Personal

With Christmas less than 10 days away, probably half of you have yet to finish your Christmas shopping. I’m rather proud of myself this year. I was able to get all my shopping done a few weeks ago. Granted, I wasn’t completely done, but the majority of my shoppping is done.

I don’t know if this means I’m getting older or more mature, but the last several years I’ve been more excited about giving my gifts rather than receiving them. I get so excited about a present that I just want to give it to that person right then! It’s so hard to know how excited that person will be when they open my gift, and then I have to keep it a secret for what feels like forever!

Traditionally, my husband and brother-in-law are notorious for waiting until Christmas Eve, wandering around Lowe’s trying to find something for their dad. However, this year, they are on their A-game because shopping for their dad is complete. Well, when I say complete, I simply mean at least they have a present picked out. We still need to go buy it, but the hard part of deciding what to get him is done. It seems like there is always someone in the family who is so hard to buy for. Typically its the men in my family; the girls are definately easier to shop for!

I’m curious, what do you like best about the gift giving and receiving at Christmas? Do you enjoy giving gifts? Or do you enjoy receiving them better? Vote below and let me know what you like best!

The more I learn about photography, the longer and more expensive my wish list grows. New lenses, new computer, new monitor, new flash, more props, more education and learning, more photo sessions, and the list could go on and on. So, when the time comes for me to upgrade my lenses, I want to be prepared. I have done a little research, definitely not extensive, but enough to kind of have an idea of the lens rental companies available that provide reasonable prices for lens rentals. It took me quite a while to narrow down just what I wanted to rent once I found the company I would use. I had posted my question to a photography forum and received a lot more responses that I thought I would. I was overwhelmed with the support and help people offered as to what lens would be a good one for the type of photography I shoot.

I ended up renting a flash and two lenses, the Canon 50 mm f/1.4 and the Canon 24-70 mm f/2.8L. Both lens are fantastic and I loved adding the element of playing around with the flash. I rented these items so I could conveniently play with them over the Thanksgiving holiday where I would have plenty of subjects to practice on. I think my favorite person to practice on was my 5-month old nephew!

Initially it was frustrating for me to learn how to balance out a flash in a dark room, with the correct white balance and exposure to have a somewhat decent picture. I think I made my sister go blind that first night! I did learn a lot and felt like I discovered a whole new way to shoot with the lenses and flash. I will definitely be renting these lenses and some new ones in the future. It helped give me an idea of where I can go with my photography, what could work for my style of shooting, and in the process I learned more about the industry I love.

I’ve included two pictures I took, both with the 50 mm f/1.4. If you follow my blogs at all, then you’ve already seen the work of the 24-70 mm f/2.8L. I took all our family Christmas pictures with that lens and a few others posted here and there. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did taking them! The first one is my brother’s dog, Lacy, who permanently lives at my parent’s house. The second, of course, is my nephew Logan. I really didn’t do a lot of editing, so basically these images are straight off the camera.

A few weeks ago we had a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Rebekah, who is due in February. She and her husband, Justin, are waiting to find out the gender of the baby until she/he is born. While they were home for the baby shower we took a few pictures.  As of late I’ve been having a lot of photo sessions with children. Now, I love kids and they are so entertaining to work with, but getting the opportunity to work with adults again was so refreshing! It was so nice to be able to position them and when you say, “Okay, now lean your head against his chest” it actually happens! None of this chasing kids around stuff, making silly noises to get them to smile, or watching their parents’ patience slowly run out. Crazy, the simplest things can bring me such joy!

We didn’t take too many pictures, it was a mini, mini session of sorts. It was my first opportunity to photograph a pregnant woman. When my sister was expecting, she wasn’t too crazy about having her picture taken. I think I can talk her into it with the second one. . . whenever that one comes along. So I was excited to first of all take pictures of two adults and secondly, to have my first mini, mini, maternity session.  I hope there are many more opportunities to take some baby bump pictures, because these were so much fun!

As I’m still trying to get the hang of posting blogs, figuring out what followers like to read, and increasing followers, I thought I’d try out a poll. Basically I’m curious what you would like to see more of on my blog or any blog for that matter. I am always looking for ideas and inspiration for blog posts. Believe me, I don’t want to bore all of you with what funny thing my cat did last night, so don’t force me to resort to that!

I would love for you to be honest and tell me what you enjoy reading and what you would like to see more of. If you have a comment, please share it with me! I love feedback and input as I’m working towards making a better viewing experience for my followers. Feel free to share the link with your friends! Don’t forget to follow my blogs and never miss an update by clicking on the Networked Blogs link to the right of this post!

Since my whole family would be together for the Thanksgiving holiday, we decided it would be a great time to do family pictures. Granted, my family isn’t that big, but it can still be a process to get every one together for pictures. We planned on shooting the pictures on Thanksgiving, since we knew for sure we’d all be together. Everyone coordinated their outfits with their spouse, but not too coordinated, we didn’t want to look to matchy-matchy. The only thing that could prohibit us from getting family pictures done was the weather. As Thursday approached, it appeared the weather would once again not play along with our plans. It was cold and rainy most of Thanksgiving day, so we had to forgo the family pictures for that day. We did have a back-up plan, so we used Saturday to shoot our pictures. Instead of the entire Hocker/Hein families, we simply did our immediate family and used my brother and sister-in-law’s house for the location. Since my nephew is still so little and was battling a cold, we decided it would be best if we stayed indoors for the event.

Let me tell you, taking these pictures was almost like pulling teeth for the boys. I think they were ready to be done as soon as we started. We had some very funny moments when my dad was taking the pictures of all of us kids trying to get situated and settled for a group picture. The boys just can’t seem to all do the same thing at the same time. It also appears they can’t sit next to each other for more than five minutes without complaining of somebody touching them! Eventually we were able to get all the pictures taken and no lives were lost in the process.

So, without further ado, here are the Hocker family portraits for Christmas 2010, look for it in a Christmas card near you.