Friday Night

I bought a new (used) 85mm lens and I have two weeks to decide if I like it. While we played outside after dinner, I snapped a few pictures. After using either a 50mm lens (5% of the time) or a 17-55mm lens (95% of the time), its really bizarre to have an 85mm lens on the camera (which is more like a 125mm+ lens on my cropped camera). I have to be REALLY far back to get more than someone's face (or ear!) in my frame.

Its a huge change to get a shot like this and have my camera not be practically touching the person's face.



And these, seriously, I was so far away!




And this one cracks me. The capture of Noah's expression is emotionally perfect to me. And, yes, Miles is in his pjs. He stayed home sick from school and by 6:30pm he had still not changed, but felt well enough to go outside and get some vitamin D.


I do like the look of the pictures, especially for my first time using the lens, but its hard to tell if its a huge difference from the 50mm (other than I need to be farther away). Anyone else have both? Like one over the other?  (I'll definitely have it for another week, so if you have a Nikon and have been wondering whether or not to try one out, you can try mine. :)

Apple Picking

We closed out the Labor Day weekend in Flat Rock, North Carolina for some old fashion apple picking. It was a fun day spent as a family with some sweet friends. It was a perfect way to wrap up summer.




The kids were cute, carrying their own baskets.





They picked apples, sometimes sampled the apples, and picked some more. Noah was pretty hot that day. He wiped his brow a bunch.





We went with our neighbors and friends, the Reece's. Griffin loves his buddy Jack.


And we love Allison & Thad

Allison & Miles won the day's award for getting right up in the tree to grab the best apples.
(Miles was SO into finding the best apples. He loved it.)


The kids loved all the extra play stuff too.





(and of course we had to try the apple donuts while we were there either :)

After Church

The boys spend so much time in ratty t-shirts and gym shorts that I called an impromptu photo shoot after church today (golf shirts and khaki shorts define serious dress-up attire in the Brown house).

I love this picture, because it is a perfect snapshot of the reaction I received when announcing that the boys couldn't change out of their church clothes right away. If you know these boys well, you've seen this spectrum of faces before. (Miles was highly irritated. Noah tried to show allegiance to Miles, but you can see a smile bubbling in his eyes. Griffin is happy, going with the flow.)

(One click in: Miles, still irritated. Noah giving in to his smile. Griffin, still happy.)

(Two clicks in: Miles is giving in. Noah is getting silly. Griffin is getting the tickles.)

(Three clicks in: Miles is on board and starts seriously posing :)


We had a little sidewalk added in the backyard last week and we all put our hand prints in the concrete. I was worried that they would fade as as the concrete dried, but you can still see them.

Sweet Noah. He ended up being the most into the camera today.



I pulled out a blanket, since somehow our grass turned into straw this week.




(and as we neared the end of our 5-minutes of snapshots, you can see the original emotions returning...)

(even griffin was longing to take off his shoes and have a snack. miles closed his eyes in silent protest...haha)

so we let the boys run inside, and got a quick shot of me, mike and bodie. and yes, by the time we got inside, the t-shirts and gym shorts had returned. :)

Saturday with Friends