Black and White

Taking a snooze in her infant carrier. July 2011, 8 months old.

Doggie Kisses

My sweet pup and her cousin sharing a quick little doggie kiss on July 5, 2011.

I'm linking up to The Paper Mama Photo Challenge... this week the theme is "sweet"!

6 Months

Little Miss is 6.5 months old.... holy crap! And how did that happen? I know I say it every time I do a picture post, but honestly... it's the weirdest paradox of "I can't remember life before her" and "wasn't she like 6 weeks old 2 days ago?".

She's a big girl these days, in size 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers (we love Huggies Little Movers.... and BumGenius 3.0 Mediums). She's clocking in at 17.5 lbs and 26.75 inches, and her hair is starting to grow in!! She's always had a bit of super fine hair, but it's getting a little longer and looks like maybe it's coming in a bit.... but I can't tell what color it's going to be. It looks like it's maybe a light brown? And her eyes are a beautiful mix of blue and brown... the outer portion is steely blue and the inside, right around the pupil, is a beautiful golden brown. Sometimes they look almost green.

But you're really here for the pictures, right? :-) We did her 6 month portraits a few days after her 6 month birthday with Jenni at Forever-Yesterday Photography. She also did Baby Girl's newborn shoot - we love her work and I highly recommend her to everyone in the Maryland area!! She is fabulous to work with and managed to capture all of Baby Girl's best expressions. Here are a few of my favorites:

She took a TON of photos in a variety of outfits and poses and I love every single one of them. She also did a few family shots and a few "Mommy & Baby" and "Daddy & Baby" shots, as well. I was thrilled to death to be there with my girl... as such, every single picture includes my "SO EFFING THRILLED I CAN'T EVEN STAND IT" huge, gummy smile and crinkled nose.

I don't even care because OMG I LOVE THAT BABY. Also? I never got fabulous pregnancy hair, but that meant I never lost any hair postpartum. Clearly, that was good... and magically, my hair now grows at the speed of light. I love it.

What else does my 6 month old do? She sits on her own, loves apples and pears, "talks" allllllll day long, loves to help me sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes", and loves the dog. She also has the sweetest laugh, everything goes into her mouth, and she doesn't roll over. She also still hates tummy time.

Cell Phone Pics

After taking the foot picture last week, I was looking through my phone pics and realized I had a ton on there. These are some of my favorites.

Marley, snuggling with her toy.

Our neighbor used to park her car in front of her townhouse... to sleep in... because she said there were radioactive waves coming through her house and they shook her bed all night. She was crazy.... like, for real.

The best hot dog I ever had was at US Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox. Tell me that's not the most delicious thing you ever saw.

In my next life I'm going to be a pastry chef.

This is the world's tiniest bra, found in the children's section at Kohl's. I have no idea what 8 year old has a need for a padded bra. For size comparison, I leaned the little bra up against a 4x6 picture frame. Note that it's just barely bigger. Why, Kohl's?

Only one more work day to get through this week.... hahahahahahahaa who am I kidding - I'm at work all weekend for staff training. Hot.

My Publisher Code

I've raved about My Publisher in the past because it's fun and easy to make beautiful photo albums using their software. So fun and easy, in fact, that I plan to make annual albums.

I decided to do a combo first year of marriage/2009 album, which held photos and stories from November 2008 through December 2009. I finished it up during the Snowpocolypse but never ordered the book because it ended up to be $75 plus shipping and My Publisher usually has good coupon codes and sales, so I figured I'd just wait for a discount to show up to order.

So yes, I ordered my 2009 album today....

If you use My Publisher, here's a code for 40% off: MYSTERYC

I ended up getting my book (60+ pages of awesomeness) and shipping for $55! Much better than the $84 it would have been without the code. The code is good through September 9, so hurry up!

Fetch.

I have a feeling I'll be posting lots of photos in the coming months... these are from the dog park near our house. We went January 18 when it was warm and sunny.

