Shifting balance

A friend asked me the other day if I have found my "soul balance" through my blog.   The funny thing about balance is that you have to keep shifting in order to maintain it.  I am definitely happier as a person.  About a month ago, I hit a zone in which I was painting, sewing, and photographing to my heart's content.  However, I am so busy now with everything that my blog has created that my children are feeling neglected.  I feel out of balance as a mom (thus my "failure" post yesterday).  So, once again, I need to re-analyze how I spend my time.       

One surprising development that has come out of my blog is my current obsession with photography - especially "street style".  So, I am constantly trying to figure out how to make my pictures better.  My biggest challenge is low lighting.  So, this week I rented a 50mm f/2.0 lens, which means that it has a larger aperture to let in more light.  Let me show you the difference the wider aperture makes.  (I wish I had the same exact picture with 2 different lenses, but my children won't sit still for that.)

So, here are two pictures in the same spot of our yard at the same time of day.  I took the first one with my 40-150mm f/4-5.6 lens -

Pretty good, but then look at this one taken with the 50mm f/2.0-



Can you see how much brighter the second one is?  The camera is letting in so much light it looks like I used a flash.  Here are a couple more photos using the lens I (sadly) have to return today-

I'll tell you about my other balance issue tomorrow...