sending a little michigan love & a HDP Q&A!

we made it back to michigan last week! i feel like we have been traveling even more this past year, especially to michigan. this is where most of our biological family (the one not consisting of the friends that we have turned into our family in florida) lives and we love to visit as often as we can.

peyton and becks were invited to the cockpit as we boarded the plane. there were 100 people behind us waiting to board and i thought someone may throw an orange at my head to move my butt out of aisle, but i just HAD to grab my camera with one hand (the other hand had an iced coffee and two travel bags occupying it at the time). i nearly fell forward, bum in the air trying to get my camera out it's case in time.

jeff works out of both states easily and up until this year, we never had to worry about the kids missing school or friends and their activities...

of course, we all know that will be changing in the fall, due to our baby heading off to the real world of kindergarten...i know, i know-i am a big baby, but more than ever i am enjoying the freedom that comes with having children that are not of school age. i get to hold on to that for about 6 more weeks. my knuckles are white with strain, but they're holding up well. ha.

for now, at least for the the summer we are here in our hometown located in michigan. the magical place that merges both the oldest friends and family with lots of work and some play. we take our annual vacations while we are here. a camping trip to canada with my family and a golf trip up north with the husband's family.

we are jam packed busy, and while i sometimes/once in a while complain like a bitchy old ingrate, usually when i'm overwhelmed with work or obligations, mostly i drink in the beauty of our summer trips to michigan.

we fill our time here with late night walks while the air becomes cooler and the sky darkens causing all the colors around us to naturally saturate. the flowers, the grass, the black-eyed susans look even more delicious in this light and i silently scold myself for not taking these walks each and every night. the kids are always on the look for a furry cattail even though they tell me they want to find the flower with the hot dog "that you can't eat on the top!"

last week, we headed to an old farm called guernsey farms. it's pretty close to where we stay and it's an excellent way to reunite my big family after not seeing them for a while. so, one quick phone call to one sister and soon the phone chain begins and the text messages and calls start flowing in to my phone

i heard we're meeting for ice cream? what time?

did you call mom?

how about elaina and jeremy?

peter's working, but i can make it. where are we meeting? are we hanging afterward?

make sure you call so and so...

bring wipes, extra clothes, and a blanket.

oh shoot, we forgot taryn. someone call her...quick.

NO, you were supposed to call.

lets call grandma and grandpa!

heidi, they've been in bed for hours.

yes, we are a crazy chas-filled bunch, but a bunch that is filled with love for one another. and while i turn away in embarrassment from the loud italian herd that i love so dearly...i wouldn't trade 'em for anything and i love to share these memories together.

here are some photos from the other night. i have sooo much more and i promise to post more! swear, i really want to and i will, but for now...

ice cream!!!

cousins chasing one another in the makeshift playground in front of the shop...

cute baby boys...

brothers turned sisters into dragons with a wave of peyton's new homemade and sparkly wand...

mama's were lazy and turned in time to see this...

stop him or grab the cam? stop or grab?

cool auntie tawny,

papa and boy, together again!

please note that no children were harmed in the making of this perfect summer's night!

and yes, the paul frank monkey shirt is beckham's fave! he wears it almost everyday!

other stuff we do...

(nads, we LoVe the shirt. love you. miss you too.)

we take play doh arguably the safest of all kids crafts. i mean, you can eat it and nothing happens.

however, we add the most unsafe element to it, fire. and what do we have,

a playdoh birthday cake for gido complete with candle and a birthday jingle.

happy birthday, gido!

***

i don't have any recipes for this post, well, i have an abundance of recipes that i should post, but i promised some heidi darwish photography information, so i will focus on that this time! this post may not be the best one to do this post on as, there are no pro photos on it, just real life pictures...out of focus, unscripted, but real and fun!

i have been receiving some questions via email and through my blog with photography questions and comments. first off, i am honored that anybody would ask me questions about photography, but some of you are and i can't tell how amazing that feels. with that said, i am just giving you a little bit of information on what i use and what i do to create the art that i like. to what pleases my eye. every artists/photographer has their own style and i am still exploring and defining mine.

