Just Christmas

Oh man, I am weeks behind on posting this blog and there isn't much to say. We had a fun Christmas with lots of family and I took 0 images like always because the lighting was too dark and I am always too busy entertaining and cooking.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve. Glannie hadn't decorated their tree yet so the boys helped them decorate it that evening.

 

Did I mention Erik is a rock star in training?

Then our new Christmas tradition of decorating cookie's at Glannie's house. No other adults help, boo on them, but the boys had fun with it.

We got moving with a little time playing Kinnect. The boys both did pretty well at it.

Waiting for Santa.

Santa is here!!

My new tradition of homemade cinnamon rolls which the boys loved and devoured. I want them to remember and think of these every Christmas honestly.

Erik's favorite costume of the morning. The second image was his official Batman pose.

 

Editing images with intent

These last six months my photo taking has gotten slower and my editing has gotten faster. It almost seems like I just rush to get my photos done so I can blog and then show everyone what we have been up to these days. The format was getting very stale for me and although I love sharing my images with my family and I know so many of you are reading and getting updates about our life through my blog it was just missing something.

I realized I wanted to refine my skills in Lightroom, or at least that is what I thought my issues was. I am bored, so its time to learn a new trick and try to figure out something new. Then I came across a book that hit the mark perfectly for me. The book is about Lightroom, theoretically, but really the point is all about editing your images with intent. Seriously, think about that...

How often are you going through a session spitting out image after image, trying to create a look because it is the new trend, or you saw someone else creating it and thought it was beautiful so you want to do it yourself. There is purpose behind imitation, but finding your own voice is equally as important. As this book taught me, it works for some images but not all.

Then I thought of my editing process for my family photos. Basically I get a look going for one situation and then copy and paste it for all the rest of the photos, highlighting the eyes doing some other tweaks here and there, but I am never really trying to think of what my image is trying to convey or what originally inspired me when I shot that image. Am I really shooting with intent these days or just taking pictures?

Since I shoot constantly I will admit not everything is going to lend itself to some form of art and major editing. Let's take this shoot from yesterday. I was outside playing with the boys. The minute I took my camera out Erik started acting silly and I got some fun pictures of him at his insistance. These almost lend them self to same edits because they are fun, but I just capturing the energy. I have no idea how to edit with intent for these images.

Then something magical happened, Erik stopped for a minute, and I got this real expression of him contemplating, and I had a very clear intent when I took it. So I really tried to look at this picture and figure out what it is that I loved about it and why I took it. It was his expression and the far away look he has, so I edited to highlight his face and create a mood in the rest of the picture that would not detract from his face. Burning in the background and softening his face, and highlight his eyes which establish the whole mood.

I am definitely a work in progress when it comes to this whole intent thing, and some images are easier to figure out than others. I think it going to take a lot of practice to come up with my voice and what I want to do with it.

Here is my favorite image from that day. Right now Elliot is in a crying phase. If his brother looks at him wrong he starts crying hysterically, if he gets the wrong car he is mad, you name it anything can set him off. So I really wanted to step back a minute and capture this moment with my two year old.

This was an easy image to edit. I knew exactly what my intent was, to capture the pure exaggerated emotion on his face. So I wanted everything else to pale in comparison to his face. So I dodged his face, added a bunch of clarity and deepened the shadows. I wanted to make sure you could see the snot dripping from his nose and that everything else in the background was blurred out and not distracting.

I have a couple more that I played with and tried to bring out the faces of Erik and Elliot, but really I am not sure what my intent was by taking the pictures. For Erik I like his expression, for Elliot it was just so rare that he stared into the camera. This is where I need practice while I am shooting and editing, why did I really take this picture and now what...

Then here are the rest of the images I didn't mess with much because honestly I am not sure what to do besides some simple exposure and face edits.

After having all these images with no intent it is really making me rethink my role as an artist and start really thinking through my images as I take them. There is always room for fun in there, and gorgeous pictures of my kids. For every session there is a gem or 5 star image and I really want to start editing with a purpose. 

Visiting Santa Claus

It's a tradition that we go to the Americana every year and visit with Santa Claus. We have not visited him anywhere else and I like it there because the Santa is good and its the same one every year, but also I can purchase all the images on a flash drive to take home. I never pay for photography, so for once in a year occasions, like this, I will pay the money to get the images for forever. Its worth that $30 I have to pay.

I wasn't sure how Santa was going to go this year. Erik I knew was going to do fantastic and he was very excited to visit Santa. We read "Santa Bear" all the time in the Berenstein Bears collection so he was excited to make a very short list for Santa and not be overly greedy. His only request was Star Wars "stuff" which means he has no idea what is out there but wants to learn about Star Wars toys. Santa asked for clarification, but Erik didn't know.

Elliot was a wild card this year. I knew he was afraid of Santa in school this year, but then gave him a hug at the end of class. It was interesting with him. We tried to do the picture first with the boys and Elliot wouldn't do it even on the trike backed up to Santa, he was too smart for that trick this year. Then we took the family picture and the boys got to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

  

   

Elliot started to warm up at this point and tell Santa what he wanted. Santa's camera people kept snapping pictures because we weren't sure if Elliot would get on his lap at this point.

  

Then Elliot told him what he wanted, "wolfman" which we don't even understand ourselves. Santa's face was funny when he heard Elliot's request. I think it might be the very first time a little boy asked for wolfman for Christmas. I'll tell you the story behind wolfman.

We read this book, "The Biggest, Baddest Wolf" which is just a story about being nice to people because you never know when you will need their help in the future. Well from that book Elliot started pretending to be a wolf and during Halloween he learned about "wolfman" and this game is one of his favorites. So that is why he is asking for wolfman for Christmas... Makes sense in a two year old's brain.

Well after telling Santa what he wanted and giving him hugs he was comfortable enough to sit on his lap so we got our official Santa picture this year with no tears. This is one of the reasons why I love the Americana Santa. He was very patient with my two year old and knew exactly when he was warmed up enough to take a picture. A very smooth operation.

  

    

   

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.