The Assignment

Today I started reading a book by Michal Heron (not a misspelling) entitled Photographing Children and Babies - How to Take Great Pictures.

Chapter One  -- Seeing your children.  Whether their your own, relatives or friends kids.  

Some of the Topics covered in this chapter: Planning the photo Sessions, The Child's Attitude, Reportage (ongoing coverage somewhat like a photojournalist does).

    It also covers the Basic Four:

   Take photos that are close up

    Photograph in a gentle, soft light

      Use a "clean" non distracting background

         Vary the mood by capturing many expression, not just smiles.

Chapter Two -- The Value of Shooting Close-Ups.

How to Shoot Close-ups.  Framing or Cropping.  Framing is taking what you want in the photograph at the time you take the picture.  Cropping is using only part of the photo that you take.  Looking Away- Frontal photos are the child's eyes looking at you.  Looking away is the eyes looking down or to the side. Shoot a Lot!  Getting Sharp Close-Ups.  Containing & Distracting the child.

Chapter Three - Variety in Portrait  Styles

Framing faces.  Vary angles, Vary the Width of the photo, Vary Locations.

I decided to give myself an assignment and shoot some pictures of Daniela trying the various things I'd just read about.  Here are the resulting pictures.

Pictures in Color 

#1

#2

 

#3

Pictures 1-3  are all good examples in framing and frontal focus.

Which do you feel is the best picture?

These black & white pictures show examples of  looking away

at something off camera.  Also I managed to get a good profile shot.

#1

#2

#3

 #4

#5

Which one is your favorite of the black & white?

I even tried out what I learned on taking this picture my Wheaton.



Scooby

Do you have any Scooby Lovers at your house?

If so I thought I'd let you know

you can watch this instantly on your TV

if you have Netflix.



I just happen to know a couple Scooby lovers!

Although more than a year has gone by since

these photos was taken, they still

LOVE

their Scooby Doo!

How about you??

Fork it!

Daniela is doing a spectacular job

at learning how to use her new fork.

Great job, Daniela!

What do you think?

It only took me about fours tries and

a couple hours to figure out how to upload it to my blog.

Gramie's never give up.

Though computers, they try to slay me.

Way Back When #22 No Promises!

We were so excited when this child came to our house.

He was a foster-child taken into my daughter and son-in-law's

home and hearts.

His extended family welcomed him whole heartily.

We wished for him one day to be our legal grandson.

He came with good looks and superior personality.

He also came with issues, many of them.

There were no promises.

At 15 months, he couldn't sit up on his own,

he couldn't support his self on his hands and knees

and no one knew if or when he'd learn to walk.

We loved him anyway!

His new Mommy & Daddy loved him

unconditionally.

His Grammie Lala prayed her heart out.

After tons of physical therapy 

around 22 months he walked.

With the help of speech therapy

and his new school he started

at 2 years old he talked.

Although still behind physically for his age when

we took him to Cast Away Cafe on his recent visit

he climbed to the highest level and tried the

longest, fastest slide first.

When visiting friends he joined in the pretend play

just like any other kid.

I'm so proud of all his accomplishments.

Nothing, I repeat nothing has come easy for this child.

He continues to amaze me daily

with all he's learning.

Right now he's in first grade and reading and writing

like a champ.

I love you too, Michael and I'm so very proud of you.

Thanks for taking the time to write me

such a nice "Thank You" Letter.

I hope you don't mind me putting it on my blog,

because I wanted everyone to see how great you're doing.

You ARE one AMAZING and much LOVED littleboy young man.

Tuesdays with Daniela

Before getting dressed we had a photo shoot with

Daniela in her red jammies with the pink dots.

She is looking so grown-up these days!

She knows what a chicken says.....Bawk Bawk!

And what an owl says....Who Who!

And what a gorilla says....  EEee, EEee, ????

Whatever ( I don't know how to write it out)

She also knows a dog, a cow and few others.

This little smarty pants

ate dirt, dipped her dolly's blanket in the toilet

and distributed shredded paper all through the house

on Saturday.

Today I watched her like a hawk.

New Baby in the House

Daniela's Mama bought her a new dolly and some bottles.

This new baby named "Freya" has become an instant hit.

She has carried her everywhere, it's hardly left her side

since the baby doll came out of the box on Friday.

We were playing in her room on Saturday and she looked

so darn cute in this sweatshirt dress and leggings I

had to grab my camera and take some pictures.

Daniela covered her up with the blanket I made for her

before she was born.

I just love the little hands and feet

and all the action shots I was able to catch her in.

And she didn't mind a bit that the camera was flashing away.

She seems to be a natural born poser like her cousin, Sydney.

Feeding Baby "Stella" takes so much concentration

she kept sticking her tongue out.  So Cute!

