Bribery

Ah, my sister knows me well... So i took these pictures back in November, the week before Thanksgiving while my family celebrated Thanksgiving down in St. George. We all went out to Snow Canyon for some family pictures and i took some group photos and then some individual family photos. Anyway, i've received some "requests" (more like complaints) about getting the photos sooner rather than later. I, personally, do not know what they're talking about. It's like i have some bad reputation or something! Now, for any prospective clients looking at this (yeah, THAT'S likely!), i'll have you know that my reputation for not posting pictures very quickly is only limited to non-paying clients. That's why i never have time to post my own pics, because i'm busy with paid clients. Anyway, my wise sister, Alysia, realized that i could possibly use some... motivation. So she offered to treat me and the fam out to Red Robin if i would work on her pictures first. That and then showing up unannounced (which was really fun) got her her pictures first. So here some of them are... You may notice in one of the pictures they look way more mature than one would normally give them credit for, that's because it's not them. It's Topher's parents. I did that pic for Alysia too. It's not that she's necessarily all that persuasive, i just really like Red Robin. So to any other family members reading this... now you know my weakness. And to any other clients, of course i would never push your photos back for Red Robin...

Still the same slacker...

Here are the pics i'm thinking about turning in for the fair - go figure, they're due in the next hour or so. Waited until the last minute - again.

Gwyneth

I know, i know: you thought blogger had deactivated this blog due to a lack of activity. And yes, i also know that lately, every blogpost of mine has started like that. Sorry.
This is my beautiful little niece Gwyneth. By the way, if i spelled her name wrong it's Jen's fault.



Of course, these pictures were taken back in April (he he, sorry), so she's not really this little anymore - but she's still just as cute!



Marti, Gwyneth's mom, my (step) sister, had her birthday party yesterday and i wanted to blow up one of these shots for her gift. Unfortunately, a variety of computer/software problems (and, i'm sure, procrastination) prevented me from getting this accomplished in time.



So instead, i'm posting them here so Marti and Andrew can tell me which one/s they like best so i can get them printed.



In other news, if you haven't noticed by my lack of posts, it's been a busy summer. Trips, weddings, and life in general have done a pretty good job of keeping my busy. So it's not that i don't have any pictures to share, on the contrary, i have LOTS and LOTS of pictures to share, just very little time to actually choose my favorites and post them here.



However, i do think i'm (finally) starting to get caught up. Phew! So check back soon and i'll (hopefully) have some more pictures for your viewing pleasure! And don't forget, you can also always check my (lame) website for updates, i actually post pictures there very regularly.

More Birthdays...

Last weekend we got to celebrate Drew's birthday with his family and friends. I'm pretty sure they only meant to invite Jen and the kids, so to make up for being a birthday party crasher (hello, they had root beer floats, of course i was going to crash the party) i decided to snap some photos during the party. Plus i really wanted to test out my new lens: a Canon L series lens (i get the goosebumps just writing that): the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM. Uh, i'd appreciate if you did NOT do a price search on that particular lens though - i don't really want to get mugged for my lens. And yes, i did have to raise my prices to make up for that particular lens. But it's WORTH it! Well, at least i think so. (But i bet my clients will appreciate it too).
Here's the birthday boy himself, Drew, the captain of our airplane-themed party. Jen and I have known his parents since we were both beginning our families back in Taylorsville. His parents, i might add, did a GREAT job setting up the party, activities and refreshments (remember, root beer floats). And all the kids really seemed to have a great time.

This is Ana, Drew's little sister and i think is the cutest little girl! And she cracks me up too.

I don't actually remember who this is, but i thought he was pretty cute too.

Hey, i know him! He's cute too, the cutEST as a matter-of-fact! Although i'm not too sure about his pose or airplane throwing technique. And what the?! What is that circle sticker he's wearing? Everyone is wearing one. I wonder if that's how they got the party favors, no wonder i didn't get one. Dang sticker!

Here's the birthday boy again. And see, he's got one of those stickers too!

I know her too. Although according to Jen you wouldn't know it. Apparently she was displeased at the low volume of Anya pictures in my previous blogs. So look, here she is, i DO know her and i DO like her! And i'd like to add HER airplane throwing technique is VERY good.

