I keep pretty up to date with Popular Photography because I love the articles and they spotlight some really amazing photographers, but I spotted an article: Photography's Magic Bullet on a lens f/1.4. Now I bought a 50mm f/1.8, because 1. it was cheaper and 2. the difference between the 1.8 and 1.4 was so minimal it wasn't worth the extra $200. I love this lens for many reasons, I use it a lot to shoot the details of a wedding like the cake, bouquet, or guest book, etc. It is a great lens for depth of field, low light, has great sharpness considering the price, and I could go on and on. I have done a lot of natural light shots with this lens and adore it.
I am in the process of searching for some "models" so I can get some practice in on some new techniques I am learning. If anyone is interested, let me know.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The Happenings
Seems like I haven't blogged recently so I thought I would keep everyone up to date. Andrew returned form his 8 day mission trip and once again had an amazing trip once again. This trip was a lot different than previous years as he was responsible for all the video for the trip and now is under the stress of having to put together the video before Sunday to present before the whole congregation of Bridges church. So, crunch time it is. Nothing like only 7 days to put together an amazing video of their trip.
Work is going well for me, seems like I am given more and more responsibility at my work. It has given me lots of opportunities to shine. I know for sure that the field of Human Resources is my niche and I enjoy this line of work. My V.P. is an amazing mentor, she is just a wealth of knowledge for me. The complex projects I have worked on recently have gotten me notice from the President and other Senior Management. It has made me feel pretty confident about my work and that I am doing things right. With the economy and all the lay offs so far, our clinic is financially sound and has not even had to do 1 layoff which is great for us. However, since we are not doing lay offs, any new openings are being reviewed to decide whether or not that position "needs" to be re-filled. So we are cutting budget mainly through attrition.
Financially, we are doing pretty good. With our tax returns, due any day now, we are paying off what debt we have left and then... drum roll please... here come the major savings. Our lease is up at the end of July and so we are praying that the housing market continues to stay low by then so we can looking at houses to buy. Even with our previous debt, we were still able to put away a nice chunk but we would like a little bit more because Lord knows when we do buy a house (with the houses we will be able to buy) we will at the very least want new carpets and paint. Just keep that in prayer for us that we are able to make a wise decision about the house that we buy.
Hezekiah is a funny little kid- He dances anytime he hears music, laughs for no reason at all, and finds it funny when we say the word "Ewwww". He is almost a year and a half, and it seems like it has flown by so fast. You hear people say that all the time, but until you have children you really don't know the meaning of that phrase. I wish time would slow down just a bit because it seems like he is growing wayyyy too fast and learning so much every single day. Here are some recent videos of him:
Work is going well for me, seems like I am given more and more responsibility at my work. It has given me lots of opportunities to shine. I know for sure that the field of Human Resources is my niche and I enjoy this line of work. My V.P. is an amazing mentor, she is just a wealth of knowledge for me. The complex projects I have worked on recently have gotten me notice from the President and other Senior Management. It has made me feel pretty confident about my work and that I am doing things right. With the economy and all the lay offs so far, our clinic is financially sound and has not even had to do 1 layoff which is great for us. However, since we are not doing lay offs, any new openings are being reviewed to decide whether or not that position "needs" to be re-filled. So we are cutting budget mainly through attrition.
Financially, we are doing pretty good. With our tax returns, due any day now, we are paying off what debt we have left and then... drum roll please... here come the major savings. Our lease is up at the end of July and so we are praying that the housing market continues to stay low by then so we can looking at houses to buy. Even with our previous debt, we were still able to put away a nice chunk but we would like a little bit more because Lord knows when we do buy a house (with the houses we will be able to buy) we will at the very least want new carpets and paint. Just keep that in prayer for us that we are able to make a wise decision about the house that we buy.
Hezekiah is a funny little kid- He dances anytime he hears music, laughs for no reason at all, and finds it funny when we say the word "Ewwww". He is almost a year and a half, and it seems like it has flown by so fast. You hear people say that all the time, but until you have children you really don't know the meaning of that phrase. I wish time would slow down just a bit because it seems like he is growing wayyyy too fast and learning so much every single day. Here are some recent videos of him:
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Prayer answered- check!
A few weeks ago I asked for prayer for my step- dad who was having heart problems again. God is amazing, he had been in the hospital for a few days and he noticed (being a nurse himself) that everytime he was given medication his blood pressure was going up so he let his Cardiologist know. They switched his medication which helped, and the next day he was schedule for he angioplasty but because he was doing so well after the medication switched they cancelled the procedure. The next day they scheduled him for a stress test and his results came back better than last June so they discharged him from the hospital. Isn't it amazing what a little prayer and faith in our God can do? God is good... All the time!
