Family Photos 2011

It is that time of year again. It is time where I go and find outfits that coordinate and then drag my family to a location and take their yearly picture. We went up to Logan for General Conference and I knew it would be a perfect time to go up the canyon and take pictures with all of the color.

Through Sardine Canyon Jeff and I noticed that the color wasn't there just yet and we worried that we would not be able to get the background that I wanted. We still got up and got ready Saturday morning and went up Logan Canyon to try and find a pactch of colored fall leaves. We decided to check the road that you take to get to camp Lomia. We started to drive up the road and found that we found a good spot to take pictures, there was red, yellow and green all over the place. We found a place to park and we unpacked the car to take the pictures

I used my father's tripod and my camera's timer mode to take the family picture and we started taking pictures. I knew that since we had a one year old with us it was going to be hard to get a good family picture. So I picked a picture where you can see him smiling and happy and called it good. I then took the individual pictues. Jeff noticed a rock on the hill across from where we were taking the pictures and had the kids look up. We didn't know at the time, but later that weekend their was a talk by a general authority where he told a story where Presiden't Monson told him it is better to look up. With the pictures I made a printable with the photos of all the boys looking up and that saying.

The boys wanted Jeff and I to take a picture and we obliged them. We let them press the button to take the picture on the camera and they thought that was fun. We even had a request from Isaac that he take a kissing picture. We thought that was funny.

We had a wonderful time and we love the way that the pictures turned out.

Chimpsy!!!

Ever since I bought my dslr camera I have wanted to learn more about photography so that I can take pictures only using the manual settings. So when I found a groupon to go on a fieldtrip for $49 instead of the $125, I bought it quickly. It was worth it.

The class was for 2 hours at the Gateway. For the first hour the instructor taught us about aperture, shutter speed, exposure, ISO and other photography things. He would give us little test to make sure that we got the suggestions down. The second hour he sent us around the gateway to take pictures and practice the techniques. He would go around to each student and answer questions or look at the pictures that they had taken and give them pointers on how to get better photos.

My favorite things to take pictures of are flowers and other landscapes. It was nice to learn how to take clearer and better landscape pictures. He had a polarizer filter that he let us take down to the fountain to try and it made those pictures ten times better. The polarizer filters out the light and so it makes the water look like one solid falling sheet of water instead of little droplets.

 These two pictures are of the same thing, but all I did was adjust my exposure. To me the darker makes the tower look a little more creepy. It also helps that it is cloudy.

These three water features will help you see what the polarizer filter does. The picture on the left is taken with nothing changed (you can see all of the water drops). The middle photo I used the largest aperture setting (you can see that the water looke a little more flowy). The photo on the right is using the polarizer filter. You can see how much clearer the water is and how it looks really pretty. Let's just say that I am going to save up my money to buy this filter.

And finally these are my favorite photos and of course they are of flowers. I love how the flowers pop. I know it is a really easy photo to get, but I don't care I love flowers.


There were a technique that the instructor talked about and I thought that I would give them a try. It is called something like photo painting. The first painting I took one of Kaden's bibs and dragged it in front of my camera while the shutter was open. It left the cool colors. It isn't my favorite and I need to try and investigate this process more.

The next 2 photos I used a light in my dark closet. You move the light in front of the camera with the shutter open and it leaves a cool design behind.

 I really liked this light painting thing that I tried a new approach where I took a yellow t-shirt and then put it over my camera and repeated the process.It is kind of cool what design was left behind. I am going to investigate what other designs I can make with light. It is fun.

Happy Birthday Isaac!!!

It is quite an experience to have 2 birthdays a week apart. I get done making cake and having it eaten and we have another birthday to make cake for. This year I made cupcakes for Kaden's birthday, which was on a wednesday, I made some more cupcakes for the family party we were having on Saturday, where we celebrated both Kaden and Isaac. My plan was then to make more cupcakes for Isaac's birthday on Tuesday, but we had enough left over that I didn't have to. Whoohooo!!!!!

Isaac is now 6 years old and he loves to go to kindergarten. He loves to get his homework done in the mornin so that he can play downstairs before he goes to school in the afternoon. In the summer I started reading a little with Isaac and he has come along way. He loves to read and if he turns in a paper, he is able to get a pizza ticket, which he absolutely loves to have.

Here are the pictures:

He is a wonderful boy

Happy Birthday Isaac!!!!

Kaden's First Birthday!!!

Well my baby finally turned 1. The year has gone by pretty fast. He is an extremely happy boy and everyone loves to have him around. It has been a blast to have a baby around to enlighten our lives.

We started a new tradition for Kaden's birthday. We decided that we would try to promote being nice to your siblings by have the boys by birthday presents for the birthday boy. So I had Dallin and Isaac pick out a gift each for Kaden. Both of them loved doing it and they loved seeing Kaden's reaction to their presents more. It was a wonderful day!

 This picture was requested by Dallin and Isaac as a repeat of a picture that we took a year previously on Isaac's birthday, when Kaden was only a week old.

Kaden definetely loves cakes.

Happy Birthday Kaden!!!!