Seth is still my uncooperative model

Kaia’s hair is slowly growing back as well.. I took this mid-December when she was student of the week at her preschool

I am nailing focus more often.. not wide open, but this close, it doesn’t matter – the background is still totally blurred (and the ladder is about 9″ behind her head.. not far at all).  I think I was at f/2.5 here.

I am getting more of the shots I want.. and focusing better with candid and action shots as well..

(a split second later…)

She was actually swinging here.. all by herself!

I am also beginning to “see” things better.. to encorporate elements from the environment around my house to make better and more interesting portraits.  She was laughing at daddy riding his dirtbike here.

But when he does this (and lots of it), how can you not laugh

I also took a spur of the moment single shot of my oldest… I realized later just how short his pants have become.. I guess it’s time for a new pair soon   Once we do that I plan on getting him set up in ALL of his gear for a real photo shoot.. should be fun.

I really love the “big sky” effect from it – it rocks! (of course it did *not* hurt that the light was freaking AWESOME today – it was overcast behind me, where the sun was, so the light was soft, and lovely, and the rest of the sky was blue and cloudy, and so pretty!) It’s going to be super cool in the desert with sand dunes, I cannot WAIT!

An interesting hazard of such a WIDE lens, is that one often photographs one’s feet when they don’t intend to. Ooops

The disortion isn’t so bad when you’re at least a few feet from your subject though… I am realizing that the fisheye can be a much more versatile lens than I first imagined it to be. I am totally going to buy one

You can take wonderfully weird self portrats with it too! Focal distance is so NOT a problem with this lens. Of course it makes my already large forehead even bigger, and I’m not quite a fan of what it did with my arms.. but check out how tiny my foot is! lol

And one last fishy fun shot.. you can see my house and our barn, from two different angles! lol They “face” the same way, so it amuses me that there’s the side of my house and the front of the barn in one shot

We did alright today though.. I’ve been working on full sun again, and I decided to go waaaaaay back on our property to the only place with nice open shade (well, other than the side of our house, right outside of where my youngest was sleeping, which probably wouldn’t have worked well for long!), which was within the “wind break” that marks the back of our property, and the beginning of the 152 acres behind us.  It’s basically a 20-30′ wide length of trees that goes across the entire property line. I think our neighbors are growing corn this year.. we’ll have to sneak out there for some pictures soon, before it gets too tall (and maybe then, too.. lol).

There’s actually a “sometimes stream” just behind her (she’s sitting in a slight berm that makes up the bank) but it’s dry right now, otherwise I’m sure she would have been a muddy mess before I even got to sit her down!

This one has numerous colors issues, and I probably should have just taken it into lightroom, but I’m trying to get better with my reflector and full sun too It’s something I really struggle with, as I’m sure a lot of people do, but it’s something I really want to work on. I don’t want to be limited to open shade when shooting outdoors.

My husband brought our youngest out to share in the fun, but Kaia wanted nothing to do with him.. lol

He did do a fairly good job being a baby wrangler though!