Our visit with Grandma just flew by. I just don’t know where the time went!
Goodbye, Grandma
Sep 9th, 2013 by ECM
Santa Barbara Natural History Museum
Sep 6th, 2013 by ECM
Our friends Katie and Jack procured tickets for us to visit the SBNHM with them this week. The highlights: a Tinkertoy Exhibit and the Backyard creek area. Too bad we have to drive an hour to go play in a creek…
Janie Tries Rice Cereal
Sep 4th, 2013 by ECM
She’s a good sport about it, but not the biggest fan yet.
The Toothy Gap and Practicing with Overhead Light
Sep 3rd, 2013 by ECM
One thing that was great about taking a class from a portrait photographer who has kids of her own was that Jennings totally got that I am never going to use a tripod or remote to take pictures of my kids (two tools the single guy instructor highly recommended). They move. And I’m not just going to be able to take pictures of them at the magic hour before dusk. They play outside during the day, with direct overhead sun. So I’m trying to remember some of the things she told me to do to make the best of moving kids in direct sunlight.
Rotate around with your hand out to see where the light will produce the best shadows. I made myself a collage to remember this!
Usually, subject’s back should be to the sun.
Higher f-stop might capture some rays of sun. I think that’s still a trial and error thing for me. And photo shop would have been nice here to cut out the roof…
Use open shade if at all possible, and get as close to the edge of the light as you can.
Use AF manual point selection, not the scattered automatic selection, and when the sun is directly behind, move the light meter back darker, because there is so much light trying to get into the picture.
Janie Tries to Crawl as I Try to Remember Photography Tips
Sep 2nd, 2013 by ECM
Trying to remember some of the tips Jennings gave me at my photography class…as always, I might totally have the terminology wrong.
Don’t be afraid to bump the ISO up high for indoor shots. I was afraid of going past 400 because of graininess, but when I went all the way up to 1600, I got some great, light pictures (here, at 6 am) without that much noise.
Focus falls back. So focus on the front person in a picture (or the front eye in a close-up). The depth of field starts at your focal point, so focusing on the person/eyeball in back will put the stuff in front of it out of focus. (Duh. Why didn’t I figure this out on my own?)
Setting the light meter between zero and one looks the most pleasing on human skin.
Rule of thumb: Make the f-stop one bigger than the number of people in the picture.
I took these pictures!
Aug 31st, 2013 by ECM
I did a groupon deal on a photography class Thursday night, and since no one else showed up to the class, I essentially got a private lesson for three hours. I had to bring Janie along since I didn’t have enough milk pumped, and she was the model while I learned how to take in manual mode. It was so helpful and fun! (I just love the Tommy look in this first one…)
Then the teacher spent an hour showing how to do things to my pictures in photo shop (which I really just need to buckle down and buy). (She went extreme on some of these just to show me things I could do, but they’re still pretty cool!)
French Braids
Aug 30th, 2013 by ECM
I’ve been dreaming of French braiding my daughters’ hair since I was a little girl teaching myself on my dolls (Beth and Suzy–what can I say, my taste hasn’t changed).
And it’s finally happened! Susie’s hair is getting crazy long, and she sat still enough for me to try a very loose first attempt (and less still for me to try to document it for my mom, who is probably the only other person who will get teary eyed about this).
French braids? Check.
Denim jumpers and Keds?….Well, not sure we’re going to ACTIVELY try to go down the dorky homeschooler path. (We like our sleeveless shirts, after all.) When it happens, you’ll know.
Flower Painting
Aug 28th, 2013 by ECM
Disclaimer up front: I have no creative ideas on my own. They all come from pinterest. Where was pinterest when I was teaching art?!
Last week, we painted with Lizzie’s flowers from Grandma that were finally past their prime. Huge hit–must do again!
NB: It is very difficult to document most of our art projects, as the kids usually strip to their skivvies to do anything messy. Any time I see a blog with fully dressed children doing art, I now assume it was staged.
2013-14 Homeschool Plans
Aug 26th, 2013 by ECM
I posted on Everything to Someone this morning about our homeschool plans for the year. But I thought I’d add a few more details here!
Three weeks into school, I think we’re finding our groove. You can see that I’ve organized everything by bins. We have one for art supplies, one for school supplies and manipulatives, one for preschool, one with extra kindergarten stuff that I’m saving for next year, and one for first grade. I can fit everything except my Saxon teacher’s guide in Tommy’s 1st grade bin…need to figure that out.
Elizabeth is really excited about doing school, too. She is proudly doing Ordinary Parent’s Guide phonics and can write E-L-I to start her name.
Susie wants to do school with the big kids as soon as she wakes up from her nap. We’re stocked up on Color Wonder paper (thanks to Sarah, who picks it up at garage sales for me!) and let her “do art” at the table while we finish up.
Janie is supposed to be sleeping while we do school, but the emergency doctor/dentist visits and flat tire last week have messed up her schedule more often than not. So she sits in the Bumbo and watches us.
“They seem to be eating muffins…”
Aug 23rd, 2013 by ECM
Hmm, need to watch Importance of Being Earnest again one of these nights when Derek’s working late…