homeofthebudds

14 mm love

One of the lenses I rented was a 14mm.

That thing was pretty sweet.

It's totally on my list of fun lenses to buy in the future.

I kinda like the facial distortions.

That boy and his tongue!

And the fact that you can get about 1/2 an inch away from what you're shooting. (See my fingers on the left there? I'm trying to gauge my distance and make sure I don't bonk her on the nose.) Granted this would be downright freaky on a shoot...but with the kiddos in the front yard it's just good fun.

It's also super fun for taking group self portraits.

You totally avoid that crazy squished chin and odd arm sticking out you normally get and can instead focus on making goofy faces.

Isaiah had been inside ignoring our fun, but finally I convinced him to come out.

Plus! the lens is so dang close you can use it as a mirror to see when the kiddos in your lap are not cooperating.

Joel was taking a nice long nap, but once he woke up I got him out there too.

random black & whites

One of the wedding photography guru's I follow said once that if he's ever in an adverse light situation he just switches his camera's settings to B & W. I never thought of that. I decided to try it out down in the basement.

Actually now that I look at these, they didn't all start as B & W's. But now I'm digging the monochrome so much I'm converting tons of them.

Dave took this one.

The sweet lens experience.

So. That sweet lens I rented? I can't decide if I actually like it or not. It's big. And heavy. And you can't really do anything else while it's out. (Like pick up a crying child or rescue a child from a scary goose.)

But.

There are definitely some good points about it. It's a fixed 2.8 - which means the aperature is always wide open. (The fixed aperature is actually what makes it so big and long. The ones that change are smaller and lighter. Isn't that odd?) This is great for low light shots - like this one:

The only light was from the laptop screen. That's kinda nice. But it definitely has to be on a tripod for this and that's a lot of gear for a lady with three kids.

(Did I just call myself a "lady"?)

Another problem for me is that you have to be a good five feet away to focus. Which is not good for me as I like to go back and forth between extreme close-ups and being farther back (without the hassle of switching lenses). And, since its a 70-200mm it doesn't zoom in suuuuper close. So it's not like you can stand way back but still see someone's eyelashes.

But!! The pictures are so crisp and clean you can crop the heck out of it and pretend you were only an inch away. Like this one:

So I'm conflicted. I returned the lens this morning and cancelled my reservation for next weekend, but then when I got home and saw the pictures I started wondering if I acted a little too hastily. Hmmmmmm.

camera experimenting

So last friday night, after going to that super fun work event with Dave, we came home around 11. We thanked Erin Meschke profusely for hanging with our kids and then we broke out the new camera equipment I had rented earlier that day. Namely a flash and a super big zoom lens. The sort you'd want if you were going on safari in Africa as my friend Roger says.

And I thought I'd try out the flash's gels (little colored pieces of plastic that'll change the light tone). This one's a very light green if its not immediately obvious.

Wow. That one's a little orange. A little.

All this gel changing wore my man right out. Isn't he cute when he's sleeping?

garden goodness

I got a new lens.

I'm in lens love.

I'd been frustrated with not being able to get the crispness I wanted in pictures with my big zoom lens.

Turns out - it was the lens. Not me.

It seems the sacrifice you make for all the big zoom lens flexibility is crispness. That's why the pros have several lenses covering the same range as my one zoom lens.

Now I know.

I wonder - do any of you know why my tomatoes aren't red yet? Does it really take so long for them to redden?

Know what else I know? My favorite part of this garden growing in our yard? It's the sheer delicacy you can see when you get up close.

I love it.

That's my favorite part of the sunflower too - those little delicate hairs it grows.

You know what's not so delicate? The curlicues the pumpkin plants send out. Those things are brutes.

The reach out and grab a hold of whatever they can find.

Whether it be clover,

or a couple blades of grass. Those curlicues don't care.

But they're curlicues. So I'll forgive them.

Macro alternative

Totally stole this whole water on plants picture idea from Jill.

Not only did I steal the picture idea, I stole her camera too. Well at least I copied her on the way to choose a camera.

(Isn't it interesting how the water beads up differently on different types of plants??)

My big beautiful black camera is equipped with an awesome lens that I love. But it's not a macro. And I do like my macro shots.

Problem is, macro lenses, they cost a fortune.

(Aren't these so gorgeously delicate looking?)

Seeing as I don't have a fortune, I went with a cheaper alternative.

I read some reviews, went to Costco and tried out a bunch of their little pocket cameras, seeing which one had the closest focal point. Found one I liked, and for much, much less than a fortune, walked away with a little pocket camera/'macro' lens.

'Cause lets face it - the big beautiful black behemoth gets heavy. And you just don't want to take it in the middle of the muddy berry patch.

Not a good idea, trust me.

Or into the open gym. Makes you feel like a weirdo.

Or into the post office, or the grocery store or any of the places where my kids do picture worthy things.

But then again, maybe I take more pictures than the average joe.

Dave opening a particularly juice-full orange.

Camera love is taking over the house

Rapid fire eating

I think the rapid fire option on my camera might just be my favorite setting so far. I love to hold it down and then watch the action develop frame by frame. You all might be getting a lot of that around here...I promise to try to limit myself - after I show you all my favorites that I've just uploaded. That's going to take a few days - so I promise to limit myself in the future.

Now, for the record Dave is totally hamming it up.

(I'm giving you like every sixth picture here - i really did take a lot out)

Ahhh - that just cracks me up.

Dave may have been exaggerating his actions, but Ellen was focused.

man I love this thing.

Oh my holy moly.

I think I might have to put some rules on the camera.

Rules like "This wonderfully big awesome huge beautiful camera, "

"shall only be brought out once a week! Yes, you heard me - ONCE a week."

"And on the day the very wonderfully awesome beautiful camera is brought out,"

"the camera operator must limit themselves..."

"...to a REASONABLE number of pictures."

"It would be ridiculous to put a number on what a "reasonable" number of pictures is, but it should be less than 500."

"If the camera operator cannot abide by these rules,"

"...she may be forced to give up blogging as no one else in their right mind will be interested in every picture..."

"...and it takes far too long to sort through them to find some others might take an interest in."

"And as evidenced by the current state of the basement, even if others were interested the camera operator is not going to want to clean up the mess that ensues when three small children are left to their own devices while said camera operator ogles all several hundred pictures."

Therefore, the management feels it is in everyone's best interest to exert some will power and simply not pick up the camera more than once a week. That is all."