In 2009 I’m Surprised I Didn’t Lose My Mind! December 31, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Asia, Daily Life, Family, Friends, Kansas, Little Man Dallin, Medical School, My Former Dog Children, My Handsome Husband, New York, Photography, Princess Hannah, Saba, Thoughts, Trips, Utah , 5comments2009 sure was a crazy one.
I’d like to say, “It sure was a lot of fun!”
David is a fourth year medical student,
Which means, with his time, he is quite prudent!
I’m a photography student and stay-at-home mom.
I’ve tried to manage everything and stay calm!
In Utah, we started the year.
We lived by family, it was nice to be near.
In February, we made our first move of the year . . . Kansas City!
It was beautiful and really, really pretty!
Living in Kansas, we felt so blessed.
I still can’t believe we moved to the Midwest!
We enjoyed living in Kansas, it’s full of nice folks.
To our surprise, we learned we’d be moving to New York.
Shocked, we thought, “Is this a joke?”
We loaded our car with our kids, Paris, and other good things that we needed.
Pulled a little U-haul and off to New York we proceeded.
The kids traveled well. Paris was fine.
There were only a few times I thought I would lose my mind!
We visited some Saba friends on the way in Ohio.
We ate so much food and had so much fun, Oh my! Oh!
We loved living in Rochester. We loved it so much!
Seven short weeks was not long enough!
On our move back to Kansas, we heard some bad news.
We had to move again. We didn’t get to choose!
School regulations made it impossible to stay,
So we packed up the house much to our dismay.
We found ourselves in Utah once again this time,
David went to North Carolina, oh my! Does this even rhyme?
We are all together as a family as we speak,
Which is great for us because we love to kiss our kids’ cheeks!
Who knows what the future holds for us now.
I just know there are more moves for us, HOLY COW!
All things considered we are doing quite well.
In fact, I think my heart might swell.
Aside from the moves that have made us nomads and gypsy’s,
Other exciting things have happened that made us quite tipsy!
First, Dallin calmed down A LOT.
No more a screaming baby, who’d have thought?
Hannah sings, dances, and entertains.
She’s already worn out her first pair of ballet shoes and has a lot of brains.
David is busy, school is crazy.
Bummer for him, there’s no time to be lazy.
I started school at the Academy of Art.
Mastering photography, I’ve learned a few things to impart.
Paris has done a mighty fine job as our only family pet,
We’re not looking for another dog, at least not yet.
2009 was full of surprises,
Four cross country moves, I said a lot of “goodbyes.”
I say, “Bring on the New Year!”
Heck, I’ll even say it with good cheer!
In 2010 I just ask for one thing,
Please don’t tell me we’re moving to Beijing!
The Magic Lotion For “Special Bumps” December 30, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Beauty, Health, Medical School, My Handsome Husband, Princess Hannah , 2commentsDo you remember when I talked about the “special bumps” that Hannah I have on our arms? The incurable Keratosis Pilaris stuff?
Well, turns out that there is something that CAN help.
Did you read that? Something CAN HELP!
It’s an over-the-counter lotion found BEHIND the counter at the pharmacy. It’s called AmLactin.
David discovered this miracle lotion while rotating at a dermatologist’s office this month.
Hannah and I started using it about two weeks ago and let me tell you . . . IT WORKS.
No more “special bumps” for us!
Caramelized Cheetos December 29, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Christmas, Holidays, Memory Lane, Thoughts , 2commentsHave you ever tried caramelized Cheetos?
They are DELISH! I was introduced to them about five years ago, and FELL IN LOVE with them the second they hit my tongue.
I had not thought about them since the day I ate them a few years ago, and suddenly, I remembered them and I had to make them!
So, there I found myself, entering the automatic doors of my local Walmart, on Christmas Eve.
It was worth it. Squeezing through Crazy shoppers and all to get what I needed to make this recipe.
Never tried them? Never made them? Get the recipe here. Trust me, YOU’LL LOVE THEM!
Santa Did Not Disappoint December 28, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Christmas, My Handsome Husband, Photography, Princess Hannah , 3commentsNew Dora bike? Check.
New Dora helmet? Check.
Backpack and Map on bike? Check.
Princess dress-up clothes? Check.
New Tinkerbell pajamas? Check.
A new wand (which she refers to as a “spelling wand”)? Check.
A very excited little girl on Christmas morning? CHECK!
I love my camera. Have I mentioned that before? :) The main reason we chose to buy the Nikon D90 over other models was the video feature. My Canon point and shoot had a video feature and I did not want to give that up when we upgraded to the D90.
I used to take a lot of videos. A lot.
I really should take more videos than I do now. I hardly use the video feature on my camera because I’m so busy trying to “get the shot.”
However, this Christmas season I knew I would regret it if we didn’t catch some great moments on tape, so I made sure to hit “record” from time to time instead of just the shutter.
Here’s the thing, my camera records in high definition which sounds great, right? That’s what I thought too when I bought it. But . . . I’m not a video expert (not yet anyway) and I’ve yet to find a situation when high definition is better than just a regular old recording.
