233: #345 Upside Down

Daddy gets his exercise lifting Gregory (65 pounds!)

183: Free #13 Healthy Choices

I wonder how many other 4 year olds give their McDonald's order as salad and chicken nuggets. This girl loves her salad! Good to the last drop of dressing! She licked the bowl clean! She was disappointed that you don't get a Happy Meal toy with salad and chicken, though.

These photos were all cropped to square because I couldn't decide which one to use, so I chose 4. And here's one more...

142: Free #09 Bows

Birthday present bows are fun for little girls...

137: #042 Celebration

Gregory's 6th birthday was Friday and we celebrated Saturday.
I cropped it close -- the better to see the smoke as the candles winked out.

130: #162 Jumping, Leaping, Bouncing

The weather for yesterday morning's track meet was threatening rain so I used my Panasonic point-and-shoot instead of the Canon XSi -- less costly to ruin if it gets wet -- and I remembered one of the big reasons why I love the XSi! It's great for snapping the action as it happens. The Panasonic, on the other hand, blanks out when it's storing a photograph and you really can't take an action series as well. This set wasn't too bad after I quit gnashing my teeth and decided to adjust to what the Panasonic can do -- and that's basically focusing in one place with a wide view and cropping them later.

The hurdles shots were totally out of focus, but I did catch a few of the pole vault.

092: #045 Chair

Gregory's wheelchair.
He likes to play the bat-the-balloon game, too...

091: #319 The Games We Play

Kids, God bless 'em, usually love simple games like batting a balloon back and forth.
But when the balloon got stepped on it popped and scared Kayla half to death!

081: Free #04 Guest Photographer

My granddaughter Kayla's first try at being a photographer...

Kayla always wants to see the pictures when I shoot. Yesterday she wanted to take some pictures, so she sat on my lap and I showed her how to look through the viewfinder and where to push the button.

She took some photos of Gregory, then Mom, then Daddy. And when she wanted a photo of herself I turned the camera around and held it out pointed back at her and that's on yesterday's blog.





Not bad for a 4 year old. Since she was using the viewfinder (not live view) I couldn't see what she caught until after she pressed the button.

Canon XSi with the kit lens.

080: #088 Eyes

Kayla's eyes. If you look at the big version you'll see (reflected in her eyes) my arms around her holding the camera pointing back at her. She was sitting on my lap taking pictures of everyone and wanted a picture of herself, too. Tomorrow's post will be by the 4 year old guest photographer. :)

075: #140 Handwriting

Kayla likes to write stories. At age 4 she can write her name (sorta), but the rest is hard for me to read, so she reads it back to me. Amazing what she has written! Maybe the day care workers are teaching her cyrillic or some such alphabet -- or maybe she's just mimicking Mom again.

069: #117 Gap

Kayla broke a tooth chewing ice.
The dentist pulled it -- she'll get a new one soon enough.
And the tooth fairy was VERY generous!

Edmund asked how the picture was taken.
Portrait mode with flash.
I was a little off to the side and she was looking at an alphabet game on the computer.
I don't like to get too close when I'm using a flash, and I prefer portrait mode when the indoor lighting isn't really great.

A little bit of a crop to tilt the portrait (not straightened this time).
Selective sharpening on the eyes -- a rough selection with 3 pixel feather -- ctl>j to put the eyes on their own layer -- unsharp mask.
And, not that this little one needed it, but Noiseware on the base picture.

Edged with a big white stroke on its own layer with enough gaussian blur to make a soft edge. Then another small white stroke to define it.

034: #288 Sleeping

Shhhh!
It's a rare moment when the little imp is so worn out that she takes a nap!

I think I like this close crop better...

031: #107 Footwear

Mom is wearing her nice warm slippers. Kayla favors her high-heeled shoes. And Daddy has NO footwear.

030: #342 Underneath

Kayla likes to hide, but Daddy caught her under the table and gave her a tickle.

029: #096 Feathered or Feathers

Kayla (age 4) loves to play dress-up. She has a feather boa that molts.

026: #087 Exercise

Pull harder, Gregory!

He's pulling with both hands! His OT just started working with "rubber bands" and he's doing it!

004: #271 Second Hand

Gregory still hasn't figured out that righty can help lefty. He can operate the remote for his car with lefty (keep your shoes on or your feet off the floor, folks!) but he needs a second hand to help hold the remote still.

Taken with my Panasonic point and shoot with flash in a fairly dark room. Not a clear picture, but a little LR2 and some high pass sharpening makes it a tad better.