At least I think so.. lol

I just got a 30×40 canvas of my two oldest, and it’s AWESOME.  I’ve wanted to get a huge canvas for a while, and was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to order one.  Color Inc was advertising their gallery wrapped canvases on ILP, and I’d yet to place my first order for 50% off, so they were a steal (and Color Inc’s regular pricing is better than most I’ve seen anyways).  Of course it didn’t hurt that I happened to take one of my favorite pictures ever of my kids last week!

Now I just have to figure out where to hang them! (they probably won’t go up together).  For now I have the large one hanging to the side of my TV in the living room, but I’m not sure I want to leave it there.  I’ll probably do some rearranging/rehanging this weekend.

I got a new toy earlier this week… a D700!!  It’s sort of a belated birthday present for me this year.. my birthday was last month, but DH didn’t get me anything then, so I think this makes up for it (and the birthday he completely forgot about a few years ago)

I am absolutely totally THRILLED with it so far…

One of the very first shots (pardon the clutter, I had to find something to shoot..lol), and it’s SOOC - shot in JPEG since I hadn’t even changed any settings yet!

The high ISO performance is INCREDIBLE (the second one here of my DD looking through the tube was at ISO 720 - and there’s no noise at all), and the sharpness and clarity are quite impressive - this camera is making me love my 85mm even more since it turns it into a more comfortable working length, yet maintains the awesomely shallow DOF

The bokeh is to die for…

So far I am just totally smitten with it..

My oldest is pretty happy that he gets to use my old P&S too..though a little annoyed that I kept taking pictures of him!

I actually have two at the moment, and I love them both, but for different reasons.  My previous post was taken enirely with an 85mm f/1.8, which I recently aquired.  In doing so, I realized that many of the perceived “focus issues” I had been having with my 85mm f/1.4 were actually my fault.  The 1.4 has SUCH a narrow DOF, especially at close range, that it has nearly no margin for error at all.  Finding a balance betwen getting the bokeh I want, and reasonable DOF to produce a sharp image is more of a challenge than with the 50mm f/1.4, which I’ve become so familiar with.  However, I realize just how different the bokeh is on both, and while I sort of love the “bad” bokeh the 1.8 produces (the hard edged bokeh as shown in the prior post), it isn’t ideal for everything, and the 1.4 renders a much creamier, smoother, and subtly richer bokeh.  Everything in this post was taken with the f/1.4.

I am nailing focus more often.. not wide open, but this close, it doesn’t matter - the background is still totally blurred (and the ladder is about 9″ behind her head.. not far at all).  I think I was at f/2.5 here.

I am getting more of the shots I want.. and focusing better with candid and action shots as well..

(a split second later…)

She was actually swinging here.. all by herself!

I am also beginning to “see” things better.. to encorporate elements from the environment around my house to make better and more interesting portraits.  She was laughing at daddy riding his dirtbike here.

But when he does this (and lots of it), how can you not laugh

I also took a spur of the moment single shot of my oldest… I realized later just how short his pants have become.. I guess it’s time for a new pair soon :)  Once we do that I plan on getting him set up in ALL of his gear for a real photo shoot.. should be fun.

I’m loving this little rocking chair a lot - I painted it a few days ago and I’ve been having a LOT of fun with it that past few days.

I also managed to snap one of my oldest… but not with the chair

Seriously, wow. I have not had so much fun in a LONG time. I am so glad I went, it was totally worth it Odin did just peachy without me too (almost 11 hours the first day, 9 hours today!).. I think he really likes my MIL. I missed him bunches, especially when Cheryl had her little girl up on stage since my little guy is almost the same age, but I think I had a harder time of it than he did.

There is so much I am going to do differently now as I step into the business side of this.. things I am sure I never would have thought of before. Goals I wouldn’t have EVER thought to set for myself.. or had the guts to dream of, all of which is a very VERY good thing. I didn’t learn too much new technical stuff, which I sort of expected.. since that’s not what I really went for, I wanted to know more about the business side, and I came away with more inspiration in that area than I was really expecting, and a HUGE confidence boost as well.  I was a bit surprised at the lack of functional Photoshop skills among some workshop attendees.. a few of which were actually in business.  I didn’t expect that at all - since post processing is such a huge part of shooting digital, I guess I take it for granted that not everyone knows Photoshop as well as they probably should.

Anyways, I got to shoot some of the absolute CUTEST kids!  They were ALL wonderful. I didn’t shoot nearly as much of some of them as I wanted (and some not at all), because it was hard to get good positions with SO many others trying to shoot too (there were 40ish photographers total?) but even if I didn’t get some of the images I wanted, it was a lot of fun.

So, some of the fruits of my labor.. these are WAY more saturated than I’d normally do, but it’s part of the urban “look” (and that’s not something I normally do - but WOW am I going to have to get out and do more!!)

I need to track this girl’s mom down.. she was the most patient and adorable model there, and only a couple of weeks older than Odin (hint, if you stalk my blog, COMMENT PLEASE!  I totally want to do a shoot with her, she is *darling*)

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I rented a fisheye lens (Nikkor 10.5mm/2.8) for this weekend (I’m headed to Monahans Sandhill State Park to spend some time with my sister), and I’ve been having fun with it

I really love the “big sky” effect from it - it rocks! (of course it did *not* hurt that the light was freaking AWESOME today - it was overcast behind me, where the sun was, so the light was soft, and lovely, and the rest of the sky was blue and cloudy, and so pretty!) It’s going to be super cool in the desert with sand dunes, I cannot WAIT!

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I hadn’t really shot much the past week, so I figured I’d get out for some inspiration - I live on 9 acres and there’s always *something* to photograph I haven’t done a “shoot” like this since college really, but it was nice, and relaxing.

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It’s hard to come up with ideas for her outside - she’ll sit still for a few minutes if I give her an interesting place to sit. Otherwise she’s running around and doesn’t stay still long enough for me to get any decent captures.  She can be a little whirlwind!

We did alright today though.. I’ve been working on full sun again, and I decided to go waaaaaay back on our property to the only place with nice open shade (well, other than the side of our house, right outside of where my youngest was sleeping, which probably wouldn’t have worked well for long!), which was within the “wind break” that marks the back of our property, and the beginning of the 152 acres behind us.  It’s basically a 20-30′ wide length of trees that goes across the entire property line. I think our neighbors are growing corn this year.. we’ll have to sneak out there for some pictures soon, before it gets too tall (and maybe then, too.. lol).

There’s actually a “sometimes stream” just behind her (she’s sitting in a slight berm that makes up the bank) but it’s dry right now, otherwise I’m sure she would have been a muddy mess before I even got to sit her down!

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The bluebonnets are still not in full bloom, but we’re making do with what we have

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It’s not fair that little boys get blessed with these