Heidi Darwish Photography Q&A

the photo editing software i use is...

adobe photoshop lightroom 2 & adobe photoshop cs4

an upgraded version of both have now been released.

i use lightroom on all of my images. i upload them into the program and i concentrate on exposure and skin tones. i use the exposure, blacks, vibrance, and the noise control sliders the most.

i also play with the adjustment brushes if i want more control over a specific area. for example, skin clarity or saturation.

i use photoshop cs4 on very few of the images that go onto my blog. my blog was started as and remains my personal blog that i use to document our life. photography is a huge part of it, so that is why i still post some of my professional photos on the blog. with that said, only a few family photos get to take the 'cs4 ride.'

all professional photos (photos i have been hired to take) get a little extra lovin.' they get take the 'ride' through photoshop before going to the client.

in photoshop, i always work in layers (command j).

then, i use curves (command m) to brighten and add contrast.

next, i go to

image

adjustment,

and i mess with- hue/saturation & color balance, shadows/highlights.

finally, i lightly sharpen the photo and save it.

this is a very basic break down, but it may help some of you who feel overwhelmed and with no place to begin in a very big and powerful program like photoshop. i am not a huge 'photoshopper,' so i do not know how to swap heads and make your pet monkey look like a real baby. ha. honestly, i know about 1% of cs4. maybe not even.

here is an example of a photo right out my camera that is not especially sharp or properly exposed, but it's real so i figured i would share it...

and the same photo with a little extra time invested in cs4...

again...

and with edits using lightroom only...

maybe a tad bright, but it doesn't bother me. some photos i work on more than others as far as punches of color go. if i am

going for a more editorial look, i definitely have a way of doing things to make that happen. however, most of the

time, i like a more natural look. it just depends on what i feel when i look at the photo.

on both of the 'after' photos, i did smooth the skin and brighten the eyes a bit. it is a pretty subtle change though.

both of the SOOC photos were under exposed, so i needed to brighten. my hubs says that some of my photos are a tad too

bright, but i just go until i see what looks right to me. again, properly exposed photos taken in camera is the best

place to start!

do you know the difference between aperture and lightroom?

no, i have never used aperture, but i hear it is very comparable and similar to lightroom and

it works well on a mac.

mac or pc?

my pc and i broke up about 6 months ago. i cried and screamed and missed my pc,

but now i am happily married to a macbook pro!

how did you learn photography?

self-taught!!! bf is a photog and has helped me tons, AND lots of late nights reading

books and googling. the book i learned the most from though is understanding exposure.

my friend, deena turned me onto it and it helped me sooooo much at the beginning and

still does today. i think i have a retention disorder, so i am the girl who has to

read something 20 times before it sticks. then it sticks for like 6 months and i need to learn it again.

PRACTICE. shoot everyday day! i practice every single day. it's easy with two babies running around:)

how do you get your photos to look good indoors?

usually, i don't try to get good photos indoors. most often, the photos i take indoors are blurry or grainy

but that is because i saw something that my kids did and i wanted to capture it in a split second

so i just started shooting.

if i'm doing a shoot indoors or trying to get a really good shot inside, i try to be as near to

a light source as possible. i try to have my subject facing the windows or sliders so their faces

are being illuminated evenly. i have south facing windows which is the BEST, but those

windows are covered which is the WORST. just look for good light in your home and try to

remember how the light moves throughout your house. i am not great at lighting, but i hope this

helps a little.

do you use flash?

NO, never! & sometimes, yes.

i am a natural light photog. i love the way it looks. it is softer and more luxurious.

with that said, with non-pro photos and the wedding i did last month, i was forced to use my on

camera or accessory flash when enough light wasn't available to grab focus.

which slr camera and lenses do you use?

canon 50D. i love it!

*canon 50mm, 1.4

canon 85mm, 1.8

canon 24-70, 2.8

i want a good lens to take better pics of my kids. what do you think?

