Playing with a New Lens

I have a new love in my life:  the Canon 100mm macro lens.  :)

I know you're probably thinking, "Why in the world does she need ANOTHER lens?!"  Well, I shoot with prime (meaning non-zoom) lenses and each different focal length serves a different purpose.  

A wide angle lens, like my 35mm, can capture more in the picture and is great for indoor shots, spaces where you want to capture as much as possible but don't have much room to back up, and more lifestyle images.  It's on my camera the majority of the time at home.  This lens isn't as great for portraits because it can cause some unflattering distortion of people's faces if you get close up.  

The 50mm I have is most like what your eye sees as far as what can fit in the frame.  It's on my camera for about 90% of each newborn session (I bust out the 35mm for family shots if I don't have room for the 50mm) and about 75% of my portrait sessions.  

The 100mm macro I got will serve two main purposes:  close-up macro shots during my newborn sessions (think squishy lips, tiny fingers and toes, faint eyelashes) and outdoor portraits (a longer focal length like the 85+ is a dream for outdoor portraits as it really compresses the background and makes it all smooth and buttery).  It's not as practical for me to take outside with West, for instance, because you have to stand so far back in order to get more in the picture.  I love that even though this lens is technically a macro lens (vs the non-macro 100mm lens), it can be used for beautiful portraits as well. 

Without further ado, here are some images I've taken my new lens since I got it a week or two ago...

These shots were taken within an hour of getting it in the mail.  I was so excited to bust it out I didn't even wipe the powdered donut remnants off West's face before snapping these shots.  Plus, he's not even wearing any pants... but thankfully these shots are so tight you wouldn't know it.  :)

 We get this look ALL the time... this is his look when he's trying to be silly.  

 Telling me a story about trains.  I had to stand back about 6 feet in order to get these shots.

 Just being cute.  :)

And here are some more shots I got the other day. 

 It is nearly impossible to get any in-focus shots of him while is playing (or awake for that matter).  I managed to get a few close-ups in focus.  SOOOO excited to use this on baby brother when he arrives!  I'm sure he'll be a much more cooperative subject, that is, until he starts moving too.  ;)

New Camera!!!

Well I finally made my very long-awaited jump out of the Canon Rebel line into a more professional camera.  I just never thought my first jump would be to my DREAM camera.  Brad and I discussed it over the course of many in-depth conversations (where I was always freaking out and he calmly but firmly reassured me that this was the best decision) and now I am an extremely proud of my dream camera - the Canon 6D.

I plan to take some side-by-side comparisons of the same shot and settings on both my cameras so you can really see the difference.  It's incredible.  But for now, here are some of the first shots I took with my new love yesterday.

 There is no way I could have gotten these next two shots with my Rebel!

 He loves this polar bear.  

 Here he is putting the polar bear down to go "nigh nigh."  He kissed it, called it sweetheart (no joke), and then laid it down on his pillow.  So precious.

Weekend Explorations

There's a little patch of woods back behind our house that we have yet to explore, so last weekend we took off.  It was cold and muddy and West wasn't too fond of exploring this new area, so we didn't stay too long. Just long enough for me to snap some pics.  ;)

He didn't like walking through the tall brush so he was wanting us to come pick him up.  

 

Daddy to the rescue!

Golden Hour

We took these in the field behind our house this afternoon during the "golden hour."  This warm, golden, hazy look isn't for everyone, but it's my favorite! 

West fell (ok, more like he dove headfirst) off my lap when we were sitting in the chair last Monday and scraped his nose on his nightstand.  It didn't bleed at all then, but it looked terrible all week and is finally starting to look better now.

West's 1st Birthday Invites!

OK, you know us.  We're a little indecisive.  So when it came time to mail out West's birthday invitations to our immediate families we sent all of the following (our favorites) out instead of choosing just one.  :)

Sorry we've been a little quiet on here lately - we've been busy planning a certain someone's first birthday party!

Afternoon Photo Fun

It had been awhile since I had played with my camera so Monday afternoon I got it out and snapped some pics.  

I absolutely love the "nifty fifty" lens (50 mm 1.8f) that I got a couple months ago.  It has a wider aperture than the lens that comes with the camera so it makes the background really blurry which in turn makes West really pop in the pictures.  The only problem is it's taken me awhile to get nice clear pictures with it, especially when West moves so fast!  I still have a ways to go, but I'm having fun learning.  

Here he was biting one of the slats and before I could stop him he face-planted into the window.  Brad thought this pic was hilarious and asked me to include it.   :)

His First Fourth

We were pretty low key for this holiday, even with it being Brad's favorite, for a few reasons.  One, we didn't want to keep West up way past his bedtime and risk a meltdown somewhere.  Two, we were scared he might be terrified of the fireworks.  And three, I was battling a sinus infection.

That didn't keep us from celebrating altogether, though.  Tuesday the 3rd we drove down the street for our town's fireworks show at the nearby park.  It was kinda a last minute thing - West took a late afternoon nap and was still awake at about 8:30 so we decided we'd actually go check it out closer instead of watching it from our neighborhood.  So glad we did - the fireworks were so much better up close!

West actually fell asleep in the car on the way there and we left him sleeping for most of the show (we had the windows rolled all the way down and had the chairs set up literally right next to his door).  We decided near the end, though, to go ahead and wake him up so he wouldn't entirely miss his first fireworks show.  Risky move, as it would scare anyone to wake up from a deep sleep to loud fireworks, let alone a baby who's never seen them before, but he wasn't bothered by them one bit.  

 Here you can see the three of us watching on the left, and West and Brad watching on the right.  

Wednesday we chilled at home most of the day and for dinner we had hotdogs, baked beans, corn on the cob, and fruit pizza.  We were pretty excited to make fruit pizza because we never have before.  We started out with a patriotic stars and stripes...

but then decided to add some more strawberry "stripes"...

It didn't feel quite right not celebrating with family or friends but we made the best of it and had a really great day.  :)