The Safari Zone

My very favorite activity Karl and I did during our time in Florida was going on the safari in the Animal Kingdom. We saw all sorts of animals really really close to our jeep that we were in, plus I had my camera and some once-in-a-lifetime subjects to photograph. I love animals so so much and so this was such a treat to be around such magnificent animals and enjoy their beauty and awesomeness. I have lots of pictures from the shoot that I will post here. Some animals were better posers than others!

When you first get on the safari, you are loaded up into a jeep.  We were lucky enough to sit in the very front both times we took the safari!


Some birds chillin.


Baby hippo in the water! I love hippos!


There were about 6-8 crocodiles and they were SCARY!  One of the crocs just had it's mouth hanging open and it had this maniacal grin and you could see all it's teeth.


A really totally awesome baobab tree!  I know what this is because I worked at nuskin!


Cool horned antelope animal.


The giraffes were one of my favorites because they came right up to the edge of the jeep.  I was so happy and talking to the giraffe in a really high pitched voice and he was so so sweet.


The elephants were hot and so they were taking dirt clods in their trunks and rubbing it on each others backs to help give them some homemade sunscreen.  SO SWEET!


This is a mommy warthog and her three little warthog piglets that were all running after her.  Baby warthogs!!!  Eeeeee!  These were Karl's favorite of the safari.


A "don't mess with me" lion face.


Here are the cheetahs just laying around being lazy.  They were like little divas.  They reminded me and Karl of our dog Lina - eeriely similar poses.


A wonderful and sweet rhino!  He is a little doll!  I just wanted to get out and pet him!


Well, we have reached the end of the safari.  Here is a picture of Karl that I took while we were on the safari.  Also, if you know what the safari zone is, you get +1 million cool points.

I give you...Harry Potter World!

Notes to anyone who is thinking of going to Universal Islands of Adventure and experiencing the fabulous Harry Potter world attractions...think again! Enjoy my pictures, free of cost! Save yourself from waiting in line...for EVERYTHING! Getting into a shop! Buying things in the shop! Buying candy at Honeydukes! Eating at the 3 broomsticks! And heaven forbid....going on an actual ride!

I jest but not really. Harry Potter world was a wonderful magical experience but one I care to not ever repeat unless 3/4 of the people leave. Perhaps in a few years. Plus, for all of the experience, here is a breakdown of the cost of harry potter world:

• $200 to get in to Universal Islands of Adventure
• $80 roundtrip fare for taxi to and from Disneyworld resort
• $50 food at 3 Broomsticks, including butterbeer
• $50 candy at honeydukes because most of the candy was like $10 a piece
• $35 for a wand at Ollivander's
• $10 for a slytherin keychain for Karl+
• TOTAL: $425

I will now give you my entire Harry Potter world experience so that you can enjoy the magic first hand.  I wish I had taken more pictures, but it was raining and I was sick of waiting in lines.

The castle was incredible!



Hog's head pub



Butterbeer!  Sort of like cream soda.  But very sweet and creamy.









Monster book of monsters!

The spoils from honeydukes: peppermint toads, chocolate frogs, chocolate cauldron, pumpkin juice.  Also my wand is featured.

I bought the elder wand because it was the coolest one.  This picture is blah but you get the point:

For anyone who wants to see even MORE pictures, here are the ones from my point and shoot camera which includes stuff from inside the castle and while it was raining and I didn't want to get my 5d out.

French Quarter

I've known since back in February that Karl had something secret planned for me when he made me reserve a week on my calendar in July for him. No matter how hard I prodded he would not tell me the secret! Eventually I deduced that it was some sort of trip, but I had no idea where/why/what/how we were going to pay for it.

So last week the secret day finally arrived and I was instructed to pack a bag. We sat in the airport parking lot and Karl told me that we were going to disneyworld for the week! I was so excited!! We stayed at a hotel at the resort Karl picked out called the French Quarter because he knew I would love it.

