Miles and I jetted off to Oahu, Hawaii for a few days. A quick trip and a long flight, but so worth it.
Lanikai and its gorgeous surroundings
View over Lanikai from the pill box hike
Surfers coming in for the day in Kailua
Lovely bride on the beach in Lanikai
Week 18 of our blog circle. I borrowed a Macro lens this week to take photos of my best friend's precious newborn baby (photos to come later) and I took the opportunity to practice on some still life shots (per my 365) and of the girls. I snapped this one of Harper by the window in our dining room looking out at the city around 3:30 pm. Macro lenses are best used in manual focus which takes some getting used to and I have learned it's important to have your aperture very narrow in order to get everything you want in focus. Macro lenses need a ton of light to work properly and it's hard to nail focus, but when you do, photos can be magical. When I saw this photo, I was really pleased with it. It's bittersweet for me as Harper is looking older and I think I can really see what she is going to look like when she's a teenager. She'll be beautiful no doubt, but won't be a little girl anymore. Here is my take for this week:
Up next in our blog circle is my lovely and dear friend Justine Knight. Please click HERE to see what her take is on indoor natural light. She never disappoints!
Macro berries in snow
Drew's portrait of her Momma (she's not half bad!)
Belle of the ball
Macro Drew
Sweet baby Eli at two weeks old.
I have decided to bite the bullet and start a 365. What's a 365 you say? It's me taking a photo every.single.day. for a whole year. Lots of photographers take on this journey and at the end of it, have found it to be so rewarding and they have seen themselves grow so much just by taking out their camera every day. It's a ton of work, but at the end of it, I am going to have a snapshot to remember an entire year of our life. Yes, it will contain mainly photos of my two muses and yes these photos all won't make it into my portfolio (likely none of them will) but it's more for me and for me to document our daily life, all the details, both the special and the mundane things, the little things I never want to forget and it will also include other non-kid stuff so as not to bore all my followers and to push myself to try new things. At the end of this challenge, I will have created a visual journey of who we are, what we do, where we go and what we love to do. So, January 1 was my first day and I am now posting the first five days below. Enjoy!
Our last day in Florida after Christmas break. Happy New Year!
A moment in the life of my oldest playing with her dolls before bed.
Gorgeous indoor natural light
4/365
Harper reading a new book to Rody
Sweet baby John Fulton Mackey, born on Christmas Day.
This is our 18th week of our blog circle focusing on various lighting techniques and this month we are focusing natural indoor light. It's January so we will be spending a lot more time indoors this month so we picked a theme that we could really push ourselves to explore and that is finding light inside the home (be it our home or other places where we live or visit). In NYC apartments, in can be tough to find light but it's recommended to spend a day observing the light in your home to see how it falls during different times of the day. Oftentimes your bathroom or kitchen can get the nicest light and these are places often overlooked for great photographs. This week, I attended a bris of my good friend's baby son. The light inside the building was fantastic so I took the opportunity to take some shots of Harper and this was one of my favorites from the day.
Please follow along the blog circle and check out my Seattle friend Kami Chaudhery's take on indoor light and see if either of her darling girls where photographed this week HERE.
This is week 17 of our Play on Light blog circle and to cap off the year 2012 we have decided to post a favorite photo of 2012. We have all grown so much over the past year and I am so honored to have found this talented and supportive group of mom photographers - now all dear friends - from around the world. They inspire me daily with their skills and knowledge and have pushed me to improve my photography more than I could ever imagine and most importantly encouraged me when I have lost confidence. This post is for them. I am so excited to begin a new year with all of these ladies and look forward to sharing more on this blog with all of my "fans" - you know who you are :)
I have taken more photos this year than I could have ever imagined possible, so I have many favorites from 2012, however if I had to choose one, the following is my favorite photo of the year as it captures Drew and Harper's personalities and laughter so well. I started photographing my girls to capture moments like this. I like to be able to see a photo that makes me smile and I love it when I can almost hear their laughter - like in this one. Many have seen this before, but here it is one last time to cap off 2012!
Last day of summer 2012
Please follow along the circle to see what my Brooklyn friend Kelly Patton of K. Rox Photography chose as her favorite image HERE and see what her darling family (a.k.a. The Brooklyn Pattons) have been up to while you are on her page.
This is our fourth holiday edition. It's Christmas Eve and the girls couldn't be more excited. We took a trip on the Polar Express yesterday and Drew gave the elves quite a hard time about who they were, why they were just wearing chefs outfits serving hot cocoa 5 minutes earlier, noting that elves are not supposed to be that tall and questioning why Santa didn't know her name. It's going to be a long few years ahead. Nevertheless, the magic is still here and tomorrow will ultimately be the most favorite day of the year as we wait and watch for Santa's arrival. Here is my take on this week's holiday edition:
Up next in our blog circle is my friend Kennedy Tinsley, of Tinsley House Photography, a fantastic photographer that captures emotion so well through her children and others. Click HERE to see her take.