And here's a cute dog who followed me around the party eating all the food i kept dropping on the floor. It beats sweeping.

Las Vegas: Joe & Grace's Birthday Party

We left Vegas just in time on Monday to get to my dad's place in time for Joe and Grace's combined birthday party. One of them was turning 1 and the other, i don't know. But i am fairly certain it was Grace who turned 1, but you can never be sure. And actually we weren't really "on time," everyone else was just late so it seemed like we were on time. But i'm glad we made it.
Grace was being hilarious, she was making the funniest faces. Of course, as soon as i got the camera out she stopped making those faces or at least she waited until after the shutter had closed to make the silly face, but she was cute anyway. I think this first one is the cutest one.

This is probably as close as i got to capturing the funny face in its latter stages.

I'm sure Joe will be flattered that this is the best picture i got of him. But i say, hey, it's his own fault.

And here's Grace enjoying one of her new birthday presents.

Happy Belated Birthday Joe and Grace!

Las Vegas: Macro Fun

I mentioned i got a new lens before leaving for Vegas, it's a Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro and is generally regarded as the best Canon lens under $600. It's a prime lens (that means it uses "sneaker zoom" - which means your sneakers do the zooming). But prime lenses also produce much sharper images. Anyway, i'm not much of a macro shooter, i prefer lanscapes and portraits - but once you get a macro lens you'll find yourself wanting to take a picture of everything (especially small things) simply because you can! It's fun. Anyway, i do hope to incorporate it into my portrait shooting but until then i'll have a little fun too. Maybe i'll make it a regular feature, "guess what i took a picture of"? The last two are obvious, but can you guess the first two? They're the same thing, but from different perspectives, the photos were taken in Vegas in Emily's backyard...
At f/2.8 it's not super fast, but as you can see, the depth of field (the part of the picture that's in focus) is razor thin sometimes. In this particular image, the sharp part of image is only about a quarter of an inch wide! Obviously you have to be careful or you'll only get a very small part of your image in focus.


In this image you can see how the depth of field brings only certain parts of the flower into sharp focus, but i still think it looks cool. To decrease your depth of field use a larger aperture (the smaller f-stop numbers), to increase the depth of field (you want everything in focus), use smaller apertures (the bigger f-stop numbers). Keep in mind that using a smaller aperture lets less light in and requires more time and thus usually a tripod.

Las Vegas: Sunday Dinner

One of my favorite parts of going to Vegas is having a delicious meal organized by Emily. Don't get me wrong, Jen is a great cook too. But whenever we all get together Emily will typically prepare at least one big meal and it never disappoints. Sunday night was no different.
Before church we started by washing and baking potatoes (this is where i got to help, apparently nobody thinks i can mess this part up - how little do they know...). I also then helped scoop the baked insides of the potatoes out so Emily could mix them up for twice baked potatoes... mmmm... just thinking about them makes me hungry again. I LOVE twice baked potatoes!

Of course we have to throw something healthy in there for appearances... (They were actually pretty good too!

Maybe these were jalepeno poppers or something, i don't remember. But they were go-od! They weren't spicey at all either, which is good because generally i prefer gringo salsa (ketchup).

Don't they look so super delicious?

And of course Jared, the master griller, grilled up some delicious chicken for dinner. It was perfect! I like to think it's because he has a cool little remote temperate gizmo, that's what i need, then i can be an awesome griller too (in my dreams, i know).


You gotta have A1, i mean, c'mon, that's just obvious...

Notice the A1 is before the utensils. if it came to choosing between A1 and utensils, well, that's not even a difficult choice - of course the A1.

And here's the master chef herself. If she looks a little mad it's because she probably is - she knows i'm going to eat all the non-edge brownies the next day (not that day, because i was too full by the time it came to brownie-time).

These brownies were SO good! I need to get the recipe or something. Although apparently you're not supposed to eat all the non-edge brownies whilst leaving the edges - who knew?

And after dinner we got to play Settlers of Catan with the Cities and Nights and Seafarers expansions. It was pretty fun (even if i didn't win). Jared was the champion for the evening. And it doesn't seem like that game took forever - although i think we still played until close to midnight.