The last night we were there we were out for a midnight jaunt to get some pizza and I brought along the 5D with me on it's tripod to shoot some shots around the pretty gardens near our room...on the way to the pizza. A shirtless british man who was drunk started talking to us and he was pretty cool. He wanted to show me how to "jailbreak" my 5d. This was not my idea of a good time so we left and went and got pizza.

It was so humid out that after I stepped out of our hotel room my lens immediately fogged up. It was 100% humidity that night and I kept having to wipe the lens with my shirt (photography students: do not do this - this is not appropriate care for a lens) to clear out the fog.

Here are some shots that I took that night. These are pretty much straight out of the camera, with the exception of some cropping, and I added a teeny bit of contrast to the 3rd image. The intense yellow lighting turned out neat. What do you think?







Here I tried a long exposure with my tripod a few times. Not the best composition but kind of cool water shot.

Enivironment vs. Posed photographs

My son is extremely hard to photograph.  He is very cute and has an adorable smile.  That being said, capturing his essence with the lens is hard.  He is very busy, he doesn't care about the camera, no amount of bribery will work, and it's hard to get the energy/patience to actually want to do a photoshoot with him.

I've tried a few things to make shooting him easier, like jam him in the high chair so that he has a seatbelt so that he's only in one place.  I think I could probably do that with the car seat too.  Problem?  Car seat and high chair aren't very cute.  Even with a background covering up the high chair.

So sometimes, like in my park photoshoot and this current post, I've tried following him around and just photographing him in his natural environment.  Problem?  No smiles, hardly any facing towards the camera (I get about 150 pictures of the back of his head) and at the end I am exhausted.  He's everywhere!  After all, I am a mom and I want the typical "mom" picture - my baby smiling looking so handsome towards the camera and showing himself off to the world in the most flattering picture possible.

This is always my dilemma when it comes to photographing Dean - where am I going to take the photos and what types of photos am I wanting to take.  Your thoughts?  Any ideas of places, locations, tricks to photographing toddlers?

In this shoot, I let Dean run around the backyard and I chased him.  Didn't get any of the typical "christmas card" photos but it was a bit more of an artsy shoot where I just played around with composition because Dean wasn't really posing for me.  What do you think?

Family Reunion

Two blog posts in two days? It's a christmas miracle!!

I just went on a family reunion to Zion National park with my extended family. We had a really fun time and I even got out of my comfort zone and...went on a hike! With a baby! Crazier things have happened. I actually really enjoyed myself because it wasn't screaming hot, it even rained on us a little bit so I enjoyed some beautiful scenery. Since I had the baby, I opted to leave my other baby (canon 5d) at home. Oh well. Luckily I had my back up point and shoot camera and got some nice pictures of the canyon.

Here are some pictures of me and my family at our reunion that I took. We opted to take the pictures indoors because it was raining on the day we all got ready wearing our family shirts.

In order to compensate for the lack of light, I used my external flash that I got with my classroom grant from AAE on the giant group pictures. Thank you association of american educators! However, the individual family pictures were looking quite washed out with the flash. I need to experiment more with using the external flash in low light portrait images. Anyway, I decided my ISO just needed to be pumped up to about 1000 in order to compensate for the indoor pictures. So, a little grainy but better than the washed out look. I would welcome any and all tips for the future on using my external flash for better portrait photos - I have a little softbox diffuser for the top but it still washes people out.

Without further ado....the Snow family!!

Group family photo:


I always like to do a silly photo too:


My grandma and grandpa:


My family (courtesy of Andrea!) (We missed Karl, Michael and Vincent!):


My mom and dad (guess if you're in the same family of the photog you get special treatment):


Westovers:


Gills:


Spencers:


Jacksons:


Snows:


I love my family and had a great time in Zion with them!

A Great Day!

I had the opportunity to attend the LDS temple a few weeks ago while some family members of mine were able to take out their endowments and then get sealed as a family for eternity. It was so wonderful to join them on their special day. Here are some pictures that I snapped outside the temple right after!