This is our 15th week of our play on light blog circle and our third holiday edition. I know we have all been grieving following Friday's tragedy. I will be devastated for months I am sure. I can't stop looking at my girls and kissing them and realizing just how lucky I am to have them here and safe. It's hard for me not to think of all the families that won't have their little ones with them tonight. As President Obama said tonight, this tragedy has helped to remind us what matters. I do believe that is true, as hard as it is to find something good in something so tragic. When choosing a photo for this week, I kept coming back to this shot I took earlier in the week- before any of this madness happened. I look at this - our celebration of Hanukkah and Christmas (or Christmakuh) and these lights take on a new meaning now to me. I am beyond thankful to have my two girls, my husband and our families to celebrate with this year. To Sandy Hook Elementary, you will forever be in our thoughts.
Now head on over to the lovely Kim Dupree's blog to see her gorgeous taking on holiday lights this week HERE. They will definitely put you in the holiday spirit.
It's always exciting when the Nutcrackers come out every year. The girls love playing with them and pretending to be Clara in the Nutcracker, dancing around the apartment. Lucky for us, we will be seeing the Nutcracker on stage this week! The ballet is a highlight of the holiday season and was always one of my favorite stories as a child. It has been wonderful to share this excitement with my two girls. Here is my take for this week's holiday edition of our play on light.
"Clara" in front of our tree
Up next in our blog circle is our newest addition to our circle, my friend Cheryl Chriss Sawyer. Please click HERE to check out her wonderful take on this week's holiday edition.
It is certainly beginning to feel a lot like Christmas (and the winter holidays). Our neighborhood is dazzling with snowflakes and little white and colored lights, Lincoln Center and Rockefeller Center both had their official tree lighting, we bought our annual Christmas tree and our Elf on the Shelf is back on duty. This is week 13 of our play on light and for the rest of the month, we will be focusing on a special holiday edition. For this week, I focused on holiday bokeh. Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light. Bokeh
is different from sharpness. Sharpness
is what happens at the point of best focus. Bokeh
is what happens away from the point of best focus. Bokeh is really fun to play with and with all the holiday lights, there are endless ways to shoot it. Here is my take on this week's inaugural holiday edition:
become little balls of light.
Rudolph
Up next in our blog circle is mother of two from the DC area, Lisa Rigazio. Please click HERE to check out her stunning work.
This is our final week on hard light and our 12th week of our blog circle. Can't believe it has been three months since we started this fun project. This week I have taken a different approach to hard light and instead of having my subjects in the direct sun, I decided to silhouette them and kept the hard light source (the sun) behind them. I love that I can see Drew's little features as she is lauging trying to kick her Daddy on the swing :) This was from our playground rest point on the drive up to Cape Cod for Thanksgiving.
Up next in our blog circle is my friend and uber talented NYC photographer Sarah Roemer Davis. Click HERE to check our creative her play on light.
This is week 11 and our third week on hard light. As mentioned before, hard light is light that creates well-defined, high contrast images resulting in shadows with sharp or negligible transition from light to dark. One example of hard light is the sun. While the sun is not a small light source, when it is direct and undiffused by clouds, harsh and sharp lines are seen in the shadows Daddy doesn't typically like to have his photo taken, but I managed to get this in in the park with the girls. Here is my take for this week:
Up next in our blog circle is my friend and NYC street photographer-extraordinaire, Stacey Vukelj. Please take a moment to check our her creative take on hard light HERE
This month we are focusing on hard light in our blog circle. Hard light is light that creates well-defined, high contrast images resulting in shadows with sharp or negligible transition from light to dark. The light that creates it comes from a small (or relatively small), single-point light source. Although the sun is not a small light source, when it is direct and undiffused by clouds, harsh and sharp lines are seen in the shadows. A flashlight, flash from your camera, a candle, light from an ipad or iphone, etc. can also be used. Here is my take for this week. This is Drew playing in her new favorites spot on the windowsill with her new American Girl doll washed in hard light from the sun through the window:
"When I grow up, I want to be a Mommy"
A little girl and her doll
Please continue along our circle and check out my friend Erica Collins, mother of FIVE gorgeous children and Indiana natives' beautiful take on hard light HERE. Stick around to check out her 365 blog as well - it's a highlight of my week!
This is week 8 of our collaborative photography project with my group of talented photographers. This is also the last week of our focus on backlight. I couldn't go four weeks without at least one silhouette as this has become one of my favorite ways to shoot backlight. It's also fairly easy as long as you meter off the lit background. The key is to get your subjects spread apart and able to show a unique silhouette. I usually have them jump or spread their arms or do something silly. While this isn't the ideal silhouette shot, there is only so much four little ones will stand to do for me :) While I typically shoot silhouettes at the beach at sunset or where the sky can be illuminated and my subjects silhouetted, I played with this silhouette in a tunnel in Central Park at the peak of fall foliage. As long as you have a backlit environment, you can turn your subjects into fun silhouettes. After Hurricane Sandy this week, it's likely most of these leaves will be on the ground unfortunately. Here is my take of week 8 of our project and week 4 of backlight:
Please stick around and take a look at the rest of our blog circle. Up next is the talented mom of four from Minnesota, Julie Kiernan. Please stop by and look at her take on backlight HERE.
