Every year, we take the girls to a pumpkin patch. We've been going to the same one for several years and I try to take my camera and get photos each time. I love this because it's a fun way to compare how much they've grown each year! Looking back on the photos is fun (but also a little sad- they grow so fast!) I'm going to share a bunch of photos that I got this year with my Nikon D3300 as well as a few from past years.
This year we decided to go to the pumpkin patch early because they have a bunch of fun things for kids to do and you just can't stay and play for as long when it's cold out! I'm sooo glad we did! We went near the end of September and then we went again last night, to get our pumpkins for carving.
Here are some shots from our first trip:
The pictures below are so fun to have! The one on the left is from 4 years ago and it's crazy to see how the girls have grown in that time when you compare that photo to the one on the right from this year!
I'm kind of in love with this next photo. I love the way the setting sun created a sunburst. I'll share the settings for this one, because I think it's a really fun thing to try to recreate!
Recreate This Effect: I had my ISO up to 800, with an aperture of 3.5 and a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec (with my 35mm lens). I was also careful to frame the photo so that something was "in the way" of the sun, for it to shine through (trees are great for that!)
Here's another set of photos with past years for comparison:
(Man, I wish I could slow the growing! Before long I'll be looking at the photos from this year and thinking how little they look!) I am sooo happy to have these moments captured so nicely to look back on!
I've mentioned this in past Nikon posts, but I love that I can easily switch the camera over to an automatic mode and hand it to someone else to grab a photo of our family! I am not in enough photos with my family because I'm usually the one with the camera and when it's a DSLR, it can be tricky for someone who isn't used to a DSLR to know what to do with it! Here's a family shot taken by another parent who was at the pumpkin patch:
I love this photo of Katrina. It's sometimes tricky to get her to look at the camera with a genuine smile, so I treasure the photos I get of her doing it! This one could be a framer :)
Okay, time for another comparison :) See what I mean about not looking at the camera? ;) That being said, you can see in the photo below how that's not necessarily a bad thing! That is still a really cute photo of her, even though she's not looking into the lens! (More about my thoughts on not looking at the camera
here).
Here's Talia.. oh, she's such a little munchkin in that older photo! I just want to give her a squeeze! :) (Not that I don't want to give that 8 year old a squeeze too ;)
Here's a fun experimental shot that I got of Katrina, backlit. I love the way backlit photos create a golden glow around the hair!
Recreate This Effect: For this one, these were my settings: ISO 200, 35mm, f/2.2, 1/4000 sec)
I love a good detail shot, so I couldn't resist grabbing a few close-up shots while I was there ;) There are a couple more at the top of the post :)
At the end of our first trip to the Pumpkin Patch, the girls each chose a small pumpkin to take home with them. Katrina was taking that decision pretty seriously ;)
When we returned last night, we were bundled up in winter coats! Here are the girls and Ken, headed for the pumpkin patch:
Unfortunately, we may have waited a little too long to return because there were a LOT of rotten pumpkins back in the pumpkin patch! We decided to head to a grocery store to find our carving pumpkins, but before we did that, we needed some more play time! :)
We didn't stay too long because this little munchkin has been sick. Last week we found out she had Pneumonia! Today is her first day back to school, but she's still coughing and we didn't want to push it by being outside for too long!
It's been another great year at the pumpkin patch, and I'm thrilled to have these memories captured so nicely on my Nikon camera! I'll leave you with one more monkey bar shot of Katrina. I love this one, too :) She had recently mastered the monkey bars and was so happy to demonstrate for Ken :)
If you're interested in seeing my past #NikonMOMents posts, they are
here,
here, and
here. :)
Disclosure: I am part of the Mom Central Canada Nikon MOMents team and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.
