Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a very exciting this year, Kallie and Brian were in full Christmas Mode!  These next 3 images were taken with my work cell phone, I kicked myself when I realized I forgot my camera.

(Below: The Fuhriman side Christmas Eve party always consist of a re-enactment of the birth of the savior.  Here is Kallie Kay as Mary)

(Below: Brian was a shepherd this year.  He seemed to decide that the shepherd needed to closely resemble Yoda from Star Wars )

(Below: Dan, Kristin, and an un-named doll took the roles of the 3 wisemen, or 2 wisemen and 1 wise-woman)

After the Fuhriman Christmas party, we went home for some of our family traditions, setting the stockings out, cookies for Santa, and of course new Christmas PJ’s.  While we were getting ready for the kids to open their present, I tried a few Christmas pictures.

(Below: Here is our Christmas Tree from this year.  Natalie did such a great job this year decorating.  Next year we are contemplating the kids having their own trees for the cartoon characters, and letting Natalie decorate the family tree)

(Below: Here is a shot I was trying to replicate that I had seen online, it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted too, but it’s my first time.)

(Below: And last but not least, here are two very excited kiddos in their brand new Christmas PJ’s)

Stay Tuned for Christmas Pics!

Basketball 2010 / 2011

We have ventured into the world of Jr. Jazz for the first time.  Brian was very excited to play this year.  He has had such a good time being a Jazz fan, that now he is ready to play.  And even though it’s not saying much, Brian is one of the better players out there.  I say this because a team that only scores 4 points in a half is still learning, but he did score all 4 points. 

The gym that Brian plays in is a photographer’s nightmare.  Everything has yellow tones, and they only put up bleachers under one basket so my flash isn’t strong enough to reach what I need it too.  A flash is only good for about 8 to 12 feet before the light dissipates and doesn’t make a difference.  I cranked the ISO (light sensitivity) way up on the camera to get these shots.  The problem with high ISO is that it introduces noise (pixilation or grain) into your images.  Even with my ISO up this high, I was still only able to manage 1/20th of a second on my shutter speed.  For good sports photography the minimum you want to have to stop motion is 1/500th of a second.  The pictures I took this go around just didn’t have what I needed to make pictures I am happy with.  So I have switched a few to black and white to save them.  I wanted everyone to see Brian playing.  Rest assured I am studying up, and am going to try and get some better images out of this gym.  My only fear is that the sensor on my point in shoot is just a bit too small to get better pictures out of the gym.  GO GO new camera!!  So here we go with what I have.

(Below: Brian lucked out and got the same coach he had for flag football this year.  His name is Colt Kierstad, and he is a great coach.)

(Below: This one turned out the best as black and white)

(Below: Brian is lined up on defense for free-throws)

(Below: Brian tried to convince anyone who had the ball that he was deserving of being passed too)

That does it for the first basketball game of the year.  I won’t be able to attend Saturday’s game with my work schedule.  My father in law has a nice camera, so I am interested to see if he takes any pictures and how they turn out.  I felt bad for not posting this last picture yesterday, but I really didn’t want to go in and edit the posting.  So here goes, stay tuned for more posts while I try and catch up, I am trying to go in chronological order.

Jazz Game 2010

One of Brian’s favorite things is the Utah Jazz.  This year I was able to get a deal on tickets for the Jazz game from work, so I decided to surprise Brian.  I had him going so good that he didn’t realize he actually got to go to the game until we were finding out seats.  So here are a few shots from the Jazz game. 

(Below: Wide Angle View of the Arena)

(Below: Brian’s favorite player, Daren Williams, at the foul line)

(Below: This is when the play is run perfectly, wide open shot)

(Below: I have been experimenting with a watermark to add to my pictures when I start taking more photos that I will post on Flickr or for clients)

(Below : Here is a video of the opening portion of the game)

I’m a little behind =(

Well the holiday’s really put me behind schedule in the blogging world.  So rather than laying it all on you, I am going to post once every few days until I catch up.  So they answer is, “Yes, I know Christmas has come and gone.”  But I still wanted to share.  So here is a quick start and I will be madly pounding my keyboard trying to make sense of the last couple of months for you.

(BELOW: The tooth fairy is going to declare bankruptcy from all the teeth that this girl is planning on losing.)

B

(BELOW:  She was getting a little top-heavy with the teeth so she decided to lose one of her top teeth)

(BELOW: And then she decided to lose another top tooth. )

So now her daddy calls her Toothless.  And then the strangest thing happened with Brian the other day.  He hasn’t said a word to me or his Mom at all about teeth.  Then one day he tells me that his mouth feels funny.  He reaches in his mouth and pulls out a tooth.  So of course his Mom and Dad freak out because we thought he had already lost all of his teeth that he was supposed too.  I usually do pretty good at searching the internet and getting answers to questions.  This question took a bit longer than most to find what I was looking for.  Apparently this tooth is lost when you are about 10 years old.  So this puts our little man right on schedule since he loses and gains teeth about 2 years faster than he is supposed too.

 

Hope you all enjoyed, I will be posting again soon.

Andy

Halloween 2010

This Halloween it rained and poured.  Suprisingly the kids got more candy than they have any other year.  I think the fact that we still claim two wards as our family benefited them.  We went to a trunk-or-treat with our new ward and then we (well I followed in the car because I am a wuss) took the kid’s out to see our old ward members.  Kallie was a cheerleader, and one of the best cheerleaders I have seen.  Brian was a BYU football player.

(Below: We carved pumpkins.  Not one of my favorite activities.  But for some reason I decided to get creative and made an attempt at carving like one of Natalie’s crafty food network shows.  Pumpkin owners are listed from left to right; Natalie, Kallie, Brian, Andy)

(Below: Cheerleader Kallie and Football Player Brian)

(Below: I am still amazed at how good Kallie’s costume look)

(Below: Brian was so excited that he got to wear some of Dad’s jerseys, Brian’s favorite player this year is McKay Jacobson, and he happens to wear #6… Brian was sold)

 

I loved all the Halloween costumes this year.  I have had a great time checking family blogs and seeing my niece and nephews dressed up.  But the winner was my brother Brian.   Best costume of the year.  Happy Halloween!!

Flag Football is over

I had the best time watching flag football this year.  I found myself looking forward to Brian’s games every single week.  Brian’s team was undefeated and he had a great time.  Here are a few captures from the last game of the season.

(Below: You can definitely see the degradation of quality going back to my point and shoot camera.  Funny enough my point and shoot has more megapixels than the other camera.  I thought this picture was awesome because this was the first storm of the season.  I loved the contrast of the snow on the mountains with the sun shining down.  It had rained inches earlier in the day and all of the fields were flooded, the kids had a great playing)

(Below: I will miss these moments all year long.  This was a hand-off to our little man)

(Below: Here is the team.  We loved Brian’s coach, he worked so well with the kids)

(Below: If you ask Brian this is all that matters with any sport, even though he loves to play, he loves the last game of the year for this reason)

I am ready for Football 2011 already!

Some more photography

The camera has been returned to Adam, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss it on a daily basis.  Here are a few of my favorites from my week of testing. 

 

(BELOW:  The kids are enjoying one of the last days of summer with an ice cream bar in the front yard)

  

(BELOW: This is one of my favorites for the week)

(BELOW: Kallie has such a great imagination.  While she was waiting for friends to come over she was out sitting on the side of the road in this little get-up.  Needless to say there were some brake lights flickering as they passed her)

(BELOW: Brian jumping off the porch at his dad’s request)

It was a sad moment to give back the camera, but I know for sure that it is what I want to do.  Now to save up more money.  Maybe by this time next year I will have my camera!