the holidays gave us a lot of different challenges with getting shots in the right light, focus, composition, and just general picture taking. most of the pics we took ended up being very mundane and can easily be done with a point & shoot, but it was definitely a learning experience. i found myself hitting up digital-photography-school.com before each occasion to get last minute tips to make the best out of our time…i had to resize for the blog and wordpress blands out the pics so check out the flickr for original format and full-size. it would prob be better to let you click the pic for the full size. note to self!

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christmas eve in staten island was truly a night i will never forget. so much food, so much family, and so much fun.

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the new addition with mom…

with gramps

and with great gramps!

santa even stopped by!

christmas day we spent at my house, there was snow on the ground and i wanted to go out, but never had a chance…

for the first time in my life, i found myself not opening gifts christmas morning and taking pics of my parents opening. hahahaha…

my dad’s such an easy present…

time to start cooking!

and another new addition! this was one of my favorite pics…

sisters

all the kids got my grandma a necklace with each one of their birthstones…

christopher, always goin for the soda!

definitely can’t wait for a wide angle, which will be our second purchase after a flash.

cleanup time!

off to michele’s fam!

so much wasted space to the right

more good food

cupcakes from crumbs in nyc

i like this picture

we have to work on focusing on more than one subject. up the aperture or manual focus? hmmm….

most comfortable position. ever.

went to see the tree in nyc, this proved to be the greatest challenge and sadly turned out the worst pics of the holidays. after reading about using the tungsten setting, i saw how much it really brought out the lights, but with our stock flash and inexperience, we just couldn’t get faces to look natural. we ended up switching to auto so the pics are usable and some post-processing would help, but next year…we will be ready!

almost got it =(

we then went to my sis’ a couple days after christmas…finally get my gifts!

the king in his thrown…

yummy dessert time!

i setup the camera to take pics in one minute intervals, it worked out for some nice candid shots and definitely made gift opening less stressful letting me focus on family time…

we all got moms the beatles collection. very cool i must say…

some post-processing will really make these look much better…

white balance was off.

cheerio!

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new years pics coming up!!

‘my foot’s sleepin on the gas, no brake pads no such thing as last…’
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we’ll start with my daily…they came with solid laces which i planned on swapping, but laziness got the best of me
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the other pair i rock on a normal basis…these are what i wear when i plan on being a little naughty and walk in the grass…
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keeping with the swoosh…
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for the lazy days where tying shoelaces is just too burdensome…
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a look back at one of many new balances i’ve worn in my lifetime. before the brand was cool, i rocked them.
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notice the care taken to keep the nose of the shoe in near mint condition.
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sfc’s (shoes for crews). they may look like normal, everyday work duty shoes…
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…BUT they have a terrific grip bottom
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dress shoes…these are required for weddings and some nyc clubs. notice the dust accumulation…
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of course nobody is nobody without a puma assortment…the black ones are also my driver’s shoe of choice.
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boarding boots…
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how bout some casual wear, ladies…
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the next foot attire is something i hold very dear to my heart.
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the jesus shoe.
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and its evolution…
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so much awesome, maybe i’ll rock this combo one day…
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something more than shoes…
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it’s replacement came around the same time as betty’s 1j…
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this is in need of a cleanup and some driving. hpi nitro rc. super fast…with the life changing plans for me next year, this might be the only race car being used next season =(
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and finally…
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saw some cool pics with extra slow shutter speeds using laser pointers and such…

all i could find right now was a maglight =)

it’s actually pitch black when taken

these were all taken with one shot (pulled from gizmodo):

sooooo michele and i decided this year to split a gift for christmas. it worked out nicely, even though my sis is yelling at us for opening it early. we (see: michele’s credit card) bought a nikon d5000 kit with the two stock nikkor lenses (18-55mm & 55-200mm). we know nothing about it but have ankur to guide us so hopefully we’ll enjoy our new purchase and maybe upgrade later. if you’ve ever seen airplane! then let me say that turning off the auto setting makes the plane completely go down. they may not be the ‘illest’, but whatcha gonna do? everyone’s a photographer, just like everyone’s a racer…