Playing Around Part IV

That seems to be all I do these days, huh? Ha! I love it though. I wanted to use the basket some more, and then after Rachel woke up from her nap she wanted to play too. Ahhhh... I love them.

Cute Baby Alert

This baby belongs to one of my really good friends. I talked her over to let me practice newborn shots. Isn't he delicious? Anyone else have a brand new baby? Want to come over? :)

To brighten your day

From our trip to the park last Saturday....

So I'm an idiot

Apparently I'm not the biggest Stephanie Meyer fan in existence. I don't even know about her novels. *sigh* I stand corrected. The Host is not her novel about vampires. Waiting for Dawn (the correct title) doesn't come out until August. I'm still going to check my library in advance though....

New Print Pricing

I recently partnered with a new photo lab and I can tell you they are awesome. I'm so excited about this because I get to offer great prints for reasonable prices. There's also a lot more finishing options, canvas choices, gallery wraps, etc. I can even do press-printed books or flush-mounted albums if you're interested. Well, what are you waiting for? Check it out!

**I also have a new policy pertaining to digital negatives. Information is at the bottom of the pricing page.

Stephanie Meyer Fans...

...this is for you! I recently called a bookstore to check on something else and was asked if I wanted to pre-order her 4th book in the vampire series titled The Host. No. I don't. I don't buy books before I've read them. So, I checked out our local library and they list at least 10 books on pre-order. So, I made a request for it and guess what? #2 in line. How cool is that? I imagine they'll get these books in and processed fairly quickly as well so there won't be much of a wait. My advice: contact your local library and see if you can get on the waiting list now. Before everyone else does.

Pumpkin-licious!

I've found that cans of pumpkin are sooo big that I have to make a couple of recipes in the same week to use it all. Well, this is the week. For those of you that read my tag, you know I am obsessed with all things pumpkin. I thought I'd share a couple of my favorite recipes:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 c canned pumpkin
1 c white sugar
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 egg
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk
1 Tbs vanilla
2 c chocolate chips

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla and chocolate chips.
3. Drop by spoonful and greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.
**These are very cake-like cookies. I was thinking they'd be really good as mini-muffins as well, but alas. I don't have a mini-muffin tin.

Kate's Famous Pumpkin Pancakes (from Stacie back on the aforementioned post)
1 1/4 c flour
2 Tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 egg
6 Tbs pumpkin (I use more)
2 Tbs butter, melted
1 c milk

1. Whisk all dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix egg, pumpkin, butter, and milk; fold in dry ingredients.
2. Heat skilled over medium heat; pour about 1/4 c batter for each pancake. Spread batter to make it flat. Serve with butter and syrup.
**Also really yummy with chocolate chips in the batter (I haven't tried this, but it sounds good!)

Pumpkin Roll
3 eggs
2/3 c pumpkin
1 c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 c flour

1. Grease a 10x15 cookie sheet and line with waxed paper so the paper hangs slightly over each edge.
2. Mix ingredients and pour onto cookie sheet smoothing into a thin layer
3. Bake 15 min at 350 degrees.
4. Prepare pumpkin filling while it's baking

Filling
2 Tbsp softened butter or margerine
8 oz softened cream cheese
1 c confectioner's sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla

5. When pumpkin is finished, dump upside down on a linen towel or clean pillow case (no lint).
6. Peel off waxed paper with a butter knife, roll pumpkin in towel and leave for 5-10 min.
7. Unroll and spread filling (don't go completely to the edge).
8. Roll pumpkin without the towel.
**You can wrap in foil and freeze if desired. Also fun to sprinkle confectioner's sugar over the top to serve.

Anyway, if you decide to make any of these, let me know how it goes!

A little Pick-Me-Up Experimentation

I was struggling today, so I had a therapy photo session. Ahhh... So nice. I've been trying to find a way to make my studio shots more interesting. Give them a little oomph. I decided to use one strobe instead of two, and I ditched the kitchen table I was using for my "platform". Put the kids right on the ground instead. Hopefully this will make them happier as I think it was pretty scary up there for a few. Plus, I can get better angles. I think using just one strobe gives the picture more depth. Less "kiddie kandids" more "custom photography", right? right?!

I also picked up some white material at the fabric store yesterday. So fun! I love high key photography. And, it worked with just the one strobe, as did the black (yup, did a test run with all of 'em). These were all shot with my 50mm, f/2.5 (ish), 1/200. I love that lens.

This is her post-nap hair do. I promise she doesn't look like this all the time (notice she's looking at the camera and smiling. I hope this is becoming a trend...).

I love this picture. My kids are so cute. I'm so biased.

Our cute neighbor...

Girls are going to dig that drool

Okay, one more.

P.S. I love having so many kids in my building. I knocked on our neighbors door and said "hey, can I borrow your kid for a few minutes?"

Oh how I love this weather!

I could seriously handle weather like this all year... oh wait. We're moving to CA next year. Hooray for no snow! Anyway... we went to play with grandma last Friday, grandpa got jealous so he came home from work early and we all went to the park. My parents got a new Nikon SLR for Christmas so my dad & played around taking pictures. It was really fun. These are for you Nikonites out there.

This is how Andrew feels about slides....

This is how Rachel feels about slides...

I'll just sit here and look cute instead. Is that okay, mom?

Playing with grandma

This is my favorite. By the time we left, she could go up this thing by herself. She's so big! (color is kinda funky. Too tired to figure out. She's really not that orange in real life! I promise!)

The Big 1

Isn't he cute? Seriously. He's my neighbor's little boy and is so fun. We had some trouble getting him to smile (seems to be a trend. hmmmm....). I think my big umbrellas and flashy lights scare them. Working on that. Anyway, enjoy!