Author Archives: Kim

My Little Christmas Angel

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Something about Micah’s wispy curls reminds me of a little angel. He looked extra sweet sitting in front of the sunlit Christmas tree the other morning, watching the fish swim in the nearby tank.

He is so excited about Christmas this year – and snow. This is the first season he has remembered from a year before. As soon as we started pulling out decorations and talking about winter, he started talking about presents and sledding with grandpa “on the big hill.” Realizing that his memories are there makes me feel like we have officially begun his childhood. We are no longer in the “he’s a baby, he won’t remember anyway” phase – nope. We are in the magical, “let’s make this a day he’ll never forget” phase, which has spurred me on to think of new traditions.

Strawberries

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A bag of strawberries in the freezer… Micah always remembers they are there. After a few minutes in the microwave, they are soft, yet still chilled, and ready to be happily smeared all over his smiling face. How can a little person possibly be so cute? Am I biased?

You Want Me To Change, Change, Change…

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I’ll admit, the title of this post has nothing to do with my life… I don’t think. It’s a line from my new favorite song. The band, Churchill, is near and dear – the bass player is a friend  - Tyler Rima (pronounced “rhyme-ee”). Tyler has always been super talented when it comes to music. He played drums during worship at my old church – and he taught himself. His band is also seriously talented – I just love their sound.

Their new single is “Change” – and I’ve been listening to it over and over this week.

Churchill // Change from Tim Twinem on Vimeo.

Excuse Me While I Hack Up a Lung

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Lately every time I try to have a conversation that is more than 30 seconds in length, my throat dries up and triggers a relentless cough, which begins to then break up the sludge in my lungs, which then gets caught in the back of my throat and triggers my gag reflex…. Gross! Fortunately I have a little red bottle of prescription cough medicine to help me ride out my annual upper-respiratory infection. Why do I get sick every December? Last year it was worse because I got the flu, too. Is it because I have just finished one of the toughest, busiest seasons of the year in terms of work and my body is fed up? Did I over do it? Did cheating sleep finally catch up with  me?

Today I was supposed to be singing in our Christmas concert at church, but instead I slept in until noon, finally got something to eat around 4… it’s been a week since I came down with bronchitis and I haven’t kicked it yet. These things have a tendency to linger for a while. My ear started pounding the other night so I started the round of antibiotics my doctor had prescribed just in case I didn’t start to feel better after a few days.

The worse part of being sick is not the symptoms for me. I have a pretty high pain tolerance and I can distract myself with Facebook, editing & movies… The worse part for me is feeling like everyone is listening to the phlegmy sound of my cough and getting majorly grossed out. I feel like they are reaching for their Purell as soon as I turn around. Or that they are annoyed by me when I fall into a coughing fit, and my eyes are watering and they can’t understand why I won’t JUST TAKE SOMETHING (even though I have been, duh). And I hate the way my pale complexion manages to grow ever paler when I’m sick. I look worse than death. I am certain I look as worse as I sound… and feel. Blehch!!

Well anyway, the upside to today’s quarantine means that I actually had time to redesign and update my blog, and since my little family is at the in-laws watching football, I also have time to finish just about the rest of my work for the week. It feels good to catch up…. and my iMac does not silently judge me for coughing all over my keyboard.

Busy

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I am so blessed to be up to my ears in work right now. I never, NEVER, anticipated my business taking off so soon. Granted, I’m still in the red, but it doesn’t look like that will be the case for too long… as long as I can be disciplined and resist the urge to keep buying gear. That is the hard part!

There are some things that I could not live without right now when it comes to photography. Here is a list of things that I will never regret investing in:

  1. 50mm 1.4G – awesome, awesome lens!
  2. SB-700, shoot-through umbrella and triggers – soooo many things I can do with these!
  3. Lightroom – I can edit and export so quickly, it frees up time to do other things!
  4. The $50 worth of extra RAM I bought for my iMac. What a difference!!
  5. My D90. It’s not a full frame… but that’s the only downside. This camera has been good to me – and it takes pretty much any Nikon lens. Love it!!

hmmm….

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I realize this blog has sort of died. I’m sorry to those who look forward to updates. Lately I have been so busy that whenever I sit down at the computer, all I can think of are updates too brief for a blog post, or things that will take too long to write out. I have been focusing on my photography business so much lately and that is because Fall is the busy season for family pictures! It will trail off soon, when the Holidays are near and it gets cold, and then I will have time to sit down and collect my thoughts.

Things that are new:

  1. I bought a new computer, an iMac. It depleted my savings and that is stressing me out, but at the same time I love using it and it has made my editing life much less stressful – everything is a little faster… a lot faster actually.
  2. Micah is talking in complete sentences now.
  3. Eric has been promoted to Engineering Manager and will be traveling a little more in the near future. I’m hoping this also equals a raise? :)
  4. MOPS bible study is starting back up next week – I’m excited for that!
  5. I rejoined choir this year as a second soprano – but often I’ll just sing first soprano because it’s easier to follow the notes.

Taking a Break

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Well three months of “the fertility tri-fecta” had no apparent affect. I’m sorry to report that we are not going to be expecting another baby any time soon. We are going to wait until later this winter to try again, for a number of reasons. And when the time comes, I will not be taking fertility medications. It was just too much to handle. The emotional highs and lows, which are a side effect of the hormones, were making me miserable (to be around) at times.

I have no idea what God’s plans our for our family in terms of children. I don’t know why it was so easy to get pregnant with Micah and this time around, not even 3 months of Clomid could get me knocked up. What I do know, however, is that I love being the mother of a toddler, and so many other things in our life right now are changing and progressing. Eric is being promoted to Engineering Manager, which is really exciting for us both. My photography business really seems to be taking off as well, which is great because I really love what I do! I recently accepted a small position at church that is very part time, but will provide an opportunity for me to serve and I am looking forward to that.

So I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes things don’t go according to plan, but sometimes the alternative isn’t so bad after all. :)

Whoa, buddy!

 

Did You Know Your Flash Is Backwards?

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One time I was taking pictures at a rehearsal and someone laughed and asked me, “did you know your flash is backwards?” My flash was in fact pointed behind me, but it was on purpose, not by accident.  Bouncing your flash is a way to turn a large surface into your main light source, rather than your tiny flash head.  I usually swivel my flash and point it at a 45 degree angle and slightly up, depending on what is behind me.

This photo was taken in Micah’s light-challenged bedroom, and it’s nearly completely lit with my flash:

My flash was pointed behind me and to the right. It doesn’t look “flashy” and that is why I love using this technique.

Usually what I will do is meter for the ambient light, then underexpose by 2 clicks (which on my camera is 1/3-2/3 stop) – then I’ll fire the flash in TTL mode. This adds directional light without being too contrasty.

It takes practice to get used to moving your flash head around and knowing where to point it, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll never go back.

My Camera Stinks!

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I wanted to share something out of my “bag of tricks” that has been working really well with 2-year-olds and getting nice big, natural smiles: my stinky camera!

I first tested this on my son, but when I found that it worked on 2 other toddlers, I knew it was a winner! Now my camera doesn’t actually stink, but these cuties don’t know that. After I set up the shot, I bring the camera to my nose, do an exaggerated sniff and exclaim, “oh! my camera is so stinky!” while scrunching up my nose. I love the results! At my last session, I tried not to overuse it, but to my surprise, it never got old!