MomShots

OK, I am going to be completely honest with you.  I am a procrastinator.  Really.  A bad one.  Here it is, December 16th and I have not bought or made one single Christmas gift yet.  I haven’t even made a list of what I want to do yet.  

I am going to come clean on another, slightly more embarrassing issue as well.  I have not sent Christmas cards out and what’s more, I don’t plan on it.  I have beat myself up with guilt over this issue, but I have come to the realization that some things are just not going to get done.  I still have hopes to send out cards, I just have decided to send Valentine cards instead.  So if you were waiting for a Christmas card post from, this is why you haven’t seen it.  I just need more time. 

A lot more time!

So just because I haven’t seriously made any plans for gifts, doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about cute things I’d like to make.  I’m always thinking about things I would like to make.  I’m crafty like that - or at least I pretend to be!

While I was pretending to be crafty and pretending to think about gifts for people, I found this adorable gift idea and wanted to share with you.  I know we have a diverse group of people who read MomShots and many of you are real crafty - not pretend crafty like me.  Maybe you still have a gift or two to make, if so you might like this idea.

Actually, now that I’m thinking about this, I have a few people who might really like this, especially if I filled it with photos of some precocious little people.

The CD is finally done and I want to thank those of you who sent me some really great suggestions!

The CD is officially called “A Taste of Scrapbooking Sample CD”, because it is a small sample of what is available.

So if the following people would please email me (tye @ DurbinDigital . com) and leave your name and MAILING address. I will be sending you a copy of the CD! I have listed below what I used from your suggestions to add onto the CD!

Suzanne - I put a section in the Read-Me file dedicated to “How to Create Vellum”.
PixieMegh-  I put 12 patterned papers on the CD (didn’t get a chance to include the tutorial on ”How to make patterned papers”, so when P comes around it will be the TOPIC! Also, I think creating Alpha sets needs a tutorial and CD all its own! Realistic shadows might be able to be slipped into the “S” T*O*W… I have some great tips for shadows!!
janet & Trena- I have a small section and some tips for starting out.

NOW, I really, really, really want to stress that when you get your CD, READ THE READ-ME FILE!!

The READ-ME file is the meat of the CD, meaning that is where you will fine the “How-To’s” and other awesome info!

ThanX again for sending suggestions, and if certain things didn’t make it on their that you are really wanting to know, I probably have them lined up for a future T*O*W. Just to make sure I get it on the list of things you want to know, you can ALWAYS comment here or email me with your ideas.  When the time comes around for a Full Content CD I will be putting a shout out for suggestions again, so stay tuned!

Hope you enjoy the CD! Once you get your CD, PLEASE send me your thoughts! I want the CD’s to get better and better, so your feedback is strongly taken into account for future planning!

ThanX again!

On a recent driving adventure with my sister in law and our two oldest children (I was driving in the snow so therefore it was an adventure), we stopped at a grocery store.  Katie, my SIL, went into the store while I stayed in the car with the kids.  B was sleeping but Uly was awake and starting to get restless.  So in an attempt to stay off the inevitable freak out session that would likely ensue, I pulled out my camera and told him to make funny faces.  

The light was very low and so I had my ISO boosted to about 800 and and my shutter speed was super slow too.  It was a fun experiment for both Uly and I.  He got to explore his funny face arsenal and I got to try to get a low light photo that wasn’t blurry without using my flash. 

After a bit, B woke up and joined in the fun too.  She was pretty sleepy still so her silly faces were mostly just sweet angelic expressions.

So I am thinking that there is a MomShots tip here somewhere.  Perhaps the tip is one that I have gone back to a few times and will probably continue to go back to: the camera doesn’t have to be a solitary observing activity; it can be an activity for the whole family.  I think MomShots are a chance for the whole family to enjoy the fun and unity that we enjoy, plus you get the added bonus of being able to document those fun moments.

Now go photograph some fun!  Make a silly face!  Encourage your kids to be wiggly and precocious!  Then get your camera out and snappa! snappa! snappa!!!

How about it?  Is this grandparent Christmas gift worthy?  

Really, I’m just kidding.  I was thinking about Anne’s post about the one’s that won’t make it to the Christmas card.

I am trying to get a photo of all three of my boys together looking happy and loving and wonderful for a Christmas gift for the grandparents.  This is one of my typical results.  Chaos.  Pure unadulterated chaos.

Obviously there are other issues besides the un-cooperation; framing and clothes would be a good idea.

