving all over the place.  You were going too fast.  You were not driving safely.  You were not being a good snow driver like Alaska Joe.

Alaska Joe could pull you out, but I won’t.”

Then Alaska Joe got back into his cruddy old van and slowly, very safely, drove off.  Leaving Ben and I next to our up-ended car with our mouths open and our jaws around our knees.  We didn’t know if we should be mad that he wouldn’t help us when he could have or if we should laugh because he was such a nut.

We chose mockery.  Good old fashioned, immature mockery.  We were strutting around with our chests puffed out saying, “I’m Alaska Joe.  I’m such a good snow driver but I won’t help you.  You’ve got a lesson to learn here.  I’m Alaska Joe.”  We laughed about that guy for a while.  His ranting.  His ability to switch from first person to third person in the middle of a sentence.  His general Alaska Joe-ness.  It was all hilarious.

Luckily for us some real neighborly fellows, in a big truck with a winch rolled by and kindly helped us out of the ditch.  No stories about their nicknames.  No chastisement about our snow driving.  Just nice guys who ended up helping out a couple of knuckle-headed kids in love. 

So Don’t You Hate it When you slide into a ditch and Alaska Joe gives you a lecture on how he is such a great snow driver and then tells you he that he could help you but won’t, then Alaska Joe gets in his van and drives off leaving you stranded in the cold? 

Well, if you made it through that long story, please go leave a comment for Shelle and tell her to pick my story, OK?  ;)