What I’m saying is, a minute video clip is like a 400 MB file which is entirely too large for its own good. The problem? David and I are not experts with video software, so sizing the videos down came with a lot of effort on our part (and when I say “our part” I’m referring 100% to David) downloading programs, watching tutorials, and attempting to edit in Adobe Premier.
Whatever. Adobe Premier uses a language I don’t speak yet.
What I’m saying is . . .
David worked really hard editing these videos getting them the right size so I could give you a little glimpse of Christmas morning at our house.
You may remember what Hannah asked Santa for this year and the big guy delivered . . .
Just for fun, here are a couple of videos from our family Christmas party last week.
I should probably point out that Hannah LOVES ballet. Do you remember the ballet class she observed last year? Well, she still has never taken a lesson, but has already WORN OUT her first pair of ballet shoes. This dance was choreographed by Hannah (she may have stolen some moves from her 11 year old cousin who danced right before her).
And . . .
Hannah LOVES to sing. LOVES TO.
She has one volume.
She knows lots of songs.
If you ask her how many she knows, she’ll say, “TOO MANY!” Which, is true.
What you don’t see in this video are the 30 people she singing to . . .
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!
I’ve Been Waiting For a Christmas Eve Like This December 24, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Christmas, Parenthood, Princess Hannah, Utah , 1 comment so farI’ve waited 13 years for a Christmas like this one.
It’s white.
We’re with family.
Hannah is three. (As in, old enough to really “get” the Santa thing.)
She knows ALL about Santa, and the excitement popping out of her little body just might make the house explode.
Merry Christmas Eve!
Deep Thoughts December 23, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Thoughts , 1 comment so farI believe that everyone struggles with something.
Everyone. (Especially those picture perfect families.)
At any given point in life you are going to struggle with:
- Children
- Marriage
- Finances
- Health
- Other relationships
Yep. That pretty much sums it up.
Anyone who doesn’t relate to this list or has no idea what I’m talking about is either not a real person, or TOTALLY IN DENIAL.
You might have a small break in-between challenges, but the second you think, “Life is great!” you’re going to get hit HARD.
Trust me, I know from experience.
We should all be nicer than necessary because everyone is fighting a battle of some sort.
The most important thing in life’s journey is to enjoy the lul’s and learn and grow from the challenges.
I’m now going to go take some quiet time and ponder the meaning of life. :)
A Beautiful Night, A Rant, and a Small Tutorial on Night Photography December 22, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Christmas, Church, My Handsome Husband, Princess Hannah, Utah , 5commentsThis weekend, we pulled out our warmest coats, hats, and gloves and headed to Salt Lake to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square.
We haven’t been in years, (and really, I mean like 10 years . . .) but it was just as beautiful and cold as I remember.
Riding on TRAX was the highlight of Hannah’s night. It ranked right up there with attending the Nutcracker ballet. Who needs to ride on the “Polar Express” in Heber when you can take your kid on TRAX for free? She kept telling us we were headed to the North Pole to see the “Mo-Tab” (which, is short for “Mormon Tabernacle Choir” to us Mormons) and David and I were like, “THE MO-TAB?” How old is she? Who taught her that? Where do kids pick up on lingo like that?
When she wasn’t talking about the “Mo-Tab” she was asking when her hot chocolate was going to come.
Obviously, she thought we were on the Polar Express . . .
See this get-up here? Not one peep out of her saying she was cold. Not one. (Not pictured is her big winter parka. The kid was WARM thank goodness.)
I think 10,000 other people had the same idea we did on Sunday night, so I had to fight a few crowds to take some pictures.
These floating votives were so beautiful in the water with steam surrounding them.
I experienced something new last night. Usually when I’m out photographing, I’m by myself, photographing something that is interesting to me. When I’m doing night shots, I’m by myself 99% of the time. Last night, 1,000 of the 10,000 people at Temple Square had the same game plan I did to get some shots of “Christmas at Temple Square.”
However, only a handful of “serious photographers” (SLR peeps) had a tripod on them.
I’m now going to interject and tell why it is totally pointless to photograph in a low-light situation without a tripod: Because your images will be blurry.
End of story.
I’m going to be completely honest here, if you have a GREAT shot that is even slightly out of focus or has even a hint of camera shake . . . it’s crap.
Is that rude? Gosh, that’s just how I feel. And let me tell you, I’ve deleted hundreds of good shots that were slightly out of focus. It’s a bummer, but who wants a great composition that isn’t tack sharp? UGH. Not me.
So, back to my “new experience” story . . . every time I would set up my tripod and spend a few minutes moving it around to just the right spot, other photographers would surround me on both sides trying to get the same shot I was.
Now, I want you to know that I wasn’t flattered. I thought it was hilarious. I mean, they’ve never seen my work, so how do they know if I know what I’m doing? Just because you have an SLR and a tripod doesn’t mean you take great pictures. (We all know cameras don’t read minds. It’s our job is to speak “camera” and that is why the 12 inches behind the camera is the most important part.)
