I invited some Canadians over to my house for the cultural experience of a USA Thanksgiving.

Mami played with Iris while I cooked all day.

Then we ate.

Martin’s family aren’t big eaters, so Iris had to help them out.

We all help each other out.

After dinner, Papa and Papi went back to work in the basement.

It is safe to watch through the hole in the floor.

Snow fell last night, melted on the driveway and turned to ice.

Iris quickly fell. “Ice,” I said.

“Ice,” she said and walked, sliding her feet.

It is fascinating how easy it is to quickly recover areas obscured by poor lighting.

It is equally easy to overdo the effects.

I went to the orthodontist today. I won’t be doing that much longer.

Iris’ favorite part is waiting, when we get to play with toys.

I received my flash, light stand, reflective umbrella, and connecting cable in the mail.

The first challenge was to make the flash fire.

Then I got two willing subjects to pose.

They were able to stay still a long time while I fiddled with everything.

I think there must be a better way to attach the flash & umbrella to the stand.

The way I have it, I can hardly angle it down at all.

Eventually I got a 45° angle, powered down the flash,

& filled in some to make the shadows less harsh and the figures more round.

It was total trial and error.

There are ratios one could use to determine % flash power vs. # of stops underexposed vs. ambient.

Hopefully I’ll learn them soon. Most people aren’t as patient as these two.

Facing our subjects, the window is off to the right, the flash to the left.

natural light

with fill flash

Later: Wow! I got that setup completely wrong! 

Just goes to show you even an untrained monkey

could make a stuffed lamb look a little better with some fill flash.

Okay, stand here.

Now blow bubbles.

Turn your head to the left.

I mean, to the right.

Keep blowing.

Martin: “You are not allowed to post any pictures of me on your blog.”

For my 40th birthday, I went to playgroup with Iris.

The best part is when we all play with the parachute.

Up and down and round and round

and then Teressa reads a story.

But I didn’t get the photo I was seeing, so I’ll have to try again.

We went to the Shelburne Airport. There was a plane taking off.

Iris signed, “More! More!”

The pilot took off and landed repeatedly. We watched for 45 minutes.

It was really hard to get a photo of Iris watching the plane take off.

Mostly, she wanted to sit on my lap. I kept scooting her off, & she got upset.

This might be a good photo, if only the plane wasn’t crashing into her head.