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!
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.
Dear Santa . . . December 7, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Christmas, Little Man Dallin, Princess Hannah , 4commentsOh my goodness . . .
Look at Dallin’s body language.
Am I a bad mother for having him sit on Santa’s lap when he very clearly would rather be doing something else? Anything else.
Look at sweet little Hannah.
She could not be happier telling Santa what she wants for Christmas.
Why do I love this picture so much? Maybe because Hannah is looking at Santa so lovingly, telling him about all the things on her wish list, while Dallin is dying to jump right off his leg and run away!
Oh my goodness, I can’t get enough!
During the three minutes Hannah sat on Santa’s lap she explained no less than 10 times how she needs a helmet to “keep her safe” when she rides that new bike with a basket she is sure she’ll get.
So innocent.
So sweet.
I hope Santa comes though!
The Shortlist September 11, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Christmas, Church, Daily Life, Family, New York, Photography, Projects , 3commentsWe have many adventures to share and many pictures to post. (I know some of you are thinking, “How is that possible? MORE Pictures?” Well, it’s true.)
I have been anxiously engaged with school, being a mom, wife, dog lover, chef, and maid. On top of all this, I am working on my website.
In just a few short days (or longer, who knows . . . I’m waiting on my logo) I will launch my photography website and business.
I will be offering my skills to photograph families. I will have prints for purchase.
The fun part of putting my site together is complete (the good stuff like picture galleries) but I’m still working out some details which means: The very, very, boring, nitty gritty needs to be done.
This is the short list:
- The LDS Bookstore in town here expressed interest in selling some of my images as prints in their store. Go ahead and re-read that sentence, digest that, and then if you have to ask me if I’m excited, you should probably get to know me better.
- I’ve been busy looking for the right printing company to print these images as postcards and larger format prints for the right price and resolution. Maybe when you visit this quaint little town, you’ll end up buying one of my prints? PLEASE DO!
- This weekend, we are going to Niagara Falls. Again, ask me if I’m excited!
- Hannah and David have a date tomorrow morning. They are going to the Lowe’s Build and Grow Workshop.
- We love this area. I might even be able to deal with the harsh winters if we lived here. I’m just sayin’.
- Christmas arrived for our family yesterday when we got a huge box of clothes for David and Dallin from David’s brother. Thank you for hand-me-downs that fit.
- This weekend is the Lumber Jack Festival and next weekend is Canal Town Days. We live in the middle of it all. We’ll be attending all the festivities with bells on.
I have no pictures for this post.
Gasp.
I. KNOW.
But, I’m happy to share a couple of unrelated random images with you:
This very public bathroom is in the vacant Masonic Temple upstairs in our building. I’m sure it had walls around it once. I mean, I hope it did. I wake up from nightmares like this . . . needing to use the bathroom and every bathroom I find is very public toilet.
Trust me, it’s a nightmare.
And this:
This alley is adjacent to a small patch of grass where I take Paris to the bathroom. During daylight hours, this alley is friendly. After the sun goes down, it’s a completely different story. I try to avoid this spot and use another patch of grass in the parking lot, but sometimes I forget.
It freaks me out.
I’m not into Sci-Fi, and I certainly hated watching the X-Files, and this alley looks like something straight out of that show.
Go ahead and shiver. I just did.
Have an exciting weekend!
We’ve Been Very Good This Year December 30, 2008
Posted by Emily in : Christmas, Family, My Handsome Husband, Photography, Princess Hannah , 5commentsWe’ve been good this year.
Very good.
David and I didn’t care that we opened up a whole lotta nothin’ on Christmas morning . . . we knew our Christmas gift was coming soon . . .
(BTW, it’s really nice when you and your spouse want the EXACT SAME thing for Christmas. Especially when you can share the gift. It’s like your budget just doubled!)
After much research, discussion, and deliberation, we decided on the Nikon D90
I’ve talked about my obsession with this sexy camera here, here, here , here, here, here, and here. We love that it’s 12.3 megapixels and has a high def video feature. There are many, many, reasons why we chose this SLR, but we came very close to buying the Cannon EOS XSi. Now, I can take another snotty nosed picture of Hannah (she is still producing enough snot for a small village) and have it blown up life size and not loose one detail. Just for fun.
I would now like to thank our sponsors: my parents, David’s parents, and our AMEX Reward Points for this gift. Without you, we would still be dreaming about this camera. It’s a good thing we still believe in Santa.
Things I want for Christmas that are ABSOLUTELY FREE. December 18, 2008
Posted by Emily in : Christmas, Little Man Dallin, Photography, Princess Hannah , 4commentsA solid eight hours of sleep. No nursing. No bathroom breaks. No interruptions.
Someone to sleep train Dallin for me.
Someone to potty train Hannah.
I would love it if someone turned my blog into a book from Blurb. Just thinking about tracking down the photos I have posted gives me a migraine. I would love a book, (I’ll pay for that part) but I do not want the mundane task of putting it together.
If you volunteer to do any one of these things, I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER.
Two Days and Counting December 11, 2008
Posted by Emily in : Christmas, Family, Little Man Dallin, My Handsome Husband, Utah , 3commentsDavid is in for a lovely surprise when he returns from his eight week trip this weekend.
This little guy:
Is full of smiles and giggles. It’s hard to believe so much noise could come out of this angelic little face.
Daily, Hannah very hopefully asks me, “Do I get to see my daddy today?” She is more than ready for his return, (so am I) and we have lots of fun things planned to do together as a family.
We’re going to go Thanksgiving Point’s display of a million lights:
(doesn’t it look fun?)
We need to see Santa
We plan to see the lights on Temple Square:
(all 100 million of them)
And we certainly plan to stop by our very festive neighbor’s house. You may have heard about the Holdman Christmas Light Show.
Can’t wait!
