Remember way back when we took our family pics? Well, here they are. I love them all!

You can see more on Tara’s blog. Thank you, Tara!!!

It’s Summer!  My most favorite time of year.  June gloom is officially over and now we can hang out in our backyard, go swimming in the pool, and have barbeque’s.  Oh, summer, how I love thee!

Speaking of hanging out in our backyard, we’ve been doing a lot of that lately.  I love our new backyard.  It’s not huge, but I think by California standards it’s pretty big.  I mean, we have grass!  That’s a huge step up.  

Chuck is a big golfer.  Well, I don’t really let him play golf too much anymore, but he still loves it and once Brayden is old enough to play golf they can go out whenever they want!  We bought Brayden his first set of clubs and he got his first lesson from Daddy.

All images shot with the 50 1.2  at 2.8, 1/640, ISO 125

 

He thinks he likes golf, but for now he’d rather just eat the flags.

I’m so happy we have such great light in our new backyard!  We will be having many more photo shoots out there!

On a side note, this image is for Uncle Steve

You see, Steve is not a Mom nor a photographer, but he reads my blogs religiously anyways.  He says he only reads them before our date nights (BBQ’s) on Thursdays to catch up with our lives, but I know he really likes to read them.  He can recite all of my entries by memory, he lets me know when I have grammar or spelling errors, and he teases me for what I write.  He’s a good friend like that.  I’m pretty sure Steve was jealous of the mushy entries I write for Chuck so here’s one just for you, Uncle Steve.  The Bittels love you!  Thanks for being such a good friend!

I absolutely love our new house.  I’ve been spending the last week driving to different stores ordering light fixtures, furniture, and paint.  It’s become another full time job.  I’m absolutely horrible at interior design.  I may be a little creative when it comes to photography, but that’s just about where my creativity ends.  In our old house I found that I was always buying new things for the house because I never had a vision of what I wanted the decor to be.  And that’s probably why we repainted our bedroom 3 times in less than 5 years.  I knew that I didn’t want to do that in this house.  I wanted to buy furniture that was going to last us for more than a year or two.  I really wanted to hire an Interior Designer, but knew that I would most likely not be able to afford one that I liked.  And then I found Jennifer.  I found her blog through a blog of a blog of a blog and I instantly loved it because she puts together outfits.  I need help in that department too!  As I kept reading I saw that she did virtual interior design as well.  I emailed her thinking it was going to be a minimum of $250 a room.  I was shocked when she emailed the price back!  $75 a room!  I immediately asked her to design my office / meeting room, living room, and the room off of the kitchen.  I emailed her pictures of the rooms and a sketch with measurements.  Not only does she do a 3-D design of the room and tells you where to place furniture and decor she also sources everything that goes into the room!  Even down to the business candle holders and trash cans.  She works with furniture you already have and works with any budget.  I was also very impressed because she included little details in the rooms that really reflect us.  She went back and read my blog to really get a sense of who we are and she knocked it out of the ballpark!  Here is the office design.

Everything is pretty much ordered and ready to go, but does anyone know a good (cheap) place to buy black and white damask wallpaper.  I love the wallpaper that is in the room, but it’s $90 a roll!  Yikes!   I’m looking for a cheaper alternative before I commit.  I’ll be posting the rest of the house tomorrow!  Thanks Jennifer for doing such an awesome job!  I’m excited for you to do our bedroom and Brayden’s room too!

I really could not think of a good title for this post.  It’s late and I’m tired!  But, it’s what’s in the post that counts, right?  

In the middle of our move I received a question from one of my favorite commentors ever.  Bobbie always leaves the nicest and most thoughtful comments on both of my blogs and they always make my day so I knew I had to do this small favor to repay her.  Here’s Bobbie’s question:

Okay, I have a 4 GB SD card and when it is totally cleaned off (all images deleted and the card formatted) it says I have 536 (or something like that) images to take. However, I get out there shooting away and it goes WAY over that number. I have my image quality set to fine (I shoot Nikon…. I know, I know, your rolling your eyes!!) and am wondering how/why the card takes more pictures than what it first started out saying? Is it changing the image size and/or quality? I feel like I know NOTHING about image size and quality!!

