On Sunday morning, we participated in the Mystic Pirate Invasion. We did it last year too and the kids had a blast, Maybe next year I will plan ahead and find them pirate costumes that fit instead of cobbling together dress up from the last 4 years. They got a ton of treasure (candy + beads + plastic gem stones) and I got my 10,000 steps. Linc was strapped to my back (in our pirate/kraken themed carrier, obvs) the whole time, his pirate outfit went mostly unnoticed.

Look! Linc is in a picture!

Scary pirate faces.

Caroline felt is was VERY important that puppy come with us. The child-sized baby carrier was supposed to just be a toy but now it means I don’t end up carrying around the thing she insisted we bring and then loses/drops/wants me to hold. TOTALLY worth $30.

After we ran home and switched to regular person clothes, we headed to WeLiKit ice cream for their 25th anniversary celebration. A friend told me about the ice cream stand over the summer and I have to agree it is some of the BEST ice cream I’ve ever had. And what can be better than a waffle cone that is so fresh it’s still soft and warm when you eat it? It was a tiny bit on the chilly side for ice cream, but the kids did so much running around and general shenaniganery they were plenty warm.

Watching the waffle cone making. Obviously an ice cream stand is the best place to also buy beef.

Indian pudding, my new favorite flavor. It’s molasses and corn meal and if you think that sounds gross we can’t be friends.

p.s. They also sell clam fritters and chowder. Does it sound like the perfect place or what?!

And because I was so happy to be outside after a week of rain, I talked Caroline into playing model for a few minutes. I bought a set of Lightroom presets from Mastin Labs. They’re based on film (remember film????) and while I’m not going to switch over to ALL Mastin, all the time they are gorgeous. I love what they do to greens and shadows. The ones in her tutu were taken in the parking lot of Scotland town hall. The rest were in my yard.

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Pretend today is Sunday instead of Monday and this isn’t super late. Except that if it was Sunday I wouldn’t be getting this nice 60 minutes of quiet to watch Dateline repeats and blog because my baby decided sleeping was stupid and we spent the whole day outside trying to wear him (and the big kids) out. So just forgive me for being late.

Sunday:

It’s a whole set for playing while moms take photos

We agreed that painting pumpkins was OK even though TECHNICALLY it wasn’t October yet

Someone was really sure he didn’t need a nap last Sunday too

Monday:

ONCE AGAIN, not sleeping during assigned sleeping times

Checklist for the next house: Climbing Tree

This is why Linc still has his own room

Tuesday:

rain OH SO YOU WERE TIRED? I’M SHOCKED.

Yesssssssssss

Real Life Babywearing: Toddler lies on the floor next to my $350 wrap

Wednesday:

They like the rain because they love umbrellas

At least the cat like the new rug

Their relationship summarized in one photo

Thursday:

I’m sort of trying to sell some wraps, but I hate selling wraps so I’m not doing a great job.

That face is because he wants to be in the pool with the big kids (swim lessons)

So, I did some stuff to my hair.

Friday:

Brutus crashed our playgroup

This color with his eyes = A++++

Someone seems to have left my snack smushed on the couch.

Saturday:

LOOK AT THAT BABY PRETENDING HE IS A BIG KID SILLY BABY

We found a Pinkberry

Sleep! That’s where I’m a protractor! (Most random kid’s meal toy ever.)

My computer just decided NOW would be an ideal time to start acting up, so I’m going to go bang my head against a wall and moan. Seems like the best use of my time. I would really like it if things could just be NORMAL and BORING and AVERAGE for the rest of the week. Boring sounds really nice right now.

When you are in a public or semi-public space with your child/ren, people are going to talk to you about those children. And when strangers talk to you in public, they have a tendency to say some really stupid things. Try to remember that 99.99999% of the time they are just talking to you because you are there and their mouths are capable of forming words. I am an expert at having people talk to me because I haven’t yet learned the art of making absolutely no eye contact. Also, my children like strangers (I’m pretty sure they were switched at birth. All of them. Individually.)  So when Grandma Grabbyhands starts petting Caroline’s hair, instead of screaming “STOP TOUCHING ME STRANGE LADY”, Caroline insists on chatting about how she’s four and a half and loves horses and goes to school and one time on the bus her friend Michael threw up right on the floor.

Here is a brief list of things strangers might say to you in public that make you do the slow double blink. Remember, none of these things are personal. They would probably say them to a brick wall if the wall appeared to be listening:

