My little guinea pig...

A few weeks ago some friends and I decided to do our own (free) photo shoot of the kids. We had such great results that we decided we needed to step up our game a little bit. We have been reading about how to actually use these expensive cameras we have and are going to work on one thing a month. This month we worked on shooting in Aperture mode. I tried it out one morning in the playroom and at an afternoon in the park. Everything I read says this is best for portraits...not ideal for a moving toddler but I got some great shots! Out of 468 pictures I took in our playroom maybe 130 weren't all blurry and 50 were really great (35 of those being of just the toys, hands or feet).

Hand shots

and feet

toys and what not

it seems a bit dangerous to read and drive

This is his reading face

Someone LOVES his dog

Cute...even with a snotty nose

Counting face

Seriously...he makes the BEST faces

Major cutie

At the park I took like 30 pictures and have just a few good ones...

I didn't edit this at all and I feel like it looks like the background is spinning. 

again...cutie with a snotty nose

Concentrating

strolling through the woods

I still plan on using auto mode for most events (I'd hate to miss a moment because the picture was blurry or I was trying to be artsy). Maybe someday I will be good enough to shoot in Av mode most of the time but for now I need to practice so I can be ready to take pictures of the little cutie joining the family in January. I plan on getting a professional but I can't afford for someone to come every day to document every change...that is where my new photography skills will come in (and my amazing friend who is learning with me already offered to come help). So watch out blog readers...this is the start of photo overload!