Just some snippets.

Now that we're done with the move to the new place, I finally feel like I can breathe. Let me tell ya: moving with a newborn is about 10 times more difficult than moving normally. And no matter which way you paint it, moving sucks, so it sucking multiplied by 10 is pretty darn sucktacular. At least we had helpers, including ever-generous parents and friends.

In the shuffle, I lost track of my Nikon so I made do with my crappy little point and shoot, which frustrated me to no end (so. many. blurry. photos! UGH!!!). Now that I unearthed the DSLR, I've been snapping photos like a mad woman trying to make up for lost time.

So, without further ado, here's a quick snapshot into our life nowadays:

Sokka loves the abundance of windows at the new house, and is having a blast chasing the critters that torment him from the outside.

My son has what I affectionally call "Crazy Eyes".

Pumpkin likes to think that she's Owen's babysitter.

Brian's a pretty awesome dad. Even if he occasionally sleeps on the job. :)

If you look closely, you can see Owen spitting up. Oh babies.

A smile! Granted it was because of gas (and a few seconds after I took this photo he started screaming) but still...I'll take what I can get. :)

Mastering the Art of Pet Photography.

I absolutely love capturing my cats doing cute and silly things, as I'm sure you've seen as you've been reading this blog. However, for most pet photos, I prefer to not use the flash when photographing them - cat eyes especially don't photograph well in artificial light.

So, in order to get a decently exposed photo of the kittehs, I typically use the natural light that comes streaming in through our windows. This is all fine and dandy, except that animals, unless professionally trained (which mine and most others' most definitely are not) will probably not strike a pose or remain in place for very long. This is particularly true for Sokka, who we're convinced has feline ADD.

Although I've been able to capture some wonderful photos of pets (mine included), I would become frustrated when a vast majority of the photos turned out blurry because I couldn't crank the shutter as high as I would have liked. That, and because the fluffballs just wouldn't.sit.still!

I put on my blinged-out thinking cap, convinced there was a solution within the confines of my camera body that would fix this near-constant dilemma.

Hmmmm...what about increasing the ISO?

First, a bit of background: In the past I've made the mistake of cranking up my ISO, which resulted in graininess in the photos - not so easy to fix in Photoshop. Not wanting to repeat past mistakes, my ISO hasn't budged past the 200 mark since.

When I attempted to get some "money" shots of the cats the other day, and once again came away with blurry/out-of-focus photos, I finally had it. I increased the ISO to 800, increased the shutter, and prayed to God a miracle would occur.

The result? It worked like a charm - I literally skipped around the living room in excitement, simultaneously thwumping myself on the head that I didn't think of this obvious solution sooner.

And now, the results of the fruits of my labor, starring Pumpkin!

P.S. - I wasn't able to test it on Sokka, since he was off napping (slacker!). We'll save that challenge for another time. :)

Cat cat attack!

Usually when Brian or I are cooking, Pumpkin and Sokka stroll on over and watch us from the dining room - we have them trained to not enter the kitchen (although they attempt to "sneak in" anyway). While most cats would be off on a red velvet tasseled cushion gazing imperiously over their kingdom, our cats follow us around like a couple of begging puppies.

Last Saturday, while I was waiting for some muffins to bake, I decided to document it. Because it's just so darn adorable that our cats love us so much.

And trust me - the feeling's mutual.

:)

Of course Pumpkin had to come and instigate - she gets quite jealous if I pay more attention to Sokka than to her. Unfortunately all I could capture with the camera was her fluffball of a tail, since she was running too fast and I was using the 50mm/1.4f lens.

Happy Saturday!

Soft kitty, warm kitty...