Aria's Birthday

We celebrated Aria's birthday a little early and threw in a Father's Day celebration for good measure. I took the opportunity to do some more testing with my new Petzval lens. You can see the round bokeh effect in the photo above. As always it was great to spend a day with family. I won't say it was relaxing because even Hannah is on the move at all times now.

Hannah saying hi to Reba.

Sebastian did his best to hide out.

Aria and Grace laughing as they dry off from the pool.

 

James' blue eyes always pop with the pool water.

Grandma Born was hoping to get a picture with Hannah without her hand in her mouth, so of course Hannah stuck them right in. Little punk.

Aria gathering flowers, again with the Petzval.

James in his tree fort, showing a slightly different bokeh effect. I went up an aperture plate so the effect wasn't overwhelming. What I liked about this is that enough of the foreground stayed in focus while the more distant leaves and trees still swirled.

My nephew has always been fond of taking pictures and when he saw the cool brass lens, he wanted to try it out. I'm only slightly insane for letting a not yet 7 year old hold a 5D Mark III and brand new lens, but he was super careful with it and managed to take this shot of his tire swing. Not bad, James!

As always, I tried for an updated family shot, but trying to get 4 kids to pay attention to one person is near impossible. The top picture is the best I got, the one below just cracks me up. James looks so disinterested while Aria and Hannah are making faces.

Just before cutting the cake, James read us a book that the cake was based off of.  Hannah could not be contained, despite Pappi's best efforts.

FYI, James is already an excellent reader.

Jimmy's cakes never fail to impress. This year he made a carrot cake along with Creepy Carrot toppers!

Aria was thrilled with the latest creation.