Utah Trip

This was a really fun place called Gateway Discovery. The boys had a blast. 2 levels on non stop exploring and puzzling and fun. YY and Burton were quite the builders at this construction site.

Wesley could have a future in broadcasting. He was very natural. It was a hoot watching him deliver the news.
Then we were off to the Hogle Zoo. Misha and her kids, and cousin Bennett came with us.
This is the top of Snowbird in June. Snow fight in June, what a treat. Cold and windy at the top. We rode the tram, got out and played for about 15 min and got back on. Not much at the top unless you have some skis on.

Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point was the next destination. How did we do all this and why? Well we got the Utah connect passes and it had all these attractions to go and visit, so we did. So glad we got em. Thanks to groupon they were even cheaper than usual.

I love me some dinosaur displays. These are really cool. I love the mammoth hunt display.
Tyler and all the boys, were sweet to show the babies the sites.
Emmett was just amazed at the dinosaurs. It was hilarious watching the faces that he would pull.
Favorite picture of the trip. Can you believe that.? What a doll.

The 2011 Spring season

What a busy spring. Baseball, sure. Flag football, sure. Karate, Sure, Why not. Lets just pile it on. Yes I know it will only get busier. We did it though. Made it to almost every practice and game. The boys loved their sports and had a good time. Oscar just got his yellow belt.
Can you believe how grown up he looks. Going to be 12 next month. Ridiculous.
The boys, playing with the moon after Tyler's game. Oh. I found this wonderful computer app Stellarium it is for tracking the moon and stars. Real time. It can go forward and backwards in time fast or slow. You can chose your position on the globe and it will show you where the moon and stars are. It is really fascinating.




Some day we will time it right so it is bigger and at the horizon.

Pure Joy

I wish I could fly. I guess it has been passed down to my son. Well all the kids like to jump of course. But YY gave me so many opportunities to shoot him in midair yesterday.

I captured these joyous moments with the help of my off camera flash. It was set up on the left side of the images and there was natural light from the window on the other side. You can see the flash on the wall, shadow from the umbrella.

YY is a darling boy. Always looking for fun or candy. Lately mac and cheese.

Note to self: clean kid's face before shoot. So much easier than photoshopping it.

For Jonae

A friend told me on Sunday that she loved my pictures. I sure love takin them. Glad to have a fan.

Thanks Jonae.

Wesley

Wesley was such a great model. We did a shoot to get some good images for a picture on his wall. He is such a sweetie. This first one was him standing on a hill and me on the ground getting the perspective I was looking for. Lookin strong.

The Big Day. Baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A very important step. It was a wonderful day. Raining and overcast. We had friends and family there. The spirit was strong. We are so grateful to be apart of this wonderful work in the church. The boys are all preparing to be missionaries. We love teaching and helping our boys to become independent and strong. Knowing right from wrong, and striving to do good.

It was also a special day for 2 of his friends and the 3 boys sang the Army of Helaman song. They did great and it was wonderful to see them so grown up. Ethan and Collin congrats to you as well.

Sunsets, My Passion

Everyday, I look to see if it is going to be cloudy and I study the sunset. I am never up in time for the sunrise although I would love to go. Mornings are also the busiest time for moms. (As mom everywhere will attest.) You have to have some clouds. Clouds just make it happen. These special days happen every once in a while. It almost makes me cry. I want to capture every one. Just the way it looks to me. As I see it.

So when a photograph is taken of a sky, any time, many things happen. You either get a blown out sky and a well lit fore ground or a dark foreground and a well lit sky, dark and colorful. So pictures like these take 2 pictures. HDR's take 3.

This post is about how to blend the 2 pictures together. See this first picture, how the sky is blown out in spots. Those details are lost. Can't be recovered by darkening or burning. And how the foreground is dark in the second picture. If you were to just lighten the picture, the detail would be lost and pixilated.So, drop one picture on top of the other and create a mask. Next to that little fx lower right. there is a box with a circle inside. That is a layer mask. Then hit B for brush and paint away the blown out sky and the dark, colorful, beautiful sky will appear. Yes it is magic.

Then flatten the image. On my mac its command-alt-shift-e all at the same time. Then I ran this action called rusty cage. Then I ran an action called selective sharpen, from pioneer woman.

Overlay a texture. This one is kind of grungy. Stretch it to cover the image and then change the layer mode to overlay, (in the picture below it says Layer and below that normal, drop down menu to overlay) change the opacity, add a layer mask to remove it from areas.

There it is. I redid it for the pictures. And i think I forgot to sharpen the one below. Oops. Still love it to pieces.

This one is the same process with out the texture.
The picture below is 4 in one. So 2 light, 2 dark and masked together. I just ordered a print of this one. 10X20 for the wall. Been waiting for the right day.

Wyatt's 3rd Birthday

Can you guess what this is.?

Yep. YY's Elmo Cake. He picked it out a month before his birthday and was so excited about it.

Bubbles in the back yard with some good friends. We just had a little kid party at the house during the day.
Emmett got into it.
Nope it really wasn't his birthday. Didn't show up on the calendar again this year. Maybe next year. Lived 3 years but hasn't had a birthday.

Our little YY likes to watch Lion king right now. Alot. Loves it. Thank heaven it is one that I don't mind. It is so fun having these babies. Yes, I still call him my baby. I really don't know when I will stop. YY and Mitt are good friends and it's fun to see them play together.