Turkey Day

(Warning: There is some photography mumbo jumbo at the beginning of this post. You can skim throught it if you'd like. There is a real post in here though. Promise.)

These are the conversations I have with myself:

Don't do it, Sarah. Don't do it. If there's not enough natural light and you can't use your Speedlight, don't bump up the ISO. You know you are going to complain that the pictures are ruined because they are too grainy and then you will forgot, as you always do, to change the ISO back to 200 and you will ruin good pictures. Someday you will have a better camera. Just accept that your little, antique D50 isn't good for low light.

So what to I do? I see a moment of such overwhelming love that I attempt to capture it in a picture. It's Thanksgiving Eve and the girls have been experiencing some sleep adjustments since our return from vacation. Allie flipped out and insisted that I sit with her. "For a few minutes." That's what they always say. "For a few minutes." Thankfully, they've been falling asleep within a few minutes so it's not that big of a deal.

Emily, who is my cling-baby, allowed Rich to take my place in her room. I told her that after Allie was settled, I would come back to her room to see her. And I will. She just might happen to be asleep at the time. So I exit Allie's room once I'm positive that she's asleep and I peek into Emily's room. The door is half open and there sits Rich on the floor beside Em's bed. She's obviously asleep, curled up on her side facing Rich. He has his hand in her bed on her hands. My heart melts.

So I grab my camera, throw on my 35mm lens and attempt to capture the moment. Em's room is small so I have to take the picture from the hall which means that bouncing light is not really going to work or give the effect that I'm looking for. The light is on in her room and so I bump the ISO in my D50 up to 1600 and use my knees (I'm sitting on the floor) to steady the camera for the slow shutter speed.

Thanksgiving morning, I attempt to take some portraits of Emily because now she has two black eyes from her fall. The sun hits the back of our house in the morning and on this particular morning, the skies are overcast. In photographer mode, I love overcast. If you are attempting to use natural light from a window or sliding doors, you do not want full on direct sunlight. At the time of this impromptu photoshoot, there was a great deal of diffused light coming through the sliding doors.

Very long story short, I should have realized that something was off because my camera was telling me that I had enough natural light when usually I have to bounce some light on the ceiling behind me. But Em is doing things like this



And then Allie jumps in and is acting all cute.

And then they all run away into another room.

Our Thanksgiving Day plans included a mid-day dinner with members of my family and then dessert with members of Rich's family. I took these pictures of the girls in our usual spot before we left the house.



Allie was being a turkey, by the way.





Here are some pictures of our day with my family.

Maggie brought a book over to Uncle Rich so that he could read to her. How cute is that?



Table for the crazy trio.



Attempt at a group shot. Poor Mags.



At some point either Friday or Saturday, I uploaded my photos from the week onto my laptop. When I first looked at the portrait pictures, I couldn't figure out why they were so grainy. I grabbed my camera. ISO 1600. I did it to myself again.

Later in the weekend, we brought the girls to a holiday parade and I was able to take some really, really good pictures of them. I felt much better after I saw the awesome photos. Okay, so I screwed up all the Thanksgiving pictures but at least I redeemed myself. I plan to post those this weekend.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who has voted for me and/or left comments. It means a lot to me. I screwed up in my original post - you can vote once PER DAY (which means 24 hours) until 9 PM Sunday night. So if you want to vote again (even after I just posted grainy photos) on Saturday and Sunday, you can. Thank you!