At this point the Grands may be getting a montage of individual photos.  It is starting to look pretty grim!

My sister in law and her family are here visiting for the week.  We are having a great time.  Our kids play together so well and we just love having them here.  Her husband even made us some of his scruptios-didlyupmtious popcorn last night. 

I guess if you are going to be gifted, making popcorn on the stovetop is a great gift to have!  He has got mad popcorn making skillz.  Yummm!!!

They live in Southern California and their children have never seen the snow.  Well, let me rephrase that, they have never played in the snow.  We don’t have any snow at our house but we went up into the mountains to find some.

After a beautiful drive we found a place where we could get out and let the kids play until they were frozen.  Or really, until the adults were frozen.  It was fun.

I got out my camera and snapped a ton of pictures.  Unfortunatly I was pretty dissapointed with my results.  Kind of frustrating but a learning experience none-the-less.

This first photo is a bit overexposed.  There is a trend in photographers right now to blow out light colors.  I am torn between liking the way this turned out and wanting it to be less overexposed.  Either way, it’s a cute result of B. playing in and eating the snow.  There’s the whole shadow thing going on too.

This next picture is pretty cute, but if you look really closely, it is slightly out of focus.  I had a lot of photos that were not in focus and I wasn’t even using my manual focus lens.  I am frustrated by that.  I am going to try again today and try to get some more that are in focus.  

I this this last one is the best in terms of proper exposure and depth of field.  However, Composition needs to be improved here.  I love the idea of the footprints in the snow and Mag in the distance, however it is too busy on the left of the photo.  I think if just the tree were gone it would look much better.

Anyway, I wanted to share my results with you.  I was pretty frustrated while I was looking through my photos.  I really wanted to have some cute photos of our excursion but I didn’t really have many.  

I am going to try again today.  We are going to go to Salt Lake City today and I am going to try again.  I am always trying again.  Practice, practice, practice.  I think that is what it takes.

Even though this was a frustrating shoot, I can look at my photos and deduct what I did wrong.  Today I can practice those things, like proper exposure, composition, interesting angles and backgrounds.  It is a learning experience.  Good think it is so fun!

Wasn’t that a cool post by Anne?!?  I had so much fun reading it and thinking about the ones that aren’t going to make it into the final running of my Christmas cards and photos.  Please share your Christmas or Holiday ideas with us.  Leave a comment and let us know what ideas you are pursueing, leave a link, whatever you feel comfortable with but please share.  

I, personally, am in much need of inspiration lately.  I have been going a million miles a minute for the past few weeks and not getting enough sleep.  Consequently my creative wells are feeling a bit low.  I enjoyed looking at the links Anne shared so much.  I hope to see what you are doing this year as well.

This leads me into our AWESOME Tip of the Week - I is for Inspiration.  I was so thrilled to read Tye’s latest creation that I could hardly contain myself.  What a great Tip!!!!  Like I said above, I have been feeling a bit brain dead lately and so these ideas and thoughts about Inspiration are like a breath of fresh air.  I really am looking forward to checking out the links that Tye provided and coming up with some new ideas too! 

And finally, because Momshots is all about photographing our children, I have to share with you just how sweet my 4 year old is.  He is learning to read and write and this morning he wrote this special birthday note to me:

If you can’t read it, it says, “I love (heart) mom”  He’s such a sweetie!

Before I go, I just want to beg you to share your Christmas ideas with us.  Spread the inspiration around and we can all benefit.

Greetings all—my name is Anna, and I’m a mother and photographer blogging at HankandWillie. I’m delighted to be invited by Jessica to contribute the occasional post here at Momshots!

Photo day for Hank & Willie and a friend. Weather was below freezing and children were miserable. Note chocolate-bar-as-bribe in my hand, bottom left. Note also that it is not having desired effect.

So folks, it’s December. I have no idea how that happened, but here’s another bulletin—Christmas is THREE WEEKS from tomorrow. Never mind the shopping, have you done your holiday cards yet?

That’s a superhero face, in case you aren’t fluent in the expressions of four-year-old boys. Also not using this one.

For us moms who love pictures, this is our SuperBowl. I’m still figuring out which image to use for ours—and believe me, these boys didn’t give us many choices—and what it’s going to look like—make my own? Use one of the designs at the excellent design and printing companies out there, like Posh Peacock, Tiny Prints, Moo? Try the new and improved offerings at the photo-sharing sites like Smug Mug, Shutterfly and Snapfish?

