My dear mother recently pointed out that no one ever took photos that had me in them! That is very true, it is always me behind the camera asking to get shots of everyone else. So this morning, I figured out my self timer and we got some family photos for the first time in over a year!
I’m partial to black and white for special photos for some reason…
Yes, these photos are bigger than I normally post!
We had quite a few entries for our little giveway on the evolution flipbook. Charlie’s Playhouse mentioned us on their blog, Facebook and Twitter, so it was fun to hear from the people who were also in the video! And one comment was from someone who remembered me from my sling shop, and I think I had her email/address memorized from her many orders and other contests she entered. 
Satori picked two entries out of the hat, and the winners are Heather and Carrie! Congratulations!!!
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It’s been quite a busy past few days, as we’ve done all our Christmas shopping in just 24 hours. Mostly online, with Amazon’s Prime memberships free 2-day shipping. Almost all of Satori’s presents are going to be educational. But fun educational! My parents (Grandma and Grandpa) are here in Colorado now and we’re looking forward to their visit up to our mountain home if the winter storm (predicted to hit tonight through Thursday morning) will let them.
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Since I can hardly stand to write a post without pictures, here’s a few photos I took with one of my prime lenses I sold last week to make fast money for Christmas. My Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens is super fast but I rarely used it. (I prefer my 24-70mm zoom lenses so I can adjust the zoom to fit the picture. ) This 50mm 1.4 lens I just sold is good for professional photographers who shoot in low-light situations that you cannot use flash, like at a wedding or a performance in a dark theater.
The problem with opening this lens up all the way to 1.4 aperture is that the depth of field is so very small (which is so very cool as well), that you could possibly have the camera focus on one of Satori’s long eyelashes and have her eye out of focus! It’s a challenge to get both eyes in focus at the same time. Of the dozen photos I took of my wiggly daughter, only a few turned out sharp in the eyes. I’m sure all I need is more practice with it, but I’m too addicted to my 24-70mm 2.8 lens, I never use anything else anymore.
The next two photos are completed unedited aside from cropping. If you click on them to see them bigger, you can see how Satori’s eyes are sharp, but the sides of her face are getting blurry. Her outfit is blurred even more. And the TV and cabinet behind her are barely recognizable.
And one of our Bengal cats… As you can see, Kashi’s neck fades into blurriness, but his face is sharp.
For those that want to learn photography, depth of field is one of the things that photographers know how to control. You’ll need to learn about aperture and how your shutter speed and ISO can affect aperture. You’ll also need a good lens to take the best advantage of depth of field. Normally in portraits you want the person’s face in focus, and the background out-of-focus, so your subject person is what catches the eye. In landscape, you may want the foreground (the flowers at your feet) all the way to the distant mountains all in focus, so you’d want the most depth of field to see everything. To shoot something flat hanging up on the wall, you’ll want depth of field right in the middle, where your lens will take its sharpest picture.
I only started learning photography fall of 2008, but I love to talk about it now. I even started up a photography website for mama photographers.
I won’t really miss this lens though, as I can get the lens known as the Nifty 50 but 1.8 aperture for just a third of the price ($100).
Satori in Santa hat decorating the tree. I had an empty holiday frame sitting around and thought I’d shoot a few pictures to fill it out.
She asked why the Christmas lights looked like sticker circles, hehe. I said I was trying to achieve that, and it’s called bokeh.
As I was preparing these images for this blog post, Satori made me a letter, and I just had to share…
As you can see, we are to the point where no intensive-parent-translations are needed. Just a mild effort is needed to read her letters. This letter tonight says:
i have the bestest mom ever
We get letters like this all the time. Every now and then I can’t resist sharing.
This is a shameless post to try to sell some items I have in my Baby Sling Outlet store which should really be liquidated and closed by now. I sold my Attached to Baby business last fall and this is the last of my inventory. I’ll be working all week to get the rest of it up! Most items are new unless indicated that they are a customer return or used in a photo shoot. Up soon will be Signing Time products, more slings, diaper bags, and more. If you do not see this extra stuff by Tuesday noon, be sure to leave a comment to get me going on all this! 
SatoriSmiles readers can get an additional 10% off with this coupon:
LIQUIDATE10
http://www.babyslingoutlet.com/
Also, freshly listed my Nikon D300 camera and some lenses on my Amazon Marketplace! These photography items have rarely been used, as I have been sticking solely to my full-frame Nikon D700 camera and my prime lenses.
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On the road I only have access to my laptop and online editors. Up to now I’ve been using the free Picnik.com photo editing service. I just upgraded tonight to their premium service.
I still hate editing photos on this laptop, I feel like I’m blind and cannot see the fine details. But what can ya do… Here’s a photo I edited with one of the Premium features – “Before and After”. Wish Photoshop did this, it’s so much fun!
In this photo I didn’t like how tossled her hair was in the wind, and how it was reflecting light, making it look gray. I experimented with a few of Picnik’s editing tools to make it look darker and softer. Also cropped it a bit more closely, got rid of the distracting white corner in the upper left. Sparkled up the eyes (and now you can see me the photographer in them!) Got rid of a few flyaway hairs in her eye. Even gave her some blush on her cheeks! Just a few things you can do with Picnik!
Still wish I was on my home computer with Photoshop though… I do not trust what I see here…
Just thought I’d share. One of the photos I took was blown up bigger than life and made the booth of my friend Melissa for the ABC Kids Expo in Vegas.
For those of you with babies, be sure to check out TogetherBe.com – they carry and now manufacture one of my favorite Mei Tais – the FreeHand, as well as stylish coats and vests.
Taking a break from all the curriculum posts, here’s a few of Satori and Mia after going to Lollilocks to get their hair styled. Our stylist rocked today and did Mia’s hair for free!
Everyone loved the little girl and her matching doll. Here they are posing on one of the many boulders around our house.
Satori and I revisited one of our favorite places – Denver Botanic Gardens. This time, I brought my Nikon D700, 24-70 2.8, and 50 1.4 lenses. As always, click image to see full-size.
Just another sweet morning with Tori… She put on this dress and wanted to do a photo shoot, couldn’t resist.
A girl’s favorite colors – pink and fuchsia
