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Bridge of Sighs (not size) makes me laugh. And well, the streets of Cannes was magical. Going to be playing with alot more photos these days, have a lot more stuff coming up...hope everyone is doing well!
Isn't she beautiful? This is what Slowburn and Sassy Pant's daughter is gonna look like! She was so fun to shoot- those are real flowers that she picked on the ground in front of her, and she was sprinkling them on the ground like a little fairy princess....
So I did it! I dropped a load, and bought the d700. We went out to do test shots with it today, and you can check them all out on Flickr. This camera is IT for me. It's nice to be able to play with the ISO and white balance so easily, and the image quality is substantially better (in my eyes) then that of the d50. What a huge jump for me- and I'm back to square one as far as learning everything that this little (or not so little) baby can do. I didn't use a spit of photoshop in any of these images, so you can only imagine the final product when I'm done. I'm in L.O.V.E. I'm not afraid to shoot in low light anymore! Read: my living room, any nursery, a hospital room (without having to use the pop up flash with a white card over it), the back den in any house, a dimly lit corner table at a wedding...1600 ISO on the d50 was just maxed out. We're talking 6400 ISO with good picture quality to spare. YUMMY!!!
I was also going to call this post 3-2-1...because those are the ages of the little models! It's just unbelievable to me that Izzy is three, Ryder is 2, and Liv is 1. To see them running, jumping, playing, smiling, pushing, shoving, hitting, and fighting is just sooo endearing, I wonder what they'll be like next year...or the year after that...or the year after that. They're beautiful kids, inside and out, and I'm super lucky to be able to watch them all grow right before my eyes...
Enjoy!
d700 Pics on Flickr
This is because it's coming up on Wednesday, and P and I always used to commiserate over how SUCKY Wednesday hump days were. I'd go over to her apartment after work, still fuming in my work clothes, and she'd be "prepping" for dinner. We'd spend the rest of the evening smoking and gabbing between stuffing our faces. I'd laugh at her while she complained over how much mosquitoes fucking pissed her off. I'd wrestle with the Tonka pup. And really, what the hell did we have to complain about then? Those were the good days. The good days still exist, but what seemed to be insurmountable then, ain't so much now. I continue to marvel over her, and the other peeps who fill me with love every single day. This is for YOU P! I love this picture of you, so deal with it! I'm just practicing with Photoshop anyway. So if it looks a little shaky in some areas...that's because it's for P, and I don't really care. Like four layers going on here. Crazy.
It's been quite the weekend, and it was pretty low key!!
So my hippylovergirl Amie (who has an amazing name for that hippylovergirl baby) came over with her killerloverboy Dylan, and I could NOT put the camera down for two seconds to catch up with her. I'm telling you that boy is sooo cute, I drool when I'm near. I lick my lips cause I just wanna shove my nose into his neck. I die when he looks at me with that smile. I took 50 million pictures of him, and they all look the same because all I wanted to do was to get that perfect smile with the perfect eyes staring into my soul =) When we first started out, we were in our living room, so I started shooting him at 200 ISO...but then when we moved into our living room, which is much darker, I bumped up the ISO out of the galaxy to 1600, so I didn't have to use my on board flash. Needless to say, they turned out grainy. I don't know why I didn't bust out the light fixture that I had....but who cares? That means he gets to come over again and I get to squeeze him til..til..forever!!! Amie, thanks for letting me shoot the little adorable cute cute baby..can't wait to see him again Friday!
We also bought Ryder a BIG BOY BED this weekend. Wahhhhhhhh...we bought it Saturday night..late late..and we didn't get home til around 9pm. He helped pick it out, and he was sooo excited about it that he HAD to be in it for bed that same night. This meant that the freakishly tall husband was hammering at around 9:30. So worth it though, he loved it. Ryder was so proud of himself, and so tickled, cause it has a BLUE TENT over it. The transition was easy. Well, there wasn't a transition. He was ready for it, and he jumped right into it. I died a little. =( A big boy bed. Sniff.. The next day, when we were taking apart his crib, he asked, "Where's da baby bed, mama?". I told him we gave the baby bed to Dylan (since we had just seen him). "We gave the baby bed to Dylan, Ryder...remember? He's a baby...he needs the baby bed. But you're a big boy. That's why you have a big boy bed. Just like Aidan". His response? "YEEEAHHHHHH! BABY BED in AMIE cah. Wydew beds big boy bed like AIDAN! YAAHHHHH!". Tear. Sniff. I think I wanna have me another one of these cute kids.