Looking for ideas on making your card uniquely yours?  Try these nine fantastic tips for making your own creative photo cards at Martha Stewart, or head to ShutterSisters and read their great series, Great Greetings!, on taking better photos and sharing great ideas about holiday cards. And for further inspiration, check out their Flickr pool for finished holiday cards and photos. Where else have you discovered great resources for making, designing and printing holiday cards? Share it in the comments below!

And if you’ve got your photo, but it needs a little something before you create your final card? As my gift to MomShots readers, I would be happy to try a little Photoshop magic on your photo this year.  So far this year for friends’ photos I have:

A) Swapped heads on a lovely family for optimum smileage

B) Removed a silver picture frame embedded in the head of a handsome preschooler

C) Done basic contrast/curves boost and color boost (Falls under the category of “make it better and brighter!”

D) Done black and white conversions

E) Done vintage and faded conversions

If you think you need help with one of those areas and if you think I might be able to make your photo look better than it already is, send me your original, unedited high-resolution file.

But remember, pictures that tell the story of your family don’t have to be perfect to be great!

The fine print

Send me your photo at hankandwillieATgmail.com by 12/8 and make sure you put Hank & Willie/MomShots in the subject line. And, if you send me a photo, it is fair game to post the before and after on H&W and here at MomShots, but I won’t use names if you don’t want them published. If I get too many to work on, I will select a random few—it is just three weeks before Christmas, after all, and my Christmas card isn’t going to make itself!

I should at least login and say, “Hi”…  I have been missing you all a lot but have been burried in all the going ons of our move and trip to California.  We officially moved in on Tuesday the 2nd.  This was a totally exhausting move as we had to move on a weekday and so didn’t have any help except for my wonderful brother in law after he got off work for the day.  He saved the day when we were exhausted beyond belief!  My two oldest kids actually helped much more than I thought would have been possible.  I never knew how much work a three year old and a four year old could do.  They were great.

The bottom line is that we have too much stuff…

But our house is really cool.  We have this incredible view of Utah Valley and Utah Lake.  Plus, our house is shaped like an octagon so that makes it even cooler!  We are excited to be here.  

I realized last night that this is the first house I have ever lived in that had a family room.  I feel so decadent - a living room AND a family room!  It’s nice to be able to stretch out and be able to find places for all of our junk!  Or at least that’s my plan.  We still have boxes everywhere.

So our trip to California for Thanksgiving was great.  We had a wonderful time.  I had a blast taking a ton of pictures and am now trying to find time to go through and edit some of the good ones.  

I was excited to do a little photoshoot of my new niece, but we didn’t have time.  We only got to see her when we were having big family get together time so it didn’t really fit in.  I am a little bummed about that but did manage to get a few snapshots. This is one of the three of them. I was one of many people snapping away so it isn’t the best angle. Oh well; I’m happy I got at least one of them!

I tried to get all creative on Thanksgiving night.  We have a tradition to go bowling in the evening and so I had my camera out and was snapping away.  I got these two shots that I love.  One is more snapshotty but I really like it.  I think it really shows Gar’s emotion well.

However I did get a chance to do a bunch of maternity shots of my sister in law, Trena.  It was the first day of her third trimester.  It is fun that we got a chance to document that with our shots.  I think we got a few good ones.  She is such a beauty and a fantastic model too.  We took some shots at my mother in law’s house and then we went down the street to a shopping center where they had a whole bunch of different colored walls.  The walls all made for interesting backgrounds and came out nicely.  

Oh, by the way I just want to reiterate how much I L-O-V-E this little nifty 50 lens.  It rocks.  I love the depth of field.  I love the quick focusing (when used with the D100), I love the large aperture and I love how much fun I am having playing with it!  I know a lot of you can relate.  If you are trying to decide if you should buy one, I whole heartedly recommend it!!!

I still am a gimp when it comes to using it on the D40x.  I am not so good with manually focusing.  Back in my day of using my manual film SLR, my lens had a little thing that you had to match up and then you would know if it was in focus.  This lens doesn’t have any indicator (because it is not primarily designed for manual focus, me thinks) so I am constantly guessing if it is in focus.

It would probably help if I got surgery on my eyes or would wear my contacts, but I don’t.  So it’s a big guessing game.  

Well…  Sorry to abandon you all for so long.  I am back in the saddle (or at least trying to be).  I will post up the “I” tip of the week, hopefully today but don’t hold your breathe.  It maybe tomorrow…  I will be back soon with more posts and some holiday related tips.

Have a great day!