Week 8: Reflections and Oscars

This week's challenge was reflections without a mirror.  The first thing I thought of was reflections in water, but since I live in Utah, it's the middle of winter, and I dislike going outside in the cold, that was just not going to happen.  It also turns out there aren't many reflective surfaces in our house.  But this is what I came up with: 

I don't know if I really love any of them, but oh well.  I tried to get a couple of reflections of Alex, but that kid moves way too much!  By the time I noticed a potential photo opportunity, he was gone. . .but at least he's cute!

Matt's brother hosted an Oscars party yesterday at their apartment in Logan.  We arrived in style, especially after Alex stole pépère's hat.  Check out my handsome boys!

Don't you love Matt's bowtie? :)

We had a lot of fun playing movie trivia games, eating delicious food, and watching the Oscars.  A part of me dislikes the Oscars - it's rather pathetic how much money people spend on the whole event and I don't particularly care which movies earn what awards, but I must admit I do enjoy looking at the dresses, and hanging out with the Laurendeaus is always a fantastic time!!

Happy photographing!!

Week 7: Valentine's Day

So I must admit, I didn't do so well at taking pictures this week.  I think I only took pictures 2 out of the 7 days. 

I was busy though.  I began a new adventure!  I started working as a math tutor and I now officially have three people I help a couple times a week.  As incredibly nerdy as it sounds, I missed math and the challenges that it posed, and it is great to have the opportunity to get out of the house, use the math I spent years learning, and earn a little money on the side.  I love it!

I felt it fitting this week to photograph things associated with Valentine's Day.  Typically I would steer away from photographing/talking about what my Valentine's Day consisted of since I don't particularly care to read what other people do; however, Matt completely nailed it this year and I feel a little bragging is in order.  I apologize in advance. . .

Valentines would not be complete without a dozen roses and chocolates.  Stephanie came down and watched Alex for us while Matt and I went out Friday night.  We went to the Star of India (maybe not the most romantic, but fantastic food!) and afterwards Matt surprised me with a box full of candy, a love poem, opera glasses, and tickets to this!

Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!  He's pretty amazing, right?  I'm fairly sure there aren't too many husbands out there who would willingly take their wives to the ballet, but I am lucky enough to have such a husband!  I loved the ballet and was so much fun to get away with Matt and do something new.  He is the greatest husband ever!! 
   
On a completely unrelated topic, for those of you who knew Grandpa Pitts, we started tearing out the paneling in the spa room this week and ran into more of grandpa's fantastic handy work.  Take a look.

Do you have a hole in your furnace duct?  Just patch it with a sign you picked up on the side of the road.

Who needs a real junction box when this will do the trick?  It used to have about 10 different wires attached, but sadly Matt tore most of them out before I got a picture.

Somewhat blurry picture, but this was the junction box where grandpa spliced the wires running to the spa. . .which ran on 240 volts. . .the more we see the more amazed we are this house never burned down. . .

Happy photographing!

Week 6: Bokeh

Mondays have usually been my posting days, but I didn't have time.  Matt's great grandpa passed away and his funeral was yesterday.  While I didn't really know him that well, he was a great man and he will be missed by many.   

• Side note on funerals: I hate them!  I know that many people view them as a way to find closure, to deal with grief, etc., and I respect that.  But personally I hate gathering around the casket (all dead people look a little creepy) then sitting in a church with everyone crying all around me singing somewhat depressing songs.  I would much prefer to have a party when I die.  I also hate the idea of being buried in the cold ground (I'm ALWAYS cold), so please, when I die, cremate me and have a big party with good music and good food to celebrate my life!  

• Side note on dying: Matt wondered yesterday if they celebrate your "death day" in the afterlife; we celebrate our "birthday" here, so why not?  Hmmmmm. . . .

Anyway on a lighter note, this week I was lacking inspiration in my photography, so I turned to the Digital Photography School's weekly challenge for inspiration.  These guys have a ton of great free articles and tutorials on their website, along with several ebooks (none of which I've ever bought, but they look good).  They send out a weekly newsletter, complete with a weekly assignment and photo challenge.  People post their pictures, can give and receive feedback, and there might be a prize for the winner, although I've never actually taken the time to post anything, so I could be wrong on that one.  This week's assignment was "Places of Worship", but that required going outside. . . .so I skipped out on that one.  Instead I took the photo challenge: Bokeh.

