Spring Dress Photo Shoot

A couple months back Steve's mom was up visiting her oldest daughter in Clinton where they live. Kristal has 2 daughters, her oldest being born just days before Em was. They went out shopping and found these absolutely darling dress-sets in all the girls sizes and without hesitation bought them! We had a hard time coordinating a good day when we were all in the same city to take pictures of the girls in these darling dresses! But we finally did it the Sunday before Memorial Day. Steve did such a great job taking and editing these pictures, and these again were taken in my grandparents (Andrews) backyard :) 

Here's the slideshow of the pictures

Remember, remember- 720p and full screen for optimum viewing ;) 

Remember the offer in this previous post too :) 

Jam Packed Family Weekend!

*Play song, "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" with this post (sorry long version of this song, but only one they had!)

As mentioned, we had a lot of family come in the first weekend in May. Steve's little sister Amber came in that Thursday (the night we had the disastrous sleep study) from her current home in West Virginia, which was very exciting since we finally got to see her pregnant (she was just over 20 weeks and we hadn't even seen any pictures of her!), and she found out the day before she came that she was having a boy, so naturally we threw her a shower while she was here!  That was on Saturday (and I borrowed these pictures from my sis-in-law Kristal since I failed to remember my camera!)

We thought this was such a cute idea! An umbrella with a bunch of money and then this little note :) This was Debbie's sister Angie's creativity.

 Grandpa and Grandma Hunt (Debbie's parents) and Grandma Jan Peters (Stan's mom)

 Steve's cousin Kylie (Angie's daughter), Cindy (Stan's sister) and her daughter Annie

 My wonderful mother-in-law Debbie and sister-in-law Crystal

 The grandparent Hunts, Kylie and her daughter Alexandria, Ricton, Angie and Amber

 The Hunts again with Kristal and her girls Ariana and Isabel

Thought I should include this one of me since I was trying so hard that day to cover my baby bump (note the arms)! With Karissa (Steve's cousin, Kelly's wife), Amber's best friend Amy and her sister and niece

We are so happy for Amber and glad she was able to take a whole extra suitcase full of baby stuff back home with her! 

After the shower we headed to my grandparents to see my family that was in town from Virginia and Oklahoma. My uncle David, his wife Tresha, and their son Jared were here from Virginia. Their daughter, Ashlee and her 2 kids Lily and Finn were also here from Virginia and then their daughter, Melissa and her son Cooper were here from Oklahoma. It was a brief visit for them, but I'm so glad I got to see them! Especially since this was my first time meeting Cooper! 

Steve took some pictures for Melissa and Cooper.... we had originally planned on family pictures for them, but her husband Jay had to stay back and work and couldn't make it. Hopefully we'll be able to get some of all of them in the near future. Here's just a few of those... 

Isn't my cousin gorgeous?? And her boy ain't too bad either! Melissa and I are only 6 days apart! One of the cousins I have very fun memories with! 

 This is Copper's grandparents, that's my mom's oldest brother, my uncle David and his lovely wife Tresha :) This is the wonderful people who took me in when I moved to Germany for a bit, loved every minute of being there with them!

Steve did an excellent job with these pictures and we hear a lot that he should go into professionally... but we're still uncomfortable charging for it, so we're putting it out there that we will take pictures for anyone who has medical expenses and can't afford family photos :) And of course family is included in that too! So if you want us to practice on you, just let us know!


Here's a few of Em and Cooper playing together

 I just love this one, Cooper had just taken Em's iPhone and she is looking at me as if to ask, "what do I do??"

 Amazingly, Cooper was born early at only 3 lbs! And look at him now, not quite 2 and nearly the size of Em at 4 1/2!

It was a blast seeing everyone.... and exhausting! And thanks to Tresha, one of the reasons I ended up telling my mom's side of the family a little early about our news, because she kept staring at my stomach and I could tell she knew! Same thing with Amber, and both of these ladies asked other members if they knew if I was pregnant.... I was worried that Tresha would eventually ask my mom or grandma, so we told everyone while they were there (nearly a week before we wanted to!). Tresha just asked her daughters who of course didn't know, and Amber asked her sister Kristal who again didn't know. I think it was a lot harder for those who see me a lot to tell since it was a gradual thing.... but those that hadn't seen me in awhile started to suspect right away (which is what I was afraid of!).

Anyway, there will still be more about the pregnancy since I'm sure that's what you all want! Who knew that all I had to do to get more views and comments on my blog was to have a baby ;) Over 400 views on my pregnancy FAQ (most yet I believe!).... so yes, that will be coming! But next two posts will still be catch-up, Deak's Run for Hope and Mother's Day :) But after that I will have a post dedicated to how we told and all the reactions... you won't want to miss it! So stay tuned!

