Happy New Year!!

I had the absolute pleasure of hanging out with my entire family for the past 10 days. This includes all 4 of us, both of my parents plus my sister, her fiancé, and my niece. Boy, did we have a blast! It is so quiet now here at the house.

One of my X-Mas gifts from Jon was a new home studio flash kit. I was giddy beyond words because up until now I had been using make-shift lights clamped onto lamp poles and what not... not a pretty sight, plus it required TONS of post-production work just to get the photos looking halfway decent.

But, of course, as with any new piece of equipment, you have to get the hang of it through lots of trial & error. So, I used my family as "guinea pigs" on New Year's Eve and I wanted to share the progression with you guys. :)

This first photo was completely blown out! I had the lights too close and the aperture too wide open! This is my niece, Asja



In this one, I moved the lights farther apart and I closed the aperture by 1 stop but it is still blown out. This is my niece and my dad.



Brightness was a bit more under control in this photo... but still not perfect. I was also having some problems focusing. This is my sister, Cathy, and her fiancé, Jason.



I LOVE this picture of my parents, even though it is all blown out on the right side and too dark on the left.



This one of my sis and my niece is not too bad, but the focus is still a bit wacky. UGH! I have so far to go!



And finally, the cousins had so much fun posing with grandma. The focus is still wacky and the brightness is off but I still thought it was a fun shot. :)



OK, so that was New Years Eve... soon after that photo session ended, we put the little ones to bed and the adults rang in the new year with some yummy mimosas. The following day, New Years Day, we headed out to a little hill down the street from our house to let the "Floridians" have a try a sledding. Brrrrrrrr... it was 19 degrees out so we were all looking like Eskimos.... especially my sister! LOL!



At first she didn't want to partake in the Winter festivities, but after much teasing from all of us, she finally gave in...



Even my dad went down the hill a few times...



Jon and Jason had the "bright idea" that if they held hands they might be able to sled down the hill while standing up on the disks. They called it "snow surfing"... we called it "Brokeback Sledding" LOL!!!!



It didn't quite work out...



Oh, and yes, Sydney was there too, although she didn't participate in the activities. She just stood back and watched us in disbelief...



And where was I? Behind the camera, of course. ;)

I did get included in this little family pic we took in front of our house... just kidding! This is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, down in Springfield, Il. My dad is a HUGE fan of his, so we thought we would treat him with a tour of one of his house designs. It is gorgeous!



So, that's it! Thanks for bearing with me through my family photo album. I will be drawing a winner soon for the Boutique Cafe interview contest, so stay tuned!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!