You asked for it

Thanks for leaving comments on my last post about what  you want to see more of on my blog.  A couple of you were curious with what gear I use and so I would like to share with you. I will introduce one piece of gear at a time, starting with Canon's 50mm F1.2Why do I love this lens?  Simple.  It has a large maximum aperture of f/1.2 providing outstanding speed for shooting in low light conditions, and you don't even need to use a flash. The large aperture also provides fine control over depth of field. It's so awesome.  The glass in the lens is spectacularly crisp too.

before                                    after

Technical info:  ISO 200, 1/400 @ f4.0

Even though I love shooting at f1.2, I don't do it all the time because I like to change it up.  I originally had these settings when we were playing ring around the rosey and they were moving in a circle.  I have it at f4.0 so I can make sure they are in focus for the most part.  And the same answer goes for why I have it at 1/400 speed.  Gotta have fast speed when around moving kiddos.  So even though these settings weren't specifically picked for this picture, it still works.

Photoshop Talk: (all from Totally Rad Actions)

Yin/Yang

Select Pop (paint over areas with brush)

Flatten

Oh Snap 56%

Get Faded (winter) 36%

Get Faded (summer) 27%

Flatten

Boutwell Magic Glass 71%

Then after looking at the images I thought there was too much grass, so I cropped it down.

Why did I chose this picture?

I love these little girls and how they play with one another.  As I was watching at how extremely sweet they were to one another I yelled back at mom asking if they were always like this.  She gave me a look and then laughed :)  The oldest daughter is a huge helping hand with the two little ones.  The middle child is well, a little independent.  She is doing her own thing even though you want her to look at the book and act like she is interested in what her sister is reading, she honestly just doesn't care.  And that just makes me laugh, because that is SO me. This image portrays the older sister as the mother figure, the middle sister as the independent one, and the littlest girl as the follower and listener.  This is also interesting to me even more now that we have a baby of our own.  I wonder what he will grow up to be like, and what a future sibling one day in the far off future will be like and how they will be with each other.

More to follow...maybe tomorrow.