I’ve got a lot of pictures I kept meaning to share with you but couldn’t find some snazzy way to include them into other posts so I’m going to share them with you now and pretend it’s all related, mkay?

So sometimes I get this compulsive need to buy things that I think stems from our otherwise fairly strict budget. Like I scrimp and save on groceries and then go nuts and buy myself a $5 pillow. Kind of like when you are on a diet and you count those calories or points all day and then that night you accidentally eat a sheet cake. Not a big deal except lately there have been too many $5 pillows (and $7 pajamas and $3 books… you get the idea). I keep saying, “Okay we are officially on lock down,” and then one trip to Target later and I’m back at square one. Basically I should be banned from Target. And probably sheet cakes.

I took this picture with my cell phone. Can we all just pause and savor that fact for a moment. Sometimes I take pictures like this with like worst camera I own and I think, “Damn, I’m good.” And then other times I try to take a great picture of BB and I get this:

Okay, nevermind, I tried to find a bad picture of BB and totally  failed. But my point is, sometimes I’m so proud of my little photography moments and then other times I realize I have so much more to learn. Which is kinda fun.

Speaking of learning, MM actually has homework now and it’s kinda awesome to get a glimpse into what he’s doing all day at school – to see his strengths and weaknesses homework-wise. Yes we are still very much in the honeymoon phase of homework where we all still enjoy and look forward to it and marvel over reading and writing words like “the” and “my” – he even has math homework!

I think the biggest thing I’m noticing that he needs to work on is really just trusting his own intuition with writing and working on his handwriting. He tends to write his letters from bottom to top lately and I’ve been working with him on that – also a lot of backwards letters and way too big letters. I think that’s probably normal though, right?

Wanna know a secret? When a picture I take just isn’t working, the quality is looooow, the colors are blah, the lighting is horrendous… I try switching it to black and white. 9 times out of 10 it’ll save that picture’s butt.

Sometimes it makes me fall in love with a picture that before the conversion was just okay. It brings out the nuances and simplifies the picture so it’s obvious what’s to love.

Works like a charm. This picture before was just okay, but now it kind of makes my heart melt all over the floor in a big messy puddle.

Here’s an example of a picture that maybe doesn’t wow and amaze in b&w but is still 800 times better than the original version. Before b&w this picture didn’t really work at all, but now it’s a totally passable adorable picture of BB. You almost can’t tell the picture is washed out and instead get to focus on the cuteness.

Just thought you should know.

Another trick I’ve recently been utilizing has to do with nighttime photography. Now, once upon a time I thought nighttime pictures meant, “Use that flash!” but the truth is, flash and nighttime often just make an ugly, poorly lit picture. It’ll be allll washed out and just blech. But if you turn off the flash and make the available light work for you – sometimes – you get magic. Provided the light is there. Quaker Steak & Lube, as you can see, was more than happy to deliver for me.

I love and adore this picture and it’s lucky – because it was the first picture I took that day. Basically, it’s a total slacker pic but it worked for me because, one, it’s gorgeous and two it brings fond memories of the team trivia at Quaker Steak & Lube with some of my favorite local friends where we actually won our first game ever! Go Team Brain Candy!

Okay, I’ll post more pictures later, namely some pictures from another farm trip this week – but for now, it’s time to go make dinner! In the meantime, what’s your favorite photography tip – the ninja move that makes you feel like a rock star?