Kids in Motion

I needed some way to capture the energy and movement of my little people so I took the challenge at photography class to pan the camera and move with their motion to create a real image of their energy. See what you think . .

Megan and Tyler race to the finish!

Tyler is going for the gold!

Race to the finish!

Trent jumping on the trampoline. In this shot I tried to freeze his motion and caught him while in midair.

Evel Knievel

Tyler has become Mr Evel Knievel bike man! He can't stop riding and riding and riding.

Fu Manchu

In searching for a new image and look Greg is trying some options. Please take your vote . . .

How about the Lonesome Truck Driver?Or the Angry Park Ranger?
Or the Criminal on the Loose?

Beware and vote (in the comments) section if you dare!

A new generation . . .

Monday our family enjoyed an unseasonably, warm winter day at Moonlight Beach. The girls caught the waves on their boogie boards and Tyler constructed sand castles while Trent chased the birds. The shoreline was amazingly picturesque bathed in glowing sun relfecting off the rolling waves. ( I should have brought my camera! Darn it. . . maybe I'm not truly ready to find my inner photographer) As I sat gazing and thinking of my poor brother freezing in Iowa and confined to his home, I thought, "perhaps the California sunshine tax is worth it after all!" You'll have to decide . . .

Now to the real part of my post, (apologies for the bragging) after all the fun in the sun Trent was unwinding and watching "Barney, Let's Go to the Zoo." Personally, I can't sit through Barney or Elmo or Wiggles, but Trent loves them so I busied myself until the end when I knew I would be needed again. As the ending credits began to run, I sat down beside him for a snuggle. The very last credit noted their thanks to the Fort Worth Zoo when Trent piped in, "dot com!" At his ripe young age of two he is already noting the phrase, "dot com." I forget how observant these little people are and how telling that little phrase "dot com" is of our computer-dominated-information-search-engine-driven age. Hmmmmm. . . makes you think doesn't it?

Piggy Puff

Aunt Barbara taught us her secret updo . . . the piggy puff! It's a festive hairdo for Sundays and special occasions. Here is my attempt on Kaylee.

Oh no . . .

Trent saunters into me carrying one of Megan's pink winter snowboots with fluffly white lining(a hand-me-down from our neighbor). He wants help putting on the boot so I help him and he clambers away lopsided and searches out the second boot, brings it to me, so I put it on too.

Greg walks in and comments, " those are pink! You aren't going to let him wear THOSE are you?"

"Sure," I reply, "it doesn't matter to him."

Trent tromps happily away in these adorable boots when I hear him stop suddenly, and reply, "OH NO! They ARE pink!"

Favorite shot of the day

So I started a photography class which was far more inspiring than I had anticipated. I was worried I wouldn't be able to follow anything, but the professor is a wonderful and easy-to-understand-hands-on teacher. Finally, I understand aperture and shutter speed and their relationship to each other as well as the light of a picture, the blur and the depth of field. Our family ventured out to Poway Lake to play in the beautiful sun and I took along my camera to do my homework and discover how these factors interact. I took a lot of pictures at all different shutter speeds to see how it effected the exposure. Honestly, going manual was tons of fun! My teacher claims that "auto is average " and there is no reason to take average pictures, especially with the information available on digital cameras. This picture was taken at a large aperture (5.6) to capture the movement of Megan's hair and a fast shutter speed (1/3200) to capture the depth of the deep blue of the sky. This same picture in auto would not have caught her movement of created the warmth of colors. I am loving this opportunity to fail and take lots of lousy dark pictures or totally overexposed pictures and then figure out why!