ok – so today was supposed to be packed, full, busy. but it wasn’t. it rained hard this morning – so most everything was canceled for the entire day. gwen, “the girls” mom is about to have their 3rd baby and had a doctor’s appt – so i took gavin and “the girls” to the greatest spot around – the gardens. i think spring everywhere is beautiful. and here in north coast sd, it is the MOST beautiful time of year. breathtaking really.
rebekah asked that i sometimes mention what lens/setting/etc i use when i photograph. so here’s my secret…
secret #1: For this entire blog posting, i used only one lens – the 85mm/1.8. it is an inexpensive lens. i love it. 
secret #2: i have been playing around a lot with manual focus. it is the little switch on the lens – it gives a more dreamy look when some aspects of the photograph are out of focus. photography is all about preference and is an artistic expression to me. i like a more dreamy photograph, so i like photographing all the way down to 1.8 or using manual focus.
secret #3 – I always focus on the eyes. You can’t go wrong that way. I use the manual focal adjustments ALWAYS – my camera is never on auto for the focal point. I want to control what/where the camera focuses if it is in auto-focus.
secret #4: notice what is behind a subject – even if it will be out of focus, i try to also work with the “picture in the background”
secret #5: i don’t know what i am doing. i never took a class. i just take pictures of beautiful things, sweet moments, and images i want to keep as memories. i just take a lot of pictures and i am not afraid of getting it “wrong”. 
secret #6: this snail was a treasure. she loved him and even named him. i even caught her singing a lullaby to him. i saw her playing with something else after while and asked where “freddy” was. she shrugged her shoulders and said “oh – i stepped on him.” i looked over and there was freddy crushed on the floor. gross.
secret #7: gavin threw fit after fit at the gardens. he was a mess with horrible behavior so we came home and he was asleep by 5:10pm without dinner. now see – if i hadn’t written all that, you’d a thought we just skipped through the day and softly flew into bed with a smile.
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