Wednesday night was perfect. Warm but not too warm.The kids were happy. The beach wasn’t too crowded. We hung out, played, laughed, and smiled.

Our vacation is nearly over. My husband returns to school next Wednesday. I’m on my own for the next four months. He’ll be tied up with a bunch of classes, recruiting, school events, and travel.

I’m trying not to dread it. The kids and I will be fine but we’ll miss him. We’re a pretty tight bunch.

He’s still so tan from Indiana. I have issues with exposing him properly because I’m not used to him being so tan. Look right above his knee

She looks exactly like him and adores him.

This pretty much sums up life with Cameron. Add snuggling and eating nonstop and you get a whole picture. Total character.

Such a pretty day even if those stupid seagulls pooped all over the beach.

Chillin.

He’s 3 now so I get a lot of this. He won’t model unless there’s chocolate involved. Oh, and he says his name is Optimus Prime.

At least he isn’t transforming.

Right?

And my day, week, month, summer, year, and life were complete.

I love them more than anything.

Have a great weekend xo

~ Sarah Stewart Holland lives a big life with her husband and two boys in a tiny town in Kentucky. When not mourning the loss of The Oprah Winfrey Show or knitting, she blogs at Salt & Nectar.

This was supposed to be my Wordless Wednesday post but clearly I am feeling a bit chatty. Enjoy : )

My son thinks my friend Amanda’s son is the coolest guy on earth. He says they’re best buddies. I knew he wanted to play trains with his best buddy before we left for Indiana so I hit up Amanda. She kindly drove ninety minutes to Ithaca so our little guys could have a play date. You already know what photographer playdates look like. 

Amanda and I hauled three toddlers, an Uppababy stuffed with trains, a shopping cart, my Polaroid, a vintage quilt, picnic basket, beautiful chair, and a handful of gorgeous props to an open grassy field next to Cornell’s campus. When we arrived there was a group of deer eating peacefully a few feet away. The weather was nice and the sun was warm.

The kids were…somewhat cooperative. Amanda got some incredible shots of Preston (I’ll share those next week) but when it came time to shoot Cameron things went awry. She was crabby. Shocking, I know. She is the happiest baby ever until I *really* want her to do something (anything!) and then a tooth decides to poke through. Oh well. Amanda snapped some great photos of Cameron. I didn’t since I was trying to keep an eye on the boys but I got a few cute snapshots.

Hmm, why am I sitting on this chair wearing these crazy leg ruffles while the boys look for snakes in the grass?

Oh. I see what this is. You didn’t bring me out here to play, did you? DID YOU!?!

See Mom, this is why I scribbled on your white couch. I’ll do it again too.

Oh, thank Elmo my big brother is here to save me!

How adorable is this vintage dress Amanda brought? I wanted to run away with it. SO CUTE.

Oh, and Cameron if you’re reading this (it’s a stretch but she already counts to 20 soo) take note: if you don’t want pictures taken of yourself, stop being so cuddly and gorgeous. There. I said it.

The Iheartfaces photo challenge theme is so cute this month. It’s “Hey Girl” and I love it. Too much. I had a gazillion images to choose from. My sweet little girl loves posing for the camera which is fantastic but made choosing a photo difficult.

I kept returning to the photo below. I am drawn to the color, her smile, her little skinny jeans, and her gut poking through the gritty swing. I know I’m biased but could she possible be any cuter? I swear those cheeks are constantly begging to be pinched.

I’m tired. Newborn mom tired. Delirious tired. Old person at a rave tired. We are headed to Indiana in five days and I haven’t begun packing. I am excited but a bit in denial. Packing is so tedious and to be honest I have like no clothes so if I pack everything now I will be living in my froggie bathrobe for five days.

Sigh.

Well, it is finally spring here in Ithaca, NY and I couldn’t be happier. The weather is perfect and the kids and I spent a ton of time outside this week.

We’ve got a jam-packed weekend including my husband’s final presentation at school, my first photography session for adults, dinner at my husband’s professor’s house, packing, and I’m tired just thinking about it. I am looking forward to all of it.

When the weather is pretty there isn’t much that can damper my mood. : ) Don’t forget to link up at the Leap into Spring photo challenge. I love to see your work.

Happy Friday friends.

A few weeks ago the kids were outside blowing bubbles while I worked on my Souvenir Foto School photography assignment of the week. A portion of the assignment involved mastering in camera cropping. If you’ve never heard of ICC it isn’t a camera setting, it simply means eliminating distractions and elements that detract from your image by repositioning yourself in relation to your subject.

I’ve read more photography books than I care to admit and I have yet to see a super simple explanation of the benefits of in camera cropping as it relates to cleaning up your photograph’s background. I was pretty excited for the assignment because in camera cropping is a technique I’ve had to master due to our apartment’s cozy space constraints. I’ve had to get really creative with my positioning and ICC since if I’m not careful I’ll show you all a lot more mess than you care to see : )

Allow me to demonstrate.

This image is definitely cute but notice the horizontal line of the fence running through Cameron’s head and the distracting toy bokeh and minivan to her left.

I moved and got closer to the kids but there is a tree protruding from Cameron’s head and some cars in the distance to Preston’s right.

Getting closer but those cars to the right are a little annoying.

Ah! I got a keeper. I turned myself again, got closer, and made sure to use a high aperture. In a perfect world I would have moved the picnic table in the distance but I try not to be too obsessive.

Hopefully you can see the improvements to the images. Had I been standing further away from Preston you would have seen the parking lot to his right. I only shoot with prime lenses which means I zoom with my feet : ) my lenses are fixed and don’t move. It’s a personal preference but the same principles apply to zoom lenses as well.

This is an easy photography technique to master. Grab your camera, pick a subject, shoot from various angles and varying distances. Keep going until you get a shot free of distracting background elements. It’s easier than you think and will soon become second nature. Your pictures will improve drastically once you’ve trained your eye to seek and avoid elements that detract from your images.

*To see my best two shots from this series check out this post. Looks a lot better without the trees and random cars right?*

Know any in camera cropping tips? Share them in the comments.

Hopefully by now you’ve checked ou the Leap Into Spring Photo Challenge. I am loving the entries. It seems that spring has similar effects on all photographers. More inspiration, sunshine, and flowery subjects. It’s great. We have another cold stretch on the forecast for this weekend (of course, just has to be the weekend) but I am super hopeful that this is it. IT HAS TO BE! But I’ve said that before.

A fellow Cornell mom once complimented me on my ability to make student housing look pretty through my photography. It’s one of my favorite compliments to date (ya, that’s right I am a compliment hound. What of it?). It isn’t awful here. Not at all. It’s clean (except for those damn garbage scofflaws I’m on the lookout for), quiet (mostly. I’m pretty loud and you hear the occasional screaming child —>;my screaming child), and the landscaping is pretty.

There are a handful of playgrounds the kids and I can often be found hanging out at. While the kids chase each other and play soccer I usually take a few minutes to shoot the pretty trees. They’ve been bare so long I can hardly believe how lovely they are.