happy 2011!

Happy New Year! I just wanted share a quick collage of my latest Project 365 pictures. Hopefully I can encourage you to do your own picture-a-day in 2011. For those of you that have congratulated me on completing this project, I actually started on day 193...so I still have a ways to go too! LOL! :-) I'll end on day 192 in 2011. I haven't pressured myself to do it every day, and even though I miss a couple days here and there, it's still really fun to look back at my year in pictures!



If you read my blog through Google reader and can't see my new slideshow, be sure to pop on over! (You'll humor me, right?) Computers, codes, etc...are so not my thing, and I had to work really hard at it! :-) (Yes grandparents, I need to add more pictures of Collin and Drew; I'll be working on that soon).

To all the wonderful people I have met this year, thank you so much for your kind words and encouragment, and I wish you a fantastic 2011! ♥

10 on tuesday (only 1 day late!)

Well, the stomach bug finally got us, and I was down for the count over Christmas. As a result, I didn't get a lot of blog-worthy pictures... so let's just think of these as "snapshots," shall we?

1. I love when Doron is home over the holidays. He can work from home anytime, but let's face it... it can be a regular 3-ring circus around here, so he usually goes into the office. On mornings he doesn't make a coffee run, I like to begin my days like this:


OK, I'm totally lying. I hate marshmallows in my hot chocolate, but I was in love with Mandy's picture of hot chocolate with marshmallows so I had to copy her.

2. If only I had thought to create plastic tube-like "beans" with weird faces on them.


And thus the creator of Mighty Beans is a millionaire and I'm not.


(Did we seriously shell out over $100 on bean paraphanelia)?


3. Remember how we've discussed "containment?" And how most of the pictures of the Tiny Tornado involve her being buckled/stuffed in/tied to something? I now present a new restraining device....drum roll please...an L.L. Bean sled! Score!


This picture was taken at my parents' house. Since I was practically curled up in the fetal position due to stomach issues, this is pretty much all I got. 1/3 of my kids looking at me and smiling - cool!

On a more positive note, my battle with lighting at my parents' house is over! This year I used my Speedlite and WON! So there, 9,000 foot ceilings! Bwah ha ha ha!

Please ignore how the sled is aimed directly at the camera - good grief! (I'm calling 'seering stomach pain' as my excuse for this curious angle).


4. Unless you are an immediate family member and have access to our family albums, you will not be able to see any gift-opening pictures from our house Christmas morning. (Tree issues). I have 12 months to transform my current tree decor from Hallmark to Pottery Barn. Stay tuned.

5. My one year blogiversary is coming up in February, and I can't believe the number of amazing e-friends I made in 2010! One of my very very faves sent me this Christmas card. Anyone recognize this cutie?


Yep, the only cat that stands a chance at making me like cats...Kitty Paw!

6. Did you see these cute Coke bottles this year? Love!! Mine has sat on my desk for three weeks and I finally remembered to snap a picture today. Yes Doron, you can drink it now.


7. The dollhouse was a huge hit with the boys Livia.




8. Sometimes the brothers play too.


9. Every Christmas Eve Eve, we make cookies to leave out for Santa. Here's the Tiny Tornado eyeing her cookie warily.


The caption: "You're CRAZY if you think I'm touching that thing!"


Say what you will about the Tornado, but she's a bit of a neat freak. We've discussed how she eats toast with a fork...also sandwiches, grapes, you name it. Does the bottom right picture say it all?


After chasing her cookie around the high chair for 10 minutes, she finally plucked off one tiny sprinkle and ate it. But she wanted that finger washed off pronto.


It's driving me crazy that I didn't have time to edit these pictures of Livia (just a slight curves adjustment).
Maybe just a black & white for the road.


10. Last, but not least...the yearly picture of the kids with Santa. Not sure what's up with the bags under Livia's eyes. Looks like she missed her nap that day and then swiped my grande caramel frappuccino.


