My New Lens

Ooooohhhh, I'm so excited!! Lookit!! Lookit what I got!!

My hubby let me go get a new lens for my Nikon D90, so I got the Nikkor 50mm 1.4 lens.

Isn't it be-yoo-ti-full?? I think so. It's also much smaller than the honkin 18-70mm lens I have on my camera most of the time.

I can't wait to try this one out over the next several days. The 50mm is a fixed lens (which for me is something I have to get used to as I can't zoom in or out to frame my shot, I have to actually move myself to get the shot I want) and the 1.4 (at the risk of sounding like an ignoramus, which I totally AM!) means this lens is brighter, and lets in a lot more light. I chose this one because most of my photos are of my kids, and most of the time we are in our house, and the lighting in my house is terrible. Usually very dark, and yellow looking (our walls are yellow but the lights we have don't help matters any). I quickly snapped a couple comparison shots between my regular lens and my new one. This first shot was taken with my 18-70mm.


This one was taken with my new lens, the 50mm.

See the difference?? I did right away, and to me that says something. If an inexperienced eye can pick up the difference, than I think I made the right choice! The whole picture just looks lighter, and brighter. I think I am in love!! I am absolutely going to be ripping off a bunch of pictures, I'm gonna need a new memory card lol. It was nice after having such a crappy week to be able to go and reward myself with something like this, and my whole family benefits too, as these are all of our memories that I'm recording!! They just may not realize it yet :)

Also on a little creativity side note, I will be making a no-sew quickie baby blanket for a friend that just had a baby, so once it's done, I'll show you what it is, and how I made it! Hopefully I can get to that tomorrow, but I think my hubby will be home, so he may have other plans for me. His plans and mine usually do not match lol. Have a great weekend everyone!

Disappointment

I am sleep deprived. Today, I took my kids to get pictures done and was disappointed by the result. My son refused to cooperate and as a result I got a picture of my two kids with a three year old bearing the fakest smile ever. It looks so unnatural I can't stand it, and it takes so much effort for me to get them both ready and out the door and across town to the appointment that I don't want to do it again anytime soon, especially when there is no guarantee that my son will feel like being a part of picture day again. I may have to get creative and do something at home, as he is always asking me to take pictures of him here. Silly. And I was really disappointed with the studio I went to, as the quality of pictures for the price I paid was not up to par. Wal Mart and Sears take the same quality pictures (sometimes better) than the ones I received today, and are far less expensive, and you have more control over which shots you get.

Then, continuing on with my Nikon story, I took my camera back to the photo shop today, as it is still giving me problems with that shadow at the bottom of the photo. They kept it there as the Nikon rep will be there next week, so they are going to ask about it and do something. I feel better about that at least, as the fellow I spoke to said the flash on the camera is tested and rated for the 18mm lens that I am using, and shouldn't cause that shadow, and if it was the flash it should be consistently doing that, which it isn't, so hopefully we'll know by next week what the problem is. I'm hoping it's defective and they exchange it for me, as I really don't know what I'll do if that is really how this camera takes pictures, as at the moment my Canon 8mp digital elph takes better indoor shots. And HELLO! I have children and will take lots of shots indoors.

Then this evening, my baby was cranky again, tried to breast feed her and she wouldn't eat, so I warmed up a bottle and that is what she wanted. Made me die a little inside! I may have to pump and give it to her that way, so she still gets the good stuff for a while.

Then my husband came home at 10pm this evening, and told me we are getting freezing rain. Lovely. Roads are going to rock tomorrow morning!! I hate that he works in the oil patch and is on the roads all the time, makes me worry for his safe return when the weather gets bad. I also had some small shopping plans for tomorrow, but for nothing that is urgently required, so my plans may be thwarted by the icy conditions.

So all in all today was a bit of a disappointment, but I'm optimistic, and hopefully tomorrow will be a bit brighter than today... Would be nice to have some time with my husband, he's been working lots and late nights, haven't had real quality family time in a while and my son misses his daddy too.

