Just TAKE them

I've had some questions about whether people can do all these fancy things on their own little cameras.
The short answer.  No.

Even though I was trying hard with my smaller camera, things just weren't as great.  Having the right lenses and ability to more you aperature and shoot in raw does make a world of difference.

But it's not ALL the difference.

Also, in photoshop you can do a lot of great things with the photos you already have.  One of my big gripes is dark photos.  I'm going to do an entry on this as soon as I climb out of my post-Disneyland pile.

I took my tiny camera to Disneyland and while the pictures aren't as great as I could have taken otherwise (or, even if I spent a little time editing them, which is unlikely at this point) I still love them.  Like this one of me, P and Minnie.  I didn't take it, and I certinaly didn't do much to it (but Disney at least did set it up so the lighting at Minnie's house is GREAT!... but it's a picture I already treasure because it's of me and my little girl.  I don't get many of those since I'm often behind the camera.
So, shoot away!  Enjoy what you have, and now that SLR's are so cheap you can always save those pennies for "someday". :)

Photo of the Week

I really want to get my camera out more, and Sunday was just SCREAMING for a photo:

That's P's new easter dress from a dear friend from my shower LAST YEAR.  I'm so glad she bought it, I still adore it today.  But, that's not really what this blog is about (mulling over a fashion blog for baby girls, as if I don't already have ENOUGH blogs!).  The lesson to be learned here:

Get them out, take their picture, be done.

Kids don't want a 2 hour photo shoot.  They don't care if you get the shot, they just want to be done.  This is one of the very first shots we took and it's the best.  I worried that P clapping might ruin it, but it makes it all the better.  It shows everyone, how goofy and sweet they all are.  This entire shoot took about 5 minutes.  I did a couple with P alone (really, how could I not?), I did Drew and the kids, I did the kids alone, and then Drew did one of me and the kids.  I'm just going to add those here just to prove I try and get a picture with my kids at least once a year:

A couple of tips for quick spontaneous shoots at your house:  Find a spot in the shad without a lot in the backround (you'll notice the nice gas meter on the back right in Drew's shot, I should have cropped it out, but I am apparently very lazy and blind today.

AND DO IT FAST. :)

oh, and have a baby girl, because she will totally up the "cute" factor of anything you're doing. :)

Two and two

Could this family be any more perfect? Two boys, two girls.

A Yuen Family Shoot

Families