Cute, sure. But not nearly as entertaining as last Spring when Livia got into a tussle with the Easter Bunny. Oh yes indeedy she did. I guarantee that Bunny will never work the Westfield Mall again.

So that's a wrap-up of our Christmas. How was yours? Hope you're having a great holiday with family! :-)

I'm so so so behind on blog commenting...I apologize! I'll try to stop by soon and say hi. ♥

Have a great rest of the week!

day 362: blue skies

Sorry if you're on ornament overload, but we had blue skies today (finally!) and I wanted to capture the soft hazy color.



I had about ten minutes to grab these ornaments off Collin's little tree, race outside, hang them up, snap a couple pictures, run back inside, do a little editing in Photoshop and then race back to pick up my kids. Whew!

Happy Tuesday! ♥

day 358: the light

Thank you God, for the gift of your Son!

Have a very Merry Christmas!

pop-up flash vs. Speedlite (with pictures)

Alrighty friends, I've received several emails lately about flash. What type do I use, what do I mean by "bouncing" the flash, etc...so I thought I'd do a quick post.

I shoot with the Canon 5D Mark II, and it doesn't come with a pop-up flash built in. When I refer to my Speedlite, it's the seperate piece you see on the right. I use the Canon 580 EX II. (Sorry I didn't grab the link - I have a sick kiddo upstairs). You can find it if you Google B&H Photo.


Now I have it on my camera. See how it can swivel all around? You can bounce the flash off the ceiling, off a wall, a window, a glass door...anything. It makes the lighting much less harsh, and helps prevent that washed-out person/dark icky background look.


Now for some examples. For this first picture, the flash didn't fire. Yes, I could have changed my settings to let in more light, but in doing so I would have compromised picture quality. (I would have had to bump up my ISO). I could also probably fix this photo in Photoshop, but let's see what it looks like with flash. (This was taken with the Mark II).


This one was taken with my Canon Rebel, using the pop-up flash. YIKES!!! Look how flat Livia's face looks, and she has tiny pin-lights in her eyes. Gross! And she's not happy about being flashed right in the face.


Now back to the Mark II with the Speedlite. I bounced the flash at a 45 degree angle behind me. See how her face looks more like a sphere; more 3-dimensional? Compare to the picture above where her face looks flat and 2-dimensional. Now look at just her eyes; do you see how with the pop-up flash they almost look sunk back into her head? With the bounced flash, they appear more 3-dimensional as well. Pretty incredible, huh?


Here is the pop-up flash on the Rebel vs. the Speedlite on the Mark II, side by side to compare.


Really no comparison, right?

I'm sorry this is so quick; I'm exhausted! Someone feel free to jump in with a comment: there's also another very good Canon Speedlite...the 430 something? It's a bit less pricey, but I've heard it's a very good flash as well. Feel free to leave that info in a comment - thanks! :-)

Hope this information helps! :-)

10 on tuesday

1. I had a great mom moment this week. Collin brought home a paper that said "the most important person to me is my mom." There were three points underneath:

The fact that he thinks of me as "happy" made my entire year! There's nothing he could have written that would be more important to me than that.

2. I fear we are about to have a problem of hygenic proportion. The Tiny Tornado has refused to take off her new Elmo jammies. Like ever. Even a simple diaper change has become brutal, as she thinks we're permanently removing the jammies. I don't allow "characters" on my kids clothes because I'm a law abiding citizen and that's a crime against fashion. However, I do allow any/all ridiculous characters on PJ's.
Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:
OK, perhaps I secretly like them. (Even though the bright pink burns your retinas ever so slightly).


Exhibit C:
I kind of love how the Tiny Tornado grativates towards trucks, cars, legos, brawling and the like. Sure, we have the Little People plastic pink dollhouse, (though our tea parties are usually cut short by the horse from the barn set that enjoys trampling unsuspecting party guests and overturning tables)...but she seems to have taken more of a liking to things with wheels.


(I'm going to stop saying exhibit now, k?)


