Full Speed Ahead

I'm so ready for the weekend. I'm exhausted, which is pretty sad because I usually sleep a full 8 hours. During the day however, I'm running around like a mad woman trying to keep up with this kid. He's so darn fast! I haven't worked out like this in years! Countless reps with a 20lb weight, running laps around the first floor, stairs, squats, you name it. He's the best/worst boot-camp ever. I'm trying hard to let him explore while keeping him safe. Easier said than done. The safest place is in his pack-n-play, but after about 15 minutes I feel guilty seeing him penned up, so I take him out. He inevitably gets into/onto/under (it only takes a second) something seemingly innocuous and hurts himself. Again, I feel guilty. Looking forward to his first steps. That'll be peachy.

The Boys

I Love Me Some Smoothie

Natural Light

Got home a bit early today and got to spend some quality time with the little guy. Just yesterday he was at his 9 month check-up and we mentioned that he hadn't really started crawling yet. Well, one day after receiving reassurances from our family doc that he's just fine, he's begun crawling up a storm. He seems to be particularly fond of crawling after his storybooks so he can try and eat them. The Grouchy Ladybug is apparently one of the tastier selections in his library. After his evening bath-time routine (and a bit of a nap myself!), I got a chance to upload the pictures sitting on our camera including all of January. I've got a bunch of great shots to post (including ones from Las Vegas... I know, I know, I'm a slacker.) but I wanted to put up this one from the other day to show illustrate the benefits of natural lighting.

Since having our dSLR for a while, I've made a bunch of adjustments to the way I take pictures. I've stopped using auto, and I'm getting better and guesstimating where my aperture, ISO, and shutter settings need to be for a given photo. I'm also trying to use the histograms from the camera to make more intelligent adjustments on the fly. But most importantly, I've been focusing my efforts towards trying to avoid using the built in flash while taking pictures. It forces me to try and develop a steadier hand, but the warmth and emotion of photos just using natural light can't be duplicated with the on-board strobe flash. For example, here's a photo of Manu using the flash:
1/125; f4.8; ISO 500

And here's one without the flash.

1/30; f5.3; ISO 500


Full disclosure: I did a bit of post-processing on both of these pictures. Nonetheless, the flash picture has an almost superimposed quality. Also, there's an unnatural glare on the bottom of his cup, his nails, and his skin. The photo without the flash really gives a more true-to-life representation of the moment. And those were mostly backlit.


here's an example with some natural front lighting, no post processing.1/40; f3.5; ISO 500

Tilt-Shift Photography

As a brief departure from the shopping and fashion coverage of late, I thought I'd put in a quick post about an interesting photography technique I've come across. Tilt-shift photography can be used to create the impression of miniaturization through the use of a very narrow depth of field. The effect can be recreated by utilizing some simple techniques in Photoshop CS. Having a renewed interest in post-processing following a quick tutorial from visiting renaissance-woman Aziza E, I gave it a try on a few shots. I'm pretty pleased with the results.