Life Inside the Doll House

This evening, I managed to locate my tripod and put it to use. The results of our photo session are ... interesting. I want to get into the habit of taking pictures of myself with the children. Whole family shots are very rare too, and I would like to change that.  I decided to use our new sofa as the setting. There wasn't enough space for the 50mm and I changed to the kit lens. This may explain the quality of the pictures to some degree. I did say that I wanted to play around with the kit lens to get a feel for different focal lengths. One of the problems with this set up is that it makes the kids go nuts! I was motivated to dig out my tripod after reading this  tutorial. I was so touched by the beautiful pictures this woman captured. It made the role of motherhood look so blissful and tranquil. I got this... f/3.5; 1/160; ISO 800 - focal length 18mm And this... f/3.5; 1/160; ISO 800 - focal length 18mm Let's not forget this... f/3.5; 1/160; ISO 80...

My husband got home late last night and I spent some time catching up with tutorials from  Click it up a Notch . There is some seriously good stuff on there! I also spent some time on  Clickin Moms  and ended up taking the plunge and becoming a member. This gives me access to lots of tutorials and forums to ask questions. I just hope that I can find some time to use it.  It was my long London day and I brought my camera. This week I snapped my photos on the way to work in the hope of less people getting into the frame. Also, it is definitely getting darker earlier these days so the morning light is better. Sob! I was really getting into taking my photos when I noticed that I was taking way too long and would be late for work.  We love this burger place. It is very hard to walk past and not grab a burger on the way home. I do resist though. I also like the colours in this shot and the font Shake Shack used for their sign. These are the kinds of details I...

We bought a laminator a couple of years ago because we wanted to preserve some of the kids artwork. I figured that laminating and displaying their work would demonstrate how proud I was of their achievements. I hoped that it would make them feel valued and special. I think that it has achieved those things to some extent, but the true value of this machine is that laminating is lots of fun! I have to resist the urge to laminate every piece of paper I can get my hands on. Thankfully, the boys are a little bit more sensible with their laminating.     f/2.8; 1/50; ISO 800 f/2.8; 1/30; ISO 400 f/2.8; 1/60; ISO 800 f/2.8; 1/50; ISO 400 I used some very low shutter speeds today but I can't go any lower with the aperture and I don't want to increase the ISO. I learned about, and used, the noise reduction at high ISO setting today. I need to read more about it and figure out if it is worth using more often. I also bumped up the contrast on my portrait ...

Thank goodness today was not day 50 of the project because it was pretty uneventful - from a photography point of view anyway. It rained all day. We have been missing the Lagoon Pool at Centre Parcs and decided to go swimming. We went for the one with the most slides that we could find. It was pretty good but no match for Centre Parcs. We couldn't take photos there so I left the camera at home. That feels unusual to me these days.  Roo has been practising his times tables all summer. We agreed that he could have Minecraft on Xbox if he passed a little test we set for him. He managed to pass with flying colours this morning and therefore pretty much the whole afternoon has been about Mincraft for the boys. It worked well because we had a lot of cleaning up to do after our adventurous weekend.  I only have one photo for today. It certainly doesn't hold much magic, but I was conscious of how much more thought I am putting into my photography these days. f/4; 1/50; ISO ...

Day 50! The fact that I have now been doing this project for 50 days somewhat blows me away. The day started with putting together that Ikea sofa. The parts had to be posted out separately and arrived a couple of days ago. The boys were keen to be involved so we waited until we had a bit of free time. They loved it. I am really excited about having a new setting for my photos. I think that this new spot has a lot of potential.  Then we jumped into the car and headed off to Whitstable, one of our long time favourite seaside towns. This place never disappoints. I love the atmosphere there and there are lots of lovely shops and cafes. We decided not to bother with the hassle of the shops and spent the day on the beach. The kids enjoyed the fact that it is a stony beach, so there was no sand in the eyes to cope with.  I took a lot of photos. Again, I was spoiled with lots of light but had to contend with blown out skies and tricky exposure.  ...

We had an insanely busy and fabulous day. The boys are big fans of the TV show Deadly 60 so when we heard that Steve Backshall was doing a book signing in Chichester, we just had to go. It just so happened that the book signing was a 2 hour drive away but it was in a town close to a beach that I have been hoping to check out this summer. Being a bank holiday weekend, the traffic was horrific and we only just made it on time to join the very long queue to meet Steve.   You really wouldn't think it from the photo, but the boys were delighted to meet their hero in person. It was all a bit of a rush through in the end so the boys are out of focus. Bear was playing up and hanging off my leg, which didn't help!! It is at times like this that I think that my phone camera would probably do a better job... Good old Steve though. The poor man had been there answering monotonous questions all day and yet he could still muster up a smile.   f/4; 1/80; ISO 1600 After that...

My day of photography started bright and early today with a quick doll picture in the garden. f/2.2; 1/200; ISO 100 It is reassuring to know that I am at least capable of taking a picture in focus. It is useful to help me distinguish between camera shake and inappropriate settings for children in motion.  Most of our neighbours are away at the moment. I am not usually so brave about photographing my dolls out doors because I know that people find it very odd. We are are looking after one of our neighbour's fish and guinea pig while they are away. Boo Boo Fluff is a big hit with my kids.  f/5.6; 1/160; ISO 400 f/4; 1/160; ISO 200 Later on the boys enjoyed a bit of Lego play.  f/3.5; 1/40; ISO 400 f/3.5; 1/40; ISO 800 This is a seriously "blown out" picture and represents one of the biggest challenges I have faced all summer. I have been reading about bracketing the exposure but I haven't quite figured it out yet. f/3.5; 1/40; ISO...