Creations From Everyday Life

Kate Today

Kate: "Mom. We can't step on the cracks." (speaking of the kitchen tile).

Me: "Why not?"

Kate: Because they are sooooo mysterious..."

Dirt. Dirt. and more Dirt.

Last weekend was a family reunion that happens annually on the Arizona Strip. It's about 70 miles from any civilization... yet 900+ people drag themselves and their camping gear out to the dust bowl we call the "Bundy Reunion."

It's huge... it's dirty... it's fun.

Although I'm always afraid of the dust vs. my camera... I take it every year because it's an amazing landscape, and I can always find a fun picture to take. Sure I could bring my husbands Point & Shoot. But what fun would that be?

For instance. The photograph above took awhile to get how I wanted. I wanted the mirror in focus and the background in motion. This would be pretty difficult in any moving situation. But throw in a primitive dirt road at 60+ MPH and you have serious bumpyness! I wanted the shutter speed fast enough that it could still the mirror (even though we were bouncing all over)... yet slow enough to blur the background. I think it took about 10 tries to get the right combination of shutter speed/aperture/and stretch of road. And I'm glad I was patient... because I love how it turned out.

Below, I was getting a picture of Katelyn watching the sunset on our first night there. I forgot to take the the settings off of black and white though.

I thought the picture was cool though, so I kept it. And then I changed the settings so that I could get this:

That was Thursday night.

After that, I lost all "creative photography" interest because Tess and I were sick. We had some sinus thing going on that we didn't have when we left home, so we chalked it up to allergies.

Friday night I couldn't sleep because there was someone snoring in the next tent over. Finally Jared made me a nice bed in the back seat of our truck. I know it doesn't count comfy... but it totally was. I slept soooo good, and felt GREAT the next day (other than having the sniffles and an occasional sneezing fit).

Saturday was a dream! The weather was perfect! Mostly overcast and cool... but not cold. Then it would drizzle rain off and on. Most people would think that it would suck to have rain while you were camping. But out here in the desert it's our idea of a good time. In fact, most of us were saying prayers that it WOULD rain while we were there. And when it started raining... we moved our chairs from under the tarps (that we used for shade) so that we could sit out and enjoy!

This was when Tess and I started feeling a lot better. I think that most of our sinus problems came from the dust in the air. So the rain would knock the dust down. And just when it would start to get dusty, it would rain again and knock the dust down. It was amazing!

So since i was feeling better... out came the camera again (although I made sure to keep it in it's weather resistant camera bag... zipped up tight when not using it).

I had to take a picture of my sister Erica. She participated in the Skeet Shoot competition. I thought that she was rockin' cool because she had never even shot a gun (other than a B.B. gun) before. And there she was rockin' out the skeet shoot with the red-necks. She didn't hit any clay pigeons... but she's a winner in my book!

 

Then it was nap time. I contemplated walking around camp and taking pictures of everyone snoozing. Some people were in some pretty embarrassing positions to photograph (which is why I probably wanted to take a picture of it)... But I didn't want to make anymore family enemies, so I just took one of cute Kate:

...and sweet little Dallie napping on her aunt Ivonna.

 Later, I caught Jocelyn during one of her rare visits to our campground. Since I never get a picture of her at this reunion because she's never around... I made quick work to take this:

look at that dirty face!

And then I got this one of her cooling off in a barrel full of water:

Kate was pretty proud of this jaw bone she found from some perished cattle.

And here is Tess doing what she does best. Smiling and looking cute.

...and then my creative side came back, and I wanted to take a picture of myself through Jared's sunglass lens. This was in-between rain showers. I just noticed that you can see Tess laying on the cot in the bottom corner of his glasses. Isn't she cute?!

 

Then a rain shower came through again, except it was raining and sunny at the same time. I really wanted to get a cool picture of the rain coming through the trees and reflecting the sun. But I didn't have a tri-pod which I would have needed to get the shot I wanted. I needed a slow shutter speed to show the rain falling. But instead I settled on this one with the rain drops frozen in place (which is still kind of cool). You have to look close to see them...