Marley doesn't really like to play fetch, but she humored us for a few tossed. She's not very good at catching the ball, and it always bounces off her. We couldn't ever tell where it would bounce off - her face, her leg... no one knew. Till we got this shot:

Please note her open mouth and the fact that her feet are not touching the ground. Again, these are all SOOC on various auto settings. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for big snow tonight so I can get more practice with the white balance!

Snow Dog

First of all, the Great Canon Rebel Purchase of Late 2009 was 100% worth it. I love shooting with this camera! I have literally no idea what I'm doing, but it's fun to use, the shots look crisp and clear (unless I wasn't focused and then they're blurry) and I actually want to learn how to be a better photographer.

I finally hooked the damn thing up to the computer and downloaded all of the pictures we took in January... all 651 of them, most of them of the dog. I don't have editing software, so these are all SOOC (straight out of the camera) and shot in automatic settings.

Here's a few from after the big storm we had last weekend:

I love how much more crisp these are than any of the ones I took with my old P&S. I also love the last one with all of Marley's feet in the air :-)

Any photography buffs have any words of wisdom for me? Constructive criticism wanted.

Today, my camera will see daylight!

We got an amazing deal on our Canon Rebel Xsi between Christmas and New Years this past year, but for a while I was afraid to use it. So yes, a <$600 piece of equipment sat, unopened on my kitchen table, for a week before I had the courage to open it up. Once I dad the nerve to open the box, I decided I didn't really want to do anything with it until I knew what I was doing. To be fair, this is the most expensive piece of electronic equipment I have even owned (besides our compter & tv, but those are pretty fool proof) and I'll be damned if I completely break it before it's even broken in. So I bought The Canon Rebel Xsi for Dummies. And I read that bad boy cover to cover. After three nights of reading I learned two things:

1. I am in way over my head and
2. it's ok to use the automatic settings while I'm figuring stuff out.

You'll hear a lot of folks say that DSLR's are a waste of money if you're going to use the auto settings. You'll also hear a lot of folks say that it's not the camera that takes good photos, it's the camera operator (I just can't phathom using the word photographer to describe myself). Well.... maybe that's true.

But you've got to start somewhere. And I'm starting with auto settings. And even with the auto settings, my photos are 100% better then they were with my P&S. The dogs eyes are brown in these photos and not demon yellow! The colors are so much sharper! There's depth to them!

I've owned this camera for just about a month now, and today will be the first day my camera goes outside. To the dog park. Where I hope nothing breaks.

Yup, it's time to really break in the camera. We didn't spend a shit ton of Christmas money at Best Buy for nothing, right?

Right.

I'll be back with the fruits of my labor later on today. If I can figure out how to get the photos onto my computer. I haven't quite learned to do that yet.

Graphic, yet strangely intriguing.

I am a huge fan of Julia over at My Life In Transition and her latest post got me thinking: how far does my obsession with photography go?

I keep a {crappy} point&shoot in my bag at all times. I have been known to randomly snap photos (some at inopportune times) of people, places, and things. I took approximately 45 photos of the Gateway Arch (which my sister occasionally reminds me that I never posted my St. Louis review) and have in the ballpark of 500 of my dog. We have 2 wedding albums, did a first anniversary shoot, and my latest project.... oh let me tell you about that.

In the house I grew up in on Welshs Lane (not to be confused with our "old house", which is the first house I remember living in), my mother used to keep family photo albums in my dad's office in the basement. There were maybe 8 or 9 of them, and they all held print photos, many of which were from trips down the shore (not Seaside Heights, folks). As kids, we used to love looking through them, mainly to point out what jerks we looked like (a bowl cut looks good on no one), but also to just remember things that we used to do. And who we used to be. I have a picture of me and my siblings as kids, standing outside on the deck. My best friend in the world is with us. The five of us are smiling and eating ice pops. And every time I look at that picture, I think "Wow, we've been friends for like 20 years". I love the history.... I guess that's why I love to take pictures - so the memories are there for us to remember later.

So now my latest project is creating an album (MyPublisher is my bitch) of everything that happened in 2009... well actually we'll start with Thanksgiving 2008 and go from there (we got married early in November, went on our honeymoon, and then hosted Thanksgiving dinner) up through New Years Eve of this year. I want to do a year book every single year, so that our kids can look back through them and see what it was like before they came along... and so they can see themselves grow.

