Sunday with my boys

We took the boys to Laumier Sculpture park since it was such a beautiful day.  I got two pictures.  Two.

I reminded them in the parking lot that they owed me a few posed shots as a mother's day gift.

::sigh::  Maybe back home we'd have better luck...

Better but no one is having fun - least of all, me.

So I drop all expectations and just capture life as it happens

A lazy Saturday adventure

A quick trip for a slushie; permission to take his seatbelt off while we checked out bison and elk; a walk through the woods (possibly in a patch of poison ivy); and discovering elk scat (lots of scat).

 

 

I can't believe I haven't been to Lone Elk Park.  How did I not know they had a World Bird Sanctuary?

I had actually been on the phone with them twice this past week regarding an ailing baby robin but didn't realize until we were at the sanctuary and saw the Wildlife Hospital sign.

By the way the Wildlife Hospital has very friendly staff who does not laugh at you when you're trying to help a baby bird and who will let you in all little known facts such as sometimes baby birds have more than one father.

A very happy Fourth of July

My very awesome mother decided to treat her kids (and their spouses and kids) to an impromptu family vacation in Kansas City.  We added an extra day on to the trip and stopped about an hour outside of KC to visit our "country" sister for the fourth of July holiday and some small town fireworks (a very nice break from the overcrowded firework displays at home where the trek to and from the car takes longer than the fireworks)

 They are well supervised (I actually cloned out my husbands toes because it messed up the shot but he's right there)

We stuck to smoke bombs (and a smoke canon), black snakes, and poppers

The kids were thrilled.

At dusk we headed on to a nearby fireworks display that put on an impressive show

Last year we were mid drought for the fourth of July and almost all the fireworks displays were cancelled.  My youngest doesn't even remember seeing fireworks.  I'm very happy we were able to remind him :)

Boys and Chicks

 I love catching the boys during quiet moments...

They don't like being caught.  Retreat! Retreat!

Maybe I'll play it safe and just stick to photographing the chickens

 Yeah... that chicken isn't safe at all...

(no animals were harmed in the making of these photos)

Wild boys. Nothing new here.

Well, something sort of new.  Did I mention we have more chickens?  Those are the 4 new additions.  That's 7 total now.  Just waiting on eggs.  By the end of summer they'll be laying (or cock-a-doodle-dooing)

Capturing the night

The witching hour... well its actually more like two hours: 4PM to 6PM.  Since the day we brought our first baby home this has always been the hardest time of the day to get through.  Everyone is cranky, it coincides with trying to prepare dinner, daddy coming home so much all at once.  The nerves get frazzled.  

But then you see the light at the end of the tunnel and here comes 7 PM, the winding down hour.  Baths and milk... preparing for bedtime... and the ever present story time.  My personal favorite.  The nighttime hours are when my kids are the sweetest.  Its when I want to capture them the most.  Its when there is the least light.

Evan is reading on the Kindle these days.  Using a slow shutter speed allows me to use the ambient light from the Kindle screen to illuminate his face.  

Settings: f2.0 | ss 1/25 | ISO 800 | 50mm lens

This is the reason I shoot in RAW.  Look how much detail that was lost in the shadows can be recovered.  It can be a real life-saver when you over expose or under expose a picture.  For this type of shot I'll stick with the above photo. While the below photo is a good example of the benefit of shooting in RAW format instead of JPEG, it was not the look I was going for.

Shooting at such a low shutter speed means you risk a lot of movement blur if your subject moves (or if you move).  Here I've got the camera pressed against the wall to stabilize myself but he heard the beep and lifted his face. Movement + slow shutter speed = blur.
Settings: f2.0 | ss 1/40 | ISO 1250 | 50mm lens

Aiden, seeing an opportunity to delay sleep, made a rare request to have his picture taken.  Without the ambient light from the kindle it was a bit more challenging however there was a small amount of light coming from the window just above him.  It was dusk so it was a very soft light. but still rather dark.  I slowed my shutter even more to 1/15, a speed I don't dare do handheld on so I stacked a game and book up and used it as a tripod.  The higher iso, underexposed picture resulted in a lot of noise (or grain) so converted it to black and white.
Settings: f2.0 | ss 1/15 | ISO 1250 | 50mm lens

Before the Kindle they boys read by flashlight, usually under a blanket.  They wiggled and giggled and moved so much it was almost impossible to get a shot of this nightly concurrence that I loved so much.  So we faked it using a little Photoshop magic.
Settings: f2.2 | ss 1/125 | ISO 500 | 35mm lens.  This is what the REAL image looked like:

After Photoshop it looks like their nightly routine that I tried so hard to capture.

Baby Paxton | A Birth Story {St. Louis Birth Photography}

Mom was scheduled for a c-section; her second. My first.  There was no hours of laboring, just waiting and prepping.  (Hmmm,I think 9 months of pregnancy is a major labor of love, so really that's a lot of hours of laboring).

Donned in OR attire, It was time to start.

I believe there were 15 people in the room, not including baby Paxton.  Only three of us (mom, dad, me) were not medical professionals.  This was my view.  I thought I would be on the other side of the curtain but I got to watch the amazing-ness of a baby being born

I was too stunned with all the amazing-ness to note if this was before or after they called time of birth.  He still has one foot in.

First peek for mom and dad... First pose for the camera... another peek for mom and then off to the baby nurses for care.

Hello dad...nice to meet you.

 Another peek for mom from across the room.

 I got to sneak off with dad while they weighed him.  Mom was stuck behind on the table.

 Together as a family..

Getting swaddled up tight for the trip back to the recovery room.  (FYI: most babies are not this cute so soon after being born)

 Oh sweet baby feet!

A few quiet moments back in recovery

This is just a fraction of his birth story.  So many incredible moments in such a short time.  I couldn't possibly fit them all here!  Congratulations to mom and dad on their beautiful baby boy!  It was such a honor to be allowed to capture these for you.

Introducing Thomas...9 days new | St. Louis Newborn Photographer

Newborns are a beautiful thing.  Watching new parents with their first born is almost as beautiful.  This little guy had his parents beaming, and rightfully so.  Congratulations to the new mom and dad; you have a handsome little man.