Aurora borealis! In Portland! OHMYGAH!

My iPhone shot of the aurora from the bridge without a tripod.

 

Eighty-fifth Wordless Wednesday requires a room with a view

 

Photography fun: 70-200mm/2.8 lens

I rented a lens for the cross country meet and soccer matches we have this week and weekend so I can (hopefully) get some closer shots of the kid and his teammates. The cross country meet was great, and I managed to get a very fun shot of Henry's hair doing its thing on the course, and last night I took it to Hen's soccer practice. It's a beast of a lens to lug around but I'm happy with the shots. The ability to zoom in to get closer to the athletes is really awesome when what you work with most days is a 50mm portrait lens.

Have a little hair with your run.

Our Goalie - Before

Our Goalie - After
I think the original shot is fine as is but I really like the edited version, too. Things done include increasing the contrast, changing the white balance, upping the highlights and clarity, and adding vignette. There could be more but that's all I can remember. Oh, wait, I think I also messed with the noise a bit.

Fifth grade

breakfast

scrambled eggs

toast à la Mercy Watson (a.k.a. with a great deal of butter)

chicken and sage breakfast sausage

orange juice

lunch

peanut butter and honey sandwich

toasted corn

radishes

cucumber

watermelon

honey cake

Recreating a picture with kids

We probably could have gotten to the same location but technically the area has been closed off and it was hot so me and Amber didn't really feel like trekking a lot longer than necessary. We may have to in the fall when it isn't so hot, though, because we came close but the recreated pics are still too obviously taken at different locations. Similar, sure! But not close enough. It was fun to get the kids together, though. After we were done with our picture taking, we took the kids over to the pool to cool off.

Original

Didn't help that the sun was directly overhead

Close but that goshdarn tree

Post editing

Hen's not as good about standing still for pictures as he used to be. I can't say I blame him since I take A LOT of pictures of the lad, but it does mean that to get the photo I often point and shoot without having time to adjust the settings. So I end up fixing things in Lightroom. It doesn't take long and it offers me to take a not-so-good shot and make it into a good one. The one below was taken during a recent playdate with Hen's best friend, Eliav. It was far too dark and the white balance was off - sometimes the auto white balance doesn't do a great job - but I was able to rescue the picture. What I couldn't fix was Eliav's lack of a smile. (It seems he's done with moms taking pictures, too.) I did learn how to work on the eyes specifically, which I was having trouble with before so that's another takeaway with spending time editing.

Before

After

52 Week Photography Challenge #1

self portrait

Return to Lakeside

We had another great camping experience at Lakeside. The best part is that as the boys get older we feel more comfortable letting them do things without immediate adult supervision. That's a plus on all sides. Here are just a few pics…

Onward to Canada for the World Cup! Pictorial, part one

leaving downtown Portland for downtown Canada (a.k.a. Vancouver B.C.)

oyster shell @ Horseshoe Bay

he ain't scared @ Capilano Suspension Bridge

one piece of many @ Vancouver Art Gallery

shenanigans @ Canada Place

Hen squashed by a $3,000,000 raindrop

Hen and his papa @ Spanish Banks

wave excitement @ Second Beach

Abby's goal @ B.C. Place

End of the school year, a belated post by mama

I saw a bunch of friends on Facebook - yes, I'm on Facebook still - post pics comparing the first day of school picture with the last day. I'll try to keep this type of future post in mind next year and make sure I get similar pics for a better side-by-side comparison. It's pretty obvious that the kid had a haircut at some point before the end of the school year. What isn't quite as noticeable is the couple of inches Hen grew this year. Also, he's much cooler. (Note the shades and the shirt, which has trees on it that are saying, "Humans breathe our farts." You can't say this kid isn't a cheeky monkey.)

Loreto and filter play and a cat

Panoramic of Loreto sunrise

Microbes!

Just before sunrise

Sometimes you have to pull the car over and snap a photo because the colors are beautiful. This morning was one of those times.

Increasing brain power at night

hen with his stuffed neuron

#throwbackthursday #1

Hen's first Halloween / 13 days old

Another fall favorite / Janie & Jack outfit, Trumpette socks, pumpkin hat by grandma