life in high-def

sometimes technology can be too advanced.  or maybe just too convenient.  i really love my iphone, and it is oh-so-handy to always have a camera with me and easily accessible... BUT i often forget to use my actual camera that takes high-quality photos.  so life is documented with a bunch of grainy/fuzzy photos that only look good when viewed at size 2x3 or smaller.  boo.  this is especially ridiculous when you also own a really nice dslr camera, which takes gorgeous photos!  just look at the difference...

taken with my iphone- cute cute baby, but super grainy photo

taken with my nikon d60- beautiful unedited photo

(isn't she great?!)

  

i am trying to get out the 'big camera' more often.  i'd like to learn how to actually use all of the fancy features (i currently always shoot in 'auto'... shhh, don't tell my photographer friends!).  so hopefully in a few months we can look back at this post and see a difference in how my photography has improved.  hopefully.

so anyway, i got out the good 'ole nikon this week and snapped just a few shots.  one day trigger was playing with his nesting blocks & counting bears.  he said, "look mommy, they're praying!"  can you see all those sweet little prayer groups?!  love it!!

i have learned one useful photography tip: don't use the flash all the time!  i often forget this since i just use the auto settings.  but here's a great example of the difference.  first photo taken with flash, second photo without.  both unedited.  without flash just has a more natural look to it.  the color is so much better and i love the shadow of the boxes.  i need to remember this more often!

(there is one benefit of the flash mode: you can't see my messy living room in the background, haha!!)

as sweet as those praying bears were, it didn't last long.  big brother came along and the game quickly changed to knocking the bears off the boxes with the harpoon on his new playmobil boat.  

boys will be boys, i guess.

(side note: don't laugh at what trigger is wearing, it was very carefully chosen!  i always let them pick their own pajamas, whatever they want, and then it's "mommy's turn to pick" when they get dressed in the morning. it's working for now anyway.)

today big-rig was begging to "do school", which is one of his very favorite things (aside from star wars).  he really loves worksheets but then i have to come up with something for trigger, who does not love worksheets.  so i made up an activity using colored felt and their giant bucket of vehicles.  their mission was to park all the vehicles in the colored 'garage' that matches the vehicle.  i had no idea what a hit this would be!  they worked on it for almost an hour.  we have a LOT of vehicles...  then we counted how many were in each 'garage' and talked about which had the most & which had the least (red and purple, respectively, in case you were wondering).  lots of skills worked in to this one little activity! :) 

i just love the brother relationship!

and i'll leave you with one more shot of baby sister.  because i can't get enough of this face!!