Tuesday, July 29, 2008

update

So I realized that I've only made one blog post this whole month so I mean to remedy that issue today. I actually haven't done any programming since June 1st so there's really no excuse. No wait, there is, this is what my computer looks like:
That was after falling about 8 ft to it's demise on the hardwood floor. I was bringing it out of the attic (where I had been scanning pages) and the strap on the bag I was using broke (nevermind one strap was already broken and it was a stupid thing to do). Thankfully the inside of the computer still works and that is what I am using now until the new Dell arrives. My brother Jon was on vacation so I "borrowed" one of his flat screens. He got back yesterday and is probably now wondering where the heck it is.
So there's been alot going on in the last 2 months and a ton of pictures taken. The problem is that now that I've figured out how to make almost every picture look better in photoshop, I want to edit them all before I share them! And of course, I just don't have time to edit a few hundred pictures every few days. So I will try to not be so obsessive about it. And speaking of editing pictures, whoever says that jpeg is just as good as raw is wrong. And it's my opinion that it's not a matter of opinion (if that makes sense at all). The SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot is hardly noticable between jpeg and raw, that's true. However, if you find yourself in a low light situation, or some other situation where your exposure is not spot on, well then you can't do much about it if you're shooting in jpeg format. Raw, on the otherhand, has no loss of information from the original picture, and you can easily adjust the exposure in photoshop with no wierd looking, grainy pictures coming out of the deal. Here's an example.
Very dark jpeg picture:

Very bad looking after attempting to edit file (grainy & odd colors):


Very dark raw file (converted to jpeg):

Very good looking edited raw file (converted to jpeg AFTER editing):


Stay tuned for most posts.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Abby's learning to talk!


So we've hit the explosion, as far as learning new words goes. I'm sure there's more, I just can't keep track of them anymore, pretty much anytime you ask her to say a word, she'll at least try. One of the funniest things she does is try to imitate Buzz Lightyear (the kids have really been into Toy Story lately). She'll goes "oo -aynaawe-eeoon" (or so) and raise her hands up in the air, you can tell she's trying to say "to infinity and beyond!" because all the inflections and the amount of the syllables that she says are just right.

7/3
cacka (cracker)
ow (ouch)

7/1
baby
ba-oon (balloon)
moo-oo0n (for Goodnight moon)
tan-u (thank you)
nana (banana)
bapple (apple)
may-me (jamie)
may-mo (nemo)

as of 6/10
mama
dada
Abby
baby
ba-ba
da (ya)
no
oh-wow
go bye-bye
tickle-tickle
peek-boo
weee (when sliding)
tweet-tweet, squeak-squeak, peep-peep (all sound the same)
rha-rr (growling)
ow (meow)
oof-oof (woof-woof)
p-p-p-p-p-p (for elephant)
ck-ck (quack-quack)

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

summer activities



Just a few pics I took the other day, I was practicing with small f-stops (large aparature) to get the foreground in focus and the background blurry. It could have been a bit better but it is hard to get a 3 year to stand still. This was even with bribes of candy.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Our last day at the san diego zoo

big yellow snake:



Abby thinking that the polar bears were getting too close:


okay, all I have to say is look closely:

some more old news

Here's a few photos that never made it up to the blog. Oh, and I updated my scrap blog with the pages I made from this last weekend. All pictures in this post have been unaltered.

WARNING: THESE PICTURES MAY GIVE THE ILLUSION THAT IT IS SUMMER. IT IS NOT SUMMER. TO FIND SUMMER YOU MUST FLY SOUTH.

fun in the pool...


Taking the trolley to old town...







mini railroad...


Day at la jolla shores...







Sunset at la jolla cove...








The kids playing at the fountain...