Also, found out today I have yet another cousin pregnant. Baby boom, I think we can safely assume that something is in the water- I know now (count it) 9 girls I know having babies!
Also, found out today I have yet another cousin pregnant. Baby boom, I think we can safely assume that something is in the water- I know now (count it) 9 girls I know having babies!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Our morning at the park
Since Hezekiah and I were up at 7am this morning, I decided since it was so nice out this weekend to take him to the park. I ended up taking some pictures of him and the scenery. I don't think Hezekiah likes the swing at all, I am so surprised, he ended starting to cry after a few minutes of me lightly swinging him. Anyway, this park has a great view of the city, and is extremely family friendly. I love it! Here are some pictures from our morning:
**Update, today is now day 4 into Andrew's trip in Mexico. Luckily, Andrew has been able to get DSL at the places he has been staying so Hezekiah & I were able to video chat with him the last couple of nights. It has been extremely helpful in me not missing him as much. They have built 2 houses and a classroom for a school so far and are having a very meaningful time out there. Pray for their continued ministry over the next 4 days and pray for his safety as he returns home next Wednesday.
**Update, today is now day 4 into Andrew's trip in Mexico. Luckily, Andrew has been able to get DSL at the places he has been staying so Hezekiah & I were able to video chat with him the last couple of nights. It has been extremely helpful in me not missing him as much. They have built 2 houses and a classroom for a school so far and are having a very meaningful time out there. Pray for their continued ministry over the next 4 days and pray for his safety as he returns home next Wednesday.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Somewhere over the rainbow
So the next purchase I will be making (photography related) is the Nikon D300, we obviously are going to buy a house first but this will be next on my list unless Nikon comes out with something else. I really only need the camera body since I have most of the lenses I need for it and all the Nikon lenses are interchangeable. I still have some lenses I would like to purchase for fun, but overall my necessary lenses I have right now. This would be the camera I want to buy:
Cost: $43k, Yep that's right you did read that right!
It is 39 megapixels and has an 80mm lens, ahhh one can dream I guess!
Nikon D300 SLR Digital Camera (Camera Body)
- 12.3 Megapixels
- DX Format CMOS Sensor
- 3.0" LCD Display
- Live View
- Self Cleaning Sensor
- Dust and Water Resistant
- 51-point AFs with 3D Focus Tracking
- 6 fps Burst
- Scene Recognition System
Cost: $43k, Yep that's right you did read that right!
It is 39 megapixels and has an 80mm lens, ahhh one can dream I guess!
More test pictures
Took some new pictures I took today, I did these ones in full manual mode, which is quite tedious. Definitely not something I would use for weddings, but a great way to be able to learn my settings better:
Gone
My hubby left this morning at 5:30am for his annual 8 day trip to Mexico with Power ministry and 40 other men to do some building and ministering. It's always an awesome trip for him, but Man I hate when he is gone for so long. This is really the only time of year that he is gone from us for that long. We try to do some video chatting a couple of the nights- I miss him already!
Last night was crazy and yet another reason we are anxious to get out of apartments... From 11:30pm to 5:00am our neighbors upstairs were "getting busy" pretty much the entire time with the bed squeaking and hitting the wall so I came to the conclusion that they were either on illegal drugs or Viagra. And then around 2am Hezekiah woke up screaming (can't blame the kid) and had to rock him back to sleep. All I have to say is, 1 more night of that and I am calling management. So ridiculous!
Anyway, pray tonight I actually get some sleep.
Last night was crazy and yet another reason we are anxious to get out of apartments... From 11:30pm to 5:00am our neighbors upstairs were "getting busy" pretty much the entire time with the bed squeaking and hitting the wall so I came to the conclusion that they were either on illegal drugs or Viagra. And then around 2am Hezekiah woke up screaming (can't blame the kid) and had to rock him back to sleep. All I have to say is, 1 more night of that and I am calling management. So ridiculous!
Anyway, pray tonight I actually get some sleep.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Prayer needed
Please pray for my step-dad,David, he was placed in ICU last night. He has had heart problems in the past but he was borderline heart attack. He will need another angioplasty, and in addition to this his Cardiologist died in a plane crash a few months back. So, he will have to get a new Cardiologist to hopefully treat him. He should be transferred today to either Kaiser Fontana or St. Bernadine's.
Monday, January 12, 2009
allrecipes.com
I use this website a lot to find recipes, this site has gotten way cooler by creating an iPhone application called "Dinner Spinner". Need an idea for dinner? Just open the app and shake and it comes up with recipes for you. Cool huh?
