Kristi Eckrich Photography

Christmas Eve

My mother's side of the family has always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day.  This has been taking place since...well, since before I even existed!  And of course, now that I am married with two kiddos, the tradition continues. 

Another tradition with this side of the family is that there's always at least one big gag gift!  This year was no exception.  My cousin Travis asked for nothing but money for a cruise he is taking with his family in the next couple of months.  Well, my mother's husband Harry, who drew Travis's name for this year's gift exchange, saw to it that Travis was going to "earn" the money he was asking for.  In a large box, mixed in with a very large quantity of styrofoam peanuts, were 100 single dollar bills.  Each one was meticulously folded into one of several little shapes, like a bowtie or a little fan (courtesy of my mother).  It was hilarious watching him dig and dig for all of those dollar bills!

And here is the stash after all the digging was done!

 

Aaron scored a pile of Thomas the Tank Engine buildings!

Trevor got some Lego sets he was asking for:

Cousin Logan and his new "Redskins" gear:

Mom and everyone...I'm working to get these onto Flickr as soon as I can!

Changes!

It was definitely time for a fresh, new blog design (complete with the new photography logo).  The brand-new website isn't far behind...so stay tuned!

Christmas In Review: Part 1

The first of our three family Christmas celebrations took place last Saturday at my Dad's.  It was a small gathering consisting of Corey, myself & the boys and my brother Jason and his fiancee Shelly.  And of course, my dad and his wife Janice.  Even though we were few, we still had a good time!

Trevor scored a Transformer, one of the major "must haves" on his list this year:

Aaron was more than pleased with the Sodor Recycling Center (of Thomas the Tank Engine fame).  He has amassed quite the collection of Thomas wooden railway sets, engines and buildings over the past few years and loves playing with them.

After dinner and opening gifts, Trevor, Shelly & Uncle Jason enjoyed bowling, golf and boxing on the Nintendo Wii (and Trevor kicked butt!):

More Christmas posts coming shortly.  Dad, I'll have all the photos on Flickr as soon as I can!

...And More Icicles!

Another ice storm!  A bit bigger and badder than the first.  By the time I got out to take these photos early in the afternoon, a lot of melting had taken place.  But after we arrived home late from my company Christmas party last night, getting up and outside before lunchtime just wasn't in the cards.

Icicles

Although we fared much better than some of the midwestern states in recent days, we did have a decent little ice storm of our own today...the kind that's pretty and cancels school for the day, but thankfully doesn't knock out electricity our cause damage of any kind.  The little icicles hanging off of everything this afternoon were too pretty not to photograph!

Steaks anyone?!?

The grass was a bit on the crispy side:

A Little Experimentation

I've had a crazy idea in my head for a few days now.  Well, it's not so much crazy as it is unusual.  Corey would probably tell you it's crazy, though! 

Our southwest-facing dining room gets awesome natural light throughout most of the day.  We have a large set of double glass doors (like French doors only it's a sliding assembly) and then on the wall that's perpendicular and immediately beside the double doors is a window.  I've been thinking the double doors would make an awesome "main" light with the perpendicular window acting as a fill light.  All I would have to do is shove the dining room table and chairs out of the way and TA-DA!!!  Instant natural-light studio!!! 

The wheels really started turning when I took the photos of Aaron putting his puzzle together at the dining room table a few days ago (my last post below).  Although he was facing away from the main source of light, he was still catching some nice side-lighting from the window.  Today I decided to experiment to see what results I would get at different locations throughout the room.  I convinced  bribed the boys into helping me clear the area and posing (or in their case...goofing around) for me.  Even with it being overcast and rainy outside, the lighting was still fantastic and I'm quite happy with the results!

All of these were taken with my 85 1.2 wide-open.  It's not exactly easy capturing sharp shots of squirmy little boys at 1.2, but I'm finally getting the hang of it.  I love the depth of field at 1.2 and so for me, the extra effort put into capturing the shot is well worth the effort.

 

Puzzling...

I've never met a five-year-old who is into puzzles the way Aaron is.  The amount of concentration he puts into it is pretty incredible.  He will put a puzzle together, take it apart, and put it together several more times to see if he can do it faster than the last time.  He does this with puzzles as large as 500 pieces!

Just remember...standing up on your chair will always improve your focus:

Happy "puzzling!"