Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

every year when Christmas rolls around we have a ruitine.. it's always Christmas with my dad's family Christmas Eve.. generally we eat breakfast at Meme & Grandpa's house.. then open gifts.. then have a late lunch/dinner thing.. then we traditionally watch a movie someone receives.. this year was no different.. we had the usual festivities.. including Aunt Dawn's buckeyes.. the millions of cookies our families always cook up.. Meme's apron and timer hung around her neck so the ham or roast doesn't burn.. and the movie this year was Flywheel.. which i cried to.. altho' no one noticed b/c i spent all morning crying.. *shrugs*

so ruby opened this ball first.. then didn't know what else to do.. so she played with her ball while the rest of everyone opened their gifts.. it was so cute !! she was perfectly contented to just receive her princess ball :)

OH NO ! ellen got a camera !!

what out.. a new photographer is on the loose !!

haha emma screamed when she opened up her new wallet and found a $1 bill.. if only everyone was so easily pleased :)

amy waited for this jersey for MONTHS.. to her it seemed like forever.. i'm not sure if she's taken it off SINCE she got it..

the two princesses.. dressed up in (in case you don't know) Elizabeth Swann outfits from Pirates 3.. the only reason THAT movie wasn't our movie of the year.. was b/c we've all already watched it about a million times.. lol

the little boys and their guns.. hehe

like ruby.. eli opened up this ball and decided he was happy and went off to play with it.. totally not caring to open up the rest of his gifts..

there's gotta be a funny caption for this photo.. i just can't think of one.. (BTW.. my mom is in the green.. but the other two people? my Aunt Dawn and Uncle Paul.. are the ones taking me to Disney World in a few weeks !! WOOT)

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okay so then Christmas Day we send the morning with ourselves.. starting with the annual sibling exchange in my room.. i was shocked that no one came down to my room before 9am this year.. usually they are all down here before 8am.. o.O but i was glad.. my eyes hurt.. so then.. after Christmas morning and afternoon spent with my family.. we spend Christmas night with my Mom's side of the family.. this year spent at my cousin Tammy's house.. normally my Grandma hosts everyone.. but with Pap breaking his hip only 6 weeks ago it was going to be too much for her.. but Tammy's house was nice.. we had some fun conversations.. including johnny trying to convince bobby to come to altoona to become a fireman.. the friendly family political debate.. talk about movies.. jobs.. houses.. exes.. you name it.. we probably talked about it..

down in my room.. during the annual sibling exchange..

ruby's actually old enough this year to understand things a little better.. it was SO cute !!

emma.. all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed..

stephen and ruby showin' off ruby's new stash of Little Einstein people.. ellen and i teamed up to buy her them from the disney store.. you gotta admit.. they are the cutest things! except.. nothing rivals ruby singing their theme song.. its the most adorable thing EVER!

ruby.. sitting beside her pile of presents from mom & dad..

every time i asked ruby to show me what she had gotten.. she held it up right in front of her face !! i have a million photos of ruby holding things in front of her face.. it was cute but also a little bit frustrating.. :) oh well..

watch out.. my little brother is armed and ready to shoot any tresspassers on the property !! his crossbow is actually really cool.. and shoots really far !

maybe ruby should take lessons from emma about how to hold things up for me to take a picture of :)

i love this shirt !!

haha i like this shirt too ! the great thing about being the oldest.. yet being petite and short.. is i can not only wear Amy's clothes.. but also Ellen's clothes ! lol

mom showing off the gift cards daddy went nuts buying her.. its rumored he bought over $400 worth =X

i love how stephen is holding all of daddy's gifts.. hehe i think its so cute !!

IF you happen to get past my brother and his crossbow.. you'll then have to get thru my father and HIS new Christmas presents.. a battle axe.. and throwing knives.. o.O yes.. be scared.. be very scared.. lol

it IS a pretty awesome battle axe tho'.. you gotta admit..

at tammy's house.. Christmas night..

this is tammy's dog.. angel.. idk how i got a picture that makes her look like this.. yes she is a very fuzzy dog.. but she looks like she is painted or something.. idk.. i thought it looked cool.. she's a much better behaved dog than EITHER of our dogs are.. that's for sure..

overall Christmas this year was cool.. everyone kept asking me if i got what i wanted.. i didn't really want anything so i guess that i got everything i wanted then !! and part of my Christmas present from my grandparents was my camera.. it was split between my birthday and Christmas because it was so expensive =X leave it to me to want a $380 camera plus all the fixin's.. huge memory card.. rechargable batteries.. warranties..

but i'm SO crazy thankful for my camera.. especially since i'm going to Disney World in a few weeks !! i can't WAIT to fill up my memory card with photos from down there !! all i need now is a case.. i have to find one that will be convenient to carry down there.. let the search begin!!