That was it for the Saturday pictures. Sunday morning we started to pack up because we needed to be home at a decent time. Jared needed to get ready for his 50 mile backpacking trip.

An uncle was walking around offering strawberries so that he didn't have to cart them home. Calvin quickly accepted and out came the camera because I needed to document his dirtiness.

Mmmm... look at those hands...

While Jared was busy loading the truck... I kept Calvin busy by helping him to play a little fetch with our dog. Our dog is a little ADHD when it comes to fetching things.

Here's the wind up... (look at the game face on Diode).

And the release:

And lastly... I had to take a picture of a flower that grows in this area called the "desert globemallow."

It has to be one of my favorite flowers ever... and if I could... I'd have a WHOLE YARD OF THEM!

Then, I handed over the camera to Erica, and she took a few. Here are the ones of Tess and I.

Notice the string of drool coming from Tess in the photo above?

How was your weekend?

Tess at 4 months.

She's actually not quite 4 months just yet, but I figure it's close enough to get started. She turns 4 months in 4 days, and is getting to have her very first camping trip (the reason for my early post).

She discovered that she has hands this month. She also discovered that sucking her thumb is fun. As a result, many-a-binkies have been plugged into her mouth to hopefully nip that habit in the bud before it starts.

I think we are failing.

I discovered yesterday that she doesn't like me to rock her to sleep. I fed her around her bed time, but she was very much still awake. So I laid her in her bounce chair to chill for awhile. Within 5 minutes she started to doze. So I picked her up and started rocking her. I guess I just wanted to cradle her and sing to her. I rocked her for a minute or so with her smiling at me. And then she started to get super fussy and arched her back. So I thought... maybe she just wants me to lay her down. I did. And then she snuggled down in her bed and fell asleep before I left the room.

It almost breaks my heart that she's so new... yet already so independent at the same time!

She has a favorite toy.

I laid her under it for the first time this week, and within 30 minutes she had figured out how to use it to the max! It has a big pedal on the floor that she can kick (which makes the toy play music, and it has things that spin around.) But the floor pedal is for sissies. She aims for the big dogs up in the air... hanging from the top!

And, she loves to put her hands in her mouth starting this week. Not to suck her thumb... but I guess she is feeling her tongue with her fingers??

It's super cute... and I want to get a picture of it.

And that's all about Tess for this post. I'll post more after the 4th weekend!

On another note (of cuteness)... this was the funniest thing the other day. I had a friend over, and her daughter (who's photos frequent this blog quite a bit) wanted to wear these swim goggles. She absolutely loved them. She walked all over the house with them on, and would even stop to adjust them, and then start walking again. I debated for awhile on if I wanted to dig my camera out... but her cuteness overtook me... and the photographer in me HAD TO TAKE A PICTURE!

She's awesome:


And I really don't know why suddenly everything is being underlined. it won't let me deselect the underlining tool. This happened to me the other day, and to turn it off I had to close the whole thing and re-start my post. AND... I really don't want to close this and re-start.

So underlining you get.

Also...

I made a birthday cake today (Amy Style).

I don't have a picture... but I'm going to convince my friend (who I made the cake for. Well for her daughter actually) to take a picture with her 1Ds. <--AWESOME Camera!

I on another note... am scheming on how to get my hands on the 5D.

TtV Technique.

For awhile now I have had an interest in photographs taken with a TtV contraption. With TtV (or Through the Viewfinder) photography, the concept is to shoot with a digital camera through the pop-up viewfinder of a vintage camera in order to benefit from the distortion and grunge inherent in the older cameras.

If you have one of these vintage cameras, you have to build a crazy box to block out light... and you have to have a macro lens... blab blah blah. Well, I don't have a macro lens. Yet.

This is what everything would look like put together:

Well... since I really don't have the time (or moo-la) to experiment with something like that right now, I've been on the hunt for some cool digital overlays that would produce the same effect.

Couldn't find one.

But then a friend posted something about using fake TtV technique, and I don't know exactly how she did it... but I am assuming that she had found a blank picture that someone had taken using a TtV technique. Then I guess she worked with it and converted it for use in photoshop as an overlay.

