Day 29: Preschool

Today was Clara's first day of preschool and she couldn't have been more excited.  She has been waiting for this day for so long, ever since we visited the school late last spring when she was on the waitlist.  We took the traditional first day of school picture on our front porch in front of the brick wall and I was proud of myself for remembering to set the aperture to a middle sort of a setting.  But I wish I had shuffled my feet to the side for a different angle so that the lines of brick were straight.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

 

32 mm, ISO 500, f/8, SS 1/50

Day 28: Acorns

We got outside this afternoon to enjoy the beautiful weather and Paul helped the girls gather acorns from oak trees.  It is still warm outside, but we can tell that fall is getting closer as there is starting to be a bit of coolness in the air and I love it. 

50 mm, ISO 400, f/3.2, SS 1/500

Day 27: Molasses Cookies

Food photography is so much harder than it looks.  I have taken a lot of bad food photos and still feel like I just don't know how to arrange the food or approach capturing an image of it in a pleasing way.  The Molasses Cookie recipe is here and they are soft and sugary and perfectly spiced and are amazing plain or sandwiched with ice cream between two of them, which is what I did with these.  I took them to a ward party tonight where they got rave reviews.  These were the only big ones in the batch because I made the rest tiny so that each ice cream sandwich was just two perfectly sweet, cold bites.  I wish I had taken a picture of them but I ran out of time at home and they were gone pretty much the moment desserts were set out.

50 mm, ISO 400, f/2.5, SS 1/1000

Day 26: Potty Training

It's Day 2 of potty training for Miss Rose.  She has had 1 success each day and a whole lot of accidents.  I am hopeful that by the end of the weekend things will have clicked with her and we can stop spending half our day hanging out in the bathroom.  Clara has been a big help celebrating the successes by giving Rose marshmallows and cheering, and she has been so willing to run grab fresh undies or pull-ups when we've needed them.  I am so looking forward to being done with diapers.



50 mm, ISO 1250, f/3.5, SS 1/100

50 mm, ISO 2000, f/2.5, SS 1/80

Day 25: Nectarines

We love hitting up our local farmer's market each week to taste the different offerings and pick up something yummy and fresh.  This week it was nectarines, onions, and zucchini for us because the peaches were lackluster, which was kind of surprising.  Clara loves helping to pick out the fruit or drop it into the bag for me.  I tried a bit of a different composition this time by intentionally focusing on the nectarines in the foreground and blurring Clara while she was looking through the fruit for the perfect ones for our bag.



50 mm, ISO 200, f/2.8, SS 1/1600

And I had to include this one of Clara munching on her "big carrot" that she got for free from one of the produce booths.  With all of the amazing fruit and baked goods available every week, it is always the big carrots that she is begging for to snack on while we walk around and she almost always charms the vendor into letting her have one for no cost.  Wily little thing.  She was especially good about sharing with her sister tonight and the two of them crunched their way around the market and spoiled their dinner (sort of?  it's hard to claim that they spoiled dinner by eating a raw carrot but on the other hand, they hardly touched their teriyaki chicken, rice and vegetable bowl). 

50 mm, ISO 200, f/4.5, SS 1/400

Day 24: Behind Bars

I wanted to try another composition perspective today by getting low and shooting up at Rose to portray her larger than life personality, especially when she wakes up happy from a good nap and laughs and jumps and jabbers at me for a while from behind the bars of her crib until she reaches out both arms and waggles her fingers in a "you may pick me up now" gesture.  I desperately wanted to sneak into her room to take a "peeking" perspective between the bars while she slept, but I knew that there was no way I could do that without waking her up so I passed on that today, but one of these days I am going to do it.



50 mm, ISO 1000, f/4, SS 1/100

50 mm, ISO 1000, f/4, SS 1/100

Day 23: Laundry and Leotards

One of my photography goals is to develop the ability to accurately document daily life, especially as our girls are growing up.  A favorite parenting quote I have heard is that the days are long but the years are short.  Today was like any other day - filled with washing and folding laundry, playing "bucking bronco" for the girls, cleaning the kitchen multiple times, make believe with the toy animals, taking the girls to gymnastics and the park, ironing (so much ironing - it is possibly my all-time least favorite chore), soothing hurts and bonks, going to the gym to exercise, picking up toys, baths and bedtime routines.  I can't get over how my heart fills watching these two little hooligans run around in their little leotards which are not only great for gymnastics but for dressing up and pretending to be Tinkerbell, complete with a special request Tinkerbell bun hairdo that Mom obligingly put in.  I'm exhausted but satisfied with today, and already feeling weary thinking about tomorrow's back-to-school brunch, orthodontist appointment, and 3+ hour mandatory parent prechool meeting for the coop that Clara will start attending next week. 

 

50 mm, ISO 640, f/3.5, SS 1/200

Not sure quite how I captured this flare from the fluorescent lights at the gymnastics studio, but I sort of like it actually.

 

50 mm, ISO 3200, f/3.2, SS 1/200

50 mm, ISO 640, f/2.5, SS 1/320