Practice Practice Practice!

I've been wanting to get the hang of a lighting technique that comes in handy whenever the sun is not aligning with my schedule! Photographing in full sun is nooooo good! But if you can put your subjects with their backs to the sun and use some extra lighting so their faces aren't in shadow, you're set for almost any time of day! Sounds great right? Yep, in theory!

When I went to Seattle a couple of years ago, my (then) new friend Missy gave me a quick demo that was so clear and made sense at the time. Set your camera for the lighting in your background, use your trigger to fire your flash in your foreground and voila you've got the best of both worlds and everything looks great. Well Missy's unfortunately much too far away to practice this with me! So I brought my stuff to the cottage and went out to play.  I got so many random results, realized my batteries were dying and got some fresh ones. I still wasn't getting consistent results but did eventually manage to get some blue skies and subjects that were visible! So here are my short term models who cooperated with posing for all of 2 minutes. Why would you need longer than that right??? Fortunately, Sarah the stuffed bunny was much more patient after these 2 ran off on me!

Not Til You're 8!!! oh. you're 8.

A couple of years ago, the girls started asking when they could go jumping off the wharf like their teenage friend G. I asked G when her parents first let her jump. She said it was when she was 8. That sounded fine to me, when they were SIX!!! Eight was ages away right? Not anymore. A few days after their birthday, one of them reminded me, they could now jump off the wharf!!!

So on our cottage vacation we headed to the wharf for ice cream and supposedly, some wharf jumping. We were positive they were going to get to the edge, look waaaaaaay down, shiver a bit in the cool night air and back away slowly. We were so certain that we weren't even going to bring towels! (Murray decided to bring them JUST in case...)

Murray wanted to be down in the water so he'd be near where they landed but wasn't too keen on getting into the chilly water if no one was going to join him. He went in on the off chance that they actually did it. Well, they surprised us! Lovey & Honey wasted no time. Once their life jackets were on, they went over the edge! Sweetie hemmed and hawed for a good long while, debating it. She really really wanted to but was quite nervous, but really wanted to. She'd go to the edge, think about it, get into jumping position, then back away. This went on for quite awhile as her sisters came back up and jumped down again and again. Finally, she took the plunge and down she went! As soon as her feet left the ledge, the crowd that had gathered and unbeknownst to us was just standing around waiting to see if she was going to do it or not, started clapping and cheering for her. No sooner had she come back to the surface of the water, than they all moved on going about their evening stroll. I thought people were just hanging around, enjoying the evening, maybe watching their own kids/friends jumping. I had no idea how many people were drawn into Sweetie's "will she? won't she?" drama!

FIGHT!

Summertime fun is getting a little dangerous around here! A few weeks ago, right before a weekend at the cottage, Lovey & Sweetie got into a situation! Sweetie was jabbing at Lovey with her foot, Lovey asked her to stop, Sweetie did not, she asked her again, no result. After a couple of requests, Lovey lost what little patience she had and popped her in the mouth and gave her a bloody lip. In that case, Sweetie kinda had it coming and pretty much drove her to it, so both of them lost all electronics for a week. Getting ready to go away for a weekend and then traveling with 2 kids who weren't allowed to entertain themselves with a DS, movie, MP3 player or tablet was probably harder on me than anyone!

Remarkably they got through the week without as much difficulty as I'd feared. They spent a lot of time making up games and role playing with Barbie or doing crafty things and even Honey joined in because what they were doing was more interesting than her DS or TV show. It wasn't until day that one of them asked how much longer it would be til they could have their games etc.

Tonight it was Honey & Lovey mixing it up. They are all becoming experts at annoying each other and acting like buffoons at the dinner table and pretty much everywhere else. While I was bringing things in from the van tonight after VBS, Lovey started making annoying sounds (which, granted, she will drive you crazy with if you don't vacate the room) and Honey who is usually tired and cranky this time of night, lost it and bit her! Murray saw the teeth marks in on Lovey's arm. It was a bit of a shock because Honey usually cares the most about being good!

Honey was distraught and crying in her room, crying out that she hated herself, that she was the worst person in the world... until she realized that Murray had taken the other 2 outside to start storytime without her and that they couldn't hear her anymore! She was too upset to hear what her punishment is so we'll tell her tomorrow. It was a bit disturbing to hear her saying that about herself but it may just be her being overly dramatic. We tried to talk to her at bedtime and let her know we loved her and it was just one bad decision etc. but she just got all worked up again.

Can you imagine what we'll be dealing with when they start to care about clothes and boys???

Disagreement

Last night at supper we were talking about PW and his early morning contribution in the entryway, a pile of barf. Stimulating dinner conversation, I know! Sweetie wanted to know WHY he'd do that?!?!?! Murray told her that PW must have eaten a little animal that disagreed with him. Honey pipes up "well! OF COURSE it disagreed with him? WHO'D agree to THAT?!?!?!??"

I forget how literally they take things some times!

Roadside Assistance

Oops I did it again! We were on our way to swimming lessons this morning when a strange warning light that I've never seen came on. Not knowing what it was and considering it was only a yellow light and not having much spare time to get to the lesson, I figured I"d just look it up after I'd sent the girls off with their instructor. Then I thought better of it and pulled over, just in case. The road is so noisy right now, you can't hear anything so I was surprised to find a very very flat tire! and none too pleased I might add! I hadn't allowed for half an hour of wrestling in heels with a tire iron on a dusty road.

I have to say that of all the vehicles I've changed tires on, Pontiac, Ford, Subaru and now Honda, the Honda has the worst jack by far. Getting the vehicle up and down was incredibly awkward with the way they have the tire iron connecting to the jack and it fell apart at almost every turn. This did nothing to speed up the job at hand and we were 20 minutes late for the 45 minute lesson at the pool. The girls almost didn't want to go in as they didn't feel it was even worth getting wet for such a short time. Since I'd gone to the trouble and effort to get them there, I sent them in anyway!

I got my first flat tire in 1995 in Mum's car. I hated not knowing what to do about it. A friend's boyfriend was pretty handy with car stuff so I called him and he came right over and offered to change it for me. I declined and told him I wanted him to show ME how to do it so I'd never be stranded again. He looked at me strangely and said his girlfriend would never ask him that. LOL not the first or last time that I've been accused of not being like most girls! In the end he did teach me and every single time I mentally thank Troy for that lesson. It has come in handy more times than I ever imagined (unfortunately). When the girls learn to drive, this will be mandatory learning also. No helpless damsels in distress here if I have anything to say about it!

Murman found on beach!

 A rare find indeed! The girls were on a mermaid hunt and came up empty shelled, until this beauty washed up on shore!

Hope everyone else had as much fun on Canada Day as we did!