Six + One =

SEVEN!

Family Party to Celebrate KAMRYN's SEVENTH BIRTHDAY!  on 7/11
Free Slushy Day!
Among lots of other free things - guess everyone was celebrating!

When Brent and I arrived at the house, we were greeted by this beautiful face:

So fun to see all the local family there (just missing Mike who was at Scout camp and Heather who was at work - and of course our out-of-state kids).  And yummy food!  Wow!

Ok, so I was watching a video online about low light photography and it promised that bumping ISO way up on today's digital camera was the ONLY way to go in low light situations and that the photos would not come out grainy and everything would be cool, because with digital you can do that.  Were they talking about Nikon only?  Because I tried it with my Canon for this party.  Oh, I was going to be SO cool and get such awesome photos without flash shadows, and ....

Well, Brent warned me; and he's gloating.  So I've spent a lot of time trying to get noise out of these photos.  And learning some Greater than Gatsby Innocence Actions I broke down and bought for PS, and so bear with me on the craziness of the photos I'm posting.  I am learning.

Some worked.

 
Some didn't.

Others just seemed to come out a lot darker.   I have a lot more learning to do.
Gifting Time:

Ashlyn was having a hard time realizing that on this birthday the gifts were not for her.  It was a rough realization that this was Kamryn's turn to shine.  But Kamryn was a dear and had Ashlyn help her open the gifts.

Karsyn decided it was "Make Funny Faces" time.

 Not to be outdone, Lexi joined in:

 AFTER GIFTS COMES DESSERT!
Kamryn wanted pie instead of cake this year, which really works for me because Stephanie made a to-die-for lemon pie.   But it's kind of hard to decorate pie, right?   So she also made these darling cupcakes.  Kamryn also wanted an Hawaii party so these little cupcakes were decorated as mini beaches with blue ocean, beach balls, beach umbrellas, and all.  Are they cute or what?????

And definitely PLAY TIME!

A squirt?  Why yes, I do believe I'll have one.  And with the umbrella, it turns my mouth into a beach party, too!

 GIGGLES!

Jack figured he really didn't need an umbrella in his squirt of whipping cream to make it taste one iota better.  But apparently for all of them getting a picture taken enhanced the experience.

At the end of the day, Kamryn was ready to free her toys from their packaging imprisonment.  She ignored everyone's offers of help.  Pretty independent, this 7 yr old young lady is!  And she really didn't need an ounce of help.

Happy Birthday, Kamryn!  It was a terrific evening!

A few photo notes to myself:
1. Modifying the photos for Google helped them load about a gazillion times faster and also appear to be showing up a lot quicker and are not bogging the computer down when I go into it to view the blog.  Hoping it pays off that way for everyone who peaks at this site.
2.  Sometimes simpler is definitely better.   
3.  Even with great Actions, there is still work, and time, and some artistic ability involved in getting a photo to do what you want it to do  (I need a whole lot more of all three). 
4.  No matter how fancy the processing, if the photo "ain't got it, nothin's going to save it"
5.  Just because the camera allows one to set the ISO at something ridiculously high doesn't mean you should.  There are three ways to increase the light reaching the lens.  ISO is only one of them.  And yes, the photos did come out grainy.
6.  The colors on these photos were gorgeous on my computer at home.  But when I pull them up on my telephone or monitor at work they are garish and horribley over saturated.  Is that how they look on everyone else's computers?  (Note to self:  figure out how to calibrate your monitor, woman!)
7.  No matter what we do with the photos, the kids in real life are still best!