miss molly

She's cute and she knows it. She's settling in pretty well but still loves to bug Alex. She's doing better with Cloud though. And she loves to run around the back yard, playing keep away with Alex's tennis ball.

We took her to get shots last week and they guessed her at about 3 months old :-)

4/52 imperfection

By the world's standards, my littlest man is imperfect. Flawed. Not normal. He has a list of abbreviations that describe him. He is ADHD. He is ODD. He is PDD-NOS. Do I see these things? Of course I do. We live with them everyday. But they don't define him.

He is creative. He is sweet. He is loving. He is smart. He is funny. He makes us laugh on a regular basis and his imagination is amazing. Do I wish he didn't have the struggles he does? Of course. I hate to see any of my kids struggle and it would definitely make his life, and ours, easier. But he is perfect just the way he is.

The world sees imperfection. I just see my baby.

3/52 inspiration

This week's theme took quite a bit of thought. I can think of a lot that inspires me-other photographers, the beauty of nature, the kindness of other people, my children. But what inspires me to do what I do? Yes, I love to create something beautiful. Or funny. Or meaningful. I love to make other people happy with the pictures I take. I like to feel like I might be good at something. Those are all good reasons, I guess. But still doesn't really answer the question.

It's history. It's having these photos for my children and grandchildren to look at long after I am gone. They love to look at the scrapbooks I made for each of them {when I still scrapbooked}. They love to see pictures of their grandparents, aunts and uncles when they were little. I have a few older pictures that have been passed down to me and I cherish them. Because it's our family history.


These are of an unknown relative, my grandpa playing hockey, my dad as a boy and me at about 3 years old.

it's a girl!

Matthew was late coming home from school yesterday. He finally arrived about 3:30 and asked me to come outside, saying he and his friend Marcus had found a dog at the park. Oh, and could he keep it? I, of course, said no. A dog must have an owner somewhere. It must be lost. Then I went outside. And saw the cutest puppy face. It didn't have a collar. They told me that it had been abandoned at the park in a large, dirty comforter and with a food container. I told him she could stay here until we figured out what to do with her. My friend Jen came to see her and declared her healthy, as far as she could tell. She and I went to check out the area she was left, to make sure there were no other puppies there. There weren't any and she was definitely abandoned.

Matthew made it clear that he was willing to do anything to keep her. Including giving his Christmas money toward her expenses. I told him we'd talk about it.

Her name is Molly.


How anyone could dump her at a park and leave her is beyond me. She's very sweet, tries very hard to play with Alex and Cloud and has settled in nicely already. The cat, though, is NOT happy at all. He'll be okay though.

2/52 life

This week's theme is life. I had a few different ideas for it but decided to go with what was easy. I know, I know.....but I'm lazy and the weather hasn't been great this week ;-)

So, I went with "new" life. The above average temps we've had lately have gotten some of the bushes and trees budding earlier than usual.



Here's my 2nd choice-"my" life. These guys are what my life is all about right now {along with their sister and dad, who were not at home when this was taken}. This is also very typical of life at our house. Both boys eating an after school snack and the dog waiting patiently for Matthew to throw him a piece of popcorn.

more from michigan

Now that everyone is back to school and work I've had some time to go through the rest of my photos from our trip. These are from the day I got to hang out with Shannon in Grand Rapids.


My beautiful girl.

This was on the outside of Olds Manor. It was The Rowe Hotel first and then used as a nursing home, with a questionable history of treatment of it's patients.

Grand Rapids has some very cool old buildings. Some of them have been renovated and turned into apartments, some are empty and some are still in use. This one appeared to be unused.



These vines were all over the side of the building.

Grand Rapids has held Art Prize every summer for the last few. Shannon took us to see a few of the murals downtown. I can't imagine how long these must have taken to create. This is only a part of it-I couldn't back up any farther ;-) And is made almost entirely out of mirrors.



This is from the other mural but again is made of mirrors. I loved what it did to the reflection of the park, street and buildings.

the great debate, part II. edited.

A few people mentioned on my nikon experiment post that color/skin tone could be edited in post processing and that they'd like to see the 2 shots I took fully edited. So that's what I decided to work on today. I completely agree that most of the time white balance can be corrected in post, when shooting in RAW. Which is what I normally do. I have, on a fairly regular basis, had photos that I could not make look right no matter what I did to them. These are normally of my daughter. I have better luck with the boys, for some reason.