What is Bokeh, you may ask?  Yeah, I didn't know either.  Turns out it is "a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image."

(http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-achieve-nice-bokeh-in-plain-english#ixzz2Kimyatrk)

And so I attempted (that being the key word there) to take some pictures that have nice bokeh.  I would not say that I was so successful, but hey, I learned something new.  My lenses have a max aperture of 3.5, and I feel like my photos would have been a lot better had I had a larger aperture.  Oh well.  Here are a few of the better ones though.

Also, the grandparents have told me over and over how much they love reading this blog.  But let's be honest, they don't care about photography, they just want to hear about Alex.  So here's the picture of Alex for the week.

Alex was thoroughly enjoying an orange strawberry smoothy at the time.  Once again, this would have been a much better picture if I could have blurred the background more, but oh well, he's cute!

Happy photographing!

Week 5: Random Life Lessons

I don't have much to post today.  We've been battling illness off and on this last week, and I didn't take too many pictures.  But here are a few things learned this week.

Lesson #1 - The "Happiest Place on Earth" is not Disneyland; it is the light aisle at Home Depot.  

"Wooooowwww, look at all the lights!"

Alex could spend hours in the light aisle.  It is a "must see" every time we go to that store now (which has become a VERY regular occurrence).  It just might make it in the Top 10 Destinations for Toddler Tourism.  

Lesson #2 - Grandpa will let you play with things you shouldn't, and it's AWESOME!

We got together at my parent's house to celebrate my brother's birthday this week.  Alex kept pointing to an antique oil lamp, indicating that he wanted it turned on.  My dad broke out the matches and lit it for him.  Alex then decided he needed the box of matches, and then proceeded to attack said box of matches.

Lesson #3 - Winters in Salt Lake still sucks!  This one goes back to a conversation I had with Emily the other day.  I had the opportunity to go skiing with my parents on Friday and it was absolutely beautiful up at Alta Ski Resort.

Even though the valley air seemed relatively clean that day, this was our view coming down the canyon.

Why I just love to see the air I breathe, don't you?

So with that lovely thought, try to avoid breathing, escape to the mountains, hope that spring will come quickly, and keep taking pictures.

Happy photographing!    

Week 4: Mourning

This week I am in mourning.  No, not because they killed off a main character in Downton Abbey last night (but seriously!  How could they?!!)  I am mourning the loss of that marvelous morning nap:

"Not sleepy!"

"Keep trying mom, still not sleepy!"

Our son has suddenly decided that he no longer needs a morning nap.  Instead of promptly going to sleep like he used to, he will lay in his crib playing and talking to himself for a good hour without ever closing his eyes.  While this is a good thing because it means he is maturing, it also means I can pretty much say adios to my morning nap from here on out. . .sad, sad days!

To add to that gloomy prospect, the weather has been horrid.  I love living in Utah but I despise Utah winters.  Living in the Salt Lake Valley definitely has it's downsides.  As the smog builds and temperatures drop, I feel the need to hold my breath every time I walk outside.  I hate it.  I hate the cold.  I hate the dirty air.  I hate having to wait for the next storm to come and clear out the air.  I hate not being able to see the sun and blue sky.  I hate not even being able to see the mountains at times.  

This week we had a couple days of fog, which is even worse, but at least it made for some interesting pictures.

Matt and I wanted to escape the cruddy air and go snowshoeing this weekend.  Unfortunately I got sick and wasn't up to it, but we still managed to go on a little hike in the hills above Bountiful.  We didn't get up above the fog, but it was still nice to get out.   

Thankfully today the air is clean and the sun is shinning!  Halleluiah!  Here's to hoping that it will stick around for a little bit!

Happy photographing! 

Week 3: Toddlers

Look at this face

He is darling, with his spitty shirt, messy hair and all, isn't he?

But don't let that sweet innocent face fool you.  Our cute son had just finished dumping the contents of my makeup bag down the stairs when I took this picture.

He has officially entered the toddler phase.

. . . .

and I don't really know what else to say about that.  But a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Why yes that was a brand new toilet paper roll. . .

Silly parents! All of the toys and DVDs are SUPPOSED to go on the floor. . .

Caught red handed. . .yet another reason to not buy dryer sheets in bulk. . .