Great, question Bobbie.  I’m sure a lot of people often wonder the same thing and the answer is simple.  It’s because you use Nikon  Haha.  Just kidding!  It’s because at some point you are changing your ISO.  The higher the ISO the more space an image will take on your card.  Look for yourself.  Change your ISO to 125 and see how many images it tells you are left.  Now change your ISO to 1600.  You should have about 150 – 200 less images than you did when you were shooting on the low ISO.  The image quality is totally staying the same.  Hope that helps!!!

Hi everyone!  This is Brayden and I’ve taken over Mom*tog to wish my Daddy a very happy Father’s Day!

Dear Daddy,

Thank you for being the most bestest Daddy around!  I love you for so many reasons, but here are just a few:

You give the best baths.  Especially in hotel sinks

You’re a handsome stud like myself

You love UCLA just like me

You introduce me to all the pretty ladies

You are patient and teach me lots of new things

You swing me very high

slide very fast

and throw me so high!

You take me to your most favorite places

But most of all even though I’m a big kid now you still squeeze me tight

and hold my hand 

just like when I was a baby and I love that.

I love you, Daddy! 

Love,

Brayden

Dear House,

The time has come to say goodbye.  And while we will miss you, what I have come to realize through this whole process is that you’re just a house.  What makes a home is the people inside of it.

We’ve had many good memories inside of your walls.  First anniversaries, first babies, first giggles, first steps, first words.

But, it’s time to move on and make new memories in our new home.  Brayden won’t remember you, but whenever we drive past and I tell him this was your first house, where we brought you home from the hospital, where you spent your first 16 months, I will remember all of those precious firsts that happened here.  In our first home as a family.

Love,

Me

We’re moved in!  Well, kind of.  There are boxes and boxes everywhere and we still have a lot of work to do.  But, it’s starting to feel like home.  Brayden LOVES it!  He loves the backyard and my closet.  We’re having a lot of fun!

Okay, now I offer up advice and (I think) I help a lot of you out.  So, now I’m going to ask for some help from you, my fabulous readers!  I entered Brayden in the Orange County Registers Cutest Baby Contest and I’m begging asking you for your vote.  Yeah, you have to have to have an account and register, which is super annoying, but I would really appreciate it.  How cool would it be if Brayden won and got to be in the paper?  Right now he only has one vote… and it’s mine!  How sad!  I know how many readers Mom*tog gets and if just half of you vote we’ll win this contest by a landslide!

And if you’re from Orange County make sure to add your cute baby!  If I can’t win I would love for another Mom*tog to win!

Click here to vote!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

PS  You can vote as many times as you want!  So, if you want to vote 5, 10, 20, 100 times I won’t tell anyone

I guess this is what happens when your mom’s a photographer.  

You just have to say enough is enough sometimes.  If the kid weren’t so cute I’d kill him for touching my camera.  Good thing I have a UV filter

We’re moving this weekend and I’m not sure when our internet will be up and running so please pardon the lack of posts in the next week.  I’ll have pictures of the new place up as soon as possible!

I have such mixed feelings about leaving our first home.  We bought this house (with the very generous help of my in-laws) 10 months before we got married.  It’s the only house Brayden has ever known and it’s our first home as a family.  How do you say goodbye to something that holds so many great memories?  So many good things have happened here.  Yesterday we walked to lunch for the last time and I cried while eating my quesedilla.  One of my most favorite things about this neighborhood is how we can walk everywhere.  Walk to the grocery store, to lunch, to get ice cream.  We know everyone and it’s just such a great neighborhood.  I’m going to miss my office here and my window with the trees outside.  I’m going to miss the way it sounds in here when it’s windy.  I’m going to miss my big bay window in the bedroom and how I always know everything that’s going on in our neighborhood because I can see it unfolding from up there.  I’m going to miss the sound of Chuck’s car when he turns into our neighborhood.  I’m going to miss the ceiling in my bedroom (I know.  Sounds weird, but I love the way it comes to a peak).  I’m going to miss the little park.  I’m going to miss our neighbors.  I’m going to miss the sound of music coming form Birch street on summer nights.  I’m going to miss Christmas here and our decorating contests (even though we never win).  I’m going to miss our back gate.  I’m going to miss having a second story (our new house is a single story).

