The Dress of Drama

Let me start out by saying that my wife is a saint. She is always doing nice things for people, and at times to her own detriment. At Kaitlyn's school they have a gift tree for needy people in the community. Of course Angela grabbed a fist full of stuff to get and one of the items was a dress for a little girl. Now I being a bit selfish would have just run down to the store and grabbed a dress and called it good but Angela wanted to do something a bit more special. She decided that she wanted to make a home made dress for the little girl. Very novel, like I said she is a saint. Spending no less than 30 hours on this dress, she was finishing up when it happened. Her automatic button hole maker was broken so she was going to do it by hand. She used a knife to cut the hole and had a slip of the hand. The cut ended up being about 2 inches long and according to Angela had ruined her dress. This is where I come into the story, I was out when this happened. I got a call on my cell phone and Angela was sobbing uncontrollably. This doesn't happen very often, OK never. I thought, "Oh great, an axe murder killed all of my family and Angela is cut in half barely able to make a phone call." Once she calmed down she recounted the story of the button hole, stating that she had ruined the dress and that she was a failure as a human being. It makes me wonder if Mother Teresa ever had days like this. I got home after the call expecting to see a dress that had gone through a paper shredder. I was pleasantly surprised to see only minor damage. As you can see by the picture below she was able to stitch it up and you can't even tell something went wrong. I hope that the little girl that gets the dress loves the dress as much as Angela does. There are a few more pictures here. Kali did a wonderful job modeling. ~Erik
Strobist Info-Shoot through umbrella camera right, a few shots with grid camera left behind subject.

Family Photo Shoot

Angela has been hassling me the last few months to get a family picture. If you follow the blog you will have seen that I have done photo shoots for quite a few different people. Unfortunately that hasn't left much desire to try and rope my own kids in for a formal family shoot. I will say this, the kids did very well for not having anyone taking the pictures. You can't see it but I was triggering the camera with a remote on a 2 second timer. Not really ideal but it seemed to work. Apparently the kids have had a camera stuck in their faces enough times that they know to smile and look at the camera. Also we are not above bribing. I know we shouldn't negotiate with terrorist, but candy goes a long way. There are a few more shots here. Lighting setup was a big softbox camera right with AB 400, shoot through umbrella camera left and rim light for the middle shot right behind Owen and Kaitlyn. Sorry for the lighting info. ~Erik

Some Like to Bounce...

One of the problems that I run into as a photographer is that there usually isn't enough natural light for the lenses that I have. One way to get around this is to add a flash, the problem with an on camera flash is that it can leave the subjects looking washed out. Almost like the paparazzi's just shot them. If you have a flash that has a swivel head just aim it at the ceiling or a big white wall. This will give you smoother lighting that looks much better. In these pictures I used a flash to bounce off the ceiling which made for nice even lighting. The lighting looks pretty natural which is nice. If you are shooting people you have to be careful that you don't get ugly shadows under their eyes. You can aim at a wall or you can shoot from above them looking down. The shots of Angela and Owen below where both bounced off the ceiling but I had them look up. You can see the nice catch light in their eyes. I cheated a bit because I used my off camera flash setup but it works the same as an on camera flash.

Massey Family Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving today with Erik's parents and family. It was a nice day and the food was wonderful. I love the aroma of turkey and the way it just makes you feel warm and good inside. The kids especially liked the mixed drinks - no nothing like that - juice mixed with soda. They couldn't get enough (probably because I never give them soda). Even Owen chugged down a good 4 glasses of the stuff. Oh well, it's only a couple times a year, right? I just truly am so thankful to have married into such a wonderful family, who takes me in as one of their own. I am so blessed to have so many special people in my life. ~Angela

I too am very grateful to have married such a wonderful woman. Look at the picture above, not only is she nice but she is hot! That and she makes beautiful children, quite the combo. Tomorrow I will post some info on how I took theses shots (Some like to bounce). There are more turkey day shots here. ~Erik

Kali's Birthday

Kali turned 4 today and it was pretty eventful. She had a friend over early in the day then in the evening Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kim and Aunt Missy came over. Angela made a crazy Hello Kitty cake for her. As you can see by the picture above Kali has Angela's ability, or lack there of, to blow out candles. You can see from the picture that it isn't from lack of trying. She got a Hello Kitty coloring book from Grandma and Grandpa Massey. Also she got a talking cat from Grandpa Stan and Grandma Debbie. You can see from the last picture that she is keeping in touch with here grandparents in San Diego. There are more birthday pics here. ~Erik

A gingerbread house?