Our Photography Class

*Play song, "Sunday Morning" with this post

Steve and I took a 5 week photography class that just finished up a couple weeks ago. It was just a community course to teach those who buy DSLR cameras how to use them. We of course read our owner's manuals, see things online and we both took our share of photography courses in high school and college... but still, there is always things to learn! Especially with all the new technology coming to light!

We had assignments each week when we learned something new, they weren't required, but we got rewarded if we turned them in (by email) each week. Our instructor showed them in slideshows at the beginning of class each week.... sadly we only made it on time for one of these though... so we never really got to hear what he had to say about our pictures (it was tough getting Em to a babysitter and then to the class on time at 6:30 when Steve wouldn't get home from work until after 5:45 each time! And try to eat dinner before too!). 

All in all, we had a lot of fun, and here's a few examples of the photos we captured for each week's assignment. Oh and it is important to know that most of these photos were also edited with Photoshop, but were not turned in this way!

Week 1- Shutter Speed

Alisha's Pictures

Fast shutter. Set at 1/2000, camera was on full manual, but focus was automatic

 This is the panning shot. Shutter set at 1/25, and tracked the movement as she was pushed by her daddy. We do have an image stabilization lens and I'm not sure how well a shot like this would work without it!

Slow shutter shot. Shutter set at 15 seconds. This was taken using a tripod (not possible without the camera sitting on something stable), 2 second delay as well, so that me pushing the button didn't cause any shake. This is taken on the overpass of Carterville Road crossing over University Parkway (facing South), it was around 6 pm (before DL savings).

Steve's Pictures

Shutter set at 1/2500

Shutter set at 20 seconds

Week 2- Aperture

Alisha's Pictures

 Shallow Focus or Large Aperture. F/1.4 (largest opening that our portrait lens has, largest that most lenses go), automatic focus, automatic shutter.

Small Aperture, camera set at F/22, automatic focus and shutter, custom white balance. Taken up Provo Canyon, past Sundance, right after the checkpoint (at the point where they stop plowing in winter). 

Steve's Pictures

Shallow focus of Steve's, set at f/1.4

f/22

Week 3- Perspective

Only trick here is that I was holding a little miniature Prius in my hand right in front of the camera.


And Steve's picture

And yes that's my leg...


These were our rewards for turning in our assignments :) Between the 2 of us, I'd say it was around $50 worth of stuff for free! Almost made one class free!

That's 4 8x10 high quality prints and 2 photo books!

All in all, we had a lot of fun practicing and can't wait to go to the intermediate class! 

Well.... Merry Christmas to us!

*Play song, "Winter Wonderland" with this post

So you may remember in the last post that I mentioned that we may be getting a new camera.... well, we did! And it has not disappointed! For those of you who understand about cameras... or care, it is a Canon EOS 60d and really it is amazing!! But don't let me tell you, I'll let the pictures that Steve took speak for themselves :)

This was a little spontaneous "Christmas photo shoot" we decided to practice with last Sunday. Em is still fighting a tiny cold, as you'll see in one of the pictures, so it was a little hard to keep her happy seeing as it was cold and snowing (but don't worry, we kept her warm in her new H&M hat and mittens!)! But you would never know it since she has a crazy momma that doesn't have any pride when it comes to making a fool of herself in order to get some smiles from a stubborn girl! As it turns out, some of the best shots were of me interacting with her that Steve happened to capture :)

Without further ado, here they are!

This one was my favorite of her! This look just screams! "Emarie, Santa told me you have been good all year and your wishes will come true!"

Like I said, the cold was evident in a few ;)

And here's the "behind the scene" shots, complete with a little video Steve put together at the end... and yes, the new camera shot this video (it is also a high def recorder but with the added bonus of being able to use the effects of the lenses in your videos!), so we will probably be selling our video camera in addition to our Sony DSLR that is only a year old. Also, selling all the lenses with the Sony, which includes a 200 ml lens and a portrait lens (however the portrait lens just sold!). Anyone interested??

 This was by far my favorite of the two of us!

I'm just really sorry that we ordered our Christmas cards before we knew we were getting a new camera... and we just used some pictures we already had since our Sony was not available to do what we would have wanted on our cards :( But for the ones we haven't sent yet, you may be getting one of these babies ;)

And here's the video. And I have to say that this video depicts me far better than I really am!

*P.S. I chose the song "Winter Wonderland" with this post because that is what I am singing to Emarie in this video