It's our third week of backlight and the leaves are turning in Central Park. It's so warm and so gorgeous. It has to be one of the best falls on record. Really hard to get enough of it. Winter is going to come too soon but I am happy to have these memories. This week's theme is leaves. Here is my take on backlight for this week:
Please continue along our blog circle and see what the talented Kami Chaudhery posted as her take on backlight HERE.
Drew's birthday has come and gone in a flash, just like the last five years of her life. As a parent, it seems so bittersweet to see your children grow up. At least, that is how it has felt to see my oldest turn FIVE. It's so hard for us to let go, but at the same time it is so fun to see how EXCITED they are to be a year older and bigger and do more "big kid" things. She is learning to read and speak in Spanish, welcomed her first official American Girl Doll into the family, loves her school and her friends, spends hours a day drawing pieces of art, loves to run and climb and hopes to be a veterinarian one day. Drew is officially a big kid now. All five fingers give her age! I so wish we could hold back time right now and bottle everything about her right up, but she is full speed ahead, loving every minute of Kindergarten and already telling us she is ready for 1st grade! There is no stopping her. Huge high five to Drew on her birthday and let's hope her little sister holds on to 3 just a bit longer...
Here are a few photos taken over the last five years to see how far she has come, starting with Drew at 2 days old and on her birthday the last four years:
This year, Drew had an extended birthday celebration as is always recommended - at any age, particularly age 5 - beginning with cupcakes (her Grandma made and the girls helped to decorate) in her Kindergarten class:
Receiving her envelope of hand written birthday cards from all 27 students in her class
Lighting the candle
Happy girl
Her official birthday on Friday, October 19th consisted of a field trip with her class, a visit to the Museum of Natural History and ended at our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Celeste. Drew developed a new taste for mussels dipped in a wine and garlic sauce and subsequently ate half of her Daddy's appetizer - we are in trouble! And, she finished with chocolate cake with ganache of course :)
Outside after a successful birthday dinner!
This year's theme for her party was Strawberry Shortcake. Both Drew and Harper are currently enamored by her and I don't blame them! Drew had a vision of a Strawberry Shortcake dress cake after seeing one at a store this summer, so I tried my best to follow through. Thanks to a lot of help from her Grandmother, we pulled it off (just barely!) I did get a professional one done as well just in case and that one actually tasted delicious. Here are some pics from the party and the happy birthday girl!
Puppet-making
Loving the lipstick- the highlight!
Thanks to Justine Knight for this photo!
HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL GIRL! XOXO
It has been a gorgeous fall so far in New York City. The sky is the prettiest blue during the day and painted the most gorgeous colors of the year at sunset. This week we ventured out to Riverside Park at the golden hour on one of the 65 degree sunny days and played with backlighting. This was about 20 minutes before sunset. The haze and the outline of the sun around her face is typical of a backlit shot. It's a struggle and I haven't perfected it yet, but it's one of my favorite techniques to practice. Here is my take:
Please continue along the blog circle and take a look at my friend Stacey Vukelj's gorgeous take on backlighting this week HERE. And please take a look at the rest of her website and her fantastic work focusing on city life and her adorable little boy in the big city.
The collaborative project I am working on with several other talented photographers spent the last four weeks on shadows. Today, we are beginning our next month on the theme referred to as backlighting. Simply put, backlighting is when a light source is behind the main subject. While many people have been told at some point not to shoot into the light, the effects can be quite magical if you can successfully do it right.
By having the light behind your subject, the finer details of an object can be enhanced as well as the capture of some lovely silhouettes (one of my favorite techniques). Landscape photography works well with backlighting, especially with translucent flowers and foliage (great for this time of year) or rim lighting of animals and objects in the background. Even atmospheric elements such as haze, fog, steam or mist can be intensified and therefore alter the mood of an image.
Below is my first take on backlighting. These shots were all taking in the Tuscan region of Italy last week (see last blog post here). The wonderful morning sun enhanced the textures and fine details of my images. Many of these details are only truly noticeable with the backlit sun.
Spider and her web basking in the backlit sun.
Dried milk thistle along the Tuscan sky
Italian grape leaves
Please continue along in our blog circle to see all the other wonderful backlit images for this week. Up next is my dear friend Justine Knight again. Please click HERE to see her take and while you are on her page, stay awhile to see her gorgeous street photography photos.
Last weekend, Miles and I were fortunate enough to be included in the wedding of our good friends Fabiana and Dugald at a villa in the Tuscany countryside. The long weekend was filled with wonderful company (friends traveled from as far away as Sydney, Tokyo, London and NYC), wine tasting and consumption, Italian cooking classes and over consumption of fresh pastas, gorgeous settings and of course a beautiful Italian wedding and celebration! I have included some highlights of the trip below. I think this marks my seventh trip to Italy - a country I could go back to every year and never, ever tire of the beauty, the wine, the food and the people. Congratulations Fabiana and Dugald!
I will love the light for it shows me the way. Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars. - Og Mandino
This is week 4 of our "Play on Light" blog circle and our final week focusing on shadows. Here is my take.
Next up in the blog circle is Jill Cassara, a wonderful photographer and mother of two darling children. Please take a moment to see her take on shadows by clicking HERE