Christmas Sunday

i love this little boy to death.. he's so adorable !! lol

did i ever mention i love this little boy? lol

more pictures coming of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ! i hid behind a camera all day long.. *shrugs* why not?

NO FLASH

so i came home from work this afternoon to find an empty house.. what better to do in an empty house than play with my camera? i only had a space of about 10 minutes before my family arrived home.. but in those 10 minutes i took the tips on how to photograph christmas tree ornaments from http://www.merakohblog.com/ and decided to try it out.. of course.. my batteries died just as i was finally gettin' it right.. but while i recharge.. i wanted to write down my "recipe" so i won't forget for next year..


kara's recipe for photographing christmas tree ornaments:
ISO : 50
Shutter Speed : 2'
Aperture : 2.8
White Balance : auto

pictures taken in the living room about 4pm.. with only the christmas tree lights on.. i imagine if i had other lights on in the room.. i would have to lower the shutter speed and/or ISO.. i also used the 2 second timer.. resting my camera on something steady instead of holding it..

also.. there was no flash involved in these pictures at all.. which i think is absolutely amazing.. and very cool b/c the flash gives such harsh light.. and while it will light up the object closest to the lense nicely sometimes.. it also makes the background very very dark.. and so extending the time that the shutter is held open.. allowing more light in.. makes the picture much lighter.. even in a dark room without using a flash !! haha i think that's so cool.. :)


here are some of the results i got before my batteries decided to die on me.. i want to take some more later on tonight.. now that i finally figured out how to do it !!

i also really love how.. in the last two pictures.. the camera is clearly focused on the ornament.. and then the background is fuzzy.. that's thanks to the aperture being very low.. i LOVE how that looks !!

notice.. in the first of the top two pictures how the color is "warmer" or more yellow than in the second of the first two pictures.. the first of the pair is the photo straight out of the camera with no editing.. the second of the pair i simply removed some of the saturation.. for a "cleaner" white..

the bottom two are an example of what i wanted and was finally figuring out when my camera died.. >.<

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LATER...
kara's recipe for photographing the christmas tree:

ISO : 50
Shutter Speed : 13'
Aperture : 8.0
White Balance : whatever the lightbulb is.. lol

*jumps up and down* i also just .. like JUST .. found out that my camera shoots RAW !! i have absolutely NO idea what that means .. ?! but all of the photography websites talk about it.. and i always skipped over those parts b/c i didn't think my camera did that.. i guess i better look into it !! lol

psst.. this tiny little picture does the tree absolutely no justice.. you gotta click on it to make it bigger.. then you get a better idea of what my photograph really looks like.. :)

christmas pictures

the family Christmas picture.. b/c the one we took down at the lake was too dark.. >.<

yeah.. she's gotta be the cutest thing ever !!

i had the hardest time getting a decent picture of amy.. this one isn't even very good.. idk.. she has lazy eyes like i do.. so the ones that she is smiling nicely in--her eyes are half closed.. but when she made sure to keep her eyes open.. her smile wasn't as nice.. UGH

now.. to all the crazy people who say that ruby looks like ME? look at that precious face.. those huge blue eyes.. that sweet innocent smile.. and tell me that there is no way that gorgeous girl could ever grow up to be anything but absolutely gorgeous !!

haha ruby LOVES to pose.. its SO funny !

this is a reenactment of a picture that my parents have of me when i was this age.. sitting on THAT horse.. in front of our Christmas tree at the other house.. so i took this one of ruby so we could compare :)

nice socks huh? lol daddy took this one.. trying to get a decent picture to replace the old picture i have hanging over the piano.. i'm due for a new one.. but i don't like any of the pictures that we take.. >.<>

ruby & josie..

as long as ruby figures out how to hold a real baby.. she's gonna make an awesome mommy someday :) she's got a little bit of time to learn tho'..

ruby and her baby.. josie..

haha you can't get much better than this.. can ya? especially when she decides to make this face without me even asking !! lol a photographers dream <3

ruby decided to camp out in my closet for a while.. i'm not sure what was so appealing about my closet.. but okay :)

awww.. isn't she so sweet?