When Micah was born, my grandma (on my dad’s side) made him a little yellow sweater with a row of ducks on the front and a zipper up the back. He wore it a few times last year, but he was swimming in it. This year it fits him perfectly! I figured, why not put him in it and take some pictures? It’s only going to fit him for so long. He is growing like a weed!

(All images taken with a Nikon D3000 & a 50mm 1.4)

I was also getting buggy from staying inside all week (we were sick last week). Plus, it was 69 degrees outside! When it gets that warm in November, especially in the midwest, you have to take advantage of it. I know that it will only be a matter of weeks before the air becomes frigid and bitter. Autumn has got to be the shortest season around here. It always feels like there are two weeks of fall weather in between the sweltering heat and numbing cold.

We had fun. The only bad part was I had to keep blocking him from running into the road, and every time he would be running so fast that when I put my arm in front of him, it ended up knocking him clear to the ground. I felt so mean, but you know, he was giggling so I think he was falling on purpose. He does that  lot lately, actually. He is a little stuntman. Don’t be deceived by the ducky sweater. He is a tough guy.

I am loving my new 50mm lens. I have been making a point of practicing with it as much as I can. It is more difficult to focus because the depth of field is so shallow, but I am getting the hang of it. It helps that this is a fast focusing lens. I turned off the 3D tracking though, because I really don’t want my point of focus moving around with this lens. That was a great feature with my kit lens, but I am not a fan of it with this one. I want to have a set focus point, center it right on the eyes, focus, and then recompose my shot without the focus jumping to Micah’s hand or something.

I have been working so hard lately at my new photography business. There is so much to learn and I will be changing a lot at the new year in terms of pricing and policy. It is a little nerve-wracking, and yet, I am glad that I am doing this because by the time Micah (and any other kids we might have) are in school and I am ready to make this a 40 hour/week adventure, hopefully the kinks will already have been smoothed out and it will be an easy transition to “full time.” I always remind myself that the reason I am going into business (rather than remaining a serious hobbyist) is so I never have to work for someone else, ever again! That goal makes it all worth it.

Speaking of my photography business, I got my shiny new business cards today. What do you think?

On the other side there are three more pictures and my contact information in place of the logo. I ordered 1000, so if you want some to pass out to your friends, you can! (Shameless plug!)

Latest Project:

Last night I had to keep telling myself to breath deeply and be patient. And no, Micah wasn’t giving me trouble; he was already asleep for the night. I was determined to make my photography website design submit to my will. Unfortunately, coding is not my strongest point, and it took me forever to figure out how to put my sliced up Photoshop image back together with html and css. The result? A beautifully customized website that fits my style. It even has roll over image links. I hate templates. If it weren’t for the fact that I needed their structure to get me started, I wouldn’t use them at all.

I have a confession: I teared up a little when I was done because I liked it so much. Is that nerdy or what? Click on the image to go to my photography website and play with the rollover links. While you are there, click the “like” button on my Facebook plugin.

Micah’s Current Stats:

This morning was Micah’s 18 month appointment. He is 25.8 pounds and 32 1/2 inches tall, which puts him in the 50th percentile for his weight and the 90th for his height. Lean and mean: that’s how he has been described from the beginning. This checkup was not as traumatic for Micah as the last one. There were no shots and he only cried a little when the pediatrician tried to look in his ears and listen to his heartbeat. I kept him distracted with my phone and that helped a lot! The really great news was that he had no ear infections, which means the fever and irritability he experienced last week must have been nothing more than a seasonal bug – or teething. I guess we’ll never know. We are still waiting on those 2-year molars, as far as I know. It’s hard to look without losing a finger, know what I mean?

Photo of the Day:

This was taken on Monday morning at my parents house before I left for the dealership to have my new van looked at. (We needed to have the cruise control replaced at no cost to us.) I was excited to see fog because I am doing an engagement session this Saturday and our goal is to get that early morning fog. We are waking up super early. How many people are willing to wake up at 5am just so their photographer can get sunrise and fog shots of them? Not many, that’s why Danielle and Gustavo are so cool!! I’m so excited for that session; we’ll be hitting up the Milwaukee Art Museum as well as a few other places in the city. I love urban settings!

More Photo Fun:

Macro filters are blast to play with! The trickiest part is that the depth of field is so shallow, if you move ever so slightly, you throw your subject out of focus. The white flowers pictured below are very tiny in real life – they are technically a week and grow in clusters everywhere they shouldn’t. Obviously the purple flower is a clover! Do you see the little bug tucked in there? The blade is actually a small palm leaf from a mini palm tree I have growing in my kitchen. And Abe Lincoln never looked so good!