50mm, 1.8 (about hundred bucks and a great lens) or 50mm, 1.4 (just under $400)

if you are shooting with a nikon, i am pretty sure the nikor 50mm, 1.8 is NOT an autofocus lens,

but the 1.4 is.

i want a better camera, but i don't want to spend a grand. what do you think?

i don't know, but i have a few friends that have the canon rebels and i have seen that they

take beautiful photos!

nikon or canon?

ha. peyton or beckham? they are BOTH amazing companies and leaders in photog equip.

go with either, you can't go wrong. personally, i went with which camera felt good in

hands. i like heavy. i find it stables me a bit. actually, that could be in my head:)

where do you buy your stuff?

b&h

i am trying to think of all the questions i have been asked and i am drawing a blank. i should have

done one of these posts months ago, but i hope you find some of this basic info helpful.

again, this is just what i am doing/using. i am know there are other fabulous ways of rocking

out the photog thing!

***

and before i go...

girls just wanna have fu hun!!!!

jenn, aka., a kindred spirit, my amazing sister-friend who i love so dearly and could spend everyday with recharged our batteries.

we didn't spend much at all, but we looked and oohed and ahhed over more than our share of duds. we did it just enough to be

basically kicked out of the store on a sunday afternoon. we closed the place down but not before contemplating what it would be like to

be locked in the store all night with nothing but the threads around us and the godiva chocolate bars that are kept by the cash machine!

that would be so cool.

so after we had to leave, we headed over to target! i needed vitamin c drops and a red shirt for peyton.

what we found...

some really cool hats and a few rockin' fedoras! i love target!

thanks for reading and i'll be back soon. more posts...more posts, i'm chanting now. loosy, you

got me started ;)

too tired to read this over and check for errors. i apologize in advance:)

g'night!

xoxoxo

11 years & the tooth fairy!

i look back on my wedding photos and for the first time ever, they finally look really, really old. you know what i mean. it's like when you discover an old wedding album of your mother's or your grandmothers and you touch each page gingerly and you imagine what it must have been like to think it was really cool to wear your hair like that or wear a dress of that style.

well, my photos have the 'feel' now. i wonder what peyton will think when she looks at my album? with eyes of someone with an opinion on what a wedding should be or look like. now, when she cracks open our album she says things like, "mommy, you look so different," or "you are a princess in these pictures," or "mommy, you had a party and i wasn't there."

(insert sad face followed by pouting and the 100Th explanation that she wasn't born yet)

"well, if i was born then, would i be at your wedding?"

"yes, honey. of course you would be. you would have dressed up like a princess just like mommy!"

the reason i even picked up my wedding album was because it was mine and jeff's eleven year wedding anniversary last week. i can't even believe that is possible, but it is and add two little kids to the mix and we are officially a little family of our own. darwish powers unite!

i've gotta say...i love that feeling. the feeling of being a grown-up and having our own little way of life. our own traditions and routines. our way of doing things, right or wrong, the little things that make us 'darwish-party of 4!'

happy anniversary, jeff! i love you.

i love our beautifully unique, imperfect, and lovely life together. i love that we keep 'growing up' together and in a lot of ways still learn new pieces of one another.

(j and i wanted to replicate this photo of my mom and dad at their wedding in 1977! i just love this photo of the two of them)

***

guess who stopped in for another visit?

the tooth fairy (daddy), left a note that mommy didn't know about until after peyton discovered it under her pillow. it said something like this:

peyton, congrats on losing your second tooth. i am so proud of you for not crying...you are such a big girl. i just wanted to say, next time you have loose tooth and it feels ready to come out-daddy's are the best people to pull them out! they know how to do it just right and it won't even hurt.

again, i am so proud of you. i love you.

xoxo,

the tooth fairy.

ahem. daddy thinks it's some rite of passage of being 'the daddy' to pull out any and all wiggling teeth in this house (please note: i disagree). i had to laugh last night when, again, peyton came to us with her tooth in her hand and proud smile on her face. i looked up at jeff and it between the hoorays and hugs, he was mouthing to me...

