My first try...

Last week I took family pictures for the very first time.  I had done candids and couple shots at my sister in-laws wedding, but taking a large family portrait was very different.  Posing people is HARD! Space and shade were very limited.  They were all together for graduation and decided last minute that they wanted to get family photos taken before the one family moved out West indefinitely, so they put all their trust in a complete amateur.  We hurried and put together a time that would work and the photos ended up being taken on a 5 ft wide piece of lawn with bushes in the background and an ugly asphalt parking lot in the foreground. They turned out pretty good considering our limited time and limited ground space for actually taking photos.  They are such a great family and I was happy to do it for them, I just hope they were happy with the results.  My editing skills are super lame so don't judge those.  I still have a LOT to work on for future attempts... if any of you have tips I'd gladly take them, but here are some photos from that photo shoot.  I snapped a bazillion and there were just some poses where I couldn't get a kid to smile or stop making a face for the life of me... oh well, kids will be kids and thats okay!! Enjoy...

normal vs. vivid

I went to the arboretum in Madison to go for a run and take some pictures the other day and I came across this gorgeous tree full of pink blossoms.  I'm not too into photo editing A. because I don't really know how and B. because I love pictures of things as they are to the naked I... I took the picture because I like what I saw right? So why edit? Anyway, I've always gone back and forth between putting my color settings on my Nikon on "N" for normal or "V" for vivid.  What do you guys do? Which do you prefer? Can you even tell a difference? Here are the purty pink blossoms taken on both settings:
Normal (a softer look):

Vivid (much more vibrant):

I finally took my camera out yesterday. It has been forever! We went on a walk through a grove of trees near Palmyra NY :) and it was the perfect day to play with highlights from back light.

 

Little B wanted to keep is M&M's in this old rusty Altoids container (yes it was saved around the house somewhere). After running and playing in the heat he decided to open the container and eat some. Well, they had melted a little :( It was quite comical for him to open the container and see his M&M's were not in the same state he had placed them inside.  He ate them anyway.

Above you can see a chunk of hair B managed to cut himself on the top of his head. During haircuts the other evening B took some scissors and chopped a section off his own hair. L and I didn't even notice until the next day! :(


These photo's have not been edited at all. They were taken in JPG format and no action have been run on them (I'm getting lazy these days). 

Little T and his head full of fuzz! These pictures highlight his hair that ALWAYS sticks up. I need to play around more with back light - it's quite fun!

W Clan: Illinois Farmhouse Style

It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day. Perfect for taking pictures. I still get very nervous taking pics, but these kids did great (and the adults were pretty cooperative, too). I'm going to put a bunch on here- even if some are less than perfect. I still LOVE taking pictures. I know a few of them were a littly cheezy, but we all tried a bunch of different poses and such. It's always good practice. And I know this family was happy with how they turned out. That's all that matters, right? Friends doing favors for friends. :)

One Bright Patch of Yellow

Jenn's beautiful pictures at the UW-Madison Arboretum inspired me to head out to the Arboretum at Cornell.  However when we got there instead of budding trees and shrubs we found this:

And instead of beautiful, flowering magnolia trees we found this. 

Either it's been colder here the last week or so than in Madison, or the trees in New York just aren't as hardy or as cool. 

We looped completely around the arboretum and almost everything was still dead and barren, except for this:

One sweet little strip of Daffodils.  The perfect pick-me-up for a dreary, windy, early spring day. 

And after enjoying the daffodils for a little while, on the walk back to the car we did discover some other early signs of spring. 

So apparently there's hope for us yet.

UW Arboretum

I don't think I've ever loved spring more. The blossoms are gorgeous. PLEASE! Post some flower pictures on here for me!!! Here are a few of my favorites: