BUSY!

Ideally, I would like to blog every other day, but I've been busy. Let me just list my top 5 items on my plate:

1. Mama MOO - I have a 7 week old and she is hungry all the time. I've been trying to get her on a routine, maybe feed her every 3-4 hours, but in the evenings, she is more fussy. Luckily, she only wakes up once in the middle of the night for food so I can easily get a good 5 hours of shut eyes at a time.
2. Preparing Channing for preschool - Channing starts preschool next week and I had to take him to the doctor's for a physical. Good News! He has taken all his immunity shots! 
3. Taxes - I can write an entire blog entry about how I struggle with my taxes, but I'll just summarize. My husband - this devilish handsome marine - is deployed; and I live with my mother and children in Virginia. We are actually stationed out in Hawaii and own a townhouse, but since i've been here, we have that place rented. So... this year, I have to deal with taxes associated with rental properties, this business, and working remotely for IBM. Trust me, you don't want to be in my shoes from Jan-April. 
4. Exercising - I am 7 weeks postpartum! My current workout consists of lifting my 30 pounder "up and down and up and down," but this is my goal: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152708358571586. This mom of three is such an inspiration.  
5. Building my portfolio - This past week, Raquel and I took Channing to Washington DC to see the Natural History Museum and the Air & Space Museum. We also played in the snow with mommy's makeshift sled (I'll write a post about how I made it). Pictures below!

Like I said... BUSY

-Wendy

85mm f1.8g unboxed and shooting in the snow!

On Friday, I received my Nikkor AF-S 85mm f1.8G lens in the mail from Best Buy - it is on sale for $450 with free two day shipping! AHHH! I've read great reviews about this lens for portrait shots and wanted a lens with great bokah within my budget. I took it out of the box and started snapping pictures of Natalie (such a poser - lol).  At a reasonable distance ~3 feet from her, this was what I got: ARGH!

F1.8 1/250 ISO400 with flash & flash-diffuser

F1.8 1/250 ISO400 with flash & flash-diffuser

500 dollars later (including a $40 UV filter), I found it impossible to use the 85mm f1.8g on baby portrait indoors. Unless I choose to start yelling across the room to get my subjects to change poses, or drop thousands and purchase a FX DSLR, I think I am going to set this badboy aside for outdoor shoots only.

The perfect opportunity came the next morning. My mom and I took Channing to the Chantilly Air and Space museum hoping to exhaust Channing before the storm which was expected to arrive early in the afternoon. By the time we left the parking lot, the roads were covered in 1 inch of snow. The wind created some neat effects on the photos:

Once we got home, I dragged my mom (AKA my designated model) outside to take some shots in the snow. We were only out there 10 minutes tops, probably because I had my camera setting fixed at f5 1/250 ISO400 and my mom is a natural poser. She is soooo beautiful!

Check out these photos:

 Even the one I didn't photoshop is breathtaking.

Sweet! That's all for me.

Wendy