The house is a mess but that's nothing new
Yesterday we were invited to go to baby Lynn's 1st birthday. It was held at a local park and came complete with an inflatable bouncy house that the kids always enjoy. They had an amazing spread of food. The food theme was hawaiian which meant a mix of japanese, korean, chinese and american. It was soooo good. I would have had more but my 2 rugrats kept me busy as Sandy and I traded off watching them while the other wolfed down our plate.
They even had pinatta filled with candy. You give a kid a bat and the green light to smash away. Afterwards, their efforts are rewarded with candy and treats. Seriously, what more could a kid ask for?
I decided to forgo my usual canon 50mm f1.8 and tamron 17-55mm f2.8 lenses for events like this. I took my tamron 90mm f2.8 di lens instead. I wanted to take advantage of the longer focal length in an outdoor event like this. I usually use this lens mainly for macro photography of bugs and flowers. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it performed for portrait photography too. The lens focussed fast and accurately, even in backlit situations. It has always amazed me with its sharpness since it is a macro lens by design, but what impressed me even more were the colors. Another thing I tried was shooting back lit portraits. As a wildlife photographer, I have always been taught to shoot a front lit subject basically always having the sun over my shoulder. In bright midday light, this often creates a very harsh light and strong shadows which are not pleasing. Instead I shot my subjects with the sun behind them giving a nice highlight to their hair but more importantly, giving a nice even shade across their face. I was pleased with the results. At one point, I was considering getting the canon 85mm f1.8 lens for outdoor portraits, but since the tamron 90mm f2.8 lens worked so well, the 85mm would probably be redundant. My money would be better spent on the canon 70-200 f4 IS lens. Muhahahahah.
Last week, we had one final hurrah of summer with a short heat wave with temps close to 100. Suddenly towards the end of the week, the night time and morning temps dropped down into the low 60s. This morning I was greeted with the blustery santa ana winds and shaking trees. As I drove around town, I watched the new fallen leaves tumble across the rode and unusual white caps on the wind swept waves at the usually placid neighborhood lake. Fall is finally here and for that my spirit is happy.
Fall is my favorite time of the year. The smell of dried leaves and the crisp taste to the air announces the arrival of autumn as soon as you take a step outside. When I was going to medical school in NY, our campus was located about 45 minutes north of Manhattan. Despite its close proximity to the city, if you surveyed the landscape around the campus, you would have thought that you were in the wild hills of conneticut. We were surrounded by hills and forests. There was a forest behind my dorm and one morning I was greeted with a family of deer who were slowly passing by my window. When autumn arrived in NY, the surrounding hillsides around my campus burst into a rainbow of colors and shades.
Here in socal, the arrival of autumn is much more subtle and muted as compared to the symphony of colors from the autumn leaves of the east coast. I want to capture it with photography but I think it will take more creativity and thought here in socal. There is an urgency to this project because winter will be here shortly and the available daylight and shooting times will fade quickly. For now the hardest part will be just finding the time to go out and shoot.
I went for a bike ride with the kids yesterday. It was quite windy and cold which gave me a runny nose throughout the ride. Part of the cause is the drop in temperature and part of it are my allergies. I need to get good cycling jacket for the upcoming winter riding. I am determined to continue my cycling efforts that I have managed so well this past summer. I must not let the cold weather deter me. Yosh!!!
Here is a shot of the bday girl. 1st bday parties are always a big deal. There were lots of guests, lots of food and lots of kids running around everywhere you looked. The whole party went very well, at least from my perspective as a guest. I'm glad that we are done with Megan and Ethan's 1st bday parties. They were so much work and I am not even sure Sandy and I enjoyed it much since we were so busy hosting. It's much more enjoyable to just show up with a gift and eat other peoples' food. =P