Stella was her Christmas Baby Doll.

I'm sure if she could have figured out how to hold

both babies and ride she would have.

Grandpe was going outside and captured

both the attention of the dog and Daniela

for this great shot.

I took over 100 pictures, then deleted half of them

and only kept the best ones.

Which one is your favorite?

A Give Away

Lisa Leonard makes some awesome jewelry and she has a give away going on.  Hop on over there and leave a comment for a chance to win.  Lisa Leonard Designs.

If I won I'd purchase the through my lens necklace with the $50 gift certificate.  I tried to copy a photo of it, but couldn't, so you'll just have to go to the web page if your curious.

My daughter, Meghan has purchased several pieces of her jewelry

and just loves it.

I sent her birthday money in December and she

bought this necklace with it. 

She wears it almost daily.

My Addictions

They say confession is good for the soul.

I'm going to confess two of my addictions.

Popcorn....

Yes, most of you already knew that.

It's harmless you say,

well not if you should be limiting your salt

and there is such a thing a "popcorn lung".

Google it if you don't believe me.

But it's my other addition that

is running rampant these days.

That's my book addiction.

Yep, I have a serious one. 

The more my bookshelves fill up

the more books I want to collect.

I read the book Room...

You've got to read it, if you haven't already.

That was soon followed by reading

And now I'm in the middle of this book....

And today this book arrived!!!!

I read her book the Glass Castle last year or so

ago, it was unbelievably the best read ever.

An incredible true story.

I trade books at www.paperbackswap.com/

and buy them at www.thriftbooks.com/

I also occasionally hunt some down on Ebay

and also buy them from a second hand store that

has 80% off books that don't sell with a specific time period.

And when I get enough swag bucks points

to trade for a gift certificate to Amazon.com

yes, I usually spend it on books.

Then there's Salvation Army.

See I told you....

Addicted.

Seriously,  Hopelessly....

Forever....

Addicted.

Fess Up. 

What are you addicted to?

Way Back When is Back #21

Whoa! I didn't realize my last Way Back When was
Way Back in September.
I didn't realize it was that long ago.

It's back!
And Guess who the Star is today??.

This little guy .....

is my great-nephew

I had forgotten how cute Corban was at this age.

Some kids change in looks and some kids you can

easily pick out from their baby photos.

I don't think I could fool anyone or I

would have said you have three chances to guess.

Corban, Corban, Corban,  You're right!

And here he is today if you'd like to see how little he has
changed as far as looks go.  Corban

Five New Books and a Gift

I bought some books last month with my (swag bucks earned) Amazon gift cards.

If you haven't already signed up for Swag Bucks you really should give it a try.

I've totaled $45.00 in gift cards since I started the program.

All of these books happen to be on the topic of autism.

I just finished "Boy Alone", it was rated five stars,

 but I think I'd knock it down a star or two

for all the f-words.  I won't be sending this one to my

daughter as I sometimes like to do when I find some good

information to pass on.

My daughter, Amanda recommended a book she just finished

called ROOM.  So I also ordered it and started reading it this weekend.

I've done quite a bit of reading while I was sick.

I'm on the last 25 pages already as it's hard to put down.

I'm hooked on the narrative of the little five year old boy 

  and seeing things through his eyes.

It's a book that would be great for a club to read and discuss.

I'm finding I wish I had someone to talk about it with.

Two gifts came in the mail, but the bird is put away with Christmas decorations already.

This one however will be staying with the rest of my collection.

I love it!

And yes, Samoluk family...I miss you too,

each and every one of you.

The Littlest Snow Angel

She's the littlest snow angel I've seen in a long time anyway.

I'm sure Daniela thought we'd lost our marbles

lying her in this cold white stuff,

flopping her arms and legs around.

She made two snow angels and walked around a bit

and then she was all done with being outside.

She started crying and we came back in the house

where it was nice and toasty.

Reading Together

Techno-savy or Nor?

I would have to say "NOT" very emphatically!!!!

I spent a whole lotta time trying to send pictures from my phone to my email today.  Oh! what a pain that was.  Then I had to copy them to my pictures file and then to the desk top of my computer and then upload them to the blog.  That reads  T-I-M-E and so much of it, but it wasn't
time I could use to do something productive like cleaning my house anyway....I was
waiting at the beauty salon and riding in the car, so that makes
me feel better about it I guess.

But hey... I figure it keeps my brain sells from dying off.

Trying to figure out all these technological operations must be

like working out puzzles...right?

Phones are not the best cameras, but I take what I can get.

This little one is growing up fast and such a doll baby.

She sleeps with her arms that way all the time.

It's a good signal that she's tired when she starts

the hand to head moves.