delusionally content

I blogged a while back about the new lights for the north-bound onramp in Lehi. Well, the lights are now off and traffic is back to moving as it should be. I may never know why or who decided to shut these poor-excuse-for-tax-dollars down, but I, for one, am quite pleased with the change back to "the way things were".
In my own delusional way, I guess I could say my letter was heard.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! pics of the kids to come...

love of reading

so exciting! Amber has been so faithful in reading to the kids every day - even numerous times in the same day at times. And, of course, we read the scriptures in the evening time with the kids (about 70%) of days. Well, Spence is getting very fluid in his reading, but he hasn't grasped the joy yet... until yesterday. These are the rewards of parenting. One of Spence's duties is to read 20 minutes a day. He often needs prodding to gather his books together (usually gets through 4 easy books in a session)... lots of prodding. But once he has them he whips through 'em and he's onto other ('funner') things.

Well, yesterday he was requiring some warm-iron prodding, and I told him I would pick his books. I grabbed a challenging but smaller book and a larger (chapter-like book). He finished reading the smaller book to me, and then gasped a bit when I pulled out the larger book -that same gasp I give when seeing a large book I want to read, but don't think I will take the time to conquer. So he began... got cooking through it... wanted to stop one time into it... and then we had a little talk about exploring what happens, and that Spence has the power to explore this book to find out what happens. And then it happened. I had to tell him it was time to go to pray and hit the rack. "Just two more pages," he begged. This morning he grabbed the book so that he could read on the way to school in the car... (BIG smile on my face right now!)
Here is a picture taken Jan 07.

notes from the photog

I thought I would start sharing some "how it was done" info with my shots to keep it interesting. I am definitely still learning photography - and love to share.

I have been reading a book at work called Light: Science and Magic... I am at the part about diffuse and direct reflection. Aunt Shanna's halloween gifts for the kids included a perfect opportunity to try out what I have been reading. She sent these very reflective glasses.
In this picture of Spence, I used my off camera flash shot through a white umbrella.
The only direct reflection seen from the flash is on the rim of the glasses. A fun way to highlight the eyes and glasses.



While this one of Amber put the camera in the family of angles (which means you see the light reflected from the entire surface).

On a different note, but still using the same flash setup... the sunset was coming through part of the closed blinds. So I quickly set up... so quickly that as I was coming down the hallway I hit the wall with my closed umbrella and it jabbed my rib pretty well. Glad it wasn't any sharper. But the sunlight produced quite an orange light. Whereas the flash wasn't as warm. And the ambient light was even cooler. So I decided to shoot with the WB around 3900K.

In this picture of Camille, you can see that the sunlight on her face and hair appears to be the correct temperature, while the rest of the picture looks much cooler. An interesting effect. This can be reproduced artificially with a warming CTO gel over your flash and setting the WB to around 3900. --And yes, that is pizza sauce on Camille's face.


And finally, this one of Spencer was at WB of 3950 with the flash still camera right and the setting sun coming through. I really like the different shades of red/orange in his hair and on his face.

In the past, I have generally shot automatic WB, but one of my goals is to have more control over what temperature I chose while shooting; even though it is so easy to switch WB afterwards in Photoshop.

Hike in October

Went on a Saturday hike with Pres. Meek up in the Lone Peak Wilderness... great day for a hike. Even had 8 inches of snow in the cirque.

And had fun with the Orton effect in photoshop with a few of the images.

going big with a little man

Here's Scotty at 5 months fitting in Sam's 1 year outfit. Watch out, here he comes.

LDS links

In preparing for a presidency training meeting to occur over the weekend, I had to refer back to an old conference ensign. I thought it proper to share 2 links that I use much for Ensign and General Conference links.


LDS Past Ensigns to 1971

Conference Talks back to 1880
This link wasn't working the last time I checked, but it has in the past.

And for those who have lots of motivation and read quickly...
A missionary comp of mine who now lives in Ireland has a challenge to read all conference talks from 1974 to current by July 4th, 2010. This is the same comp who read through the entire Old Testament during one of the months I was with him.

The slides

so for you who are more interested in seeing the pictures... instead of the whole low-quality video... here is the slide show

California 2008