• Calling your boy a girl or your girl a boy. Your beautiful little girl could be wearing a pink, sparkled, ruffled gown with high heels and full make-up, her long curly hair braided and tied in bows and holding a giant flashing sign that says “I AM A GIRL”…and some lady at the grocery store is still going to say “He’s so sweet, what’s his name?” I promise this is not what is going to send your kids to therapy, so just smile a nod and say “Matilda Jane”. Then you can laugh and point as she struggles to comprehend why you would name your son Matilda. Or maybe don’t laugh and point, just stick with the smiling and nodding.
• Saying “Wow, you sure have your hands full!” You probably, literally, do not. Most parents I know cannot parent without at least one free hand so we have found a whole list of ways to keep them available: babywearing, carts, strollers, leashes, whatever. This is just stranger-talk for “I see you have some small children in your vicinity”. Non-responses to this comment include: “Yep, children are a blessing”, “I sure do!”, “Really, it’s not so bad” or the perennial favorite: JAZZ HANDS while you nod and smile.
• Making completely arbitrary comments over your child’s physical attributes that are probably wrong. Someone looks at your child who is in the 3rd percentile for height and says “She’s so tall!” Or they see your 99th percentile in the grocery store and say “What a little peanut!”. These are just words people are saying because they want to make a comment. They might as well  say “She is wearing blue!” or “Your baby has feet!” Unless you are at a medical doctor during a medical doctor appointment and it’s the medical doctor who looks at your very small child and says “What a chub!”, do not react. Nod and smile.
• Asking you if the baby is sleeping through the night. THIS IS A TRICK QUESTION. They do not care if your baby is sleeping through the night. What they want to do is tell you about their baby or their cousin’s baby or their hairdresser’s nephew’s mailman’s baby who either a) started sleeping through the night at 4 days old, b) still doesn’t sleep through the night at 10 years old, or c) refused to take this stranger’s advice and now their baby is broken. Do not waste your time forming a truthful and accurate answer. They are not listening. Just said “Mostly!” and then nod and smile during what is sure to be a fascinating story.
• Giving you ridiculous or outdated advice. Again, unless it’s your pediatrician telling you a little Jack Daniels is the perfect cure for teething pain, nod and then smile and then nod some more to disguise the fact that your eyeballs just rolled out of your head. (If it is your pediatrician, may I gently suggest you look for a new one?) These people will insist that they raised children who have survived to adulthood, which means you should do everything they did or your children will diiiiiiiie.

via GIPHY

I know it can be really really hard to simply nod and smile all the time. When the people doing these things are inescapable – because you are trapped next to them on a bus or because you live with them – it is incredibly frustrating. But I promise you, 90% of the time they are not being malicious, they are just talking because at some point human beings evolved the ability to speak and they are afraid if they don’t use that ability as much as possible they will lose it.

Nod and smile. Nod and smile.

FALL FALL FALL IS HERE. I LOVE FALL.

Sunday:

PUNNY LICENSE PLATES ARE MY FAVORITE

Empty baseball stadiums are cool

Somehow a grocery trip still costs $100, even when I buy hardly anything

Monday:

Beaching it up

So happy when Sissy comes home from school

I love his little Judo outfit so much

Tuesday:

This week’s weather can stay forever

Prima Ballerina attitude already

Dogpile on the baby seems like a fun game

Wednesday:

HALLOWEEN AND CHRISTMAS WHAT IS HAPPENING

I went just for swim diapers

More soccer

Thursday:

View from the top

I bought a basket AND a cart to organize my stuff…so why isn’t it organized?

Setting up a new reward system

Friday:

I did not go chasing any waterfalls

Grump faces

Winner of the farmer’s market

Saturday:

MORE SOCCER

Important errands

A very windswept session at the park

It was our first week of All The Stuff and it was pretty much as exhausting as I was expecting. On Thursday morning, I got the kids on the bus then crawled back into bed with Linc until he started hitting me in the face at 9 am. I’m actually HOPING for some rain this week, because if the weather is bad I don’t feel guilty staying home all day. If only I could convince Linc the TV is super interesting and he should sit still and watch it for an hour or two…

If you go back in time on this blog, which is totally possible because I haven’t been wise enough to delete my archives yet, you will see I have always loved photos. I didn’t take a ton when I was pregnant but once I had a baby it was ON. For example, in October 2010 we had a really fun weekend. I would encourage you to go look at it, because I cannot bring myself to repost those pictures on my current front page because they’re too embarrassing, not to mention the AWESOME COLLAGES I made. Cringing forever.

I hope in five more years I won’t look back at my current blog posts and feel the same way I do about those, but it’s entirely possible. For now, I’m proud of how far I have come and I’m going to write some posts about how I got here. (The pictures of my equipment are terrible because they’re taken with my iPhone since all the camera equipment was IN the photo. Irony!)

First, let me tell you about what I shoot with. I’m a Nikon girl, although I started as a Canon girl back when people used film and dinosaurs roamed the earth. But when I was in the market for digital cameras, I was a huge fan of The Pioneer Woman and she said she shot Nikon. So I bought a Nikon. There are die-hard fans on both sides but I’m not one – I like my Nikon, I have no plans to change, but I won’t swear you HAVE to buy Nikon forever. The brand matters a lot less than your camera style and your lenses, in my opinion.

Second, let me say that a big part of photography is you that you get what you pay for. As photographers, we get really insulted when people say “Wow, your fancy camera takes such great photos!” because it discounts our time, talent and skill in that equation. And it is true that talented photographers have taken breathtaking photos with less-than-impressive equipment. But there is a direct correlation between super-expensive equipment and amazing photos.

