The last time I got to rent a camera was when Theresa and I were on our girl's trip in Fredericksburg and I didn't really put it through the paces as much as I probably should have. Though in my defense, I was hanging out with one of my favorite people and was a teensy bit distracted. :)
Since I've been debating upgrading to a full frame camera at some point, I thought I should give it another try and decided to rent the Nikon D810 to test out. And Henry's birthday was coming up, so it was the perfect excuse! And because paying the shipping is a large part of the bill, I decided to add on a lens to play with. The 70-200mm lens was waaaaaay bigger than I thought it would be, but I guess the fixed aperture zoom lenses have to be bigger than their cheaper counterparts who can't maintain a constant aperture. Look at that amazing bokeh at a fully zoomed 200mm!
The general rule of thumb is that if I really need to get good photos (for "science"), my kids will not cooperate...
For some reason, Thomas looks much younger with this cheesy smile. In playing with all of the camera settings, I messed this one completely and it was almost fully black. Turns out - this camera can basically see in the dark and I recovered it in post processing. Wow!
Eliza was the only one of my babies being cooperative. Plus she looks so cozy in her sweater - I may have snapped quite a few good ones of Eliza today. Love you sweetie!
Natalie was less cooperative, but I was determined to get a photo at the ultra low 64 setting. Clearly I had to use a super wide aperture, but when I zoomed in to 400%, her eye is still super clear and not at all pixelated. I was a little sad that the higher ISO photos didn't look as good as I expected, but this one blew me away. I was going to try to zoom in and post a photo, but I degrade the resolution so much for the blog that it wouldn't wow anyone.
Instead you get the full "Mom, why are you doing this to me?" image.
Thomas was too intent on his kitchen helper duties to pay any attention to his momma when she asked for a photo. Henry was more than happy to ham it up for me though. In Thomas' defense, cutting potatoes requires much more focus than whisking eggs.
On a related note - Thomas is doing awesome at helping me in the kitchen. He cut up a bunch of strawberries for our pancakes last weekend and all of the potatoes for breakfast tacos this morning. I let him take one cooking class at school and he's suddenly ready for his own knife and cutting board. I love it! :)
This kid... I took 6 photos and each one was completely different, but this one was by far my favorite - especially compared to the super smiley first photo. ;)
Thomas looks pretty much the same. Cutting takes concentration!
I tried again when we were all playing on the floor. I managed to get smiles out of one of them, but not so much with the eldest. So serious, my little man!
I would also like to provide this as proof of the conditions I am forced to work with. I seriously doubt anyone was trying to pull off Ansel Adam's socks as he was learning the in's and out's of his cameras. The little toots ran off with both of mine. And it's a little chilly in Alaska right now!
But as much as they may not worry about me, these two are still a little unsure about the new robot! I've been threatening to buy some robotic help for the housework recently and finally bought myself a Roomba. The first time I went to use it, I had to pick up the mountain of couch cushions that were on the floor and the boys were pretty upset I was taking apart their "boat". I explained the Roomba needed the floor clear to be effective and that somehow led to them referring to it as a Shark.
So now, they run the other way when Sharkie comes after them. I love Sharkie!
Natalie was not impressed by or running from Sharkie. Unfortunately for her, the little robot seemed to want to go wherever she decided to lay down. Natalie would be excellent at playing "chicken" because she would not get out of it's way until it actually ran into her several times. There was one time I think Sharkie did a full pass on her side and she refused to budge. As the largest contributor to carpet pollution in this house, she apparently does not care if it gets cleaned up...!
It may be too early to say for sure, but I think Sharkie is going to be a welcome addition to the house. (Plus we are just one step closer to being the Jetsons!)