party of three: 8/52

Take one picture a week for 52 weeks of the 3 kids together. How hard could it be? Well, you can already see I am ridiculously behind on this week's post.....and after my super successful week 7, it's only fitting that I be knocked squarely backward onto my posterior for week 8.

Let's recount the day's events:

-6:50 alarm goes off
-hit snooze repeatedly for 30 minutes
-7:20 realize I can no longer put off the inevitable; get up
-8:09 screech into the school drive-thru lane with one minute to spare (nice!!)
-8:15 arrive back home & feed the tornado
-make 2 doctors appointments and 1 dentist appointment
-get a wild hair and start re-organizing a random kitchen cabinet
-get distracted and hunt down the tornado
-play dollhouse
-9:30 there is a request for toast; feed tornado again
-cuddle on couch with tornado; watch Dora
-10:30 put tornado down for nap
-debate between cleaning up kitchen cabinet disaster or taking picture of dead tulips
-take picture of dead tulips
-11:00 realize picture of dead tulips is nothing exciting and debate between re-tackling kitchen cabinet disaster and online shopping
-decide on online shopping
-become overjoyed to find the cool peace sign leggings the tornado had as a baby are back for another season!!!!
-order peace sign leggings in size 3T
-12:00 peer warily into kitchen, become overwhelmed with kitchen organization project and head upstairs for a quick nap
-12:30 awaken with a jolt to the sound of shrieking from the tornado's room
-rub tornado's back as requested
-12:45 bring tornado to my bed to see if she will go back to sleep
-she doesn't
-1:00 win the mother of the year award by opening only one eyeball as I see the tornado perched on the edge of my (massive) king bed telling herself to "be careful"
-1:10 win another mother of the year award by still pretending to be asleep even though the tornado is softly patting my leg saying "yake up mama"
-1:15 jolt awake again to "hungry eat!!! all done seeping mama!!!"
-grudgingly roll out of bed to tackle the laundry
-put piles of folded laundry away
-return from Collin's closet to see tornado back in my bed, under the covers, hands behind her head, reclining on a pile of pillows and saying "watch tv mama"
-realize I could have rested for 30 more minutes
-1:30 turn on Bubble Guppies
-1:35 come downstairs to type this list
-1:45 realize this list is really boring
-fix lunch for me and tornado
-2:53 pick up boys from school
-3:15 arrive at allergy shots
-debate between waiting the mandatory 30 minutes or being a rebel and leaving after 15
-leave after 15
3:30 hit the mall

Perhaps the day's events caused my brain to short-circuit, but here was my thought process: Take the kids to the mall, let them have a pretzel and lemonade for a snack and snap the picture of the week. Everyone occupied - check! Cute sibling moment - check! TT strapped in a high chair and unable to escape - check! All the makings of a great candid shot.

Did you ever notice that when you get your child's picture taken professionally, they don't eat while taking pictures?

So now...not only do I have to deal with 3 kids making odd faces at any given moment (blinking, sneezing, scratching a nose)...now I have to deal with chewing. And it wasn't pretty chewing. Think horse and hay bale.

Picture of the week? Here ya go.


Now for some tips/tricks/things I learned, etc:

1. I thought the lighting at the mall was going to be a breeze. It's always light and bright and there are huge skylights overhead. Would you believe my ISO was 1,000, my shutter was 1/100 (too slow) and my aperture was f/5 (too wide).


2. If you're not into photography, you might wonder why I always say my settings are "too slow" or "too wide" or my ISO was "too high." When you're using natural light (no flash), everything is a balancing act. If I set my camera to my ideal settings: let's say f/8, ss 1/500, ISO 200....the picture would be underexposed; probably to the point of being totally black.


3. I mentioned my ISO was 1,000. For some reason I can't allow myself to go over 1,000...I have no idea why. It's a mental thing. Did you know that a properly exposed photo at a higher ISO has less noise than an underexposed photo at a lower ISO. (I always lowered my ISO and used Photoshop to bring up the exposure. WRONG!)


4. Are you wondering why my b&w shots are hazy with low contrast? If you try to do a dramatic black and white when there's a lot going on in the picture, it can be overwhelming to look at. (This is only my opinion!) By adding a bit of haze, you're reducing the stark contrast between dark blacks, and light whites...kind of toning it down a bit. (Again, just my opinion).


If you're thinking I forgot my new mantra of not taking 50 pictures from the same spot...


...and forgot to incorporate "quite observation from afar..."


...I haven't.


I just didn't want to be creepy creeperton roaming around the food court with a camera.




So there you go...week 8 is done! :-)
Happy Tuesday! ♥