My new chair

I have a good friend who really enjoys shopping at thrift stores.  She swears by them and says you can find anything you need at the Goodwill. Me...not so much.  I hate the smell that assaults you when you walk in the door.  What is the smell?? Musty, dusty, moldy gross smell.  I make it a point to avoid thrift stores at all costs ... unless I need something. Like today.  My friend calls and says she has found a chair at Goodwill for me.  You see, last night we were at a baseball fundraiser and she was talking about her latest thrift store trip. I said that if she ever came across a cool, old, vintage looking chair to let me know. I was looking for one as a prop for photography. 

This is the awesome chair she found...

The best part is it was only $6.99!!!  Look at the circles on the arms. Love it.

Here is that super cool chair on a mini photo session with Meg so I could see how it will look...

Don't cha love it!

Bryan.. not so much. I wish I had my camera ready when I took it out of the car.  It was a mixture between disgust and confusion and I'm sure a bit of dismay knowing I will want to keep it in the garage! Poor Bryan. It's only gonna get worse. I have her on the lookout for a red velvet one too!

Lesson 3

My photography class is currently on Lesson 3. I get to download Lesson 4 today and I have high hopes that I will learn a bit more than I have to this point.  Being the nerd that I am, I have read tons of books about photography and my camera trying to figure the whole thing out. The problem is I never took those books and put them to actual use.  That's the difference with this class. There are assignments that need to be completed which is what makes me actually use the stuff I'm reading about! 

Lesson one basically consisted of photography background, the first cameras, how film works, finding your photographers eye, blah blah blah. The assignment was to create a mat and look through it to find your eye. Ummm, no.  Lesson two had a bit more about Rule of Thirds, touched on aperature (which gets you the fuzzy back ground) but the lesson was about reading the manual that came with the camera.  Let me tell you, I already have.  Twice. Not to mention looking things up continually. I keep it in my camera bag just in case.

Now we are on Lesson 3 and this one is about film.  Considering I have a digital camera, it wasn't super relevant but did learn some interesting facts. Once again, not a lot that i didn't already know but at least the assignment included picking up my camera and taking pictures! And this is where the trouble begins.  We got the option of picking either finding "rule of thirds" photos or messing with the ISO pictures. 

This is an example of a rule of thirds photo:

See how C is to the left third of the pic? This is to make things more visually interesting. Not rocket science I know.  You do see this "technique" a lot in current wedding photography. You know the shot...the bride and groom under the tree and the park to the side or standing on the beach. You see more ocean than couple.

The problem with taking a pic like this is that it is used a lot in portrait photography or landscape.  My kids are not in the mood for pics lately and McHenry county isn't exactly the most scenic place around.  I actually believe it to be some of the most uninspiring land around!  It didn't help that I looked at some of the posted photography and they were really pretty and good and I felt like a dope putting up my stupid pics.

So the other option was ISO.  So our instructor says take your tripod (ummm, don't have one) and head to a dark spot in the woods, or a cave or a dark candlelit church (seriously???) and take some pictures at ISO 100 vs ISO 400. OR, go to a sporting event (check) in bright sunlight (check) and take photos of relatively the same thing at 100 and again at 400 and see the difference.  So I pack up my gear and head to B's flag football practice.  The first shot is taken at ISO 100:

The photo below is taken at ISO 400:

Notice a difference?

Me either. Hmmm.  Now what?  Thank goodness there are still 9 more lessons!!

Expanding my horizons

For Mothers Day my husband and kids got me a Canon XS DSLR. It was the camera I'd been coveting for awhile though any DSLR would have made me happy. For the past several months I have been using my fancy big camera in much the same way I used my crappy little point and shoot just with a better lens. In my defense, our summers are crazy busy with dance and baseball and softball so getting good shots of the kids in their activities was my main goal. I consider that, for the most part, achieved. I created my first ever photo scrapbook for Caden's baseball team and I'm really proud of the end result though I did find some mistakes once I had it in my hands.

So now summer is winding down and the kids are heading back to school in 4 more days! I haven't picked up my camera much during the entire month of August. I wanted to take pics of the kids at a local park in the hopes of blowing one up big and framing it but the heat was really bad coupled with my insecurity of being able to capture what I wanted. Every day was too sunny, too hot, too cloudy... you get the picture.

So I decided to talk my friend Colleen into taking a class at the local college with me. Due to our schedules, however, a sit down classroom class was just out of the question so our class is online. Today is day 2 of a 12 lesson course. I haven't looked at it just yet but the first lesson was pretty easy to understand and follow so I have high hopes for the upcoming lessons. What I'm hoping most to learn is how to use lighting to my advantage instead of always fighting against it!

So expect to see some pics over the next few weeks of random stuff that will be the assignments for my class. Wish me luck!

Pity Party

So Eileen is bugging me to write a new post as it has been since Christmas!

All I have to say is WELCOME TO MY PITY PARTY!!!

I am having a really bad day, bad couple of days really, and it has dropped me into a terrible funk. I'm having a few days where, the harder I try to do everything I need to do, the more stuff gets left behind. Accidentally of course.

I am feeling pressure from so many different angles and I'm having a seriously difficult time prioritizing. As usual though, my poor kids get the shaft.

It starts with the little things like forgetting to give them their $3 for the last Dippin' Dots day of the year, forgetting to have B where a hat to school for Cat in the Hat day.

Then we progress to the middle where I forget about a book report until the night before its due, miss a volunteer day, or forget a to RSVP to a birthday party.

Lately though, has been more serious such as forgetting to pick up a girl from her babysitter and take her to dance. And the worst, messing up the email chain and not taking Meghan to a rehearsal for the 4 performances coming up this Saturday. As a result, she can't dance in any of them. She's crying, I'm crying because she's so upset and its my fault. Nothing worse than the weekend before St. Patty's day and an Irish dancer who isn't allowed to dance.

Add to that all the other miscellaneous little things that I have to do and haven't done or have forgotten about like
-bookclub at my house Friday
-the upstairs bathroom is tore apart
-I need to find a restaurant in San Antonio that will be able to host 60-80 people
-3 baseball/softball schedules coming in that I need to coordinate
-4 birthday parties in the next 2 weekends
-2 NCAA Tournament pools we need to run (one for Baseball, one for dance)
-Have to book the Wisconsin hotel rooms for dance (I am the travel secretary)

Oh and don't forget that starting Friday, I will be working full-time until spring break for the first time in 10 years!

Please, pray for me and I hope you had a good time at my Pity Party. See you in July!!