I started by making a part in a circle around her head. The hair on the inside I twisted in a clip to keep out of the way. Next I parted the outer circle in the middle at the top and made two small ponies on either side of her face.

I continued making small ponies around the outside of her head, forming a puffy braid from the top of her head to the bottom on either side. I was left with two small pigtails hanging down on either side of the bottom of her head.

I combed all of the hair in the middle into a pony in the middle of the back of her head and included the hair from the end of the puffy braids. Then I turned the back pony into a pull through. This style was very easy, since I didn’t do any actual braiding. It took about 10 min.

Voila! A Princess!

1. Make a mold out of tinfoil. I made mine using a water bottle ice cube tray, but you can also mold one around your finger, etc. This would also be a good time to turn on the oven. I don’t think the temperature really matters, we used 350.

2. Peel all the paper off any small or broken crayons. You will probably want to use at least 3 or 4 different colors. (Notice the nice crayon on display, not peeled.)

3. Cut your crayons into little bits. I tried using a grater, but that was not the way to go. The pieces ended up being too fine and it was taking forever. Plus the fact it looked like I was coloring all over a cheese grater.

4. Mix the bits around to distribute the colors evenly and fill your aluminum foil mold. This is a good chance to talk to your kids about primary colors, mixing colors, etc.

5. Place the crayon filled mold on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven. Keep an eye on it. We ‘cooked’ ours for about 7 min. You want the pieces nice and melted and mixing, but not to the point they make brown soup.

6. Wait for it…

7. Let the new crayon cool. I put ours in the freezer as soon as it was solid enough to move to speed things up. Once it is cool you can take it out of the mold. I cut ours into two pieces so there would be no fighting. As you draw you will see the different colors. Enjoy!

Here is a photo of the cake I made for my Brother-in-Law’s Wedding. The base is 9″ high and the top tier is 3″ high. It is a vanilla pound cake torted with wildberry pie filling and covered with buttercream icing and rolled fondant. The topper is fresh red gerber daisies with cranberries and decorative ribbon elements. Photo taken by C-man.

Lookin’ good if I do say so myself. This is a three light setup with a background of some old non-glossy vinyl. (How fortunate I am to have a father-in-law that works at a transfer station, ha ha.)

1. I have my key light SB600 1/4 power about three feet away from subject 45 degrees camera right through a shoot through umbrella.
2. A side/cross light LumoPro 120 1/16 power 5 feet away 45 degrees back camera left bare.
3. A LumoPro 120 pointed at the background behind the subject ( 1/16 I think?).
I am about 4 feet in front of subject shooting handheld at 1/250 at f10 ISO 200 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. White balance set to flash and no gels used. Minimal processing for contrast etc in Photoshop CS4. I have the C-Man facing the umbrella and then turning slightly towards me. Adjust glasses if necessary to eliminate reflections, and work quickly if you have a grumpy subject, ha ha. I had to trade a back massage for his modeling services.

K-Cat with her favorite toy buddy. This is a two light set up using a wall in our basement as a backdrop.
1. Key light is an SB600 1/4 power 2 feet away from subject 45 degrees camera right through a shoot through umbrella.
2. Fill light is a LumoPro 120 1/4 power 4 feet away from subject 45 degrees camera left bounced off of the ceiling.
I am about 3 feet in front of K-Cat shooting at 1/200 f5.6 ISO 200 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. Try to keep your subject at least 2 or 3 feet away from the wall to minimize any shadows. Happy Snapping!

K-Cat fell asleep in a toy storage bucket today. I thought she had stuffed her blanket in the bucket, but when I helped her out I saw Buddy, crushed at the bottom. Looks comfy. Shot with an SB600 45 degrees camera right fired at the ceiling for fill. Shot at 1/30 f2.8 ISO 100 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. Happy Snapping!

More B-Cookie. Why? Because B-Cookie sits still and can’t get away from me. Using natural light coming from behind camera through a North facing window. Shot at 1/80 f2.8 ISO 200 with a 50mm 1/4 lens on a Nikon D200.

These are some shots of Park Lake at sunset, taken at the end of Lukas’ Birthday Party. If you want to get a more dramatic sunset, expose for the sky on auto and see what the camera’s settings are. Switch over to manual and use the same settings. Then start taking pictures, raising the shutter speed higher each time. The faster the shutter speed, the darker and sometimes more dramatic the sunset will look. Sometimes you can play with the white balance too. If you set it to fluorescent you can get a magenta boost to your sunset. Try it out and play around until you get what you like. Happy Snapping!

Fireworks are beautiful and a lot of fun. A tripod is a must since you will want to keep your shutter open about 2 seconds to capture the full bloom. Set up your camera aimed at the fireworks and start out with a shutter speed of 2 seconds at f8 ISO 200. If you want to keep your shutter open longer to capture more fireworks going off in succession, you can raise your aperture up to f11 or higher to make a smaller hole for the light to come in. Play around and try it out. Happy Snapping!

Crazy-L always makes a face. I used to think it was for the camera, like one of those fake smiles kids have when their mom says ’say cheese’. Nope, the more I watch him the more I realize he is always making a face. This is his normal.

This is a one light setup. Key light SB600 1/2 power about 3 feet from subject 45 degrees camera left shot through a shoot through umbrella. Camera settings are balanced for ambient fill at 1/80 f7.1 ISO 100 with a 50mm 1.4 lens on a Nikon D200. Flash was gelled with a 1/4 CTO for warmth. Learn to light at Strobist.com. Happy Snapping!