Dakota Romp

A little afternoon fun with Dakota.

It was really just an excuse to take some photos. We don't play with her often, and I even bought her a new toy. That doesn't happen often either. We're cheap parents. So might as well document this.

I took some photos just for the heck of it. Sadly, our apartment is so underlit, it's really impossible to get good photos without grain. We have one tiny little room that is flooded with light, sadly, that room is the spare bathroom. But if we keep the door open, it's fills our tiny hallway with light. So that's where we played :) Use whatcha got.

This photo was already underexposed... I can say I meant to do that, but I didn't. Once I started looking at it though, I really loved the pose and wanted the focus on that, nothing else was important. Just a dog and her toy. So I went with the flow and made it even darker to get that silhouette effect, but not making it completely b&w. I just like how clearly it shows her "ready to spring into action" sit command. She knows the correct sit command means butt.on.ground :) Smart dog. Ready to play.

Next up, the classic Dakota sprint with her new toy.  Did you know that dogs smile?! I read that somewhere in an article once. I can't say I don't believe it. She's ecstatic in this photo with the tail up and the ears flopping.  Again, very poor quality, lots of grain, a bit of blur, but I loved the overexposed light behind her and heck, I can even say I meant to blur it a bit since it is an action shot after all :) My photographic flair?! Sure. Let's call it that.

Last, but not least, Dakota always has to roll on something if it's new to her. A new food, like the piece of squash we gave her last night. Yup, she rolled all over that bit of squash before she finally ate it.

Again, poor quality, but I loved the simplicity of the photo. I even dared to convert these to b&w since the colors didn't contribute anything to the photo. It's all about her poses here :) Roll baby roll....

I think the most I learned from this afternoon was how important it is to take photos of just our simple everyday lives, even if the photos aren't perfect. It's those photos I think that will mean the most to me one day since these small fragmants of time will easily be forgotten.

So go out there and take photos of everything you love.

*Kristin*

Mastering the Cookie

That's right...in my 25 years of life, NEVER have I been able to bake a chocolate chip cookie that didn't come out looking like a pancake! But no more!! I finally concocted the perfect recipe! *er* maybe. It still needs a bit of tweaking, but that's ok :) At least these are OH So delicious!

Also, in my free time, I've been trying to use my DSLR more since I've realized 1) Ross & I NEVER take pictures and 2) I bought this fancy camera and intend on learning all about it! So the more opportunities I decide to use it, the better I'll get. I no longer put the camera away, b/c when it's put away, I forget about it. So now it sits pretty on the top of my kitchen counter :)

So enjoy a ride through my Monday baking...

 Yum....can't you just smell them?!

They came out a little more brown than I intended, which is where the tweaking comes in to play. Or maybe it's the electric oven I'm not used to.

On a photography sidenote, I think I'm getting a little carried away with my nifty fifty lens and need to tone down the 'blurriness' ha!

 And my new routine? A fruity alcoholic drink while baking. They just go hand-in-hand, dontcha thinik?!

So perhaps this is what people do while they are unemployed? If so, I could sure live it up :) And to follow my 'get-fit-for-Ang's-wedding' regime, I gladly gave away all of my cookies for Ross to take into work. So I only ate ten. What?! Surely, that's better than eating all 4 dozen!! 0:)

*Kristin*

My Photography Beginning

My cousin Angela asked me a few months ago when I bought my DSLR if I'd be up for taking newborn photos when Giana, her first child, arrived. So on Sunday, Ross & I set out to Angela & Dave's house to meet Giana for the first time, and to take some photos.  She was precious to say the least and only 17 days old. I was so excited to finally have a subject that wasn't Dakota!! I would've liked to take pictures of Giana sooner, but with the move Ross & I are preparing for, we were just too busy to do it any sooner! Giana was quite the cryer for the first hour, but after a bit of coddling and feeding time, she calmed down enough to get some decent photos :)

I'm the first to admit how FAR I am from being a professional after overexposing a ton of shots, taking too long with settings, and some of the pictures being completely out of focus! ...But after 600+ photos (200 of which I instantly deleted), here are some of the best shots. I had so much fun with Giana and can't wait to find more 'test' subjects so that I can keep practicing!  If only all subjects could be this adorable :)

 

  

 

 

 

  

 *Kristin

Fun with Photoshop

Since the new addition of my DSLR, I've been having a lot of fun learning how to use it, and actually getting to enjoy using Photoshop to ENHANCE my photos, and not completely fix them! I still have a LONG way to go with understanding my camera, but it's been a lot of fun so far :)  I even bought a new lens for my camera with some Christmas money, and have finally taken the chance to test this puppy out! Let's just say I LOVE it and am obsessed with it for such a neat little, inexpensive lens.


Enter my only willing (and difficult!!) practice model....Dakota. I even dressed her up just for the fun of it. HAHA Poor dog. Don't worry, she got way too many treats!!


So out of 93(!) shots....here are the best before and afters:

I was able to white out the background using a technique I saw over on BowerPower.  I saw it months ago and it stayed on my mind until I was finally able to try it myself :)

Sadly, making the 'before & after photo collage' in photoshop, took me longer than the entire session! haha It's all a learning experience!

She was NOT happy wearing the hat. It quickly came off!

And then the rest of 84 photos, pretty much look like this.....

Haha....o well. It was fun to say the least and I'm psyched to have one more technique under my rookie belt!

~Kristin