I had my background set up the other day for a shoot I was doing, so I figured it was a good opportunity to take some shots of the girls.
Done up with a little texture.
Gillian got into the mix after her nap, but by then Madison had had enough!
Then, why not try for the lot. This may be the Christmas Card picture with the quote - "Peace and Harmony for All", I'm just not sure... :)
I wanted to post a photo last night, but was ready for bed before I had time to process it.These were taken on Saturday. I had left my setup there to specifically take photos of the girls. Gillian wouldn't sit for me, but Abby did:
My watermark is on there, because it's for my gallery and my other blog. Do you like them??
I did a really fun photoshoot on Friday. An old colleague and friend, Yana, came over with her little boy - 8 months, and also brought along a friend, her husband and their brand new baby girl - 14 days!
I was a little nervous about shooting two different babies at the same time, but it worked out really well, while Dina tried to get her baby to fall asleep, I would shoot Yana's boy. He was great, didn't cry, didn't pee on anything and had lots of smiles for us!
Here is the link to my blog to check out some of my favourites from the shoot:
http://christinedenisphotography.blogspot.com/
Saturday we had a treat, in that Eric's parents offered to take the girls overnight, giving us a date night/sleepover combo. We went out for supper to Suisha Gardens, yummy sushi, followed by a martini at Zoe's at the Chateau Laurier. We went with another couple, since we never get the change to hang out with them without our little ones running around. It was a lot of fun, but needless to say I fell alseep on the couch at 10:00 pm, about 20 min after we got home! It was very strange to wake up and not have the girls around, I sure did miss them, but I did enjoy the quiet morning also!
Before going to pick them up, we drove out to Ikea to finally buy a bunk bed. We've been looking for a while on-line, second hand, and in stores, but decided on the Ikea one that matched the furniture we already have in Abby's room. We still haven't put it together, but Abby is already excited to see it, and start sharing her room with her sister.
I only have 3 more weeks of work! And non of them will be a full week. The next two are 4 days long, followed by a 3 day week, then I'm done! I'm at 32 weeks, and today I started to swell up. I never experienced that with the other two, and I must say - I don't like it! My lower legs fell really tight, and even my wrists are feeling "full"! I just hope it's normal and as a result of lots of soya sauce last night and not enough water... just hope it goes away!!
My baby girl turned 2 today! Of course at two she didn't really have a clue what was going on, but I think by the end of the day with all the singing and ice cream at daycare and then singing and cake at home, she knew something was up! Abby had fun to, eating all the goodies and helping blow out the candles, and she is now, even more so, looking forward to her birthday in August. I'll have to plan something a little better for her as, she is now getting to the age where she will remember and know what it's all about!
Now to recap what I've been up to! Well, lots of sleeping! I try to watch the hockey games, I try to stay up "late" but I'm usually crashed out and sleeping on the couch at 8:00 pm, so it doesn't leave much time for blogging! I miss it. I miss having the energy to scrapbook (sorry Beth - I've fallen horribly behind on the scrapping challenge). I miss having the energy to take photos (mind you it's been pretty cold and rainy here... sorry Jen for not keeping up with the photo challenge!). But after the baby comes, I'll have lots of photos to take and lots to scrap!
Last weekend I attended a Baby photography workshop with Amber Shereen. She held it at her place, and there were only two of us there, so it was great to get such personal time. We had 3 baby models, each around 7 months old. Two we shot in her natural light studio and one in her basement studio with strobes. It was fun to see how she set every thing up and how she goes about getting the fabulous photos that she does. Here is a link to my other blog that I decided to set up for posting these photos: http://christinedenisphotography.blogspot.com/ I was really happy with the way my photos turned out and couldn't wait to do it again! I just have to work on the set up of the "Studio" to be able to do it successfully!
Jen and Beth have been wondering where I went this week. I explained to Beth today that I, unfortunately, am completely running out of steam these days. After working all day, making dinner, and putting the kids to bed, I have just enough energy to download any photos I took that day and then, basically, I'm burnt. I don't have the energy, and as a result the brain power to muster any kind of creativity or thought to think through something. So scrapping and Photo-shopping have been put on the back-burner. At least until I'm done work, on July 10th and have a couple of minutes a day to rest. It's not to say I'm doing nothing, I have been working on some images this week, it's just taken me a week to figure out what I'm doing!!
Here are some favourites:
There is just something so cute
The concentration, wonderment and amazement
I love her in this funky 60's dress! Perfect on her!
more reading...not even noticing mommy
Off for a short after supper jog. This one
Abby laying in the grass... love this one!
Singing "Head & Shoulders"...
Bender looking regal.I've been MIA for a while now, since Thursday. Things have been crazy and I had no time (or energy) to update my blog... Saturday and Sunday were spent at the Algonquin College Wedding Photography Workshop and then Monday was spent photographing the beautiful tulips.