It wouldn't be a 10 on Tuesday without 900 pictures of the Tiny Tornado, now would it?

Oh, and by the way, all the pictures above were taken with flash. Can you tell?

Ah yes, here she is again for an after-bath snack.


3. So I've forgotten...when do babies move out of the crib and into a big bed? I know Drew bumped Collin out of the crib when he was 2 1/2, and I can't remember when Drew moved to a big bed. Thoughts or opinions? If you're thinking I should have this all figured out by the 3rd child, you should have seen me floundering with formula/cereal/baby food/ this time around. My brain doesn't have extra room for that type of information to be retained long term.

4. I used to think children that "bit" were a result of crummy parenting. Isn't it fun when you get to eat your words? It was touch and go there for awhile, but we are expecting Doron to make a full recovery. (See #2 above for the reason).

The perpetrator just feels awful about it.


Well, not bad enough to ruin her entire day.


The cost of getting a baby to pose with a box of bandaids: 1 mini candy cane.


(The cost of those size 2T skinny jeans: more than anything in my wardrobe).

5. I finally had to get out the ugly coat this week. The cute coat is only good to about 40 degrees. Ten years ago I would have suffered for the sake of looking good. At my age, comfort trumps beauty.

6. This makes me happy:


Our basement stays looking like this for approximently 7.2 seconds, so I had to snap fast.

7. December 18th and my Christmas shopping is offically done! I thought we were off to a rocky start when we read on Drew's list "a green car that can go through anything" and "Sharpie markers for kids" and "an x-ray machine so I can be a skeleton face and scare you mom"... but we recovered nicely and got 'er done.

8. This is the first year that I 'sprung' for gift tags for our kids' Christmas presents. I'm not sure why I thought those $3 gift tags would have tipped the scale.


9. I was so excited when my 3rd grader and Kindergartner both asked if they could do gingerbread houses this year! I was afraid they'd think it was babyish....wrong! They had a blast!

First, a flashback I thought you'd enjoy:


The present day:




What, the Tiny Tornado wasn't included in the fun??


Please. I don't like to toy with my sanity.


Oh wait, here's a shot of the Tornado, puffy eyes and all, waking up from her perfectly-timed nap. (I have no clue what's going on here, but I can tell you she would have never tolerated this overt intrusion into her personal space had she not been semi-conscious).


10. Last, I leave you with this shot I took the other night at the tree farm.


(Of course, by tree farm I mean 'interesting conglomeration of random trees in the parking lot of the putt-putt golf place.'

So there you have it. A few happenings around the Bonnie household this past week.

Have a great Tuesday! :-)

fruit & seltzer water: the how-to

Alrighty friends, I have the Tiny Tornado whirling through the house and another one home from school with tummy troubles...so I had to decide between visiting everyone back or posting a tutorial on the orange picture I did yesterday. I opted for the tutorial, so I hope you don't mind a collective thank you. Thank you guys! :-) I know I've said it before, but I'm so humbled by your encouraging words! ♥

OK, here's how I set up the orange slice shot:



And a different angle:



I used seltzer water (gross! - I only purchased it for this picture)...or you can use any clear soda. If you want more bubbles, add salt. I used a skewer to keep the orange in place. Science isn't my forte, but I knew it would either sink or float (not sure which), but I knew it wouldn't stay nicely in place.

I used my 100mm macro lens, and my settings were:
manual mode
f/8
ss 1/100
ISO 250

Here's an important tip!!! Unless you have a high tolerance for frustration, please learn from my mistake and don't even TRY this in natural light. This is a flash shot. I must have moved my vase around 50 times, but the natural light from the windows kept streaking across the glass.

This is how I set up my shot, but not where I set it up. I actually ended up hiding behind the island in our kitchen where no light would hit the glass. I bounced my flash off the ceiling.

That's pretty much it. Just shoot straight through the glass and voila!



Thanks again for your comments yesterday and have a great Monday! :-)