Laura's Birthday - 50with50 No. 14 and 15
Happy Birthday to Laura
This past weekend, we celebrated Laura’s birthday! And it also happened to be Easter Sunday, too.
As you might imagine, our celebrations looked a little different this year. Usually, we celebrate Laura’s birthday by going out to eat with friends and family. And usually, we spend Easter weekend in Nashville attending the Lads to Leaders Convention, and we take lots of family photos there. But Lads to Leaders was cancelled this year, so we didn’t get to be with family and friends there. And restaurants are closed and social distancing is encouraged, so we didn’t get to go eat with friends and family, either.
Instead, we did what we were expected to do, which is stay home. But we had ventured out a couple of days earlier to get Laura a birthday cake. And some friends who are like family did drop by on Saturday to bring Laura presents and talk to us from a safe distance. On Laura’s actual birthday, we had a virtual birthday party using Zoom with family and friends. It was great to see everyone and talk for a while, even if it was just through a computer screen.
While it was not exactly ideal, we did what we could, and it was a pretty fun day according to Laura. We also watched our Sunday morning worship service online, watched a movie, ate some chicken taco salad and birthday cake, went for a walk in between rain storms, and just had a good time in general. Laura got the usual plethora of Facebook messages, text messages, and emails for her birthday, and I know she appreciated all of those.
Gifts and Shirts
Laura did get some presents, too, thanks to online shopping. Although one of them has not arrived yet, at least some of them did. And she did make her own shirt for her birthday, too, a “love” shirt combining a Mickey Mouse balloon and animal print letters. I am always impressed with her ability to do that.
So while not much of anything right now might be what we would have considered “ideal” not too long ago, there are still ways to make the most of it and enjoy what we have. You can even enjoy things!
Bible Verse
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. - Ephesians 5:25
About the Photos
Because I already had the 50mm lens on the camera, I left it there for these photos, which qualifies for the 50with50 series, right? And this will count as 14 and 15 since there are two photos. Who says there just has to be one photo per post?
For these photos, I did use a flash, which I don’t always do for photos around the house. But I wanted good lighting for these. It was dark and stormy outside, so there was not much natural light coming in through the windows. Plus, I liked the wall as a background, so I didn’t want it to be completely dark behind us. I did bounce the flash off of the ceiling instead of pointing it right at us to get a slightly better look. And as you might guess, I did use a timer for the photo of all three of us. I am still no timer expert, but it only took us a couple of tries to get it right.
Also, while I have been using Aurora HDR for most of the photos I have shared lately, I actually used Photoshop for these. The reason for that was actually rather simple. I used my laptop for processing instead of my desktop computer, and Aurora isn’t on my laptop. I could put it on there pretty easily, but I just used Photoshop instead, along with the old Google Nik filters that I used to use often. That gave a nice look for these portrait-style photos. Sometimes the old ways are still good.
Photo: 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: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: SonyFE 50mm f/1.8
Date: April 12, 2020
Location: Home, Williston, Tennessee