I own two full-frame camera bodies, a Nikon D610 as my main body and a tape and reel Nikon D600 as my back-up. They are very, very similar – the 610 is just a slightly-updated version of the 600. “Full-frame” is a term that confused me a lot when I was shopping for a DSLR, but it means the camera has a bigger sensor so it can take sharper, less noisy/grainy photos. (This is a link to a better, longer explanation and it will also make you feel better about your camera if you have a crop-sensor.) Because they are a slightly fancier camera, they also let me do stuff your DSLR might not do, so if you’re reading a tutorial or taking a photography class and someone says “Set your white balance to 5880” and your camera doesn’t even have that option, that’s why. Some lenses also don’t work correctly with the different versions (they might not auto-focus on a crop sensor or they might not capture the whole image on a full frame) so it’s important to do a lot of reading before you buy anything.

The four lenses pictured are what I shoot with and carry to sessions. I own two other lenses but they’re currently on loan to a friend because I upgraded. As you can see, all my current lenses are off-brand clones instead of official Nikon/Nikkor lenses. I’m a big fan of these “other” brands, especially in this age where I can read 10,000 online reviews before I buy.

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM ART – This is my newest and current favorite lens. 35mm is pretty wide on a full frame camera, wider than a 50mm, which is generally explained as about what your eye sees when you look straight ahead. It is very sharp and very fast. It is also pretty heavy, so carrying it around for everyday shooting can be a workout. But the photos are gorgeous straight from the camera – I save myself a lot of time and effort by not editing them. The 1.4 f-stop means I get lots of bokeh (fuzziness) in my backgrounds. Generally, the smaller the f-stop number on a lens, the better it is (and the more it costs). This was also something that confused me when I was just starting out – I was focused on the “mm” number and didn’t realize the f-stop was what really changed the look of a professional’s photos. I used to own a 35mm 1.8 and I loved that lens too, so if your budget is cringing at the ART look for that one.

D610 35mm 1.4

D610 35mm 1.4

Tamron SP 28-75mm f/2.8 – This is my best walking-around lens. If we’re going to the zoo or the aquarium or a ball game this is probably what I will bring. I love shooting at 28mm during sessions to get that big, wide space and then zooming in on a family to get the closer shot without having to switch lenses. It can take a picture of a big group or the whole beach as well as a face or someone blowing out a birthday candle. I used to have the f/3.5 version of this lens and didn’t love it at all, so if you want ONE nice lens for traveling, I would recommend springing for the f/2.8.

D600 28-75mm 2.8

D610 28-75mm 2.8

Tokina 100mm f/2.8 PRO D Macro – I bought this lens because I was super interested in snowflake macro photography but wasn’t willing to spend a ton of money on what I thought would be a lens just for taking nature photos. Instead, this lens became one of my favorite portrait lenses and I use it all the time. Long lengths like 85mm and 100mm mean you have to stand far away from your subjects to get a lot of background in the frame, which isn’t always the best for kids since they lose interest in the person making funny faces and animal sounds when I’m standing waaaaaay over there. This is the next thing I’m going to upgrade, probably to an 85mm 1.4, but for now it’s working just fine. I don’t think everyone needs a macro lens but they’re definitely fun.

D600 100mm 2.8

D610 100mm 2.8

Sigma 50mm f/1.4 – A 50mm is such a classic, I don’t think I’ll ever not have on in my bag. I especially love it for newborns and babies, so if you have one of those a 50mm should be on your Christmas list. It’s not nearly as bulky as my 35mm so it makes a great carry-it-everywhere lens. If you’ve skimmed most of this post with your eyes glazing over, this is the only part I want you to pay attention to. The kit lens that came with your camera body is not going to make you happy and you should buy either the 1.4 or a 50mm f/1.8 like this one.

D600 50mm 1.4

D610 50mm 1.4

The rest of the stuff in my bag is just-in-case equipment. I have a battery grip and extra batteries so my camera doesn’t unexpectedly die during a shoot or on a long day of adventures. I have the remotes (two; I lose things) because they are cheap and sometimes it’s nice to be in my own family photos. And the Expodisc and the grey card are to help me get correct white balance. I remember to use the Expodisc about 10% of the time, the grey card 20% of the time and just wing it the other 70% of the time.

Not pictured but ALWAYS in my camera bag: Smarties candy. They’re small, they don’t stain, and they dissolve quickly so they make excellent bribes when all else fails.

So there you go, that’s what I shoot with right now. Go ahead and ask me questions if you have them. I think for the next photography post I’ll talk about shooting in my house and how I work around what is truly a horrible disaster 99% of the time. Unless anyone has a request, because that would be better.

(Non-disclaimer disclaimers: links in this post are not affiliate links, but if an Adorama ad shows up in the sidebar anywhere that one probably is. I buy 90% of my equipment from them because their shipping is unbelievably fast and they have a great used program where I can sell my old lenses back to them. The photos in this post are unedited and from my 365 project, so it was the equipment and not Photoshop that made them look like that.)