At this point, I'm tied to the anniversary shoot (annually, with kids/furkids) and the year book. I'd assume it goes without saying that I'm very into the maternty shoot and newborn shoot.

But (and if you clicked on the link above, you know what I'm talking about).... what about a birth shoot? Coming from someone without a bun in the oven, this should all be taken with a grain of salt, but as of right now, my stance is firmly on the side of "There's no audience when you're making the baby, so why invite one in for the birth?". Husband? Check. Doctors? Check. Everyone else safely tucked away in the waiting room where there is lots less blood/placenta? Check.

But I never considered a photographer. Until I saw this. Suddenly, I am very open to the idea {though my bank account might not be}. What about you? Creepy? Awesome? Complete invasion of privacy? The slideshow (the link above) has zero shots of ladybits (thankfully), so feel free to view at your leisure, and then let me know... what's your stance on birth photography?

Spring Break and DC recap

Today I'm posting from my couch... at home... at 12:30 in the afternoon. And I'm not even sick! How is this possible??, you may be asking yourself. No, I'm not off on account of St. Patrick's Day (though I do wish you a day full of green beer, if that's your thing), and I haven't even called in sick (or pretending to be sick - so what, I know you do it, too).

Nope. I'm off for spring break. I'm almost 27 and I'm off for spring break. How great. Obviously it would be more great if they would jack up my salary in lieu of spring break, but beggars can't be choosers and so here I am, on my couch in the middle of the afternoon.

Plans for the rest of the afternoon include shopping for a bridal shower gift, trying to score a non-crap sewing machine for less than $50, and burning off the 3 pounds I put on this weekend. Oh, I didn't tell you? My sister and her boyfriend are also on spring break this week, so they came down for a visit! We all (ok, just me and Ryan) ate like animals and had a fabulous time - thus the +3lbs. But this post isn't really about what I ate (birthday cupcakes for Steph, BBQ, tacos, a hot dog at the Smithsonian, etc), it's actually about my attempt at photography.

This weekend I also got to fiddle around with my camera and play with the settings. I'm dying for a SLR, but am afraid I won't be able to use it properly, so I've been trying to take as many pictures as possible without using the auto feature on my point-and-shoot - and I think I got some good ones in DC yesterday! Ryan had been saying for a while that he really wanted to go to the holocaust museum, but I'm basically an emotional trainwreck and I knew I couldn't handle it (I cried for 3 days after seeing the movie Phenomenon. I am not normal.), so when Steph and Adam said they were coming to visit and wanted to go to DC, I figured I could pawn the museum trip off on them. So yesterday morning, we go up bright and early to jump on the metro. It was kind of bizarro kissing Ryan goodbye and watching him walk away with Steph and Adam and suddenly being very alone in the middle of The National Mall, but it was better than sobbing my way through the museum.

I wandered around for 3 hours with my camera taking pictures of everything. For a while, I felt like an imposter, pretending to know what I was doing. I felt like a jerk, but figured everyone has to learn somehow, right?

I think I ended up with some good shots! Here's one from right outside the metro station:

It was super overcast and kind of chilly. I love the naked trees and how the Washington Monument peaks out a little bit. After that, I walked down to the Mall and got a pretty good one of the Capitol buidling: This next one is the Smithsonian Castle entrance:

The sky had cleared a little. Thankfully, it didn't rain all morning! Here's another shot of the castle and gardens. The magnolia trees were in full bloom and were beautiful.

I had to climb on a bench (and got gawked at by the few people in the garden) to get this next picture, but I think it was totally worth it:

I totally had a blast wandering around the Mall taking pictures... I won't bore you a ton more, but here's one for the road:

My sister and her boyfriend. How cute are these two??? I also love that you can just barely see the Washington monument. All of these pictures were taken with my Sony Cyber-Shot and tweaked with Picnik.... I'm probably not ready to upgrade to the Canon Rebel just yet, so be prepared for tons of practice shots!