Family Portrait

Last Christmas we rounded up my entire family to attempt a family portrait.
For December, it was reasonably warm-ish.
But not warm enough.
And the trees had no leaves.
And we could only take the photo at high noon--the worst possible time of day for lighting.
And so we ended up with....
FAIL.

The other night we tried again.
It was no small feat.
And it ended quite abruptly with some bee stings.

But before that dreadful occurrence, we managed to fire off a few shots with the timer and me sprinting to get into position in time.  ha.

It's not perfect, but my sister-in-law found a beautiful park and everyone looks reasonably cute.  With that many kids, there is no such thing as perfection.

I was hoping to round up Jeff's family for a similar portrait but I don't think we are going to be able to get everyone together at the same time.  We had a failed attempt last Christmas with them as well.  Argh.  Indoor photos without proper equipment just doesn't end well.

So here is my family....  I love you guys!  All that sweating and hassle is forgotten, right?  RIGHT?!  And guess what you're getting for Christmas from me?  :)

In All My Spare Time...

Sorry to have been AWOL from the blog. Sigh...

It's all the free time I have now.

Yeah.

That.

It's funny how it never materialized.

At. All.

Now that the kids are in school and they know I won't have tag-a-longs, they are quick to ask me to run errands for them.

So now I spend all day in the car.

Every. Day.

Well, at least it seems like it!

So I get nothing done.

It's frustrating.

If you have emailed me and I haven't written back, please do not be mad. I will get back to you.

I will.

It's just that writing emails while driving is generally frowned upon.

The coming weeks don't look much more promising for extra time to blog or email, however.

God has been keeping me extra busy lately with a little side job.

Photography.

So fun! I love it!

And so time consuming.

Also not possible to do while driving.

Speaking of photography....

Looking for an early Christmas present? The Doors Of Israel photo is FINALLY available in size 16x24. That is currently the only size available for order, but more will be coming soon! The reason for that is because each size has to be completely redone from scratch. It isn't possible to just resize the entire image. Soooo.... It takes hours of work to make each one but I plan to work on an 11x14 size soon.

I ordered one to preview and it looks great! The colors are a bit richer than the sample below, so the sample doesn't do it justice. The final print has a larger amount of black edging on the sides and a tad bit more on the top. I can't wait to get it framed and on the wall. I just might have to do a Doors of New England to hang next to it.... Hmmmm.......

A large portion of the proceeds will go to Morning Star Foundation to help take care of the sweet babies who live there. Because of the cost of printing and the fact that this is a fundraiser for them, we ask for a minimum donation of $65 + $4 shipping (total $69) for this print. If you would like to give more, 100% of every dollar over $69 will be donated to Morning Star.

If you would like to order a Doors of Israel print in size 16x24, please leave a comment with your contact information or email me and let me know. I will send you an invoice via Pay-Pal and as soon as I receive your payment, I will order your print for you.

Also...if you order more than one print, you only need to pay once for shipping.

The Workshop

Goodness...where do I even start? It was such an amazing experience. But first, I must give you an airline tip. I flew Midwest Airlines for the first time. I had never heard of them before this trip. Imagine my delight when they served...

wait for it...

not pretzels

not peanuts

not Chex mix.

They served chocolate chip cookies.

Warm ones. Yes, warm, straight out of the oven.

As in gooey chocolate, cookies that fall apart because they are so warm. Ahhhhhh....

I would fly them again just to get those yummy cookies. And guess what? They just merged with Frontier and Frontier is going to be adding the chocolate chip cookies to their flights. I know it's kind of pathetic that I get so excited about chocolate cookies. I have a serious weakness for them. It's sad really.

So...the workshop. The first night, I had dinner with Angie Arther (I Heart Faces), Amy Wenzel and her husband David. All of them were so warm and delightful. We had a great time swapping stories. I kept thinking while I was sitting there, "What in the world am I doing here and how did I get this amazing opportunity?" It was truly wonderful to get to know such neat people who love God and want to live out His purpose in their lives.

The following day, the workshop started. Amy only takes 20 students at a time, and there were 19 of us there. She spent the morning giving us ideas on how to pose subjects and help them decide what to wear. In the afternoon was the photo shoot. We were originally supposed to be outside, but the weather was horrible--an all day rain. Instead, we did the shoot in a hotel sitting area that had windows all around. I was amazed at how we did not need a beautiful background to get great shots. Amy demonstrated how we could use the available chairs, backgrounds and light to come up with some great photos.

