Tulle & Tutus

I have a friend in my neighborhood that has all of this great lighting equipment and back drops. She was kind enough to let me borrow all of it. I have a pretty decent Nikon camera, so Mandi and I went to town!! We took nearly 500 pictures and being a VERY amateur photographer, I was impressed that I was able to get some pretty decent pictures (if I do say so myself!) Because of this, this post has A LOT of photos!!

It was much more challenging than I thought: getting the lighting just right, getting the kids to cooperate, and making everything fit into the background! I thought because we were doing it in my house, that it would be easier than a studio. One nice thing is we don't have to pay for all of the pictures and we aren't hindered by copyright laws, so we can do what we want with the pictures!

Because of all of these challenges, I didn't dare try any other back drop than black because that's a safe color. I had soooo much fun doing this (and I hope that Mandi did too!) that I think I am going to start putting together my own lighting equipment set. I think getting my own equipment will allow me to practice and get better at taking good photos!!

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright, Hawaiian Christmas day...

S0 we went to Hawaii with Kevin's brother's family for Christmas this year. Can I say that this is the best way to spend your Christmas vacation? Away from the cold and snow, and the hectic craziness that families can sometimes bring! We ate Christmas dinner in an open air restaurant, where a chubby, Hawaiian man sang us Christmas songs, adding that we should eat until we feel lazy. Soaking up the warm Christmas sun, as we nap on the beach in 80 degree weather, while listening to the sounds of the ocean. Yep, it can't get any better than that!
We had a wonderful time going to North Shore to eat the famous "shave ice" from Matsumoto's, snorkeling, whale and dolphin watching from a catamaran, and getting to just relax.

On the evening of "Boxing Day" (the day after Christmas) there was a huge storm on Oahu. There was a rare show of lightening, which hit a transformer, which, in turn, created an automatic shut down of power. The power had to be cold started, which takes quite sometime. We were playing phase ten in our hotel, when the lights went out. We managed to finish our game with flash lights, but ended up just going to bed because it got too difficult to do anything else.
Kevin and I love the beach and the ocean, but Marley had different ideas. The sand was NOT her thing. Every time we tried to put her feet in the sand, she'd pull her feet up to her body to avoid touching it! She did fine on the chairs, and beach towels but wouldn't even think about playing in the sand. Who knows? Maybe she thought it felt weird!