I know it is a bit early for gingerbread houses but Angela got together with some ladies from church and went crazy. It is my opinion that you need to wait until Thanksgiving is over before you start with Christmas but apparently my opinion doesn't count. Here is the setup I used and as always there are more pictures here. ~Erik

Day at the beach

Here are a couple shots from Saturday. Angela was out so I took the kids to the beach. It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a fun time. It was a bit chilly but the kids were dressed for the occasion. These 2 shots were taken with the new camera and my 10-20 Sigma. After we ran around for a while the sand was firm enough that I took the mini van out on it. The kids were jazzed to be cruising down the beach in a mini van. Ok, maybe a mini van isn't manly but it does have 4 wheel drive. More pictures here.

New Toy

I have been wanting a second camera body for a few reasons. If my D80 poops out I'll have a back up. Also there are times that Angela and I part ways and we need 2 cameras. You may wonder why I went with the D40, well its cheap. $375 here, it is a refurbished camera but looks brand new. It is only a 6 mp camera but is just fine for anything up to 8 X 10 prints (it would probably be fine for bigger prints also). I just don't print poster size very much. I also wanted something smaller which I can throw in a backpack or suitcase that won't take up much space. Here is a site that shows the size comparison between the 80 and 40.
I got a Super Clamp also which should be handy for lighting and camera positioning. Sometimes I can't get a tripod where I need to go and hopefully the super clamp will help out. There are a couple shots of the new camera on my flickr photo stream.

High Key Owen

Things have been a bit slow this week. I didn't have much to post about so I dug through some of the old photo's and grabbed this shot of Owen. I edited it up in Lightroom, I still have 17 days on my free trial. I am trying to decided if its worth the cash.
Owen loves to read, well have someone read to him. He is always bringing books to Angela and I to read. It sure is fun having kids in that age range. Maybe not the tantrums and whining but everything else is fun. It would also be nice if he were potty trained...Ok enough. ~Erik

Craft Night

I wanted to learn how to make korker hair bows. So, I googled it and found out. After an hour of cutting and curling and stuff, I decided it was easier to buy them. But they did turn out super cute. So, if you're curious how it's done, Step 1: clip ribbons into equal sizes (or unequal if you want to). Step 2: Put clear nail polish on all the ends to prevent fraying. Step 3: Wrap the ribbon around 1/4 in. dowels (or smaller or larger depending on preference). I secured them with clothespins. Step 4: Bake the dowels at 275 for 20 minutes. I put foil on the oven rack and stuck them right on the foil. Step 5: arrange the ribbons to look cute - tie some thread around it and hot glue to barrette.

While Angela was making her hair ribbons I had a project of my own. I made an imitation Lumiquest mini lightbox. I got the instruction here. It takes some of the harsh light away when shooting with a speedlight. All of Angela's pictures above were taken with the new mini softbox. ~Erik

Dude, is that a purse?

One last thought from the Mexico trip. It may seem a bit weird but the picture is a purse. With all of my camera gear stuffed in my backpack I had no room for my itinerary and a few magazines. I asked Angela if she had any little bags; she gave me a purse. I was a bit apprehensive about carrying a purse around, but I have to say that I love it. Now don't get me wrong, its only for travel and not everyday use. It is handy to have on the plane. It can be tucked right by your feet taking up very little space. I even grabbed a candy bar in the airport and threw it in the man purse for later. A pack of gum, no problem. To make the whole man purse thing work you have to sport it with confidence. Right over the neck and one shoulder and it doesn't look too girly. It counts as a personal item in addition to a carry on, and with the one checked bag rule it adds a bit of storage capacity. You probably shouldn't try to get away with a pink purse though. If you are secure with your masculinity, grab a purse and jump on the plane. ~Erik

More Halloween

Here's the whole family on Halloween night. This was after the kids were finished trick or treating. Our ward does a Trunk or Treat which is nice when it is 21 degrees outside. The kids get a great trick or treat experience in about a half hour. We layer up the kids really good. Kaitlyn didn't put a jacket on the whole time (she had 3 shirts and tights, long underwear and pants on under her costume). The picture below is Frogilina - our prize winning pumpkin, complete with fake eyelashes. The picture says I heart Froggy with kiss marks all around it. This was Kaitlyn's favorite part to make. You can see it's nothing great, but even with nothing spectacular you can win prizes in a small town. Erik promised I won't have to write any more Halloween posts. -Angela

