Oh happy day?

While I am working, Ty is sitting beside me saying ?I am so happy mommy.? I am just so so happy.? I love this house.? I love this family.?? I love my bed and my games.? Do you love me mommy?? I love you.? I love this place.? I am so happy.? Are you so happy??? I have conversations like this with my son every day.

And mama IS happy today too because I got my new lens and I am one happy happy happy girl.? I?ll talk about that more in a minute?

Tori this week?

Let?s see?what did my darling do today?? Removed the ribbon straps from her dress.? Twice.? Colored with marker on her face right before pictures.? Climbed up to the scissors, glue, and glitter pen that I had put up on the shelf to get away from her.? (I caught her before any damage was done).? Pulled sticky leaking lip gloss out of the bathroom trash.? Drug toilet paper through my bedroom.? Not too bad a day?for her.

This week she has been saying ?No me yike eeeet? a lot.? I grin every time.? She also said ?Me princess? and I got a kick out of that.

She spent some time with ?Bracken? this week and copied everything she did.? It was darling.? They are going to have so much fun together.? As you know, Braxtyn is a wild child as well and both Brooke and I feel we need to be armed and dangerous to handle this duo.? Gotta tell you about a funny from last week with Brooke.

Scene:? Sitting with Jim and Brooke at Aunt Beck?s table discussing the girls.

Brooke:? Now that Braxtyn is four (she turned four yesterday), we have really turned a corner.? She has stopped getting into things. When she disappears quietly for awhile I have finally stopped worrying she is in to something.

Jim:? So you?re telling us we have two more years of this?

*****About 30 minutes passes. ?Brooke quietly interrupts a conversation Daniel is having and beckons him to the hallway guest bathroom.? She is trying to be quiet and unobvious.? That drew everyone?s attention immediately.? 🙂

Being a good sister and Aunt, I approached the scene with caution.? Braxtyn had gotten into Karsyn?s makeup box.? Makeup everywhere and on all sorts of things.? Bathroom sink totally plugged up with toilet paper (I think).? Water all over the floor.

Brooke and I just stared at each other a moment.? Then we laughed.? We laughed hard.? 🙂

So much for two years.

{Topic Change}

Back in January, when Tori was in the hospital, a few different Doctors did double takes making note of her very petite bone size.?? When she was little I didn?t notice so much but lately I have thought her wrists barely bigger than a newborns.? The other night I decided to test this.? My findings as follows:

Tori?s wrist size (almost 30 months):? 3 7/8?

Cooper?s wrist size (6 weeks):? 3 6/8?

Ryker?s wrist size (same age as Tori):? 4 ??

Cozette?s wrist size (13 months):? 4?

I was right.? She does have wrists the size of a newborn.? Weird huh?

{Topic Change}

If you are interested in photography, you might want to read on.? If you could care less about photography and just like to look at the pictures, I would skip this next part if I were you and just scroll down to all the pictures.? 🙂

I don?t usually write about photography technicals on my blog because the majority of people reading don?t care about the hows.?? Today though, I want to talk shop because I am IN LOVE with a new lens and I have been talking a few people?s ears off discussing options and many of those individuals were smiling sweetly having no idea what I was talking about.? So (mom)?this is for you?

I have been shooting with a 24-70 2.8L zoom lens.? I love it.? It?s a wonderful pro series lens and it is definitely my workhorse.

HOWEVER, I have had my eye on an 85 1.2L prime for quite some time.? I don?t want to spend the almost 2 grand for it yet though.? I need to pay for baby number four first.??? For months I have been thinking about this lens.? Daily.? For real.

I am a sucker for ?super shallow depth of field with creamy gorgeous bokeh (bokeh is a Japenese word for the blur in pictures).

I broke down and bought the 85 1.8.? It isn?t the $2000.00 lens I still want but it will do for now.? I tried it out tonight and I HEART this lens big time.

How does one achieve a very shallow depth of field with beautiful bokeh?? There are several factors involved and I will keep my explanation very simple because there are a zillion web articles out there on this topic all of which will say it better?but briefly this is what you need to know.

Lenses do matter.? Some lenses will achieve much better bokeh then others (which is why I want the 85 1.2).? Having said that, you can achieve a shallow depth of field with your camera by shooting wide open, placing your subject as far from your background as possible while still keeping the subject composed well, and getting as close to your subject as possible.? Also you will want to use the longest lens you have.

While I love my 24-70 and wouldn?t give it up, the 85 1.8 allows me to shoot wider while being at a longer focal length.? This opens up more natural light opportunities as well.? The 85 length is also perfect for portraits.? I tend to get distortion when I use my zoom because I often end up shooting a wide angle too close.? Sometimes distortion is good.? Usually I don’t like it.? I notice a lot of photographers purchasing nice 50mm lenses but I prefer the perspective of an 85 better.?? Liza pointed out to me (I love Liza’s brain) that the human eye has the closest field of view to 50 mm so that means a 50 mm will get the perspective that we are used to seeing (but don’t shoot too close or you will get distortion).? Shooting with either a wider angle lens or a longer lens changes the perspective.? The artist in me appreciates that.? No 50s for me.? :)? (I actually do have a Canon 50 1.8 lens.? It was my starting lens as it is very economical – under 100.00.? It is a great lens and I highly recommend it over stock lenses.)

Clear as mud? 🙂

Or just skip all that above and take a look at what I mean.? I love it!? Did I say that already?

These were all taken at our pretty ugly community park a block away.? There was a field of weeds across the street that I used as well.? Yes I said weeds.? It’s July in AZ folks.? The light was soft and diffused this afternoon because I went out right before it stormed.? (Yeah – it rained!)

This is angry.? She wanted to be on the playground.?? I, however, wanted to shoot down on her with only her eyes in sharp focus.? I didn’t mind the angry eyes at all.? 🙂

This is NOT…I repeat NOT Tori winning the battle.? This is compromise.? Very necessary when photographing a 2 year old.? My 2 year old.

There is actual a painted iron fence behind her but with the shallow depth of field, you can barely make it out.? Nice.

Thank you to Amanda for making Tori this outrageously darling dress.? I ADORE the fabric she chose.? I love bright and colorful pillowcase dresses for shoots.

Until next week…