Saturday, January 10, 2009
My little model
I had some fun today taking some pictures of Hezekiah, I was trying out some new techniques. I really liked the way they came out, Hezekiah's face is hilarious in some of these pictures, he is a hand full but so much fun! Hope you like them!
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Pray for Angie & Nolan
Through many others blogs, twitter, and facebook, I have been keeping up and praying for the Lamberth Family. Mark Lamberth was in a dirt biking accident on December 12th. A close friend and former neighbor to this family started a blog: www.prayforthelamberths.wordpress.com to get the message across so that the wife, Angie, would not have to make and receive as many phones call during this time. The blog was hit over 79,00 times with well over 1000 comments posted from friends and people that did not even know the family across the nation.
Mark had to have a portion of his skill removed to relieve pressure, and even through some improvement was made in his condition, the Dr's said he only had 1in 500 chance of making it. Today at around 5:30pm , Mark went home to be with the Lord. I don't know this family at all, and have never met them. I ask that you as well would pray for his wife Angie, and their 6-year old son Nolan. Pray that God would be with them during this most difficult time. That he would wrap his arms around this family, and hold them tight so that they do not turn their pain into anger at God.
We do not always know why God does the things He does, and we don't always see the purpose behind the pain that he puts us through. He works in ways that are beyond our sight, and beyond our comprehension. Both Mark and Angie were Christians, so we praise the Lord that Mark is present with the Lord right now and able to enjoy the presence of our Creator.
I really feel so much love towards this family even though I do not even know them, I cannot fathom the pain Angie must be going through right now. I sat here crying when I read the blog that he has passed because I could only imagine what she must be feeling right now.
Mark had to have a portion of his skill removed to relieve pressure, and even through some improvement was made in his condition, the Dr's said he only had 1in 500 chance of making it. Today at around 5:30pm , Mark went home to be with the Lord. I don't know this family at all, and have never met them. I ask that you as well would pray for his wife Angie, and their 6-year old son Nolan. Pray that God would be with them during this most difficult time. That he would wrap his arms around this family, and hold them tight so that they do not turn their pain into anger at God.
We do not always know why God does the things He does, and we don't always see the purpose behind the pain that he puts us through. He works in ways that are beyond our sight, and beyond our comprehension. Both Mark and Angie were Christians, so we praise the Lord that Mark is present with the Lord right now and able to enjoy the presence of our Creator.
I really feel so much love towards this family even though I do not even know them, I cannot fathom the pain Angie must be going through right now. I sat here crying when I read the blog that he has passed because I could only imagine what she must be feeling right now.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Flash Fun
3 years ago for Christmas I got my SB-600 Speedflash, it has been an amazing flash... however it did not come with a diffusion cap with really frustrates me at times because I am constantly having to adjust my flash for portraits. So I have been playing with a couple of different things to try and get a different look out of my pictures. Here are some test shots, what I did with my flash was actually take an index card and rubber band it to my flash to hopefully diffuse some of the light. Our house was actually pretty dark as far as lighting in this picture, so the flash did most of the work. Also, because I took this picture originally in RAW and transferred it, the color didn't seem to carry over... wierd! Don't you love Hezekiah's face in the first picture?
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Deliciously Deceptive
I bought this cookbook recently called "Deliciously Deceptive: Simple secrets to get you kids eating good food" by Jessica Seinfeld. She is the wife of Jerry Seinfeld, and she was concerned that her 3 children were not getting enough vegetables in their diet. She created this cookbook on how to sneak healthy food into your kids diet without them even knowing. It is amazing, and I have been able to get Hezekiah to eat all sorts of great food. Basically, it comes down to pureed vegetables that you freeze and keep some fresh when you know you are going to use them. This cookbook is easy to read, easy to follow, and the best part is everything tastes great that I have tried so far. Yesterday I was able to put butternut squash in his mac n cheese and he didn't even flinch. This morning, all 3 of us had Sweet Potato and Cinnamon pancakes... these taste even better than buttermilk pancakes!
Funny Videos
This video is of Hezekiah giving me High-Five's:
This is a video of Hezekiah thinking it's funny to pick his nose, we do not in any way encourage this habit but for video purposes it was funny:
This is a video of Hezekiah thinking it's funny to pick his nose, we do not in any way encourage this habit but for video purposes it was funny:
Merry Christmas, A Photo shoot, and Happy New Year
It seems as though I have totally forgotten to blog these last couple of weeks, keeping up with a toddler can be extremely exhausting.
We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas, we spent Christmas Eve with Andrew's parents in Cherry Valley as they had some of their family over for a nice dinner... and yes- Rock Band 2 sessions. We had a blast, even Hezekiah was getting into the music and dancing while holding drumsticks in this hands.