....so super long story a little less long....

I found a plain white blank picture (of a wall I guess???), that was shot TtV... and tried to make my own overlay. It looks pretty cool.. eh? Not as cool as the real thing... but cool nonetheless.

Alisa, Skyler & Nate

We went to Ancestor Square at an awful time for lighting... but we made due. Most of my favorites were taken in black & white... which worked because I didn't have to worry about how the sun/shade spots everywhere made the colors look.

So, if you are wanting to schedule an outside session with me... be aware that you will need to get your booty out of bed EARLY...

Like 7am.

Or just wait until dusk... that works too!

Hats off to the boys. I could tell that Skyler didn't really care to be there... but was being an obedient husband. Then Nate just had no choice in the matter. It was nap-time, so smiling was out of the question...except for once! We did sneak one out of him. Here are some of my favorites:

Life is Good...





Preparing for their famous balancing act.


See... I told you we got a smile!

My Computer ='s Toast.

My big fancy computer is currently OUT OF ORDER! GAAH! What do I do!!! Especially since I did a photo shoot this morning, and I can't even get the pictures off of my camera!

I called Jared this morning when I couldn't get it to start up. I figured it was just user error, and he'd tell me something stupid to try and it would work. But it didn't work. So the awesome husband that Jared is... came home from his super stressful day of work to see what was going on with it. He took it apart, figured out that something wasn't working right... and decided that it wasn't worth his time to try and fix it himself. Like I said... he's under a lot of pressure at work right now. So... he took it to a local computer shop to see if it could be fixed quickly. Well, 2 minutes ago Jared just called and said that the Motherboard was fried and we needed a new one. Jared said that hopefully it will be done this afternoon! So I hope a new motherboard will fix whatever has been going on with it lately, so that I can get back to my pictures!

Jocelyn in Oregon.

Jocelyn left almost a week ago to spend 10 days in Oregon with her aunt and cousin. I haven't talked to her since she has been there. Jared did once I think. But it doesn't bug me because I know she is having fun, and I wouldn't understand her very well over the phone anyway! But today I noticed that some pictures had been posted to the family website of some of her adventures. I don't actually know who took the pictures, but for the most part, my guesses are on my SIL Jessica.

The beach in coats, huh? I'm sure it was fun... but that's not my idea of beach attire!!! LOL!

On another note... I went to Design Theory today, an antique store here in town. It's been around for awhile, so I'm sure this is not new news... but I LOVED it in there. I've never been before because it isn't exactly one of those places where you want to take 4 kids. One MAYBE. But they had a lot of cool stuff, and it was pretty cheap... and the ladies working were super nice. I forsee buying a lot of photography props there as soon as I have more space...

Which in other news... I guess our floor plan is about to go to the printers!

This is what the upstairs will look like for anyone interested...

The "bedroom 1" is going to be my hobby room I guess. Normally I'd call it my scrapbook room... but between my sewing, quilting, scrapbooking and photography stuff that will be in there, I'm better off calling it a hobby room, LOL!

The "Guest Retreat" is actually going to be Jared's office for his electronic projects and consulting. It has an outside entrance from the courtyard so that clients won't have to walk through the house... which is sure to be in a constant state of messy.

Otherwise... there is lots of storage, a big kitchen/great room with fireplace, and a huge master suite. The garage has 3 bays and is long enough to fit my truck in. A spiral staircase goes up to the roof for an "observation deck." And all of the kids bedrooms will be downstairs along with a bathroom, storage room, and a big room for a projector/game room/play area...

Now that we have the lot loan taken care of, we are scraping things together for a construction loan. Things would be easier if we had about $30,000 cash just stuffed under the mattress... but alas, we don't... so we'll figure something out!

I'm hoping to supplement some of the cost with my photography business. I have a shoot penciled in for Friday morning. Not confirmed though. I'm waiting to really start putting myself out there until I have all of my bits and pieces together. So far, I have my website up and functional, invoices, a receipt book, and a planner to keep track of when I have shoots planned. I've designed a CD label that I will deliver images on, and just need to print a bunch up. I was going to have CD's professionally silkscreened... but I haven't found a place that I really liked yet so I'm just going to wait until business picks up and I have more to spend! I'd also like to one day have customized invoices... but for now I only have stock ones from Office Max. But, my business cards will be here on Friday... and for that I'm excited. I still need to draw up a contract... and I'll probably start pushing it next week!

