Looking forward by looking back.

Couple things first…

Just performed more than a dozen automagical updates to the site, so some things might not be quite up to snuff. I’ve been squashing what bugs I’ve found and some of the things look a little ‘off’, and I’m trying to locate that problem in the new code.

Plotting the course for 2013 started early. Extremely early. Starting January of 2012, we made the decision that 2012’s graveyard addition was going to be a one-off, and 2013 was going to be something else. So, in the plan with building Trevor was, specifically, NOT KEEPING HIM. This was a bit harder than I thought, though. Even though that was my plan, when I had him mostly finished around July 2012, I was really thinking maybe we should do it 2 years…

But we held firm, and Trevor is sold and gone. Best part is he’s not that far, so we’ll get to stop and say ‘hi’ to him next year none the less.

With the graveyard retired, it was time to look towards 2013. I sat down and critiqued every year. What went well, what didn’t. Where I went wrong with the yard.

We came up with a common theme of the mistakes I make: TOO MUCH, TOO CROWDED.

Taking my 3 favorite years:

#3, 2012

2012 was incredibly fun. Easily the best year for the whole pumpkin carving party, we learned to SPREAD THEM OUT better than in 2011. I think we hit the magic number, too at ~115 pumpkins. More is going to be getting into that crowded territory.

The only reason this doesn’t rate higher is I’m not a huge fan of the whole graveyard thing as it being too ‘ordinary’. Even when you make a transi tomb.

#2, 2007

2007 was the culmination of a dream of mine. We started with the whole skulls on a stick routine way back in 2005, but it was 2007 that we really EMBRACED it. 100 skulls, 75 stakes made one of the most fantastically original scenes I’ve ever managed.

Hard to believe I messed with it so much in 2008, trying to cram in over 300 skulls, 200 stakes, Fred, and a hut into that same space. Once again too much.

#1: 2010.

The Harvest was an accident. We had worked HARD and spent most of the year working towards a whole temple theme transition in 2010. Then God decided it sucked and destroyed most of it when the wind took out our gazebo and most the year’s props with it.

I think it was August and I was left sitting with absolutely nothing, wondering what I could possibly bring together for Halloween in time, and not wanting to do a rehash of those skulls again when someone on the Halloween Forum decided to poke fun at “people who only put out some corn stalks and pumpkins”. As if that were some lower form of decorating. I took it as a challenge to make ‘nothing but corn stalks and pumpkins’ interesting. 60 pumpkins was too much for me, so we invited some neighbors to help, and the annual harvest party was born.

2013, I think it’s time to merge these two basic themes together. Return to our roots. Mix some of the spiked skulls into the corn. Spike some pumpkins like we did in 2009 while we’re at it…Look back.

Christmas roundup

Crazy week of Christmas fun.

First we had Kyle’s Choir concert.

Who still has a tendency to look like he’s attacking the song more than he’s singing.

Beginning with the ever popular 3 wise Trex.

We continued on through our list of annual treats…

And even managed to FINALLY perfect the Toffee recipe, and hope to get an updated one on here soon. I’ve also decided the peanut brittle needs a little bit of an adjustment as well.

Then it was off to Alec’s concert.

Waiting for it to begin, we appeared to have great seats…

Then, they all stood up, and we couldn’t see him at all.

So, I got up and walked back and around to the other side standing only to get pics…Which really troubled Alec, who saw me get up, but not where I went, so he spent half the time staring at my empty seat.

“Oh, that’s where you went.” Deathstare.

Just in time for the final song.

Then we made it down for our annual trip to see “the Christmas Ghosts” as Talia has dubbed it when a local graveyard decorates their graves with luminaries.

VERY dark out, bitterly cold, and I wandered off through the graveyard to see if they had the bas-relief lit up. Glad I did.

More photography fun

Went down to the local Christmas village with the kids. Took the opportunity to play with my new lens in a challenging lighting environment.

Mom, remember all those pics of various displays at museums and whatnot inside display cases we had so much trouble with because of poor lighting and flash reflecting, and all that jazz. (course pre-digital so really hard to trial/error our way through as well) Well, I think I have those problems licked now.

So, ya know, next time you need some help documenting things…

Of course we took the lens to get pics of US.

It can’t keep kids from making faces…

I had lots of trouble getting the light meter to where I needed it with all the backlighting, but we eventually did. Unfortunately I didn’t get Talia to hold still for a good shot. She was loving the displays. When not making us run around trying to find the bathroom.

Kyle even got to snap a shot after we got the meter thing worked out.

Old and new.

Been eyeballing some new prime lenses for my camera for quite some time, but just couldn’t pull the trigger for the pricey things. So, I watched and waited, and searched. In doing so, I stumbled on the means to unlock older lens useage on this camera. (why the feature comes locked out by default is beyond me)

Armed with this knowledge, I’ve been watching for someone to offload some of the old lenses. Finally happened last night, and I got myself a set of primes, finally. Sure, they’re 30 years old and only work on full manual mode. I have to shoot in full manual for my low light situations anyway.

The real star of the set, for me, is the 50mm F1.7 lens. Most folks would view this as a portrait lens, and it sure works pretty well in that capacity. (no, there is no flash being used anywhere here)

What it unlocks for ME, however, is a superior ability to take low light photos. The f1.7 makes the viewfinder much brighter and thus easier to focus on the subject (yes, OLD camera I actually have to use the viewfinder, not a live video screen, the horror). Not to mention the lower F stops than my current kit camera allowing this to be shot freehand, no tripod.

The next lens is a 28MM F2.4. This offers a small change from the 50MM at the end of the day. The wider angle allows for some more close up work.

The final lens is one I could pull out next time we go camping. 200MM F3.5. Really not going to be much use to my low light photography, but it sure took some fine pics of the moon even through the hazy sky.

It even works with my doubler, which tends to be picky which lenses it likes.