"i didn't get to pull it out...again. i'm supposed to get to pull it out."

ha. ha. ha.

anyway, it all went well again and i'm pretty sure peyton is getting used to this whole money under her pillow thing. although, she said she made a wish on a wishing star last night that the TF would bring her a baby. so, this morning, she kept looking around the house, the closet, her drawers, until finally she gave up on that and focused in on the fairy dust. less fairy dust than before per her request, but dust just the same.

then, she woke her brother up to share the news. quite honestly, i think he's tired of being so supportive of this tooth fairy thing. after all, he's not getting any under-the-pillow-treats, but he's still going strong and with no complaints...yet.

i love you so much, peyton mae. you are my little sweet girl and i am so proud of you and the little girl that you are.

you have such a sweet and caring heart.

xoxo

***

our little guy woke up on the sick side today. our sweet little baby boy. he was sad at first, but after daddy left...he and i just cuddled and watched tv for a while. he asked me to scratch his back and lay down with him and it felt so good to turn off the responsibilities and to do lists and just make him feel better. no better excuse to play zingo four times in the middle of the day.

sick cuddles is what i call it. is that weird? maybe, but i kinda look forward to these days.

and then, p kinder teacher called and said peyton wasn't feeling well. i nearly tripped over my words as i pushed out, "i'll be right there. on my way."

i was there in record time and as i walked into the office, i saw her sad little face behind the big desk. she was holding her teacher's hand and i couldn't get to her fast enough. i didn't understand why that moment felt so important for me? why i needed to be there as soon as i could possibly find my keys and get becks in the car? why i felt such a wave of emotion at seeing her face...after all, i could see instantly that she was fine. i think it was more of a i-miss-my-mommy sickness than anything else (that and it was hot outside and she didn't wanted to go to P.E. and 'get hot and feel worse'-i heard this later).

i think it is because i have never really been away from her when she's not felt well. rather, she's never been in the care of someone other family for such long periods time and when she has become sick. i guess a part of me wanted her to know that,

hey, i'm still here, baby. whenever you need me, big or small...mommy's here.

it's funny how we grow emotionally. you don't always know what will trigger a reflective moment, a moment in time that may open the door to their little hearts or minds. their concerns, maybe their fears. my concerns, my fears.

it was my need to let her know i was there when she needed me.

here i go again on one my deep tangents on motherhood and how our roles keep changing and how it takes some getting used to. it is amazing and it sucks all rolled into one big fat cheesy burrito.

***

last week, beckham and i made bran muffins! they were soooo good. could have been better had i had molasses in the house or had thought to use honey, but this was a spur of the moment activity and it was fun and delish.

oat bran muffins with applesauce

1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1 1/2 cups of all natural oat bran

1 1/2 cup of all-purpose four

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 large room temperature eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup of chilled applesauce

5 tablespoons unsalted room temp, butter

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

teaspoon vanilla

1 mashed up over-ripe banana (because i had it in the house, but i loved the favor)

preheat oven to 400 degrees

line muffin cups with liners

combine the bran and applesauce in a bowl and let it sit.

in another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.

in a third bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla until fluffy...about three minutes with a hand blender.

then, add the eggs slowly. then, add the bran/applesauce mixture.

with a mixer set to a low setting, add the dry ingredients to the batter, be gentle. do not over mix the batter. finally, fold in the mash banana. ( i think you could add one additional banana if you have one.

spoon batter into cups, let them sit ten minutes, and then pop them into the oven. bake for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden brown.

***note, i over baked mine...not fun! i would set the timer for 15 minutes and check for doneness.

****also note: i'm not a professional baker, so if the steps seem off, they may be, but this is what worked for me:) i welcome any baking suggestions that is for sure!

beckman LOVED these and they are healthy! he asked if i would pack all of them in his lunch box!

***

and from a mama that does know how to bake...

this is just a sneak peek of the party she threw for her babies, sophie and griffin, peyton and beckham's cousins.

that is for the next post which i will do in a couple of days.

and as promised, i dug up the link for my photog Q&A that may answer some of the emails i am getting. i don't mind answering questions, so keep them coming if you think i could help, but this is easier since i already answered these.

i will be adding this as a tab next to the other two tabs under the header, but until then...

HDP Photography Q & A

dinner idea:

i know it's fall, but i had a ton of peppers left over and i had to use them up, so i used some to make

grilled brats on grilled potato hot dog roll, covered in peppers and onions that i sauteed with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and one of salted butter (i didn't say it was healthy).

i served it up with boiled corn on the cob. easy, cheap, and it may inspire a dinner one night when your mind draws a blank:)

g'night.

xoxoxo