I used to keep my pinkie fingernail long and sharp just in case I needed to scratch him. But I don’t need that nail anymore. Instead of plotting my next attack, I call him when I need advice on a business plan or just to talk to someone I know loves me and will probably make me laugh.
It gives me comfort when I see my kids pushing, pulling and scratching to think that in time (20 years?) they may be friends like we are.
We were at her big sister’s dance class and went outside to enjoy the beautiful day. She’s been on swings before but the swings at the Irish Centre, where her sister takes her lessons, are much taller than any she’d been on before.
I didn’t initally bring my camera with me. It was in the car. I had to take her out of the swing to get the camera. At first I didn’t think it was worth it.
f22: 1/3 sec: ISO 100
I just finished reading Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. I got it out of the library thinking, “I already understand exposure but I’ll see if this is a good book to recommend to friends.” There was plenty in the book that was familiar but I’m always interested in how other people describe things like aperture. Mixed in with the stuff I already knew were many things I didn’t. One of the chapters was about long exposures. The photo above is a result of learning about long exposures.
Last year I was at this same waterfall. This is the photo I took:
f13: 1/10 sec: ISO 100
This one was hand held at one tenth of a second. In the first one, I put the camera down on a rock and used the self timer to trigger the shutter. What I wanted to do this year was make the exposure as long as possible. I set the ISO as low as possible and the aperture as small as possible and was left with the one third of a second shutter speed.
Then, I forgot I had the timer on. This is what happened:
It turned out to be my favorite.
You may have heard it said that after you have three, adding more is not a big deal – just throw them into the already occurring melee. I’ve had four kids for seven weeks now and so far, that has not been my experience. There are four kids to keep safe and fed and intermittently happy. That’s a job. But the baby – she’s the easy part.
To show my childrens’ motion I used a long exposure. The shutter was open for two seconds. In a typical photo, the shutter is opened for not more than 1/60 of a second (usually more like 1/250 or 1/500) – much faster. I tried a few different shutter speeds to figure out what would produce enough blur to show motion but not so much that you couldn’t see the kids.
I recently bought a 20mm lens and it is a very different lens for me. I usually use a 50mm and 100mm. Instead of bringing the subject in close, the 20mm gives a wide view. For this photo, I was happy to have that lens. It is good lens for seeing a whole messy scene.
Exif for the curious: Canon 7D, 20mm 2.8, ISO 125, aperture 7.1, 2 seconds
Canon 7D: 50mm 1.4: ISO 400: 1/640 sec: f/2.8A sweater, cords and muddy bare feet. It’s not spring but it’s not winter either.
When we first arrived at my sister in law’s house, they were waving at us from this fence.
I took this picture as my nephew was waving goodbye to his dad from the same fence.
Later that day, we said goodbye to their family and headed to the airport.
I was heading out to the park with Augusta. My neighbor was carrying his grandson back from the park. I asked if I could take their picture. I gave a print of this to his wife yesterday. She was thrilled with it. It’s already up on their wall.
