The Tulips: Take 2

Last Thursday we visited the tulip fields again, this time with four other families. We had a fun time walking around the fields while talking and taking tons of pictures. Afterward we headed to the park where we had lunch and hung out for an hour or two.

Most of the girls. This is what happens when I ask them to pose. :)

There was no shortage of mud or puddles.


There was lots of picture taking going on!


This one is a very similar shot to the one I got last year.


Bethany holding Charese.

Tulip Photos Are Coming!

We had a wonderful time at the tulip fields yesterday with four other families. After we all arrived, we spent two hours talking, walking, and taking lots pictures. I've got most of the photos I want to share edited, but I have several left to do before I write up my post, but for now here's a little preview.

The Tulip Fields: Take 1

Last Friday we went to the tulip fields with some family. My aunt was visiting from out of town and my cousin had never been before, so we thought it would be fun to do. We're also going again tomorrow, but with friends. That shall be lots of fun as well!

My cousin Callie with her daughters Elizabeth and Emelia.

These white ones were some of my favorites. They look so pretty!

Cousins!

Shutter Skills: Depth of Field

It's been a while since I first started Shutter Skills, but here I am with my second post! Hooray!

You may be wondering, what exactly is depth of field (DOF)? Well, DOF is the part of an image that is sharp or in focus. A photo with a blurred background would have a shallow DOF while a picture that is mostly all in focus would have a deep DOF. 


There are four factors that effect the depth of field in a photo:
  -aperture
  -lens focal length
  -distance between the lens and subject


Aperture
Different apertures create different DOF. Wider apertures, such as f/2.8, would create a shallow depth of field. That means the photo would have the front or subject in focus while the background would be out of focus.


Here's a photo with a very shallow depth of field, at an aperture of f/1.8. The blue flower in front is in focus, while the rest of the photo is out of focus.

And then here I used a small aperture, f/22, which created a very deep DOF. Nearly the whole photo is in focus.

Lens Focal Length
Basically, the longer the focal length, the more shallow depth of field your image will have. Both photos were shot with the exact same setting, the only difference being the focal length.

Lens to Subject Distance

The distance between your lens and your subject also effects the depth of field. The closer you are to your subject, the more shallow DOF you will get. 

Both of the photos below were shot at the same aperture, f/3.2. In the first photo I was 1-2 feet from my front subject, while in the second picture I had stepped backwards 4-5 feet. 

Cherry Blossoms

We didn't have any plans on Easter Sunday, so in the morning we decided to go to the University and see the cherry blossoms. I didn't know these type of trees got so big, but they look so pretty.

We wandered around the campus for a bit as well. This lamp, which must have been 3-4 feet tall, looked really neat. The original photo was plain looking, so I decided to give it a dark, moody look. I'm quite fond of how it turned out.

Eggs

Colored eggs, that is. It's been many, many years since we dyed eggs at our house. We're pretty sure that Daniel and never done it before, so we spent Saturday morning coloring eggs.

We started out with some solid colored eggs. One of the kits we got was for tie-dye eggs, which we did next. They turned out really neat!

I went a grabbed a box of crayons and we all started drawing on them. Yep, mine is a Disney Cruise ship.

Daniel's smiley face.

Spring

Spring is finally here! For the last couple weeks, if you looked outside, you'd see signs of spring. The trees are blossoming, the birds are tweeting, and yesterday we finally got some warm weather!

Until yesterday, it's been quite cold out. Oh, and we've had lots of rain as well. But yesterday it warmed up and today's the same, warm and sunny. We'll have to see if it lasts...

Water droplets aren't particularly "spring-y", but I thought it looked cool and decided to throw it in here anyways.

Disney Wonder, The Mexican Riviera: Part II

(Notes: If you missed Part I, you can find it here. Also, I have so many pictures, too many to share here. If your interested in seeing/hearing more about our vacation, I posted a whole trip report on a Disney forum, which includes a post for each day of the trip, if your interested.)

The view of Cabo San Lucas from decks 9 and 10 were beautiful! The days at sea were a bit windy, but all three days in port were warm.

You can see Lover Beach over on the right.


Thrusday was Pirate Night! Sadly Alina ended up getting sick that day and spent the day in the stateroom, which was disappointing since she was really looking forward to Pirate Night. The rest of us got our pictures with Captain Hook and Smee, Mickey and Minnie, Chip 'n Dale, and Peter Pan in the pirate outfits.


Our dinner was in Parrot Cay, where we had a pirate themed menu. We all got Pirates in the Caribbean bandanas and they had all the kids dance around the dining room and do the limbo. Afterwards was the Pirate Party up on deck, finished off with fireworks. Disney is the only cruise line to have fireworks at sea. There was a HUGE buffet, where they had everything from desserts, crepes, ice cream, and turkey legs, but we were all full from dinner.

We ate a Triton's for lunch and dinner almost all of the days. In the bottom of the windows was a hidden Mickey.

The last Animation was Daisy Duck. Mine turned out a little cross eyed...

Two of our amazing servers, Ozer and Marvin. They were awesome! After dessert they would have a magic trick or a puzzle for us to solve using crayons. 

On the last day I was making my way across the ship on Deck 4 when I came across Cinderella, then Snow White!