On the iPhone front, I ALMOST bought myself the new version, but not out of consumerism and the need to be cool (which would be typical for me). On our way to buy paint for Ryder's room today, I put his sippy cup, and my iPhone, onto the roof of the car so I could strap him into the car seat. When he was all snuggled in, and I got my nosey kiss, I backed out, stood up, grabbed the sippy cup, hopped into the car, and away we went. 5 minutes later on Route 29, we hear a THUD on the top of the car, and we both look back to see what the noise was. We saw white, and black. And nothing more. "What the hell was that?" Shrug. Eh. Whatevs. It wasn't until we were through with Home Depot, 2 hours later, when I was searching for my phone...when I pee'd my pants and realized that what I saw out of the rear view was, in fact, my phone. I considered it a goner.
The Freakishly Tall Husband drove us back to where we thought we had last seen it. I dunno why. I KNEW it was a goner. There was NO way that the little iPhone could survive that crash. But we were curious. He hopped out of the car...found the black rubber casing....we're close. After searching around some more on the side of the road in weeds infested with dead animals, he found it. It wasn't shattered, it wasn't beaten, it wasn't bleeding. It had two missed calls on it, since the husband called it hoping that it would ring...and a big scratch on its right upper rounded corner. That's it. The glass was still pristine, and everything else was like perfect. I immediately started the browser...fine. Checked my email...fine. Played some tunes...fine. Called the Husband...fine. He called me...fine. Same with texts.....How it survived a 65 mph crash off of the roof of the car, I'll never know. But, I must say..."iPhone, NOW, I'm humbled."
So ahh..how was your weekend, bitches? Girls in Cali, and Girls who just got back from Cali, feast your eyes on this yummy goodness that I got to SHOOT!!
So this is a Super Friday Picture Post! Looks like I'm averaging about a week to process pictures, and I'm coming up with around 30 or so keepers from each session. Still need to become more fluid with the camera and the lighting, and I know this is only going to happen with constant practice. And let's talk about CS3 for a minute. I've always had Photoshop, it's saved me in the past with brightness and contrast, but it would be a beast to work with because of how slow my computer was. Just opening up a RAW image took (at the very least) a full minute. Then sliding the scales over to the right or left to adjust images took another minute, and god forbid you didn't like the way that it looked, and you wanted to slide it again. Crap. Another minute. It was soo painfully slow that I was very near the point of slitting my wrists and wanting to just call it a day...and then to have to save it as another file in another folder of another application- just slap me in the face, and call me your bitch, why don't you???
Now, with the MacBook Pro, CS3 flows like a dream. Like Beefcake swimming through an ocean of pork fat mixed with butter with her mouth open wide. Not only that, but I can keep multiple pages of the web browser up (you know- to download free textures from Flickr), run iTunes, keep Aperture open to retrieve photo files, and edit with CS3 without any hiccups. After all this time, I know what the Seed was talking about. Magic!! What I did with these photos in the last week, would have taken me nearly a month on my old computer. God Bless all things fast, simple, user friendly, and well- Apple. I also probably need to mention that the blue wooden backdrop I'm using for my pics was found on Deviant Art. Thank you, Harry Bundles, for the tip. It's a great site.
So here is the work I've been doing. I just threw up a random picture of Ryder since- the blog is called Blue Ryder. You can see more of him here on Flickr for the 4th of July pics. To see M & C's wedding photo set, go here, and to see Ryder's Godfather in all his glory, head on over here!!
I know it looks a little busy, and a little crazy- but after two full days of trying to figure this out, TADA! Thanks to the Freakishly Tall Husband (again), and Browser- for help in formatting the blog so my pics can be BIG.
This is Luna at her best (for NOW)! Since most of my images of M & C were blurry, I tried to salvage the pictures by making them dreamy. Pretty dreamy, no? Jonas shoots with awesome light, and hard edges....Luna...well- here is Luna!
So, yes- it's been a busy night for Jonas and Luna. Here's your sneak peek, M & C! Thanks for your patience too- especially with this novice over here praying desperately for her camera to visualize you. Most of my pics turned out either blurry and unfocused, or just too dark. Again- lots to learn. But as long as we're having fun- and we're together, that's all that matters! I'm glad you aren't paying clients though =) Love you, and THANKS!
Had the very nice pleasure of shooting Ryder's Godfather this afternoon. Wow- is all I can say. Who IS this guy? Where did all these muscles come from? And let me tell you...playing with light flashes is sooo crazy. Lots to learn, lots to learn. But goddamn, I'm having fun doing it. Thank you Godfather- for your patience with us..and thank you for your hotness!!!!!