I will miss everything about our house, but I’m also excited about the new house.  I’m excited for our new BIG (well, big by Orange County standards) backyard, our long driveway, not having super close neighbors, my office with private entrance, the big park right down the street and making new memories there as a family.  It’s sad, but also a very exciting new adventure we’re starting on.  Wish us luck moving!  I hope you all have a great weekend!

Whatever lens you decide to go with remember to protect it.  UV filters will protect your lens from scratches, dust, and weather.  It’s much better to scratch a $40 filter than a $1400 lens.  Filters vary in price depending on your lens.  Make sure to just get a UV filter and not a colored filter that will alter the look of your images!

I’m glad the camera body post helped so many people!  Someone made a comment and said that if you can’t take good pictures with an inexpensive camera body then you will not be able to take good pictures with an expensive camera body.  That is so true!  The camera doesn’t make the photographer.  The photographer makes the camera.  When I was still shooting with my Rebel I got a few snide comments from “real” photographers with expensive camera bodies.  The funny thing was, when I saw their pictures, mine were a ton better!  Yes, more expensive camera bodies do have advantages, but if you’re just a Mom*tog a Rebel will be perfect for you!

Okay, onto lenses.  I know I’ve said it before, but I will say it again.  Rent a few lenses to see what you really like before buying.  I love prime lenses (lenses that don’t zoom in and out), but they do take a lot of getting used to.  Borrow Lenses is a great place to rent from if you don’t have a local store that rents lenses.  And if you’ve read my previous posts on lenses you’ll know that I HATE third party lenses.  Yes, they’re cheaper in the short term, but you will end up getting frustrated with them and will eventually buy a more expensive lens.  Just save the money and buy the Canon or Nikon lens to begin with.  Here are  few lenses that I would recommend for you Mom*togs out there.

Cheap(er) Lenses

50 1.8 – Super affordable at only $114, this lens will allow you to stop down to get great pictures in low light.  But remember, this is a prime lens so you’ll have to get used to zooming with your feet.  The 50 1.8 was my very first prime lens and I hated it at first.  It took a lot of getting used to, but I now use prime lenses about 90% of the time while shooting.

85 1.8 – This lens is a little more expensive at $380, but I actually use this lens pretty often.  It’s a great quality lens and if you are the type of person who likes to be a little farther away from your subjects this lens is great.

28 1.8 – A great wider prime lens.  I’ve had this lens for quite some time and it’s my second most used prime lens. $440

50 1.4 – This lens is better quality than the 50 1.8.  I’ve never actually used it, but i would think it would be in between the quality of the 50 1.8 and the 50 1.2.  If it is then I would say that’s a great quality lens for the price.

Expensive

24 – 70 2.8 – This would be my number one lens for a Mom*tog to have.  It’s the Canon L series, which means it’s the best glass they make.  It zooms so you have the flexibility to be a litter further away.  And it’s wide enough to where you can be pretty close.  It stops down to 2.8, which is pretty darn good.  It’s just a great all around lens.  But, it’s an investment at $1190.  This was the first lens I invested in and I still have it (and use it) to this day.

50 1.2 – My favorite lens of all time!  It’s what I take about 99% of the pictures on Mom*tog with.  The quality of this lens is exceptional.  And you pay for it at $1400

Yes, these are only a few of the very many lenses that are available.  But, these are the lenses that I have experience with and that have worked for me.  I honestly wouldn’t recommend anything with an aperture over 2.8.  You will not be able to get good images in low light and you won’t get that “blurry background” look that everyone is always emailing me about.

No answer is going to be the right answer for everyone.  Do your research and RENT lenses to see what works best for YOU!