Christmas Day, we are late morning people around here, we got up around 8:30am and spent Christmas Day with my parents and my sister and her family at her house. We had a lovely Eggs Benedict Breakfast and started in on the gifts. Hezekiah made out like a bandit this year getting awesome books, toys, and clothes! Here are a couple of pictures, my favorite being my son and my nephew one playing the guitar and the other the drums... a band maybe in the future??
Caught this one of my sister so excited she got an iPod Touch
And this one of my niece, Sydney, so excited to try on her new dress!
Also, soon after Christmas, I had the privilege of doing a photo shoot for my Pastor and his family since they were all in town then. Here are a couple of my favorites from that shoot:
Okay, now onto New Years! We spent New Years Eve at Knott's Berry Farm for Praise 2009, we left Hezekiah with the Gladura's and went and picked him up after we got back to take him home. Had one of the worst moments of my life that night, simply because of my husband... let me explain. Everyone wants to ride Ghostrider, but I absolutely do not like rollercoasters but I went to Knott's anyway for the bands! Andrew keeps telling me, of this is like a beginner rollercoaster you'll be fine - see how slow it is going. The whole night everyone kept saying I thought he was lying to you just to get you on the rollercoaster. Nope, scared the living poop out of me... I literally screamed bloody murder the whole ride only stopping to take a breath, When the rollercoaster stopped, Andrew says "I swear, I don't remember this ride being this fast!" I am shaking, and tears are rolling down my face... and I just remember thinking I cannot believe he made me get on that ride. All my friends are going, are you okay? I made it out alive, but I will NEVER ride a rollercoaster again! After I calmed, down we saw Kutless perform in the Calico Square. (I didn't get any pictures because I didn't not want to lug around my 10lb camera just to get some pro shots... nah I was going to enjoy my night.) We also saw Thor Ramsey, comedian, perform he was really funny. Got some really good laughs out of Andrew & I when he started talking about husband's and wives. There were supposed to be fireworks that night but because of the fog, you couldn't see anything. We said, Happy New Year, gave my husband a kiss and happily went on our way to see Brandon Heath perform, he was the highlight of my night. Here is a short video of him performing:
We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas, we spent Christmas Eve with Andrew's parents in Cherry Valley as they had some of their family over for a nice dinner... and yes- Rock Band 2 sessions. We had a blast, even Hezekiah was getting into the music and dancing while holding drumsticks in this hands.
Christmas Day, we are late morning people around here, we got up around 8:30am and spent Christmas Day with my parents and my sister and her family at her house. We had a lovely Eggs Benedict Breakfast and started in on the gifts. Hezekiah made out like a bandit this year getting awesome books, toys, and clothes! Here are a couple of pictures, my favorite being my son and my nephew one playing the guitar and the other the drums... a band maybe in the future??
Caught this one of my sister so excited she got an iPod Touch
And this one of my niece, Sydney, so excited to try on her new dress!
Also, soon after Christmas, I had the privilege of doing a photo shoot for my Pastor and his family since they were all in town then. Here are a couple of my favorites from that shoot:
Okay, now onto New Years! We spent New Years Eve at Knott's Berry Farm for Praise 2009, we left Hezekiah with the Gladura's and went and picked him up after we got back to take him home. Had one of the worst moments of my life that night, simply because of my husband... let me explain. Everyone wants to ride Ghostrider, but I absolutely do not like rollercoasters but I went to Knott's anyway for the bands! Andrew keeps telling me, of this is like a beginner rollercoaster you'll be fine - see how slow it is going. The whole night everyone kept saying I thought he was lying to you just to get you on the rollercoaster. Nope, scared the living poop out of me... I literally screamed bloody murder the whole ride only stopping to take a breath, When the rollercoaster stopped, Andrew says "I swear, I don't remember this ride being this fast!" I am shaking, and tears are rolling down my face... and I just remember thinking I cannot believe he made me get on that ride. All my friends are going, are you okay? I made it out alive, but I will NEVER ride a rollercoaster again! After I calmed, down we saw Kutless perform in the Calico Square. (I didn't get any pictures because I didn't not want to lug around my 10lb camera just to get some pro shots... nah I was going to enjoy my night.) We also saw Thor Ramsey, comedian, perform he was really funny. Got some really good laughs out of Andrew & I when he started talking about husband's and wives. There were supposed to be fireworks that night but because of the fog, you couldn't see anything. We said, Happy New Year, gave my husband a kiss and happily went on our way to see Brandon Heath perform, he was the highlight of my night. Here is a short video of him performing:
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