Lucky.

He just kinda popped up from the pool.  Luckiest shot I caught all afternoon!

Project 52: Week 1

GottaPixel is doing the Project 52 Challenge....instead of a picture a day, it's a theme a week (hopefully more manageable!?!)  Week 1: Black & White (which I am terribly late for, but the challenge DID get me to use B&W again!)

Swoon!

My little man.  <3 him!   His eyes are just stunning....he's got his daddy's eyes!

I think this is just as striking in b&w as it is in color.

Thinking about Light

I was reading a post on 2P's the other day from a professional photographer in Hawaii.  This man is AMAZING and can take the ugliest setting and create gorgeous portraits there.  He mentioned "clean" light and I wasn't sure what that meant.  I asked, and as a true teacher should, gave me a little more information to keep searching but didn't quite give me the answer.  Long story short, I did a lot of reading last night, and while I still don't completely understand what he meant, I did get a good dose of learnin' in.  :)

We had a snow day today, so I got to hang out with my [now 13-month-old] son during the day with not much else planned.  I put on my 85mm for the first time in a long time and started shooting.  Since there was a lot of white outside, I opened the front/back doors and used that light.  Sometimes he was too close  and things got blown out.  Sometimes he was too far or around a corner of something and it was too dark (but I did get some quality use from my flash today).  It was a good learning session.

This picture was originally shot in color, but he had an orange shirt, with yellow socks, on a brown floor mat...it was scary.  I converted this manually and then played with some other things....this is FAR from a SOOC shot.  It is far from perfect, but it's a sweet mommy moment.  :)

The Joy of my life

My son is perhaps the most amazing thing to ever happen to me.  He amazes me every day and is a blessing in my life, reminding me of what's really important.  He was kind enough to let Mamarazzi follow him all day on Sunday.

Perhaps my favorite photo of him...looking up at me from the floor.

Cutie.  (Don't let him fool you!)

His first time in the car & he LOVED it!!!

Oh moms of girls, I'll apologize now for the heartbreak he'll cause your daughters.  (And this is sooo his daddy's look!)

 

Learning to walk....wooooaaaahhh!  :)

Pure joy.

Baptism

My son was Baptized last weekend.  I had his gown made from my wedding dress (and if you remember my TTD pictures, you know I've gotten my money's worth out of that beautiful thing!)  Here are some detail shots of his gown and hat.

(Here's the TTD post from July 2009.  Hard to believe that was over a year ago.  Hard to believe I was 12 weeks pregnant for that shoot!)

Don't get too close, he might eat you too!

C has reached the stage where EVERYTHING goes in his mouth (except for his own fingers.  He's figured out it hurts when he chews on them!)

How do you know it's time to stop?

You get the look.

I feel like he's ready to flip me off or start throwing punches.  Luckily, the next shot was all smiles and giggles.  :)  Lil tough guy!

Apparently Canon makes baby toys...

As evidenced by my 8-month-old's fondness for my lens cap.  :)  (He also enjoys the neck strap and tries to reach the camera....I'm not as lenient with the Rebel as I am with my cell phone!)  Not a technically fantastic shot, but certainly a fun mommy memory!

Where did the time go?

My son is 3 months old today.  Where did that time go?  He's such a sweet baby :)

 

{Pat...this one is for you, as you requested...}



My P&S died.  I loved that Casio Exilim (S600)--it was awesome.  It's been replaced by a Nikon CoolPix (the one Aston Kucher promo'ed, with the touchscreen).  I'm not thrilled with it yet....but lots of reviews said to thoroughly read the manual, and I haven't gotten through it yet.  This shot above was taken [by my husband] with the new Nikon and I think it's grainy (there are some small splotches on the baby's head--he'd just finished screaming his head off!--but I see more than that in the image)  The video is grainy once uploaded to the computer as well.

Wow.

It's 2010 already. No wait, it's the end of January, 2010 already! Where did the time go since my last post? Oh that's right, I had a 3 1/2lb baby, 8 weeks early, and spent most of December in the NICU and most of January snuggling with the cutest.kid.ever. on my living room couch.

While he is the cutest kid I think I've ever met, I'm trying really hard to control myself in the images I release to the world. I've got tons and tons and tons of pictures of him (you know, one of each new outfit, one of each person who holds him (and because of doctor's orders, that has been limited, yet I still have a lot of shots in this category), one of each cute face he makes, each "first" we do...so you might see a few of him. But I'm going to try really hard to keep this blog photography focused.

So if I take a pause and don't post for a while, and then post lots and lots and lots all at once, I hope you'll understand, 'cause this Mommy thing is just way too awesome to waste sitting in front of a computer.