Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all lovely moms :)

 

This year, I celebrate it with an additional monkie and the day went nice. The monkie boys got some crafts done at school. Last year, Little Monkie #1 said that mommy cooks the best rice and he's still saying the same this year. Little Monkie #2 did it right this year that it's Happy Mother's Day not Happy Valentine's Day.

 

After school yesterday, they got me a bunch of my fav flower - tulip & a cute mother's day balloon.

 

 

Last night before we went to bed, they told that they're gonna make me a breakfast in bed. This morning, they still remembered and this was what happened.

 

 

Little Monkie #2 was all excited about this 'surprise' and ran into my room with giggles.

 

Little Monkie #1 walked in happily and carefully with my breakfast. Of course, we wouldn't forget about Little Monkie #3 - all say "cheers" ;)

 

And here's my breakfast, see the pancakes were in heart shape. And they're really serious about it that they got a menu for this... so cute...

 

 

And this is behind the scene.

 

 

Needless to say, I finished it all with a happy smile. In the evening, it was my turn to be master chef for the two moms - my mom and mom-in-law.

 

Once again, Happy Mother's Day!

 

PS - thanks to dada for making this happen!!!

Natural Light

Can't believe it's been more than a season since the last post... when we finally gotta say goodbye to the super long & cold winter, it's about the time to write & shoot again :)

Now with more daylight hours, I took the priviledge of capturing some pictures of the monkies after dinner this evening, under natural light. It's already past 7:30pm and the monkies were running happily from one bedroom to another and along the hallway. I was at one end of the hallway watching Little Monkie #3 walking towards me with supports (yap... time flies and she's almost 1). When she past by my mom's room, she was nicely lit.

How could I have missed this?! I quickly got my camera, did a test shot and grabbed her back to the other end. Let her come to me again. And this is what I've got.

Light source from the left, it got through the hallway and bounced to the white wall on the right. So this is a natural reflector that could lit the other side of the face.

Little Monkie #2 would love to join in (he loves his sis veerrrryyy much).

 

 What a great pose and smile, too bad that Little Monkie #3 has moved, so she became blurry. Little Monkie #2 has also blocked out some light from behind, so his face is a bit darker than expected on the left. I still like it tho'.

The sun was rushing to go home that I got only a few minutes for "one round of crawling". Below is another fav shot. If the continuous shooting mode was set, instead of single shoot, this may be a better picture. Oh well, let me try again next time...

Flash II - Pop Up Flash

Happy New Year to you all and wish you the best in year 2014!!!

 

For the past few weeks, we have been experiencing extreme weather here in GTA. Hope that everyone is well. And we have wind chill warning on now... (shivering).

 

Well... for a photographer, extreme weather isn't a bad thing at all (if our house still has power). In fact, it's the time to shoot. My monkies had lots of fun playing in the snow earlier last month when we were hit by snow storm.

 

They had fun playing and I had fun shooting. Shooting in snow may be challenging because it's grey and dull. Your pictures may be under-exposed when the meter says it isn't. Look below.

 

 

Recently, I wanna practice more using flash. And this time, it's pop-up flash. I used the 70-200mm and popped, having Little Monkie #3 as the subject (she's sitting on her rocker by the patio door... yea... she's bored).

 

This is a classic example of why people don't like using pop-up flash - harsh shadow. This is simply because I didn't have the right distance between the subject and camera (and flash). Look at Little Monkie #2.

 

 

I'm pretty happy with it, except the reflective strap on Little Monkies #1's arm. I was gonna crop it, but this shows that the flash is doing its work :P

 

 Another challenge shooting the snow is where I shoot. I was hiding indoor by the patio door and got shot by snow balls. I got no where else to run... oh no...

Flash

It's been a while since I last blogged. Life has been busy busy with family and study. Now my 2nd last course of the cert program is done, so that I could have sometime to blog :)

 

Many photographers described themselves as lifestyle photographers who use natural lights only. I love natural lights as well. However, the courses that I've been through recently had brought me the new level of understanding flash. I wasn't a fan of using flash. An instructor said that it is because you didn't know how to use flash and he's talking about the truth. Once you know the tricks, it helps to create mood and enhance the photo.

