Sunday, July 26, 2009

photo shoot with family














It's been a long time since I've written, I know. I have been busy at work, home and with everything in between. We had a great July so far! I can hardly believe the summer is nearly over. School starts up in merely two weeks already! We went to visit Jonah's family a couple weeks ago, and while we were there did a little unexpected photoshoot. I kind of tried to avoid using the camera for the fact that I always take soooo many pictures and I dread going through them all, editing and saving. Well, maybe not dread, just know it's going to take a lot of time. So my goal in shooting is always to set my exposures as nearly perfect as I can...including lighting, temperature, aperature, shutter speed, while doing all this quickly. It's a challenge to shoot groups of people. Children are probably a little easier than older kids and adults though, due to their unguarded expressions. I always try to keep things as unposed as possible. Maybe it's the artist in me, or the photographer in my blood that craves originality and emotions in their truest form. I love capturing expressions because they make up who you are. I think I'm getting a little better at all my settings on the camera- which is great. I always shoot in manual mode so that I don't rely on anything automatically telling me how to do something. I like how these photos came out in the long run, after sifting through so many others. They are of my niece and nephews on Jonah's side, two of his dear grandparents. I do so love seeing the end product even if it takes time to get there! I have to also note there are two taken by Jonah, they are of our nephew at 10 months, on the tree swing. They came out lovely :) He is such a creative and amazing photographer, and has been my teacher. Without him I wouldn't have learned how to shoot so well manually, and with the Nikon we use. Thanks honey for always being such a loving patient teacher!!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Back in town

Well, we made it back and I am back at work today! What a great week we had with my family in NY. I met my newest little nephew who is such a sweet little chunk! I love it when babies are chunky with their little rolly legs and arms! A good sign of a healthy baby :)
I always feel sorry for babies that are thin, I feel like they may break.
But it was so nice to visit them all in the summer. Even though summer there was maybe in the 70's. Quite a change in weather compared to hot GA. It's so green there though! They have been getting a lot of rain and it shows in the lush landscape. I took lots of pictures. So many I will be making CD's for my mom and sister. I loaded some to facebook and I may put a few on here. It's just so time consuming to load on different web sites! But we made some great memories together. Some of the best are the times we spent just talking around the table, the campfire, and sharing things in our lives. My mom kept saying "Things aren't important, people are", and I have to agree with her about that.
I also wanted to share my story of provision on our trip there and back.
We arrived at the airport in ATL already checked in online and we just needed to check our luggage in and right when we turned to leave, the clerk told me my license was expired. I haven't even looked at the date on my license in years, because I thought I had years until it expired! Apparently it expired on my birthday weeks ago! So she said it was up to the airport security as to whether they would let me go through or not. I was so nervous that I wouldn't make it, but I had prayed for our day and for the whole trip to go smoothly. And guess what? No one else noticed the expired date, not through security check in or on the way home. Thanks be to our God who protected and provided for us! I felt He allowed us to take this trip anyways, it wasn't really something we sat down and planned for ourselves, so I feel there was a reason we ended up visiting my family this summer. I am so thankful I serve a God who cares so much about the littlest details in my life, as well as the big things!
Overall the trip was a good time to renew my spirit and slow down to the quiet country life, if only for several days. Just sleeping at night was so different, with the window open to the country air, it was so quiet outside. We live in a busy area so it's quite different!
I hope everyone celebrated the fourth with family and friends. We went to see a beautiful firework display in NY, it was so much fun. Jonah even took pictures that came out really nice.
I better get back to it for now, halfway through the week already and I just started!