The workshop was interesting. Each day we had the morning in the classroom, and the afternoon was spent shooting a bride and groom. They were just stand-ins to the real thing, but it was still fun to have a woman dressed up in a bride dress, and a man in a suit. There were 15 of us in the class, all taking it for various reasons, whether it was to open a business or because they were shooting a family member's wedding that summer. Unfortunately the weather really wasn't that great, so we were really limited in where we could shoot. We were at the Stitsville United church on Saturday and the Algonquin College green house on the Sunday. Overall the weekend was challenging and somewhat humbling, because it really showed us that to take photos under pressure in crappy conditions (ugly church on a rainy day!!) is really tough. I'm not totally turned off of shooting a wedding, I'd just rather mentor someone for a summer before plunging right into it on my own!
Sunday was Mother's day and unfortunately I wasn't home to be pampered and feted, but I did get the weekend "off" which was more than enough to ask for in my mind, so I had a fun mother's day in the end. Abby put together an art project at daycare which was cute and fun to see. She is really starting to grow up and to see her create things (with Phyllis' help) is fun!
Monday morning I had arranged to meet a woman from my photography class, to get up really early and meet down to Dow's Lake to photograph the tulips. They were so beautiful and in perfect bloom, it's so hard not to take a million photos! I did fill up a whole 8 Gb memory card with flower pictures, some good and some bad. Here are some samples (SOOC - too tired to edit! and I don't think they need it):
And then today after work I picked up the kids and took then down to Major's Hill Park to see what was happening at the Tulip Festival. Not much really and I must say pretty pathetic this year. But for a 3 year old, just to get to ride on a Merry-go-Round is exciting enough, so it was worth it!
Notice that I cut Gillian's hair... her bangs to be specific... she looks so different! Like a big girl!
Anyway, off to play... I'm so behind, I'm already a week off in our Scrapbooking Layout challenge!
Ok. So I'm somewhat calm now, but this weekend wasn't short of hellish. The reason - NO WATER!!! We had the dishwasher fixed last Tuesday, or something, can't remember. Then that night or Wed night, I'm trying to fill the bathtub for the girls, when all of a sudden - no more water! Eric tried to fiddle with the pump and nothing... well with multiple visits from the plumber Friday, Saturday and Today, we now have a brand new well pump, and are a poop load of money down the hole - literally!! Frig - what else will go wrong around here?? What's next??
To top it all off it was cold, rained like crazy for two solid days, and thie kids were a little nuts, so needless to say I'm happy to say goodbye to this weekend and look forward to next weekend, which will be long, and have water and electricity going the whole time!!
Regardless of how the weekend was, you can always guarantee that photos were taken, that probably make it look like it was a great weekend:
Except for this one - rain, rain and more rain!
I'm going to work backwards from Tuesday to the weekend with my posts. I've been offline with a fried modem, and now that I'm back I want to first share some photos from a couple shoots I did this week.
I went over to my friend Joanne's place on Tuesday to take some photos of her kids. Her son is around Abby's age (3 weeks older) and her daughter is 16 months. I must admit I was nervous as this was the very first session I was doing with kids, other than my own of course. It could have gone in any direction, what I feared most was them looking at me and running away screaming...BUT it was the complete opposite - they were PERFECT!! Joanne did a great job preparing her son (take home lesson #1 which I'll summarize at the end) so when I showed up he knew my name and was all to keen to pose for me - I was so happy!! He was a charmer. Joanne's daughter was also fantastic, being a little sick and 16 months old, she was the perfect little model, I really couldn't have asked for better my first time out! Here are some of the highlights (and a sneak peek for Joanne! These were my favourites -- BTW they are only slightly touched up - if I was to print I'd work on them a little more..):
I figure I spent about an hour shooting, in total I took about 165 photos and got about 15 "wall-worthy" shots (pics that I consider quality enough for displaying on the wall). I was hoping for more, and I know where I could have improved. But overall I was super happy with how it all turned out!
My take home points for this shoot:
1. It's so great to have the parent prepare the kids, then they are a little less nervous about the whole thing;
2. I was shooting at ISO 100 with my 50 mm, in retrospect I really should have been shooting at at least 200 plus. I would have had more in focus (I was had a few that could have been great shots except I was running too slow...) ;
3. It was the perfect length of time; By the end the kids were still happy and we didn't have any meltdowns - awesome!
4. Need to get a 24-70 mm 2.8, but the 50 mm 1. 4 worked perfectly!
Joanne - I'll e-mail you with a link to the entire slide show when I get a chance and tell me what you think and be honest!! :) I had fun-- thanks so much for the opportunity!
This is how the morning went. I got up, ready for work, left with coffee in hand, drove to work, turned my computer on. Then Eric called to say Gillian had thrown up. So I put my coat back on, grabbed my purse, left with coffee still in hand, and drove home. She was basically fine for the rest of the day, but I wanted to be sure. Eric had too much work to do, so I went home, as I have no work to do right now.
So here is what you do with a day off with Gillian:
play on the couch
yell at Bender to sit, in "baby talk"
Climb on the fireplace
climb up and sit on the table
Sit around and look beautifulSo as I type here, Abby is now sick! Ugh! I really hope that it isn't as bad as I had, but time will tell... good thing we didn't go and visit Mum today... last thing she needs right now is the flu!
Anyway, apart from her starting to get sick during dinner, the day was good and she didn't show any signs of illness all day:
We did a little painting in the morning
Gilly got right into it!
Abby's Skeleton posture is perfect.
Gillian trains on the baby Skeleton track...© Free Blogger Templates 'Photoblog II' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
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