My photos of UVA

In my previous post, I showcased favorite photos that the kids took while we walked around UVA on a spring afternoon. Now, I get to share my favorites that I took, and I think the timing is great since the students are moving back in this weekend! I've enjoyed the quiet of the summer, and miss being able to walk unimpeded through Grounds, but it's also nice to see it come back to life.

I've taken to shooting in both RAW and JPEG so that I have the RAW files if I ever have time to edit/process them, but I'm also focusing on camera settings so that I don't HAVE to process them afterwards; I'm happy with how they look straight out of camera. This was a batch that I did not have the energy to edit, and didn't really feel the need to!

She's such a pretty subject. And capturing her eyes without needing to edit is hard! Thankfully I think I'm getting the hang of it.

 

The kiddos were so cute. I loved capturing them capturing their favorite images.

Henry out there did understandably give me some pause...he was a bit precarious! But Evan was nearby, just out of camera view, ready to intervene. Plus, he was so excited to shoot from that perspective, it was hard to say no.

And I love this one of N and I taking photos of each other!

I really love getting to share photography with the kids. Natalie is reaching the point where she wants to learn more about composing an image, what she can do with the camera, etc. Henry still just wants to take photos without any interference from me, which is fine! But I'm hoping I can teach him a few things down the road too.

Kid Photographers: At UVA

Back in the spring, we took a family excursion to UVA to walk Lucy. Not unusual for us anymore, right? But this time was a bit different in that part of the reason we chose to walk there was because the kids both wanted to take some photos and we knew it would be a great place for them to find fun things to photograph.

Henry used my slightly fancy point-and-shoot camera. I believe it was set to auto, and it has a pretty good auto adjustment in terms of ISO and focus. I sat down with him after putting them all on my computer, and he picked out a few of his favorites for me to share here.

MY favorite photo of Henry's wasn't one of his favorites, but I'm sharing it anyway. I am really impressed with how STRAIGHT the lines are in this photo! I didn't edit it at all. Nice job kid!

Natalie was shooting with my Canon Rebel, which she's used once or twice before. It has a non-kit lens attached to it currently which lets her do some good zoom, and it does take better photos than the kit lens (better glass). Here are her favorites that she chose after looking through everything.

My favorite photo of hers was also from when she shot through the tree branches. A good photographer knows sometimes you have to climb into a tree to get the shot you want! I just love these colors and patterns.

Since this class, Natalie has taken a photography summer camp and is now saving up to buy my Rebel camera from me - I'm giving her a great deal :) She even set up a photo studio in her bedroom yesterday and took some photos. I love that she's enjoying this as a hobby!

WCDE 2019

Dance, dance, dance! We just finished up the kids' first recitals with C'ville Ballet Academy, so I've definitely got dance on the brain. So many amazing photos to share! But before that, a couple of other dance activities Natalie participated in over the past few months, starting with an oldie but a goodie: WCDE!

Even though Natalie couldn't compete, since her new studio doesn't attend this conference, and she isn't dancing with LSB anymore, we could still go so she could take part in the workshops and cheer on her friends. I have to say, I was really proud of her this year - picking up choreography quickly has not always been easy for her, and they only have an hour per workshop to learn each dance. This year, she was exponentially faster at picking them up, and she had a really great time in each class!

She particularly has started enjoying hip-hop (I think she might actually take it at her studio next fall), and I was proud of her for asking for clarification from the instructor, who came out on the floor to show her.

He was a favorite of all of our dancers!

There was also jazz (another favorite) - she's in the blue pants.

And ballet!

And finally, the routine that got this song stuck in my head for AGES (I seriously do not know how many times we heard this portion over and over again). But it was one of her favorite routines, and she still talks about it every time we hear the song on the radio!

We got to stay in the hotel with friends, and I was so glad for both of us to spend the weekend with everyone.

 

A December snowstorm in Charlottesville

On the day before Natalie's birthday, we got hit with quite the snow storm! Unfortunately for Natalie, that meant that her birthday party had to be cancelled (since no one could drive anywhere), but we managed to still make it fun for her (more on that in the next post).

It did mean that we had a very gray snowy Sunday together as a family! It really was a perfect snow storm - light weight, fluffy, and deep enough to have a lot of fun in. I think in total we got about 10" of snow; definitely the most we had seen in a couple of years.

The kids, Lucy, and I bundled up and headed out for some fun, even though it was still snowing. Can't stay inside all day!

One of Natalie's friends (who was supposed to come to her birthday party) was able to come over to play for a while, so at least she didn't totally lose that time with her friends!

Oh yeah, I did manage to drag Evan out in it for at least a little while :)

And we discovered just how much fun our yard is for sledding - just as much fun as we thought it would be!

Lucy loves the snow (no surprise there!), although I will say those giant snow balls that adhered to her fur were NOT fun to take off. But I couldn't keep her locked up inside, knowing how much she loved playing in it.

FDES Talent Show Fall 2018

This will be a quick post - the video from Natalie and Henry performing together at the FDES talent show before we moved last fall. I could not have been prouder of them both, but especially Henry - he typically hates any event when he is up in front of people, yet he had no problem singing and playing his guitar in front of an auditorium full of people!



The certificate ceremony afterwards.

Where they spelled the kids names...all kinds of wrong LOL.

Halloween 2018

We finally broke away from princesses and Star Wars for Halloween last year! Natalie got it in her head a couple of months earlier that she wanted to dress as a "dark fairy" - I had no idea how to do that, but a quick search on Amazon showed me that indeed there are "dark fairy" costumes for kids! I stress that "for kids" part as some of the costumes were definitely not age appropriate.

After reading the first 4 books, Henry was excited to go as Harry Potter - that's quite the easy costume to find!

The fun part about these costumes was that I got to do some makeup on them both. Henry's was simple obviously - we used his existing scar but turned it into a lightening bolt. I had fun playing around with face makeup for Natalie; ultimately we settled on a spiderweb-inspired design that we were both really happy with.

Natalie still likes for her and I to do costumes together, so last minute I pulled together a costume for myself using all items I already had - she was a dark fairy, so I was a light fairy!

 

We were out trick or treating for quite a while, venturing further through the neighborhood than we'd done previously. As we walked around, we ran into a group of 5th grade girls trick or treating together and joined up with them for a bit. It was great that Natalie got to do this with some friends for the last time in Leesburg!

Pumpkinville 2018

And so it was once again fall, which meant a trip to the fabulous Pumpkinville (and Leesburg Animal Park)! This is not one of Evan's favorite things to do (it's outside, dirty, and filled with animals and people), so for the second (I think?) year in a row I took the kiddos for some "mommy-kiddo time", as we like to call it, which suits us just fine!

We almost didn't make it this year due to schedule, but I was able to carve out some time on the very last weekend it was open (first weekend of November) Since it was such a gorgeous day, I was really worried it would be crazy busy, but I guess everyone had already been, as it was not overly busy at all!

We had to go check out the inside, as there are animals in there now (I love the changes they've made in the past few years); what a cute lemur!

The petting zoo area is a lot more fun now that Henry isn't super scared of the animals anymore, as he was when he was littler. I took about 4 photos of the two of them petting this goat, and even though Henry's eyes are almost closed, I had to share this one as the goat was looking right at the camera too!

After the animals, it was time to go into Pumpkinville proper. Climb around on some ropes...

Ride on some go-karts...

Go down the slides...

And enjoy the zipline!

 

All in all, a fantastic last trip to Pumpkinville!

I'm hopeful we can find something similar in Charlottesville, but if not, a day trip up to Leesburg to go next fall may be in order!