Halloween Fun

I love Halloween. By the way, this is Angela. Erik would never say that he loves a holiday. I, on the other hand, love all holidays. I especially love holidays with my kids! Kids just light up and get so excited about all the details and fun events. Halloween is especially fun for me because of the costumes. Most years I will rope Erik into dressing up and doing a big family theme, but he was off the hook this year. I let the girls pick what they wanted to be and then pick out patterns and fabrics. I love the way their costumes turned out! Did I mention I love Halloween? Kaitlyn was an angel, Kali a pink fairy princess, and Owen a vampire. I had a lot of fun with their costumes this year (partly because I just got a new sewing machine that is amazing). We also did a lot of fun things leading up to Halloween. We entered a pumpkin in the local library's pumpkin painting/carving contest and won the grand prize. It was supposed to be a literary character. We did Frogilina from the Froggy series by Jonathan London. If you haven't ever read a Froggy book, you should. They are so cute. Maybe I could talk Erik into taking pictures of our pumpkin and posting them. Anyways, I have gone on and on. Sorry for my rambling. Happy Halloween everyone! Enjoy the holiday season (I know I will).

Sunday photo shoot

I have been working on some lighting techniques from Strobist. This is a single light setup and can be seen here. I used the white backer board to even out the lighting. The picture of Angela shows a bit of disdain as I made her model when she wasn't feeling to hot. She had the stomach flu in the morning and was still gracious enough to model. The colors worked out nice since Owens outfit matched the wall I was shooting against. Better to be lucky than good. Enjoy the pictures. ~Erik

Snow Party

It's the weekend and I am not grounded anymore. My wife is pleased with me again so I am back in the saddle. Mid week we had some snow. It was a bit early but we got a few inches. The kids had a fun time playing in it and Angela was ready to move. You can see in the first picture Angela captured a cute shot of Owen right before he got pelted in the head with a snowball from the girls. Monster kids I tell you, they look innocent, but they are wild. In the next post you will see that all the snow is gone. So sad for Angela...~Erik

Children in Hiding...

It looks like something out of a Discovery Channel special. "The children use stealth to stalk their prey. At any moment they will pounce on the unsuspecting parent." These are the long awaited beach shots. Erik was taking pictures of the scenery while the kids played on the edge of a giant cliff. We like to live on the edge. They had a great time, but with the sunshine comes cold weather. The kids were really cold after this shoot, but the girls had a great time jumping out and "surprising" us over and over and over... The colors were just gorgeous this night and Erik did a nice job of capturing the moment (I can brag a little, right?). -Angela

Fall Colors...

Here are a couple shots I took at the lake near my parents' house. I know I still owe a few pictures from the last few days. I'll get to those, maybe when it snows. It is just too fun to shoot when the colors are nice and the sun is out. I have started thinking about planes. I know a few people who fly and it seems pretty cool. Yeah, when Angela reads this I can see her rolling her eyes saying "Don't you have enough hobbies..." I think that maybe I should look into cheaper hobbies like collecting paperclips, but you won't get to see things like this... ~Erik

Trip to Homer

We left the kids with the Grandparents and went to Homer this weekend. We had a great time. I will post a few other pictures later when I have more time. This was a photo shoot that we did at Bishop's beach in Homer. There is a bit of a story, but the image is just Angela and I acting very mature. ~Erik

Trip to the Park...

Here are a few shots from the Park. I also started posting a couple shots through flickr. It is a pain to get lightbox to work with flickr links. I think that I have it working though. I was using my 2 new flashes. I think that it turned out pretty nice. We stole the flying kid thing from Rach and Nick. As you can see the kids wore Angela completely out. Here is a slide show on flickr.

Lights Continued...

Here are a couple more shots that I took with the new lights. Normally I don't take pictures of myself but Angela had enough so I had to act as the model. You can see the catch light in Kaitlyn's eyes, I have a big softbox which is nice. I have to get a bit better with the lights. Fortunately, I have a family that needs to be photographed.