It has become our son's main goal in life to create chaos wherever he goes, and he takes this calling seriously.  There are books on the bookshelf that need to be pulled out, DVDs that need to be scattered,  pan lids that need to be spread across the floor, and don't forget about that cup of Cheerios and Goldfish.  When you are full and don't want to eat the remaining food on your tray, it must be flung on the floor.  And heaven forbid the heat register covers be in their holes.

I spend a large amount of time picking up after my little guy.  It can sometimes be exhausting.  And very frustrating.

Someone pointed out this week that I could (or rather should) teach my son to not empty out the cupboards and tear the house apart.  I've thought a lot about that comment, and yes, I suppose I could.  However, I have no intention of doing so yet.  Perhaps some would call me a bad mom, but I don't care.  

Before I go any further, let me make a couple things clear.  We do have rules at our house (don't play with knives, don't stand on the table, don't put things in electrical outlets, etc.) and as our son gets bigger, we will definitely have some serious talks about putting toys away and such things.  I am a big fan of disciplining your children and not letting them turn into spoiled brats who do whatever they want.  I also PROMISE I will not let my child destroy your house.

So why do I let him empty the Tupperware drawer every day?  There are two good reasons:

1.  It keeps him occupied.  If I'm in the middle of cooking dinner and our son wants to play, I am practically giddy if he can entertain himself for 10 minutes by emptying a drawer and leave me to finish dinner.

2.  It's good for him.  The most mundane things can make the most amusing toys.  Who wants to play with the firetruck that has buttons and plays music when you could get into cupboards and play with a cereal box and measuring cups?  While it may not actually be his mission to destroy everything in sight (even if it feels that way sometimes), it is his mission as a toddler to understand this world.  Everything is new, so therefore everything must be handled, must be examined, must be tasted, must be understood.  This process is important, so yes I will continue to let him explore and create a mess.

One day my house will be clean.  One day.  But the mean time we will continue to make messes, enjoy ourselves, and hopefully take some interesting pictures along the way. :)

Happy photographing!      

Week 2: Packages

I LOVE GETTING MAIL.  Good mail that is.  Not the crappy bills or advertisements that usually go straight into the recycling bin. I'm talking about the good stuff, like Christmas cards and wedding invitations.  The type of mail that has a return address from a real person in the corner.  The best is when you come home and there's a package sitting on your front step.  A PACKAGE!!  Getting a package ranks up there with Tillamook ice cream and new episodes of Downton Abbey.  Even though I was the one that probably bought something online, I tend to have a terrible memory and usually can't remember exactly what I bought, and so it's EXCITING!

This week I came home from the grocery store and there it was.

Anticipation

Matt recently ordered an additional controller and the new Nike Training game for the XBox Connect.  I was pretty excited about it.  I've been looking for some new exercise program to do, and this one seemed pretty good.  It had been a couple weeks, so maybe this was it!  Obviously the box was too large for a game, but maybe the game and the controller had come in the same box?  Maybe?  Maybe?

It is disappointing to open a piece of mail that appears to be a letter from someone and find it is just another bank wanting you to refinance your house.  It is also disappointing to open an envelope and discover it's only an invitation to a Scentsy party (I really hate those types of things, no offense).  Even worse is the disappointment that comes from thinking that the game has finally come in the mail, only to find out it's your husband's ridiculously large Professional Engineering Study Guide. Guhhhhh.
  

Disappointment. . .

Oh well.  At least it's not me that has to study that hideous looking book. 

The game came a few days later, but in the mean time I entertained myself with light painting.  Which, yeah, ok it's not great photography, but come on, it still is pretty cool, isn't it? 

I also started a new project.  I found sheer curtain panels for $5 each, and lined them with a $5 bed sheet.  So far I only have one of four or possibly six panels done, but what do you think? 

(All thanks to your sewing machine Emily! :) )

This picture was actually quite hard to take.  The window is huge and with the snow on the ground and the sun shining, there is way too much light coming in.  If I have most of the window in the frame, the curtains and walls are underexposed and you can't see the detail on the curtains.  If I adjust exposure to the wall, too much light comes through and the curtains appear as a white blotch.  I tried to balance the exposure in the middle.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do in these types of situations?

That is all for this week.  Happy photographing!