Met my local parents at the park for a morning with the twins. I've spent 2 weeks here with them while their mommy took a class that runs from 9-3 everyday. She leaves around 8:30 each morning and gets home anywhere from 4-5 each day. Let me just say, this has been an eye-opening experience!
My two boys were almost 11 years apart. There's a big difference in your parenting styles at 20 and then again at 30. I've said many times that they really had two different moms. I was much more playful at 20 than I was at 30, but I was much more wise at 30 than I was at 20. Which child had the better parent? Hard to say. I made mistakes with both of them, and I've made apologies to both of them, but I have a fantastic relationship with both of them that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.
In hindsight, as hard as I thought I had it with 1 baby, as every parent of a newborn rightly feels, it's NOTHING compared to TWO babies! Those newborn months are absolutely insane when they're on completely independent sleep schedules! Many, many, MANY times I wondered how my son and daughter-in-law survived those days. But KUDOS to them for hanging in there, and now they have two 18-month-olds who sleep thru the night and take a 3-hour nap everyday AT THE SAME TIME!!! That alone is life-changing!!! :-)
I always think, on my long weekend visits down here, that this is completely doable, that I could handle this easily. In these 2 weeks, I've figured out how to load and unload babies all by myself, how to keep them together out in public (isn't there such a thing as baby leashes????), how to survive a trip to Walmart, how we can go bye-bye each morning and have fun, what we can do on our own, and what we need to save for times when there are other adults with us. For the most part, I have happy, content babies who are loving their Nana time as much as Nana is, and I would not trade this experience either! So let me just say, for the record, that yes, this is doable, but after two weeks, NANA IS POOPED!!!! :-D
Haha! I'm typing this on Friday, which means I'm going home tomorrow, and I'll be able to return to my "normal" life and do my "normal" things and have my "normal" time and do the things I love to do, catch some sunsets and egrets and Pelicans, spend a couple hours processing photos, ride my bike, maybe play the piano or flute .... but oh my gosh, I cannot imagine not being here with these two precious little people! It is bringing tears to my eyes to write this! What a hole there will be in my day without them!!!!
@frankhymus Care to critique? Of the 2 park photos, this one is my favorite with that pond in the background. I had to selectively bring up the exposure on the people, who were almost silhouetted in the original, and lower the exposure on the background. I don't think I messed with eyes at all in this shot.
I think you handled the light well in post. In shooting the rim around the child's face is very nice I think. You might have a little color cast issue, multiple white balances? Shadows versus direct sunlight. The faces in particular a little yellow perhaps.
Composition, and that can be a little more subjective of course, I personally would try to de-emphasize the background more. Perhaps de-ssaturate the yellows and greens a little and perhaps even lower the lightness of those colors too. Try a layer of Gaussian blur with the figures masked out. Yes, I know that can be tedious, but rather than laboring over the exact mask on the figures, remembering a Gaussian Blur OVER THE BLACK MASK ITSELF can help smooth out rough edges and provide smoother transitions especially when you bring the opacity down to 20% or less. Something like this, and it is of course very rough working only on the small jpeg. https://www.dropbox.com/s/70j3mi5a0nwohjf/6520492_aijkmoqz24%20mine.jpg?dl=0
Wonderful nana times...hats off to you. I had my 18 month old grandson for 2 consecutive nights once and was bushes. I love his Friday night sleepovers but am always ready for his hometime. Youve done it with TWO...go you. You must now have some fantastic memories :-)
Great picture! I imagine you are tired! My boys were 2.5 years apart and my youngest had enough energy for 10 kids. I know they certainly wore me out. Who am I kidding, they still wear me out and they are teenagers.
Composition, and that can be a little more subjective of course, I personally would try to de-emphasize the background more. Perhaps de-ssaturate the yellows and greens a little and perhaps even lower the lightness of those colors too. Try a layer of Gaussian blur with the figures masked out. Yes, I know that can be tedious, but rather than laboring over the exact mask on the figures, remembering a Gaussian Blur OVER THE BLACK MASK ITSELF can help smooth out rough edges and provide smoother transitions especially when you bring the opacity down to 20% or less. Something like this, and it is of course very rough working only on the small jpeg. https://www.dropbox.com/s/70j3mi5a0nwohjf/6520492_aijkmoqz24%20mine.jpg?dl=0
Hope that might give you some more ideas...