Isn't this about the cutest

photograph you have ever seen???

Yesterday we officially obtained the lot to build our new house on. It's at a gorgeous resort (aimed at those with big $$$... so I actually don't know how we are ending up there), and we wanted to go and stand on the land that is now ours! But when we got there the entrance was chained off. We knew that we could have probably went over to the security guard and dropped a few names (or we could have made a few phone calls to those names)... but we were like "ahh, whatever." So we went across the street to the lake instead. Jared did a little fishing. Katelyn and Calvin swam. And I hung out with Tess, Erica and my camera. I took a bunch of pictures, but I think this is one of my favorites. I guess all of the sunset pictures as a collection are my favorites.

I'll most definitely post some more later, but I don't want to be on-line all night!

So until we meet again!

More Dallie Pictures

I get to frequently take pictures of Dallie (daughter of Nikki) because she is my niece, and oh so cute. I took a bazillion the other day, and here are some of my favorites:

And the solution for being a bone-head and leaving your ISO on 1600 in broad daylight... because you didn't think to change your settings (even though I thought enough to shoot in full manual mode to expose for Dallie in the shadow, and not for the sunny background)...

Antique it with cool filters found on the internet!

And... my contact form works now on my website thanks to my super awesome husband...

and the link I posted to my website didn't work yesterday for some reason. User error I'm sure. But just type in amyhummel.com and it should work. I don't have any tags set up for search engines yet, so you might not be able to find me through google.

But... I ordered 300 business cards yesterday! Wow, what am I going to do with all of those???

The field of awesomeness

I don't know if I spelled "awesomeness" right... of if that is even a word. But I used it anyway.

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately. And I've been working a lot on the business side of photography, hence my absence from the blogging world.

Out of the pictures I have taken lately, I have a few favorites. My most favorite may be this one:

This is Megan's daughter MaKaty. And, a note for Megen... I tried to upload a full size file of the picture so that you could just right click and save it... BUT typepad wouldn't let me because I guess it was too big! So I had to reduce it. But you can right click and save it anyway if you wanted to post it on your blog like this. And of course... I am still working on getting you a full sized copy! No I didn't forget!

And... then here is a picture of me taking a picture of someone else. It was taken by the most awesome photographer ever, Beka... and her awesome camera (whom I'm in love with). The camera. Not Beka. Although I LOVE YOU TOO BEKA!

I want a copy of that one to put on my website. Which is up by the way.

amyhummel.com

(p.s. the contact form does not work. I still need to troubleshoot it...)

** P.S.S The contact form works now.

Little Miss Lily.

Who is the daughter of Beka...

Tess at 3 months and 1 week.

...but first, this picture of Calvin asleep on his bed... blanketed in books.

Back to Tess.

We didn't think it was possible at first, but Tess is now officially the happiest baby we have had.  In her first month or so, she was a complainer. But now she hardly ever cries. Unless she has a poopy diaper. She HATES those!

She loves to chill with her dad and watch re-runs of Rawhide... something that she enjoyed last month as well. She is very aware of her siblings, and loves it when they talk to her. She seems to sometimes recognize her name (although it may be a fluke when she turns her head after hearing her name).

She still hates her car-seat. She still loves the shower.

She has rubbed the sides of her head bald.

She's started to laugh out loud. Her favorite game is "Pat A Cake." She always laughs when a little Pat A Cake fun is to be had.

When she gets super excited, she kicks her legs and waves her arms and looks like she is going to bug her eyes out of her big ole head.

My favorite thing to do with her is squish her chubby cheeks...

More Portfolio Building

I've been pretty MIA lately for several reasons...

1. I have FOUR kids.
2. My sister is here, and my computer room is currently her bed room.
3. I can't seem to get my house under control for some reason, and feel guilty if I get on the computer.
4. ...and lastly, I've been absorbed in this:

Building my photography website.

