Happy Valentine's Day 2018

My Valentine

Here I am with my Valentine at our church’s Young at Heart Valentine Banquet this past weekend. But I am sharing this in honor of Valentine’s Day, which just happens to be February 14. Just as it is every year, of course.

Laura has been my Valentine for quite a few years now, which is just fine with me. I couldn’t imagine it any other way. We have lots of fun together, and we get to do some fun things sometimes. For the Young at Heart banquet, Laura put up the backdrop for the photos, which I took. She always has great ideas for this. This year’s idea was to have a tree, along with a heart with initials. It took her just a little time to change the initials on the tree for each couple, but I think it added a lot to the photos. And it isn’t something that I would have thought of in the first place.

Of course, we do get some fun photos sometimes, such as this one:

There were some props to use for the photos, but many people chose not to use them. A few people did choose some of them, however. And of course, Laura was one of them.

A Little Music

There is also an entertainment portion of the banquet each year, so this time we decided to contribute just a little to that, too.

Jaylin played his trombone, Laura played her clarinet, and I played the piano. We had a good time doing it, too. We enjoyed doing it. Maybe a couple of us enjoyed it more than another one of us. While it was far from a perfect performance, I was proud of it.

If you want to see the video of our performance, click here. If you want to hear the audio, [click here](https://www.burnsland.com/audio/Bicycle Built for Two - 2018 Young at Heart Banquet.mp3). The audio file is better sound quality, but there is nothing to see. Just so you know.

Happy Valentine’s Day from me and my Valentine!

Bible Verse

A house and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a sensible wife is from the Lord. - Proverbs 19:14

About the photos

For these photos, I used my standard “photo booth” setup. This involves the Canon EOS 60D camera. I usually use the “kit” lens that came with the camera, because there is not all that much distance between the camera and the subject. My “better” lens starts at 28mm, which is a bit much for the space available. So the 18-55mm works just fine.

I also use a remote flash on a stand, and the flash fires into an umbrella to bounce light to the subject. The flash is fired by a Cactus V2s wireless system, which works just fine for what I do. And it does not look like the people are being blinded by the direct light as it would if the flash were on top of the camera. Just something fun to play with.

Photos: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips. Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm Date: February 10, 2017 Location: Bartlet Woods Church of Christ