Brooke

My niece, Brooke, will turn one on February 23rd. She's exactly 5 months younger than Luke. Kinda cool. I took some photos of her last week, and we're going to put a few of them on her birthday invitation! Photographing her presented much of the same difficulties as photographing Colton - what 11 month old wants to sit still and smile for a camera? There are things to explore!

Anywho, it should be fun designing the invitation.

Here are some favs:













In other news, I think I may need to look into getting an external flash. There are too many situtations where the lighting is too low and the subjects too fast (aka speedy children) to go without a flash. I refuse to use the built-in one. Blech.

Madilyn & Colton

Luke's babysitter, Michelle, has two adorable little ones. Madilyn just turned 4, and Colton is 9 months. Over the weekend I did a little photo session for them. It was a cruddy day outside, foggy and rainy, and the kids were both feeling a little under the weather. Despite this, I think I got some nice shots of the two of them! Colton wasn’t quite feeling it (plus, 9-month-olds are more interested in exploring than sitting still for a picture!), but Maddy smiled and posed like a pro.

I was a little concerned about the lighting situation because it was so overcast outside. We did everything in front of a large window, and that gave me the light I needed, although I had my aperture open as wide as it would go. Thus, all these shots have a pretty shallow depth of field. I was pretty satisfied with the end result, however!

Here is a small sampling:


These kids have the most big, beautiful eyes. I love it.

A Day in the Life...

A long time ago I stumbled upon this blog: http://community.livejournal.com/ditl/. It's a LiveJournal community where members post photographs showing "a day in their life". Surprisingly, looking at photos of strangers' mundane lives is rather interesting! It seemed like a fun photography project, which I decided to tackle myself. To do this project, you wake up with your camera, carry it with you throughout your day, and go to sleep with it.

The main difficulties I encountered with this project were a) it's very difficult to take a photo of yourself, thus most photos don't even have me in it and b) whipping out my camera in public (without some scenic view or anything really worth photographing) felt a little awkward...I was convinced I looked like a total weirdo. Oh, and I didn't want to make my coworkers uncomfortable by taking their photo, so I kept my lens aimed away from them.

Without further ado, a day in the life of Dana. This was a mostly typical Wednesday.


After hitting the snooze button multiple times, I finally wake up.


I shower (no photos of that, sorry) and put on my makeup.


About an hour later, I'm ready to go!


I drive to work... (I was pulled over to the side of the road, for those of you freaking out that I took a photo while driving)


...and arrive in Naperville at 8:00.


I stare at this for 8 hours...


...answering emails and doing other unexciting work things.


I'm trying to eat healthier snacks, so mid-morning I stop for some carrots, celery, and peanut butter.


Aaaaand then its back to work, building a website.


1:00, it's lunch time! I sit in the conference room, to get away from my desk.


I do all my reading on my lunch break! And I totally overcooked my frozen dinner :(.


After lunch it's more of the same...


...until at 5:30 I leave the office for home! I had to work late :(.


Today wasn't the best day at work (because of something I screwed up), so I listen to the angry rock station on Sirius, lol.


The weather matches my mood. It's rainy.


I stop at Wal-Mart for some milk and fabric softener.

I actually cheated on these next two and used a flash. It was simply too dark.


Rob had a hair cut that evening, so Grandpa J was at my house watching Luke. When I walked in the door, they were hanging out on the couch.


Later I realized it looks like the clock is growing out of Luke's head. And yes, Luke is wearing Halloween pajamas in January.


We say bye-bye to Grandpa...


...and have some dinner!


We're getting VERY good at using a fork!


After dinner I unload the dishwasher and put away dishes...


...do a little vacuuming...


...and open the package that came for me. It's the new camera bag I ordered, hooray!


Rob gets home, and we give Luke a bath. It's his favorite time.


Hi!


Daddy is in the bath with Luke, so I wait outside the tub for them to finish so I can take Luke and dry him off.


All clean!




This is blurry but I still want to share. Luke gives his daddy a kiss goodnight!


With Luke in bed, I finally get a chance to eat something. It's late and I'm hungry, so frozen pizza it is...


I put up my feet and relax on the couch with Rob for awhile.


Watching TV.


Then I take out my contacts, swallow my pills...


...and bed time :).

And that's my unexciting, but very busy day!