Christmas Outtakes 2: Electric Boogaloo

I got to playing around with one of the pictures last night and this is what resulted.  These kids have to learn not to give me this kind of fodder.

Christmas Outtakes

It's that time again - time to hustle the children into their Christmas finery, schlep them down to Phipps, and try to get some passable shots of them for use on the Christmas cards.  It was an especially futile attempt this year.  Out of over 100 shots, I got about 5 usable ones.  Four, if you ask Scot because he didn't want to be on the card.

The outtakes, on the other hand, are glorious.

We begin with Liam.  I love the kid but he's in that stage where he simply CANNOT smile naturally unless you make him laugh.  Making him laugh was simply not on the agenda today so I have a lot of pictures like this:

With that lack of upper lip, I should rename him Frank Burns.

If you didn't get that joke, get off my lawn.

I actually don't have many outtakes of Jamie by himself because they're all blurry.  He would run away from the camera.  I did get a couple of decent close ups of him (though mostly profile) that are being used on the Christmas card, however.

Moving on to the group shots...

This was the best I got all day.  Clearly, they're thrilled.  It was all downhill after this.

"ALL DONE!"

"Again? We have to do this again?"

Liam is looking at the ceiling and Jamie smells something bad.

Passable one of Spud.  Jamie disapproves.  Of everything.

Jamie seems to have misplaced his neck.

I have no idea what's going on with Liam here.

I can't imagine what these two are going to come up with next year.

UPDATE: I forgot to leave you with this sign from Phipps.

San Antonio Memories

I have more pictures from my trip that I wanted to share but I decided to contain them to a separate post rather than overwhelm the previous one.

Somewhere over the midwest.  The clouds looked like snow to me.

Dallas from the air.

Coonskin cap at the Alamo.

Fish in the canal at the Alamo.  They were as long as my arm.

Part of a giant oak tree at the Alamo.  It's grown around the pole propping it up.

Rest of the giant oak tree.

Cactus flower at the Alamo.

These next several pictures are all from the Riverwalk.  Despite it being a tourist destination, it was very pretty, shady, and restful to walk along.

 Poorly composed but I could totally see Carl and Ellie Fredrickson taking a rest here.

The river entrance of the Art Institute.  "Ars longa vita brevis."

Black and White

I got a new camera and I'm in love.  It's an early birthday present and I took the plunge into the world of DSLR cameras.  I just could. not. deal with the limitations of my point and shoot anymore  - particularly the delay it has when taking a picture.  That makes for lots of crappy pics of the kids.  I have a lot to learn about this new way of taking pictures but I'm actually reading the manual and it's been really helpful.

I know the blog has been a little picture heavy lately.  I'm sorry about that but, you guys, guess what I discovered today?  My camera will shoot in black and white!  (Ok, technically it's "monochrome" but for this non-purist, same difference.)

Lookie Lookie!

Hey, Liam!  Make a funny face!

Engrossed in Star Wars

These were just a few test shots while we were hanging out and I was playing around with the camera.  In his entire two years, these are the first black and white shots of Jamie.  His red hair is so much a part of who he is that I never wanted to lose that by going monochrome.  But I love these pictures.

I know I have a lot to learn about light and how to use it to my advantage, about composing a shot, and about all the various modes and functions available to me now.  I'm still giddy about what I'm able to do even now while I'm trying to learn.

School Pictures

When I was a kid school pictures were such a stressful time.  I remember thinking that I had to get it just right or I was going to end up with a horrible picture and be the butt of everyone's jokes - even more so than usual.  I remember sitting down with the photographer and having just a single click of the camera to get it right.  It felt like so much pressure.

Back in September, Liam had picture day at school and it happened to fall on a day when Jamie was in daycare so I was able to volunteer to help out.  Watching the photographer work with the kids was so different than what I remember.  Digital cameras are a wonder because instead of having just a single frame of film to get it right, the photographer took 3 or 4 shots of each child.  He'd have them smile, he'd have them make a silly face (and take a picture of it), and while they were giggling, he'd get another shot or two of something more natural.  He was quick and efficient but still managed to get a few options.

I have been waiting and waiting for the pictures to come in and I have been eaten alive with curiosity as to how they would turn out.  They finally came home from school this week and the verdict is they came out fantastic.  It was so much better than I remember any of my school photos looking.

So, here's Spud, in all his kindergarten glory.