just the kids

Once upon a time Saturday night meant going out with friends, drinking a little too much, staying out a little too late. In fact, that was the rule for Saturday night for seemingly so long that you forgot what you did on Saturday night before you were social. Now you find yourself faced with the opposite. You forget what it was you used to do on Saturday night (when you were social) because now Saturday night is just like Thursday night. Or Monday night. Or Wednesday night--the nights have become interchangeable. Or maybe that's just me.

Last night, which happened to be a Saturday, I found myself geeking out reading Photographing Your Children by Jen Altman. It's kind of ironic that my days and nights all feel the same because of my children and I then spend my "free time" learning how to photograph them. (Hahaha.) But since I got a new camera for Christmas, I have vowed to take more interesting/thoughtful/artistic pictures of the little ones. What I discovered last night is that first I have to turn off the "Auto" setting on my DSLR and, second, I need a better lens ($$...sorry, Alex!). At some point I'll fully grasp the meaning of aperture and f-stop and eventually develop my own style (if I don't move on to some other venture before then), but today was my first day working under the "Manual" setting. These are my practice shots (i.e. gratuitous kid photos):