I will share some of the photos, but there is a caveat. There were 19 of us shooting and although we were taking turns, we still weren't always able to shoot from the angle that was best. Also, I do not have Photoshop yet, so I wasn't able to edit these with the cool things I learned.

This little guy was so cute--and completely terrified for the first 30 minutes of the shoot. I guess I would be too, if I saw 20 women with camera's aimed in my direction. This is not the angle I would have liked to have shot this--but it's what I had. hee...

This beautiful young lady was a high school senior. She was there to help us develop our ability to take senior pictures. I was amazed at how the background turned out. The silver in this background was a pair of elevators. The red chair was available in the room, so we used it.

These two little girls were adorable. Oh my goodness they were so fun to photograph. And they were soooo patient. This was a couch in the room with a less-than-stellar background, but it worked. Notice that the little girl in the red is very sharp but the little girl in the purple isn't. That is because I had to focus on one of them, so I chose the one farthest away. Normally, when taking a photo like this, you would stand directly in front of them so that they would both be in focus.

Another unusual background...she is sitting in front of the hotel restaurant. The orange is from the lights, and if you look closely, you can see the TV. Thankfully, it wasn't on. You can also see a patron sitting at his table. (But you're not really SUPPOSED to look for those things. I'm just sharing it because it IS possible to take a nice photo with a not-so-nice background.) I have a lens that does the nifty blurring of the background, but if you have a portrait setting on your camera, you should be able to get some blurring. The portrait setting is the one with a person's head. If you put it on that setting, though, you may only be able to get one person clearly. The camera will focus on the nearest object. If you have more than one person in the photo, you need to put them on the same plane...not one farther away from you than the other.)

Another angle of her in front of the restaurant. It's actually a pretty cool background since the blurring allows you to get some cool looking lights and shapes. It's called 'bokah.' Photographers will swoon over a great looking bokah.

Belated Chinese New Year photos...

I did eventually get the little girls to pose in their CNY silks. They were happy to oblige.






Jeff has been in sunny, warm Mexico this week. All the kids have had the week off for winter break. I'm not bitter...I'm just sharin' my testimony.

We got about six inches of heavy wet snow yesterday so our sledding hill was back in business. I planned to just take photos, but Jillian begged, pleaded, and pretty much wouldn't take no for an answer about me joining them on the slope. I did get some pictures taken before I was required to join them, however.



The new trick is sliding down the hill without a sled...kind of a body sledding thing

Katie...girl...you have to lie down on the hill to slide down, not just flop down at the top and expect to go anywhere



Jakie is so little...he is the essence of cuteness as he tries to walk around in the snow

SaraGrace, the child most likely to embarrass us, was absolutely cracking me up. She grabbed my hand as we climbed the hill and said, "Let's rock and roll!" I don't know where she heard that, but leave it to her to come up with a saucy remark. Once at the top, she looked down and announced, "Get out of my way, Bub." No clue to whom that statement was directed.

It didn't take long for me to realize that I am woefully out of shape and I huffed and puffed after going up and down the hill a few times. Dang! It was so much fun, but after awhile I could not ignore the pounding in my ears and had to take a break.

The snow here in New England is different than the Midwest. It's generally not as cold here, so the snow is wet and sticks to the trees and bushes. It's so beautiful. The sun was shining on the trees today, making the snowy branches sparkle like diamonds. I tried to get some photos--which didn't do the scenery justice, but I'll post them anyway so you can get an idea. If you double click on them they will be larger.

Pass the Bucket

Pass the bucket 'cause we have another barfer. Kate woke up with barf in her hair this morning and all over her bed. Ewwwww.....

Jillian and Molly are also sick with horrible stomach pain and body aches, so the three of them turned Mom and Dad's bedroom into a sick bay. I felt so bad for them and hate it when I can't give them any medicine to alleviate their suffering. Well, I DID offer to go get some Tylen*l suppositories, but they said they would rather suffer.

Poor Katie-bug, it's her birthday tomorrow, so I am hoping she is feeling better by then. If not, we can delay celebrating until she feels better. Hoping the rest of us don't end up getting it. ugh.

It warmed up into the 40's, so I decided to take the non-sickies out for some fresh air. (And to get the smell of puke out of my own nose.) A little theraputic photography helped too.