The Conversation Piece March 22, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Exercise, My Handsome Husband , 1 comment so farWhen David arrived home this weekend the kids and I practically tackled him to the ground. Let’s just say, it feels like he’s been gone a lot longer than five days. We only have NINE more weeks of him being gone all week and only seeing him on the weekends. Can you believe it? :)
Guess what he came home sporting?
Yep.
They are quite the conversation starter if you know what I mean.
David is in love with them, and within 24 hours of being home, he convinced his dad to buy a pair of his own. I’ll be getting a pair just as soon as they’re available in my size at the ONLY store that sells them within 60 miles of my house.
They are in pretty high demand, and they’re not available at many places.
It’s not recommended that you buy them online, because you really have to try them on to get the right fit. (You know me, I prefer to buy everything online from the comfort of my basement, so I was a little bummed that I actually have to GET MY BODY out the door and DRIVE to a store to buy them.)
Before you know it, David will convince you too. Read this book
We also had a great time meeting up with friends this weekend and I had some fun shoots.
I think we’re going to miss Utah when we leave here in a few months. ;)
Painting With Light March 15, 2010
Posted by Emily in : My Handsome Husband, Photography, School , 3commentsI was asked to “paint a portrait with light.”
Huh?
That’s exactly what I thought!
I was told I could only use a flashlight, tripod, and my camera to “paint light” on a portrait.
OK. Are you throughly confused yet? Because I was for a few days. I mulled this over in my mind for days and the only thing I knew for sure was this: I had NO IDEA HOW TO DO IT, and I had no concept.
That is a double bummer if you know what I mean.
I consulted my BFF, Google, and came across this incredible video that walks you through step-by-step how to “paint with light.”
After I watched it I was all, “YEAH. (AHEM) RIGHT.” I will be the first to admit, this dude is pretty amazing and what he does is completely out of my skill level at this point.
Please watch this. You will be amazed. (This video will not work in Google Chrome, so use Internet Explorer or Firefox to watch this.)
Amazing, right?
So . . .
I was feeling pretty lame about my skills after watching this. I mean, SERIOUSLY? WHAT THE HECK WAS I GOING TO PHOTOGRAPH WITH A FLASHLIGHT?!
And just as an F.Y.I., photographing someone reading a book in the dark with a flashlight would not have cut it. But trust me, it crossed my mind several times . . .
For the record, I had no concept for this shot. I’m normal. I get creative blocks. Especially when I have a technical assignment that doesn’t make sense.
All I knew was this:
- The house had to be PITCH BLACK. (I shot this about 11:00 PM on Friday night)
- I needed my camera
- I needed my tripod
- I needed a flashlight
- I needed someone to photograph
There wasn’t a lot to this equation.
It just so happened that David was home (Yay! After FIVE LONG DAYS away every week, I get to see him on weekends!) but dog tired. So I was all, “Hey! Lucky you! You get to be the subject in my experimental photograph! You have such perks as my spouse! Go lie down on the couch, close your eyes, and I’ll take your picture!”
After many lame attempts at “painting him with light,” I randomly came up with this idea:
The word “LOVE” is written with the flashlight while outlining his profile.
To do this, I turned my shutter speed to BULB (which means the shutter will stay open as long as you want it to) and held the shutter release remote in my left hand while I wrote the letters in my other hand. I had my f-stop at f22 (so really small), my ISO at 200 (so there wouldn’t be any noise), and I took the flashlight and wrote each letter individually and turned off the flashlight between each letter. This made for a clean, crisp look between each letter. The shutter was open for 18 seconds.
David got into the fun, and took a turn photographing me! As you can see, he had fun making fast circles. :)
This is another shot of David, with only a flashlight used to illuminate parts of his face. The key to “painting with light,” is to constantly move your light source, have your model hold their breath (so avoid blur) and have the room pitch black.
I was surprised at how fun this was and I plan to do more. Maybe, I’ll try a complex shot like in the video above. :) OK, probably not, but you get the idea.
Try it! It’s fun!
How to Get Rid of Unwanted Food March 10, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Little Man Dallin, My Handsome Husband, Photography, Princess Hannah, Utah , 1 comment so farDavid started a new rotation in Northern Utah last week. The commute is a bit brutal, so he spends the week up in Ogden with his sister’s family and comes home to see us on the weekends. We’re happy David is able to do rotations in Utah, but it’s hard to only see him on the weekends.
So . . .
I started shooting more snapshots of our everyday life so he doesn’t miss out too much on our adorable, sassy, children. :)
This is a lovely moment:
They are actually sharing the same snack, in the same space (on a step stool of all things)!
It is very sweet.
And now, Hannah has decided to teach Dallin the very fine art of feeding Paris food scraps on the sly . . .
Dallin is obviously taking good notes here. Learning the art of how to feed your dog scraps is serious business.
When I “caught” them, I got these looks:
“WHAT?! Don’t look at me! I’m TOTALLY innocent!”