I think Ashton Kutcher could use this experiment on “Punk’d.” What do you think? Have someone go to an amusement park, pull out all of their gear and have them start taking pictures of the most ridiculous stuff! Seriously! I guarantee people would flock to the same area to take some pictures!
The moral of this story is: Follow your own style. Be true to your vision. How someone else see’s the world is their perspective, not yours. Variety is what makes art so amazing. The same place can be photographed a million times and look different in each image because each person has put a personal stamp on how they view the world. Don’t assume other photographers know what they’re doing just because they have equipment.
Now, to help you with your vision, I’m going to mention a few tips about night photography:
- Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, use a flash when shooting places or architecture at night. The only time you should pull out a flash for night shots is when you’re photographing people. And even then, please don’t use the pop up flash on your camera. It completely washes out your subject and makes it nearly impossible to see the scenery behind them. Get an external flash. Preferably a diffused flash.
- You must ALWAYS shoot on a tripod. ALWAYS. If I forget to bring mine, I don’t shoot. It’s pointless.
- Set your ISO to 200 or less. I know this is counter intuitive when you logically think about ISO and how it works (the lower the light the higher the ISO needs to be to generally, but trust me, if you want a clean sharp image, set the ISO to 200.) but you don’t want all that digital noise in your night image. It looks messy and the “reduce noise” filter in Photoshop is not a miracle adjustment.
- Your light meter will not give you accurate reading in the dark of the night, so you must do some test shots, and adjust your aperature and shutter speed until you like what you see. In general, on a very dark night, your F-stop could be set at F22 and the shutter anywhere from 15-30 seconds. On a brighter night (like a full moon with lots of lights around) if you keep your F-stop at F22, you might only need the shutter to stay open for 2-4 seconds.
- If your lens has vibration reduction on it, turn it off when your camera is on a tripod. The VR actually looks for camera shake and if it can’t find it, it may produce it making your image blurry.
- If it’s a windy night, FORGET IT. Even with the VR on, a 30 second exposure in windy conditions is going to make a blurry image, and you all know how I feel about blurry images.
- Take a flashlight so you can see your manual control and display screen in the dark.
Where am I going with this post? My intention was to tell you about how beautiful temple square is and how we’ve missed going to see the lights year after year.
However, It sounds like I may have ranted and provided a small tutorial for night photography.
That’s about that.
There is Much to Write About December 21, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Christmas, Family, Photography, Princess Hannah , 1 comment so farThere is much to write about. I’m just not sure if/when I’ll get it all posted. Christmas is almost here and we’ve been busy.
This weekend, I took Hannah to the Nutcracker Ballet. (She thought she had died and gone to ballet heaven.)
We enjoyed another family Christmas party and I didn’t take any pictures of the party . . .
Instead, I found myself on the back patio photographing the crescent moon.
Does this make me a bad relative because I didn’t take any pictures of my family but wasted no time trying to get some night shots?
We also visited temple square.
It was beautiful. More pictures to come.
Things I Know For Sure December 18, 2009
Posted by Emily in : My Handsome Husband, New York, Photography, Thoughts, Utah , 4commentsThree things I know for sure:
1. David will be home this weekend.
2. We will be in Utah until the end of February 2010. (Possibly/hopefully longer, but since we are not the kind of people who know where we are going to be in a week, much less a month, this feels like we have our WHOLE future planned.)
3. I have never felt so accomplished in my short photography career as I did last night.
One of my professors at AAU compared my shooting style with the likes of Michael Kenna.
Ahem.
MICHAEL KENNA. AS IN MY FAVORITE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHER.
I guess that makes me a “Kennabee” (a term coined for photographers who try to emulate Michael Kenna’s work) and I’m totally fine with that.
I know my work is a long shot from his amazing work, and I’m sure he wouldn’t be super flattered to be compared to me, but it still made my night.
I’m still trying to pick my jaw up off the floor after that comparison.
These three images spurred the Michael Kenna comment:
(Timpanogos Temple in American Fork)
(Marina in Palmyra, New York)
(Canadian skyline at Niagara Falls, New York)
This last image of the Dubai skyline is one of Michael Kenna’s.
Check out his site. His work is fantastic.
One more thing I know for sure . . .
I have some seriously cute footage of Hannah singing and dancing at our family Christmas party from earlier this week and as soon as I remember how to load video clips, I’ll post it.
Oh. My. Heck. It is SO DARLING. And I’m not just saying that because I’m her mom. (Well, maybe I am . . .)
How Am I Supposed to Concentrate Now? December 17, 2009
Posted by Emily in : My Handsome Husband, New York, School , 1 comment so farI’m sitting here, minding my own business, writing essay after essay, and critiquing photography portfolios for my final exams when David sends me this picture he took from his hotel room balcony:
He is currently in New York.
Rochester to be exact.
This is the very area we lived in this summer.
I miss it SO MUCH.
I even think the snow is beautiful.
Look how quaint it is. So quiet. So serene.
I could live with freezing cold New York winters.
I could. (I’m sure I could, right?)
He should NOT have sent me this picture.
How am I supposed to study for finals when I’m distracted thinking about beautiful New York and the fun times we had this summer when we lived there?
