Yosemite

So last weekend we kept the boys out of school Friday, due to a family emergency. In that we had to go to Mariposa for my grandmother's (Muma) 80th Sup-prize Birthday party. We decided to go up and see Yosemite State Park Friday. I wanted to play with my camera and we were to meet Sean and Lisa and their kids there that day. They drove in from Arizona.

The mountains were so beautiful, It was sad that the waterfalls were all dry but it was wonderful just seeing the beauty that was there. I felt so blessed that God had created all this just because he loves us and wanted us to have a beautiful place to live. At times I wonder at the blessing he has given to me, what have I done to deserve it. 

While we were walking and looking around at everything the boys spotted a duck in a little bit of water. Dallin got all excited and told us that he found some nature. Here we are in the middle of a beautiful park surrounded by huge trees and mountains and the duck was nature. It reminded me of the Grand Canyon and the chipmunks. :o) The boys were also excited by the extremely fat squirrels that were playing around on the park benches. We finally met up with Sean and Lisa and headed into Mariposa for dinner. I took pictures of all the cousins but they are all blurry. Still learning. :o) 

Back to School

This year we decided to put the boys back into public school. With the new baby due in November I didn't think my stress level could handle doing everything.  They are really enjoying it, except Dallin says they are making him learn to read and he isn't happy about that. Jared being the social bee that he is, is making lots of new friends and has a wonderful teacher. He has a few friends that he made in Kindergarten in his 3rd grade class so I think that made him feel more at home. 

Dallin was just a little excited and could not give me a relaxed smile. 

He is by far the tallest kid in his class and I don't see that changing in the years to come. 

Dallin has a friend from church named Scott in his class, they are good buddies. They were so excited that they were going into the same class. 

They looked so grown up. Jared wants to walk himself and Dallin to school with out us. I guess he is old enough, It is just a little hard to let them go sometimes. Especially when you have no control over the situation.  I told him to give me a week or two to get used to him being so grown up. 

One more note is that the house is amazingly more quiet. I can actually hear myself think. Amazing.

End of Summer

We were invited to an End of Summer pool party at a friends and we had a great time. However somehow all I got was pictures of Shane. They are great ones though, I took them with my new lens.  

You know how usually the last child has the fewest pictures, I think it will be the opposite in our family. And some of you know just how many pictures I have of Jared. (Hundreds) It is probably the switch from film to digital. I just don't feel guilty about taking 100 pictures when I don't have to print them at all if I don't want to. The down side is that I rarely print pictures. I will have to work on that. 

Lesson One

I finally got my first lesson from NYIP, I am super excited to be able to learn more about something I have grown to love in the past few years. They say the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else so I figured that I would post my view on the lessons on my blog. 

So the first lesson is the Eye of the Photographer. 

Basically it comes down to 3 questions you should ask yourself when you take a picture. 

1. Does my photo have a clear subject and theme? 

What is the universal message of the photo? 

2. How do I focus attention on my subject?

3. How can I simplify my photo to eliminate distractions and draw attention to the subject? 

In this photo the subject is Jared, the theme may be growing up. I focused on the subject by using a small aperture and blurring the background. I could simplify the photo by removing the branch sticking out of Jared's elbow. 

In this photo the subject is Shane and the dog in the wagon. The theme could be childhood. I focused on the subject by keeping them focused and blurring the background. And kept it simple by making the subject large in the frame. 

In this photo the subject is Dallin, the theme might be childhood. Keeping Dallin large in the frame makes him a subject. To simplify the picture I could have kept the shadows off his face. I did keep the background blurred however. 

So what do you think? 

ChristyLynn Photography Gallery

I have a Gallery now that you can go to and see all my favorite pictures.  The address is http://gallery.me.com/christina.picker  

I am starting an Online Photography class and I am really excited. I have been told I have a good eye and just need to learn more of the basics. There are only great things to come. 

I already have a paying job to do head shots. Cool. 

I was privileged to be able to take pictures of these sisters so that I could practice. These are just a few of my favorites. I had so much fun. I think they did too. 

It is done! Now on to the next .

It's finally done! The first room in the addition to be officially done is our Master Bath. 

Most all the work was done by Aaron and myself. I am pretty sure the framing and the plumbing were the only things we did not have our hands on. 

The shower was our first real tile job. It turned out great. The window is a glass block window the picture doesn't show the texture really well. We love our shower, I do not know how the rest of the world lives with just one shower head in the shower. :o)

We Painted the cabinets and they look beautiful. First we painted them a chocolate brown and they looked really dull still. So I took a high gloss black and dry brushed them in black. Now it looks like a high end stain. Pretty cool. The shelves above the toilet turned out really great. It took a long time to come up with a plan for that area, we think it turned out great. 

The next project is to get the Master Bedroom done. The fireplace has been tiled it just needs grout and then the room needs the crown and baseboards put in. And a little touchup on the paint. 

Nap Time

Today after lunch I looked over and saw that my Shane was getting a head start on our nap. I had to snap a few pictures of him before I laid him down on his bed. 

They look so sweet when they are asleep.