Henry finished 1st grade!

 My sweet boy is now a kid - a big kid!  He finished first grade and I'm so proud of him.  Congrats, son!  (Scroll down to see what real life is like when mom is a momtog!)

Henry Finished First Grade! Video Preview

The 2020-2021 Yearbook is FINISHED!

 You know when you complete a big project and want to shout it to the world?!  Well, I've been working on Henry's yearbook as a committee member for his PTO and gracious I just finished.  Right now.  NOW!  Since  I can't share any of the photos, besides Henry's, here are a couple of photos of him playing at recess!

Henry at Thanksgiving!

 

Thanksgiving Fun | Video Preview

 

Henry is 7!

 Henry  is 7 today and I am so proud of him!  Happy birthday, little man.  Mamma loves you, always!

Henry's birthday is tomorrow!

Henry's in first grade?! I can't believe it!

My sweet and silly Henry is in first grade this year!  How does time go by so quickly?!

Henry is a Kindergarten Graduate! (Proud Mom Post)

From the first day of school to the last day of homeschool, Henry's first year has been a wild ride of Cub Scouts, homeschooling, and taking SO MANY trips to the park, pool, walks around the block, and anything to work on this sweet child's crazy energy.  I'm looking forward to the summer!

Henry's Kindergarten School Year! | Video Preview

Quarantine Fun with Henry

Henry had a lesson in aperture and depth-of-field, so we made it a game!  He's learning the basics of video production and editing, so little man, A+.

An update from the Crazy Quarantine Casa, Day 562

Hello all!  I know we are all paddling in the same leaky boat, but it's been nice to see the resilience of my friends and family as many permanent changes were made in a short amount of time.  Between girl's night zoom meetings and face-timing my nephew, it's been nice to know lonely is not alone ... and I will spread my social butterfly wings when it's time. 

My god, honestly, if I have your phone number, expect a call and a coffee date!

I will have to give this kid credit, I think Henry has been better at adapting to quarantine life than me!  The other side of this mess is cycling between neurotic guilt about homeschooling, catching up on editing and deliveries, serving my corona-wedding clients as best as possible, and being a full-time single parent with three full-times while working remotely.

Ya'll, I've done so much yoga at night to try to get to sleep that I can do poses I couldn't do while in my college dance program!

And on a different note, I wanted to share how I set up these photos:

Photographers' kids have this sacred rule that they hate their photo being taken and will avoid it at all costs.  So, to get these photos of Henry, I had him twist away and then turn to pop a millisecond smile and turn back again.  Essentially, big kid peek-a-boo.  He thought it was hilarious to hide his face from me, but with 1/250 shutter speed, single point manual focus, and shuffling between a 2.2-2.8 aperture, I could get his silly smiles and blur the the hot mess that is my Disney Cars-themed living room.  Have your little one face a large area of natural light. (I put him in front of my floor-length windows in my living room but doorways and garages are also great for more contrast between the subject and the background.)  If you're shooting for ethereal, angelic photos of your kids to give to grandma for Mother's Day, set them up with ample diffused back light, like having their back to the window with the curtains down.  The focus will be softer, and you will need to adjust your settings for the shadows in the photograph.  (In the below images, I adjusted my settings for the whites in the frame.)  In most DSLRs, you can change your exposure meter to set to the highlights, whites, shadows, or blacks of your images.  I change my preferences all the time, so I keep my exposure meter settings in manual mode.  The histogram view of your DSLR can also help you learn how to adjust as you become accustomed to shooting for different types of light to vary your portfolio.

If you've read this far, thank you!  Let me know if you have any other questions about killing time in quarantine with photography.

Luminance, an Enchanted Stroll in Edmond, Oklahoma

Luminance, an Enchanted Stroll, is a wonderful family activity to get some of those cabin fever wiggles out!  You can learn more about the Luminance Stroll here.

Henry and I had a great time!