Here are the latest entries to my portfolio:

And cute courtesy of my friend Jamie.

Kristi, let me know if I can use that picture of Tom and Lincoln in my portfolio. It's my favorite of the bunch!

Portfolio Building

 

The other day,

we had a full day. After swimming we went to In-N-Out burger...

They gave us hats and it was cool. Originally I hadn't brought my camera in, but it was in the truck. So I ran out to get it to document our good time!





...and although Tess was just sleeping in her seat on the floor... I had to take a picture of her too.




Erica took this one of me...


Then we went to the library.






And then we played at the water features...

By Popular Request...

Amilee's Baby.

Forgive me for the butchered spelling of her name, but I'm spelling it Milee









Then Tess wanted to get in on the action... so I sat her by the basket we were using...


But that wasn't enough. She wanted to be featured... so we did this...


And as you can see, she was happy about that.

...then they held hands,

Tess

I took some pictures of a friends baby the other day, and I snapped this one of my chunky Tess. So I thought I'd post it since I haven't posted anything in a long time...

 

Anyone need underwater pictures???

A weeks worth of posting wrapped into one!

I've been a little preoccupied the last week, and haven't really had a chance to sit down and post. For anyone who didn't know, my youngest sister Erica came to live with us for the summer. She got here on Wednesday, so I've been working to help her get settled.

But, I'm really feeling like wasting some time... so I finally plopped my CF card into my card reader and uploaded a bunch of pictures from my camera. And I've been playing with them, and I'm ready to share!

Last week was Katelyn's birthday. She is now 4! She wanted a "rose cake" for her birthday.

Here is a picture of her when we were singing "happy birthday."

I'm mad that I forgot to take the UV filter off my camera. That's why there is a glare from the candles...

Here is an upclose picture of her roses and "Kitchen Fairy." She gets one every year on her birthday from me. And my mom has started giving them to her too...

*I desaturated the picture in case you were wondering... 

On a different day, I thought it would be fun to take pictures of a sleeping Tess.

And then the sound of my shutter woke her up (she was on the verge of waking anyway)... and she smiled.

And then... on another day... Calvin was helping me pick peas in the garden.

I asked him to smile for me... which resulted in this shot:

Hummm... what else do I have...

Oh!

Here are some cute little pictures that I took of a friend's baby. I was trying to get some material for my portfolio. They have a lot of "noise" because I turned my ISO all the way up. I didn't want to use my flash because there was a cute reflection off of the wood floor... but I think I may have gotten something for my portfolio nevertheless.

Let me know if you want full sized, non-cropped copies Jamie...

This one was with a flash:

And................ yesterday was Jocelyn's last day of Kindergarten:

Here she is coming out of school on her last day:

I actually think I almost cried as she walked out. It felt like her last day was more emotional for me than her first day. And it didn't help that she cried all the way home because she would miss her teacher!

Then, yesterday...

I took these:

And proof that my sister really is here...

Here's Erica in the middle of the chaos!

(her hair kind of matches my wall... don't you think)...

Irrational Fears

I'm scared of spiders.

When I'm in my normal self, I'm pretty tom boyish.

However seeing a spider crawl across the floor will bring out the girliest girl in me. Jared gets a kick out of seeing me in all my squeeling, jumping to the tallest piece of furniture glory!

That happened to me today. I was folding a pile of quilts that we keep next to our couches in the living room. While folding I saw a BIG spider crawling out of the quilt I was holding. This is what happened:

I screamed and dropped the quilt.

I chanted over and over... "it's a spider, it's a spider, it's a spider."

I jumped up on the couch.

I shuddered as a nervous panic feeling shot through my body.

I found a piece or railroad track from Calvin's Thomas the Train set and while balancing on the couch proceeded to smash the crap out of the spider (which wasn't as big as I made it sound above).

I threw the spider away, because I had to have it out of sight.

...all the while, Katelyn and Calvin (watching Beauty & the Beast) just glanced over at me, and back at the TV.  Apperantly this is commonplace, and they no longer find it amusing!