Friday, December 16, 2011

4 Year Old Christmas Concert

Today was the last day of school for Winter Break and Erik's annual Christmas concert at his preschool. This little show is very short, maybe 10 minutes, but its adorable and the four year olds did a fantastic job of listening and singing the songs. Erik has been singing the songs all month so I knew exactly what he was going to sing and was just to happy to see him enjoy himself.

There was also a special treat. One of the mom's from Erik's class is the band director at our local high school. Earlier in the day they put on a concert for the kids, but they also played a song or two with the children and played as they all walked in.

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So I wonder, are all mom's like this, but as the little four year olds are walking out with their friends and teachers my eyes start to tear up. It just makes me so emotional to see my little guy doing these things and being such a grown boy who can sing in a concert. Just a second ago he was my very first baby and we were navigating parenthood together. When did he get to be so old?

I didn't realize this until I saw the pictures, they purposely sat the kids boy/girl and at first, when I looked at these pictures, I realized Erik and one of his favorite friend were sitting together. Then I realized to my amusement, they separated friends, probably for a good reason. I think our teachers might have experience with this whole Christmas concert thing.

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My poor boy is suffering from allergies on top of refusing to nap all week so he was a bit of a wreck today. You can see how tired he is in this picture, I am not sure if he even realizes it was me taking the picture.

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For some reason he always spots daddy first and gets this huge smile. It is most definitely because he is so tall. I love when I see this "I see where daddy is" smile.

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I mostly took pictures of the set up process and listened to the concert. I really wanted to make sure I paid attention this year instead of being so focused on pictures. I do have to admit that I really can't help myself.

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Here are the kids singing their song, just one quick snap for that one.

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Here are some of the other classes that were there besides my kid.

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I love this face, not sure who he is making it at, but pretty adorable.

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Thumbs up at daddy, his second time, since Carl was mad I missed this picture the first time.

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Getting hustled off the stage and Erik is standing with one of his favorite friends from preschool.

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Also Erik gets so distracted by looking at everything, he is the last one to get herded out of the room and dragged by his teacher. Very typical for my little guy, pretty sure that is what happened last year.

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This is how Elliot watched the show and he did very well and was excited and quiet through the whole thing. I was proud of him!! And he got to hang out with this little guy sitting next to him.

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Geeky camera stuff:
I knew from experience I couldn't bounce my flash in this room and that the light pretty bad. This year they did turn on the lights onstage making it a bit easier to shoot. I brought along my prime 85mm lens knowing it would be a good long length so I could stand in the back and be out of anyone's way, yet still get the shots I wanted. Due to the low light I shot at 800 ISO, wide open at f1.8 so I could get a faster shutter of 1/125 and avoid as much motion blur as possible. Since I was so far away it made it not so shallow with the kids around him, but as I got closer it narrowed the depth of field. Then I did some panoramic shots with my 24-70 mm lens because I knew I wanted to get a picture of all the classes this year. Its a harder lens to use though because I have to shoot at f2.8 getting a slower shutterspeed and lots of motion blur. 

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About Heather

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I am a Los Angles based photographer and mom of 2 wonderful boys. Photography has been a passion of mine over 15 years now, ever since I picked up my first camera in journalism school and started developing my black and whites in a darkroom. The instant an affordable DSLR came out on the market in 2002, I had to have one and have been shooting digital since. Once I became a mom I realized how much I enjoy photographing children and how much better I could understand their nuances so it became a passion of mine. Their is such innocence and beauty in their pictures and I feel privileged to be a part of that. I am constantly trying new approaches and tuning my skills to create the art that is in my head, not just the art that I can create right now. I am very interested in off camera flash, and the depth and clarity it adds to my photographs. Sometimes I take breaks from my blog and photography, but it seems to never leave me completely. I always come back.