Big Bertha Comes Home

Happy 4th of July! I hope you’re all out having a wonderful time celebrating our great nation’s independence. I’ve been spending time outside with my family. We’re having a BBQ and we’re going to do some small fireworks so I can play with the settings on my new camera. Anybody else craving S’mores?

We’ve been spending a ton of time outside even though it’s been swelteringly hot. We go out late in the afternoon because that’s the only time there’s any shade in the back yard unless we want to sit under the carport.

I know, I know. Everyone’s been posting photos of the temperature on the dashboard in their cars, and you’ve seen them everywhere on Facebook. I didn’t want to be left out, so here’s mine. See? HOT!

I took this photo with my old point and shoot camera, and I edited it a bit to lighten it. I had to get rid of the blue cast due to the shade. The pool was soapy because we did a science experiment. We microwaved Ivory soap to watch it turn into a soap cloud! The kids decided to throw the soap into the pool to make a pile of bubbles.

The next day I got my newest gadget. I’ve been dreaming of owning a DSLR camera for a loooong time. I’m super excited about being able to shoot in manual, and I practically jumped up and down when I got the box in the mail. I named her Big Bertha because she is so much bigger than my tiny little point and shoot. Isn’t she pretty?

I anxiously waited for the battery to charge. Once it was charged, I headed outside to play. This is the first photo I took. I was playing with depth of field.

I tried portrait mode, but I prefer editing my own portraits. I’m a little picky about those. Alexis had a lot of fun posing for me while I played around with the settings.

Brandon was a less than willing participant in the photo shoot, but I did manage to get this photo that I really loved. I converted it to black and white because I thought it really suited his pose and facial expression.

I wanted some action shots so I asked the girls to play basketball. I got this photo of the two of them together, then they dissolved into arguing and fighting. You just gotta love sisterly squabbles!

I love this photo of Alexis because she looks so happy. She also looks really red. Have I mentioned that it’s been hot here? No? Just a little. She’s not sunburnt. She just gets overheated really quickly!

Alexis finished Summer school last Thursday, so we decided to celebrate her freedom by going to the lakefront in Mandeville on Friday. It was her first time at the new fountains and she loved them.

Jordan’s favorite part of the fountains was the sprinkler gun. She and Brandon spent a lot of time shooting each other. She looks very happy about it!

I’m loving the fact that I can create blurred backgrounds on portraits! There were a lot of distracting elements in the background of this photo, but you barely make them out.

A view from the fountains looking toward the beach and the lakefront. I love the movement of the water on the pond!

We walked over to the beach so the kids could play in the sand for a while. The wind coming off of the lake made it a little cooler, but it was still hot! You can see the Causeway in the distance, and a teeny tiny sailboat.

Brandon didn’t build any sandcastles. He decided to search for rocks and sticks to make a Stonehenge-like structure. This is the beginning of his project!

Here’s Miss Jordan in her teeny tiny polka dot bikini. A few minutes after I took this photo, she started complaining about the sand up her butt. I feel sorry for Ronnie. He’s going to have to vacuum a good bit of sand out of the van.

Here’s another beach bum! Alexis likes to dig holes in the sand so she can bury things. Then she gets mad when she can’t find them. She managed to find everything before it was time to go home though.

You can definitely tell which photos were taken with the new camera! I was super excited about the fact that they required less editing than the photos I took on my old point and shoot.