Slice of Life @ Iheartfaces

Over at I Heart Faces this week the theme is "Slice of Life," as in, a slice of real life. This is one of those themes that is really for anyone and everyone because who doesn't have their own special brand of life to share and celebrate?

I was all set to enter an old picture of Max sitting in his toy cabinet (see it HERE), but today I happened to have the camera out (taking pictures of our cat after I'd realized that I took TWO pictures of him in all of 2010-shame on me) when my husband snuck up right behind Max and surprised him out of his Mickey-Mouse-Clubhouse-Is-The-Only-Thing-In-The-World-Stupor (it's a real medical disorder, look it up). I took about ten super fast clicks and this was the last frame.

I love my life.

More great entries over at I Heart Faces. Head on over and get your own dose of real life!

Welcome to the World, Luke

It has been way WAY too long since I last blogged, so I better make up for it with a super cute baby, right? Well, okay, you talked me into it!

Meet Luke. This little eight-day old was just teeny tiny and had the nicest skin and feathery light hair. There was a serious precious factor going on. Throw some bunny ears on him and the sweetness level goes through the roof. There are more of Luke over on the KSP Facebook Page, too!

p.s. Luke, let your Mama get some sleep!

Tuesday's Top 5

Sorry, no Tuesday's Top 5 this week as my little guy is sick and I'm feeling tired. But here's a picture full of color to brighten your Tuesday. Don't you just love colorful things?

Fireworks & Such

I tried my hand at some fireworks photos while we were at the Magic Kingdom. Here are my two favorites. I think the first one looks like pixie dust being sprinkled on the castle.

For photogs, my camera was tripod-mounted using a 2-second timer (use a remote if you've got it, though) and my settings were ss 3, f/10, ISO 200





Also thought I'd share some snaps from the Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom. We had great seats so I was able to get up close & personal with just my 28-75mm. Settings were ss 1/320, f/2.8, ISO 2500.

Up, Up and Away

Sorry for the lack of blog posts but we have been away. By means of a 737 (and not a bunch of balloons) we flew to Florida to celebrate my son's third birthday at the happiest place on earth. What a blast! I won't bore you with the family snapshots (although, if you're interested I'll post them on Maxaroni (and Cheese)) later today, but while we were there I took the boy out to Disney's Boardwalk to toy with an idea for his birthday pictures.

As these things tend to go, my idea did not work out exactly as I had planned, but I am still IN LOVE with this first picture, and my back up plan saved the day for the rest. I am having dreams of a canvas wall over my fireplace now....

And in case you're wondering how I got so lucky to have the Boardwalk all to myself, the truth is, I didn't. That is one of the kinks that got thrown in my grand plan. There were a lot of people there! I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me before. In my head, Max and I were leisurely taking pictures on an empty Boardwalk filled with late afternoon sun, with blue sky stretching out beyond him. In reality, the Boardwalk is curved, so the blue sky was hidden behind buildings, and there were people everywhere.

Here's a secret. The first picture is doctored. I used three different pictures to make it appear that there was no one else around. Check out the original below (you can also see what it looks like straight out of the camera without the vintage processing), and the final edit again. Pretty cool, right?

I'm not saying photoshop should fix everything. Ideally, you can get the shot without having to doctor it later, but in this case, I'm glad I was able to save this one with a little digital magic!

I'll be back soon with a few more disney shots. Fireworks! Oooh! Aaaah!