An Unwilling Model

My First Attempt at Backlighting

Authored by a Girl Who Has a Brother

Jane drew a bunch of pictures the other day, declared it a book, and asked me to tie it together for her.  I then asked her to tell me what was happening on each page and just wrote down what she dictated.  The result is hilarious.  And I think it is quite clear that this is written by a girl who has a brother.

 The Princess and the Castle

by Jane Elisabeth Benesh

The fire is exploding on the castle!

The firemen put the fire out, and the princess is smiling.

The princess wears a pretty dress.  There is a fire in the fireplace, but it doesn't explode.

This is the imaginary prince in the princess's mind.

These are hearts made of letters that are exploding.

This is a person who is thinking in his brain about chewing 100 pieces of gum.  Actually, he is an alien.  With one leg.  Actually, he is a tadpole.

The End.

PS 52: Photo 9

I just realized I had not posted this!  I wrote it a week ago but got busy with other posts in the meantime.
 ---
So this week, I challenged myself to get a good low light photo.  This is the one I took:

Oh, the grain!

Low light + high ISO = grain.

They say to embrace the grain, but I have some trouble with that.  If it were grainy and sharper, perhaps. . . . I don't know.  I'm just not there yet.  Plus, the color seems off.  And I even cooled it down a bit.

So I now know enough to know that a full frame camera would shoot in low light conditions far better than my camera does, but I am determined to figure out how to make the most of the camera I've got, at least for now.

Also, I'm going to try shooting in RAW and (finally) dealing with my avoidance of the white balance issue.

Janey Beth is FOUR

 Our Janey Beth is FOUR today.

She is too precious.

Before I had children, when I thought of what it would be like to have a little girl, it was Jane I was thinking of.  To a tee.  She is sweet, girly, and extraordinarily loving.  She loves ballet, frilly dresses, crafts of all sorts, beauty, and bedtime stories.  I tell her all the time that my favorite thing about her is how her heart is so full of love, and indeed, it is.  She is affectionate and loves physical affection, in return.  And she loves to care for things, whether it's by making a nest of all her bedding to sleep in (she is the mama bird, and all her stuffed animals and dolls are the baby birds), or dressing a doll or brushing its hair.

 But there are also things about Jane that I did not imagine in my little girl.  Like how zany she can be.

Or how she can be so emotional and unreasonable from time to time, or how she can work herself into a little snit and get in trouble for being rude and angry.  Or what an independent thinker she sometimes is.  But it makes me glad that she's got a touch of sauciness--I wouldn't want her to be so sweet she gets trampled on in life.  A little tang will help her along, I think . . . as long as she can hold it in check. :)

 This afternoon, she had her regular ballet lesson,

 and then after we went home and had dinner and cupcakes (she said that of all the dinners in the world, she wanted sandwiches--well, okay then, birthday girl!), we surprised her and took her to Build a Bear, where she's been longing to go for a long time.  This is the friend she built:

 Actually, I hate the My Little Pony cartoon.  It's inane, I don't think the animation is pretty, and the voices drive me up the wall.  But she loved this purple pony--in fact, she had eyes for nothing else--so purple pony, it is.

And we let Noah get something, too.  He chose a pretty basic bear, but he got a Yoda costume for it.  (He is REALLY into Star Wars.)  It is awesome.  I like Yoda way better than the purple pony, but don't tell Jane.

After we left Build a Bear, we dipped into the Disney store for what we all thought would be a quick look around.  But I ended up buying Jane some "glass" slippers, and my mom bought her a Merida dress.  Both are very awesome.

And so ended an epic day.  I have one wonderful four year old.  She is a blessing to our family, and we love her lots and lots and lots.

P52: Photo 8

I love this sweet image.  This is Janey and her best friend, holding hands at a princess party.

They love each other a whole lot and are always ecstatic to get to see one another.  It's a good thing Elizabeth is moving in down the street; there'll be lots of happy days ahead for these girls!

As far as photography goes, this was an easy shot.  There was plenty of natural light, the girls set up a lovely shot naturally, and I exposed it properly without any trouble.  So, well, yay for that.  But the purpose of this 52-week project is to get better, and nobody's going to get any better without challenging themselves.  So, now that I'm fairly comfortable getting a shot properly exposed, I'm going to work on some other technical aspects of photography in the weeks to come.

Terrible Photo, Beautiful Girl

Lens Envy

I rented a lens today.  It's my first time to do so, and I love the one I picked up!  It's a 24mm F1.4, the purpose of which I will reveal in a few days.  Photographing a walk with the kids is not the reason I rented the lens, but I took it along to get used to it and check it out.  I may never give it back. ;)

Little Miss Clarabelle

I am absolutely loving this picture of Janey.

 Zero gravity for this astronaut!

Love that kid!

 Seriously, it's hard to take a bad picture with such an awesome lens.

On a Neighborhood Walk

Halloween

Last night, we had some friends over, had a nice fall dinner, and took the kids trick or treating.  It was a nice time for the adults, and the kids had a fabulous time. 

Elizabeth, Jane, Noah, and our neighbor, Addie.

Clara loved Noah's NASA hat.

Elizabeth was super cute.  I'm loving this picture of her.

Off went the three Musketeers!  Trick or treating we go!

I like this picture.  It looks almost as if she's a fairy tale character walking on a forest path.

This boy had a great night.  He completely embraced trick or treating and was running pellmell down the street yelling "TRICK OR TREAT!" at the top of his lungs.  I loved the childlike exuberance and fun!

 

Did you notice the half of a ball on a stick?  He made it.  He called it his candy launcher.  Ha!

What a happy kid.  I love it.

My little Cinderella Jane.

Happy friends.

 It was a great night!

Not Pretty

 So I took my nice camera with us when we went to play after Mother's Day Out today.  I figured I'd try to get a few fabulous play shots of my kids while we were there.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

It was not what I hoped.  Consider the following:

Clara crying, Jane trying to give Noah bunny ears, and Noah rebelling against the bunny ears.

Every mother's nightmare: the baby tries to climb the stairs every chance she gets.

Slumped shoulders.  I don't remember the problem, but I do remember "Oh Mo-o-om!"

 And the one that takes the cake:

This is what we call Jane's "Ugly Face."

She uses it whenever she is not getting her way, although it's not always accompanied by fist shaking.  I am often heard to say, "Jane!  Take off that Ugly Face!  Go throw it in the trash!!!"

---

And that was our play time today.

Just a little dose of reality here on the blog.

"House"

Jane takes playing House to a whole new level.  She doesn't just play House; she builds her house.

 She uses every material available to her.  Every cushion, every blanket, every chair.

She has tunnels and doors and rooms.

And, in her eyes, it is never big enough.

She Couldn't Be Cuter If She Tried.

She wanted to wear boots to ballet this week.