Christmas gift review - Canon 50mm lens

I'm still showing off my Christmas gifts.  Next up is my new and shiny Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Camera lens. 

Guess who got to be the guinea pig for my new toy?

Poor Travis - I wonder if he even has eye sight anymore after all the pictures that I take of him.  I'm sure he does.

Once I got bored of taking pictures of the dogs, I realized that I have all this fun baby stuff that I can take pictures of.

And pretty little girlie bows.

Isn't life exciting?

Perhaps I need to get a new life.

Anywho...

Let's talk about the lens.

It's so freakin' tiny!  And cute!  Now, I know this isn't the reason to go and buy a lens but it's just so darn cute!  I love it.

Here's what I do like about it:
Pictures of objects up close come out super sharp and the settings allow you to choose how much you want to blur the images in the background.  Check this out:

Pretty sweet!  I'm still learning about the settings and choosing my focal points, but it's a start.

This lens is not super expensive, which is appealing. But it does allow you to take great pictures of objects up close (i.e. tiny little baby fingers and toes).  It's also great for portraits or some sharp and creative weddings shots.

The down fall is that it's only good for one distance.  This can be hard to face when you spend $$ on a lens, but after doing a bunch of research on what was right for me (portraits, weddings, baby toes), I decided this was a perfect fit.

Christmas gift review - Telephoto Zoom Lens

For Christmas I got a new lens for my Canon Rebel Xsi: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 Telephoto Zoom lens.

To test it out, Jon and I went outside to throw the ball to Cailey.

 

It's her absolute favorite activity.

She could fetch for hours.

But we try to keep it to about 20 minutes.  Anything more usually makes her legs wicked stiff and she ends up falling over.  It's pretty funny.  But also mean.  That's why we don't do it (anymore).


A little about the lens:

It is amazing! Obviously I'd prefer to be able to afford the EF 70-200mm f/2.8, but for the dollar, this one's pretty darn great.  It has the capability to take action shots that my EF-S 18-55 f/3-5.6 lens couldn't even imagine doing.  The zoom is also pretty ridiculous, allowing me to capture my little family running all over our yard from the safe comfort of my front steps.  The shots come out sharp regardless of the action or distance of the object.

Some things that aren't great is...I don't know yet.  I'm still learning but I think for someone starting out in photography that wants a little more than the starter lens, this is a great purchase.  I'm very happy.

As always, this review is not sponsored by anyone.  I just like to brag share about my gifts.

Presto Griddle and pancakes

This is a story about a girl, a griddle and pancakes.

Every Saturday and Sunday morning I wake up, roll over (this is a way bigger deal than it seems with a big belly), scratch my husband's back and ask him where my pancakes are.

Jon usually pretends to be asleep.  So I poke him.  Over and over again.  Then ask him where my pancakes are.  Eventually, he realizes that there is no getting away from me and ends up getting up to make me pancakes.  I've perfected the art of being annoying.

Before this Christmas making pancakes was a huge deal.  We would have to heat up 2 or 3 skillets and I'd have to wait about 30 minutes to have pancakes.  But not anymore.

This Christmas my wonderful mother-in-law got us this Presto Tilt 'n Drain Big Griddle.

Now making breakfast is easy, quick, and fun!

Just plug and turn on the griddle, make some pancake batter and pour it on.

You can make a bagillion pancakes at once!  With chocolate chips of course.

There's even still room for sausage,

and eggs.

Jon and I can have all the breakfast we want in one shot!

It's incredible.  And the best part is that I don't have to wait very long for my pancakes anymore.

This was not sponsored in any way.  I just really like pancakes.  And maple syrup.  And my new griddle.