 

Here are some examples.

 

This is one flash, off camera, that creates a more dramatic result. While keeping the exposure of the sky correct, the subjects are not under-exposed.

 

   

photo credit: Helena Chu

This one too. Kung Fu boy at Dundas Square :P

This one is my fav taken yesterday at the X'mas party with Santa Claus. It was taken at the basement with a bit of light from the sun roof. I forgot my 24-70mm f2.8 at home, so gotta use the standard18-55mm f3.5-5.6 with flash. This is basically done with pop-up flash. Got the right distance between camera and subject, got the right setting, there we go.

 

 

 

Last but not least, flash can also fill in the light on the subject that is seemless. When the subject is behind the sunlight, boom, Little Monkie #1 is a cool looking handman :)

 

Of course, when the subject is in indoor that has low light, flash would do its work too. This is simply flash set on the camera. My self-portrait... lol...

Little Monkie #3 Being Mommy's Model today

Little Monkie #3 is almost 5 months old and I'm half way through my 2nd last course to complete the certificate program in photography. Assignment is due tomorrow and I was almost out of ideas of what to do.

 

What's better when you have little ones at home? Have them to be your model at your last minute request. Today, it's missy's turn because her bros were at grannies' place for a bit of fun.

 

Having said that, I gotta set things up and be quick in pressing the shutter.

 

pic 1 "Mommy, are you ready? I'm getting bored..."

 pic 2 "smile? sure :)"

 

Just need dada to come back for the real shot. 1, 2, 3 cheers...

 

 

What's this about? Daddy and baby reading time - using flash.

 

How did it turn out?

 



An afternoon at Jack Darling Park

Back in May, I donated a photo session to Munden Park Public School for their fundraising event. This past weekend we had the shoot done at Jack Darling Park, Oakville. The 3 siblings had a long day at school and we're under direct harsh sunlight... eeks...

 

We had some fun time tho'. Let's see.

 

 

Christina and Rina were playing peekaboo with mommy on the other side.

 

Smile beauties :)

Rina is really photogenic.

 



 

Last but not least, the handsome and fast crawling little brother Andreas.

Big day for Little Monkie Boys

 

As promised the last time, the next post will be about the Monkie Boys. Here it is.

 

A few days ago, it was a big day for both of them... first day of school.

 

  

Little Monkie #1 has been waiting and waiting for the arrival of this day. Not only because he's going to be in SK and that his little bro is joining him for school, but it's also his birthday! Every other day, he would ask us "is September here yet?"... he also wanna a Ninjago cake.

Although we didn't throw him a party, however, did fill his day with Ninjagoes.

 

The night before, daddy decorated their room with streamers and banners. Also placed our present to him - the Ninjago Cole alarm clock. He actually likes Ninjago Jay better, but this sounds like a rare item and its alarm clock is way much $$$ than the others. He's fine with Cole, so let's stick with that :)

 

 

We had also prep'd him a few loot bags for his close friends at school. We slided in a couple coloring pages, apple juice and Pocky sticks... all in Ninjago theme.

 

 

Thanks to those who generously uploaded the templates onto Pinterest for free... phew... saved us a big time and $.

 

Of course, we surprised him with more Ninjas when he returned home from school. More streamers, birthday banner and Ninjago Jay balloons. Dinner was his fav food too.

 

 

As for his cake, I spent the longest time on getting ideas. Most Ninjago themed cakes are in heavy food coloring, which I don't prefer. So, let's do it myself.

 

2 minifigures - ordered from my co-worker's wife

Sponge cake - in order to save time, I bought a plain cheese cake from the bakery.

Filling and cream - got the ingredients from grocery and worked on it from scratch.

 

Finally, torched it for a bit before singing the birthday song and he's happy with his one of a kind Ninjago cake. Yay!

 

At the end of the day, daddy and mommy were exhausted from prep'g all these. It's actually lots of work. But he's happy, we're happy :)

 

Little Monkie #2 was excited too. He had placed his request while enjoying the cake... "he wanted the red Ninja, white Ninja and blue Ninja... that's it"...

 

Oh right..."that's it"... will see :P

 

PS - here's a closer look of the minifigures... it's cute... thanks Jenny!