Creatively Conquering His Lion Walker

 Joel, the baby engineer, is a problem solver.  You can see the wheels turning in his little head when he encounters a puzzle, problem, or something new.

More Macro

Brian here,

With all the projects going on this weekend I still managed to pull out the camera and take some pictures.  We have a fairly large cherry tree in our new back yard and there were bees all over it this weekend because it's blooming.  I took 40 shots, and only a couple really turned out ok.  Bees when they are moving are really hard to get good shots.

It's a bee!

 This one is actually quite sharp and could probably be blown up to 8 X 10 and still look good.

Here it is again with a tighter crop.

Ok, I know you all want to see Joel. Here he is.

New Macro Lens

Brian here,

Nikon had a good rebate on a macro lens and then Google gave an extra 6% off for using Google Wallet so I decided to take the plunge and buy the Nikon 105mm macro lens that I've been wanting.  A year or two ago I bought some macro rings that turn my current lenses into macro lenses. The problem with them is that the lens will only focus on something that is 1-6 inches away. My new lens lets me achieve the really close up shots by being 8 inches away, and I can be further than that and still be able to focus. This is a big bonus because I can just step back to get more in my shots now if I want.

Enjoy the pictures:

This is Joel from 5 feet away. This lens also makes a good portrait lens.

This is Rachel's geode

This is one of my warhammer models. He stands about an inch and a half tall.

This is Rachel's lady bug larva. I set up the tripod and turned on live view. I would focus, and she would press the button to take the picture.

This is one of our roses from our front yard. It isn't the best looking rose, but it still makes a nice picture.

This is another rose from our yard. I am about 2 feet back from this bud which is something I couldn't do before.  Because it's a telephoto lens, it's really easy to get the blurred background. 

Sledding and Snowmen

Here we are in April and we made it up to Tahoe for some snow play.  We headed up early this morning for Donner Summit, our favorite sno park.  This was Rachel's third time sledding at Donner Summit and the first time she really enjoyed herself.  She was able to walk in the snow and when she fell down or rolled off the sled she would laugh instead of bursting into tears.  She absolutely loved sledding and was brave enough to go down the hill all by herself.  My independent girl even tried to walk up the hill all by herself and was so proud of herself when she made it part way up without holding our hand.  She has grown up so much since last year.  It was fun to watch her experience and enjoy snow.

She and I made a tiny snowman in the morning, but he got smooshed by a sled.  Later in the afternoon, she and Brian  made a big snowman.  The bottom was a snow covered rock which provided an excellent base.  Their snowman was so "fabulous" (Rachel's very accurate description) that Brian took a trip to the car to get the camera so we could take a picture.