Tracy mentioned an article on the CM blog, here, giving a tutorial for Kelvin white balance. I read that today, figured out how to adjust it on my camera (it took less than 5 minutes to figure out and is so much easier than using a grey card) and printed out the chart to memorize. I tried it quickly this afternoon and could see a noticeable difference in camera. Since I was just shooting the trees in the backyard, I didn't transfer them to the computer. I'm hoping to grab one of the kids this weekend to do some practicing with it. Thanks Tracy!

Okay, on to the edits. Again, these were both shot in jpeg so I found editing them a bit more difficult than what I'm used to. The lighting wasn't wonderful which also caused some issues. I will also say that I tend to like warmer tones over cooler ones, in general. I know not everyone does. I don't love either of these but I definitely prefer one over the other.


Nikon

Canon
I like the Nikon shot better. I worked for some time on the Canon shot and could not figure out a way to improve it. I'm sure there is one. My photoshop skills are just not to that level yet. At this point, I would probably convert this to B&W and be done with it.

1/52 resolution

So I've decided to participate in the M4H Project 52 weeks as well as MCP Project 12. I like the idea of having a theme each week, though I may not always follow them.

When I saw this week's topic, I was less than thrilled. I don't make resolutions. I could. There are definitely things I need to work on. Keep the house cleaner. Get more exercise. Eat better. Get organized. Stop procrastinating. But I know myself. I will not stick with a decision made because I think I have to make it based on the day or time of year.

But there are plenty of things I'd like to accomplish. This year and beyond. I want to make more memories with my family. Laugh more and stress less. I want to learn. Not just about photography or my camera or photoshop-though those are all on the list. Smile more and worry less. Help people who need it and make sure the people I love know that I love them. Be the best wife, mom, daughter, sister and friend I can be.

I didn't want to go with this as the photo for the week. It's done a lot and I wanted to do something else. But I can't. This has to be it. I have never read the Bible all the way through. And I'm not sure I will this year. But I want, no need, to be in it more. A lot more. It's the only way I will be able to accomplish those other things I listed.

This is one of my favorite verses. I need to remember that there is a plan for me, my children, my family. It may not be what I have planned. It's probably a lot better.

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

the nikon experiment

I've heard of quite a few people switching from Canon to Nikon recently. I've also heard people say that Nikons, in general, are sharper than Canon and produce better color. I've been wanting to test that theory out for awhile now but never found the time to ask my friend Jen to borrow her camera. But I knew that Shannon and I were planning on getting together when I was in Michigan and she shoots with a Nikon. I also figured she'd be up for a little experiment. Her d7000 is probably close to my 50D, so that was another plus. When I told her about it, she was excited to see what the results would be.

She didn't have a prime lens and I didn't have a 17-50mm. So I used my 35mm f2 and she had her sigma 17-50mm f2.8 set at 35mm. I shot both in jpeg {my PSE is too old to read her raw files} and all other settings were the same-iso 200, f2.8 and shutter speed 1/125. The focus point was set on the center. Auto white balance. I shot them both to make sure that it wasn't the user causing the differences.

These have not had any color correction and very little processing. A slight levels adjustment on the nikon shot and a slightly higher levels adjustment on the canon shot. Both had a color pop action run at the same opacity. Other than that, they've just been cropped. Grace was in the same location in both and they were shot within minutes of each other.


Canon

Nikon
Like I mentioned, neither have had any color correction done. The Nikon is definitely warmer and a lot closer to Grace's actual skin tone. This could explain why I struggle so much with skin tones....

I cropped in to just her eyes, since that was what I focused on and we were also testing focus in our little experiment.

Canon

Nikon
I have not sharpened the eyes at all. The action I ran does overall sharpening and I applied that at the same opacity for both photos. The sharpness of the Canon photo is good. It's not out of focus. It would be acceptable. But the Nikon photo is better. And again you can see how much better the color is.

So, what to do?? I have no huge connection to Canon. My reasons for picking it in the first place was not based on anything important. I have pretty much talked myself into switching. I have two dilemmas though. The first is that I would love to switch and go directly to full frame. If I sold every piece of Canon equipment I own, I may have enough for a body. But not a lens. So I would have to wait until I save up some money. Or I could go with the d7000 and have it a lot quicker. The 2nd is I am very attached to my 70-200 f4L lens. I love it. I use it mostly for Matthew's baseball games and a few other odds and ends. Is there a comparable Nikon lens?

If you're a Nikon shooter, I would love some advice. An email or pm on facebook would be great if you don't want to post here. I'd love to know what you shoot with and what lens you have. Especially if you're a sports shooter and specifically a baseball shooter.