Fun Weekend

I was in Chicago for a work trip all last week and returned home on Friday.  We got the kids' pool out on Saturday and had a really fun time splashing and playing.  Firebolt didn't like getting water splashed at her at all, but Bimmer and I had a lot of great water fights.  Here are a few photos from the weekend.

What's better than a Saturday afternoon nap? Well, maybe a Sunday afternoon nap...

Preparing for the "rain"

The rainmaker

Walking on water

Just a little kiss?

My pretty girls

Trying to capture a pouting face. This is not near the real thing!

But these are the faces we really love

She's the reason our kids are so cute.  (HD wouldn't look up for the photo, maybe next time.)

Happy Faces

Here are some of happy face shots of HD.  I need to capture his pouting face too, it's a good one!

Taken May 14.

 These were taken today, May 21.

Big Bro

Here are a few more photos taken before the tornadoes.  I still have not been taking very many photos recently. Bimmer loves to hold HD.  He especially laughs when HD is waving his arms around and ends up punching himself in the face, or he accidentally hits Bimmer.  He is really good at making his little brother smile too.

FYI, I realized the last set of photos I posted there was no flash used as seen by the side lighting on HD. From the third photo and on in this post is where I used the flash and a tissue for my diffuser.

Staring contest

Someone must have been hit

I'm guessing it was HD hitting himself

Waiting for the next round of jabs

Good times

Who's going to blink first?

Watch out for the upper cut

Ready to hand off the baby now

Two Months Old

Here's a few more photos I took of HD about 3 weeks ago.  The lighting was poor so I had to crank up the ISO and open up the aperture.  I may have used the flash on some of these, I just can't remember.  I don't have a flash unit other than the built in flash which isn't great.  When I do use it I normally use a rubber band to attach a white tissue to the flash to diffuse the light.  Not fancy, but fairly effective.  ;-)

At any rate, I hope you enjoy the photos!

Rainbow Mtn

Yesterday I took a hike with my favorite 5 year old.  We headed up to Rainbow Mountain, in all of it's 1,100 feet of elevational (if that's even a word) glory, for a short hike before it got dark.  It's only about a 15 minute drive from the house and even though it's in the middle of the city, it feels like you can really get away up there. There are plenty of rocks to climb on and jump off, plus we've always got to find a large bolder to sit on or cave to stop in to eat some Fruit Rollups and other various snacks.

This trip was cut short because we had a little bit of a cold snap yesterday and the constant wind was not helping matters much, but we still managed to find a little cave to eat our snacks before taking refuge back in the warm car.  I was able to snap off a few photos before we called it quits, hope you enjoy!

Can you guess what trail we were on? We make sure to look for the markers when we're on the trail

He likes to mix and match his gloves

He's getting a little to used too seeing a camera pointed at him because now he always poses.

Tree hugger...by the way, I did not tell him to pose like this, see above caption. ;)

And gently down

Following the path

Getting bigger

HD turned 6 weeks old last Saturday.  He's starting to interact with us a little more by locking on to our eyes, smiling, and even giving us a few little laughs.  The kids especially love seeing him smile.  Here are a few snapshots of the little guy taken last week.

Here's the typical concerned expression

One of the smiles we work hard to get

Sticking the tongue out

Half smile

Attempting the Artistic

I was driving around yesterday after the rain finally cleared (we got several inches) trying to find some interesting things to photograph.  I decided to tour around on some of the country roads not too far from our house and came upon this spot in the road with one lonely tree.  I took several photos trying to be as "artsy" as possible.  This is the best I came away with, but I have some other ideas and will probably revisit this place.

One of the things I've learned in photography is to try and be minimalistic.  The more you cram in a photo, the harder it is for the viewer to know what the subject is and normally makes less of an impact.  In mast cases, less is more.  I liked this location because of the one lone, dominant tree.  The road makes a nice leading line in the shot as well.  In taking this photo I knelt on the road and got as low as I could to try and give a different perspective.  Again, I'm sure there are better ways to take the shot and I'll probably revisit it.

Lone Tree

Texture, from what I've read, is another important aspect of photography.  There is not a clear or dominant subject that stands out in this one, but in this photo I wanted to focus on the texture and color of the field.  Does it work?  I'm not sure.  I think I need to try some other things.  ;)

Open Field

Finally to wrap up this post, a sunset shot taken not too far from the first photo of the tree.  This was taken a couple of days earlier before the rain moved in.  I'm a sucker for a good sunset.  :)

Harvest Sunset

 Thanks for looking!