“What? Me? ARE YOU TALKING TO ME? I think I’ll just smile really cute and PLEAD THE FIFTH!”
It’s hard to re-enforce the rules with cute little faces like these!
My New Studio February 24, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Family, Little Man Dallin, My Handsome Husband, Photography, Princess Hannah , 7commentsI know.
You can smell Dallin’s adorable face through your monitor. :)
I shot this image of him in my new studio, in the garage.
Well, first let me back up. I’m a student at AAU and I’m taking a class this semester called “Quality of Light.”
Sounds easy, right?
Turns out, it’s been a very complex studio class for me so far.
Basically, I knew nothing about light a few weeks ago. Well, nothing about how to shoot in artificial light.
I had to order a bunch of studio equipment for my class, and now, I have a studio.
I still don’t know how to use everything, and when to use everything, but I’m learning.
And THANK GOODNESS David doubles as a computer/technical equipment geek because who would I direct all my geeky questions to if it weren’t for him? Plus, he can set up my studio and take it down in record time. Maybe I should hire him to work for me for free as my go-to guy? Oh, wait . . . he already does that.
This is my temporary studio for now . . .
It’s in the garage. :)
I ordered everything from B&H and let me tell you, that is a very dangerous place for me to shop. I could easily drop a lot of money there.
This is my assistant Hannah. She is turning out to be quite the photographer herself. She has her own director’s chair, and when my twin, Brian, lent her an ear, she told him all about the white umbrellas and the diffused light I was trying to produce to shoot his product. (OK, so she may not have said that.)
I have black and white back drops. My back drop is huge. Let’s just say I was more than “shocked” when UPS dropped off my back drop paper.
I did several product shots for my brother Brian, (who’s launching something very exciting) and I hope to share a few images with you soon!
Since it was so much work for me to watch my husband set this up, I thought I would take a few pics of the kids before letting him take it down.
Hannah is wearing all of her most prized possessions: ballet shots, crazy tights, leotard, a skirt that twirls, and her favorite umbrella from my friend Cheryl who brought it all the way from Singapore for her when she visited last month.
Tigger is Dallin’s most prized possession.
And together, they can’t hold still for less than 1/60 of a second. :) On a side note: kids should never be photographed at less than 1/60 of second. They are just too busy and inevetebly, you will get motion blur (the unintentional kind that looks sloppy and not artistic). To photograph this, I set my shutter speed to 1/60 of a second and took a light reading from my Sekonic light meter
With that said, Dallin has had it. No more photos, and no more talk about f-stops and apertures!
Weekend With Some Besties February 3, 2010
Posted by Emily in : Friends, Medical School, My Handsome Husband, Thoughts, Trips, Utah , 4commentsThis last weekend David and I met up with some of our favorite peeps.
David and Brent (who lives in Ohio) were both invited back to Wichita, Kansas to take a second look at a residency program.
That last sentence can be interpreted the following way, “Hey, we like you guys and want you to pick our program. We’ll pay travel expenses for you and your spouse, wine and dine you, and put you in a nice hotel. Pick our program!”
We had a wonderful weekend. Why?
1. Because we spent a WHOLE weekend with some of our best friends WITHOUT ANY KIDS.
Really, do I need to say more than that? Brent and Michelle drove down from Ohio, and picked us up on the way to Wichita at the airport in Kansas City.
2. We stayed in a nice hotel and didn’t foot the bill.
3. The men worked on some hair brained schemes, while Michelle and I worked on our chit chat skills.
Did I mention we had fun?
We also liked the program, (and we’re pretty sure they liked us) so we may just end up in the same city after all! What’s better than getting a residency with your besties?
On a side note, every conversation I had this weekend went something like this:
New Person: So . . . where are you from?
Me: I’m from Utah
New Person: So . . . are you Mormon? (Said with curiosity. Am I intriguing? I’m Mormon so I guess the answer to that is YES.)
Me: Yes. Yes I am.
New Person: Do you know so-and-so (insert name of the only other Utah Mormon they have ever met.)
Me: No. I’m sorry I don’t. (But really, I’m like, HELLO! THERE ARE MORE THAN 12 MILLION MEMBERS WORLDWIDE! Lots of Mormons around!)
New Person: So . . . how long have you and David been married?
Me: It will be 13 years in July. (I know, I don’t think I’m even old enough for that!)
New Person: (SHOCK! DISBELIEF!) Gulp. Did you get married when you were toddlers!? (True story, more than FIVE count them FIVE people asked me if we got married as toddlers.)
Me: Almost! (Wondering if I should tell them I got married at 19, and just turned 32 . . .)
And this conversation happened over, and over, and over. ;)
Needless to say, we had a great weekend. When we returned, people asked us where we went and when I told them, “Wichita,” everyone responded, saying, “Is that in Kansas?” Apparently, it’s not on the map . . . yet.
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!
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!
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.
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 . . .)