I'm going to go to bed now, to pray for 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep, safety for my husband, sun to melt the ice, and a new camera. What the heck, I may just throw in world peace for shits and giggles.

Quilting, human error

Okay, so apparently it IS me. I'm standing too close to my subject and the flash is causing the shadow. I'm not used to the honking lense on this thing! I am sure I will get used to it, and I am much more aware of how close I stand and how much light is around to make sure I get a good shot. Anyways, that's something new learned about my Nikon already!! So after that, I used it to take pictures of this cow themed baby quilt I made for my nephew.

Not bad if I do say so myself. I know there's room for improvement but I'm always happy when I finish a project. I'm good at starting, not so much at finishing (or so my hubby tells me).

There was an ongoing joke between my sister-in-law and brother-in-law regarding her "cow eyes" (which he loves) and it carried on...so I told her I was going to make her a cow blanket...she said go ahead...so here it is!

I love quilting. Well, I love sewing. I absolutely love sewing together the quilt tops. Adding the backing and quilting it, not so much. I have a really hard time with the bulk of the quilt, and I almost always, no correct that, I ALWAYS end up with material puckers, even though I use a quilting foot and I pin the crap out of it!! It must be something I'm doing and I think that through practice and maybe some tips I may pick up along the way I'll get better. It's a passion I never would have thought I would have, but here I am.

I'm moving on to making a christmas table runner. I'm so excited. I wanted to make one for Halloween as well, but the baby came early and I've been a little busy. SO! I am making a runner using a "Merry & Bright" charm pack by Moda. The pattern is called "Charmed I'm sure" and I think it's going to be so cute!

I'll keep you updated :)

My Nikon D90

So I purchased a new camera a few days ago, the Nikon D90.

This beautiful state of the art memory maker is more camera than I know what to do with. I have never taken a photography course and don't know my aperture from my shutter speed. There are so many menus and options that I fear I may turn it to "auto" and leave it there. I do feel confident though, that I will take excellent pictures with it, and it will be a learning curve for me to slowly go through all the components of what this high tech machine can do. I am excited to learn all about each setting and what I can do with it. I want to take beautiful pictures of my children, photos of items so close up that you can't tell what they are (even though they are perfectly in focus). I want to know this camera inside and out! The Nikon manual and I are going to have a special relationship. And I know that I paid too much money for this camera for it to end up a point and shoot, because if that's what I wanted, I would have kept going with my Canon digital elph.

My only problem so far is shadows. In the past two days, I have clicked off over 100 pictures of random things around my house, plants, my dog, my kids, the furniture even. And on the odd picture, I have a half moon shaped shadow at the bottom of my picture, dead center at the bottom of the frame.

(My sad three year old illustrates my shadow problem.)

And only on indoor shots with the flash on, with the lens at the shortest setting, not zoomed out at all. And I have checked the obvious - is my finger over the flash, is my finger or part of my hand over the end of the lens, is my camera strap swinging into view...but no.

(Our husky/collie/heinz 57 dog Keiko also illustrates the shadow problem). These photos are all taken at different times of the day.

(My three year old, happier this time to illustrate the shadow. He's all dressed up to play in the snow for the first time this year!) The pictures are also taken in different areas of the house.

(My sleeping daughter is willing to help display the shadow too). These shots are at different angles as well.

She is disgusted with my photography skills and can't even look at me!! In general I am getting wonderful pictures so far, except for this little tiny glitch.

Anyone out there know why this super costly piece of photo equipment is leaving shadows at the bottom of my pictures??? I will be taking the camera in to the photo shop where I purchased it tomorrow, to find out if this is user error or if this camera was slammed to the ground in the box causing some defect!! I'm hoping it's something I've done, as I am so excited about this camera that I really don't want it to be something I can't fix. I will be extremely disappointed if this is the case.