365 Days - Day 9

So this project is proving to be harder than I thought it would be just because my life isn't all that interesting. I'm busy for sure but cool stuff to photograph everyday, not so much.  But I'm committed to doing this so I will continue to bug people by bringing my camera everywhere! Haha.

For Christmas, our budding "Cake Boss" asked for a mini-donut maker and my in-laws kindly obliged.  We busted this out Sunday morning to test it out.  In my infinite wisdom, I made a double batch. The donuts are so tiny and I just figured only one batch wouldn't be enough, there would be fights and chaos, blah blah blah. So double batch it was.  Here was our results:

I ended up just dipping most of them in powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar just for ease. There were "recipes" for glazes but I'm not a huge baker and flat out didn't understand what the heck I was supposed to do!

They were pretty good, however I'm not sure if there is any such thing as a bad donut??

365 Days - Day 8

Once again since I still felt like crap, not a lot of picture taking happening.  The one shot I did get is a view of our life this past week.  Since the Superbowl is coming up, both Caden's baseball team and Meghan's dance group were selling superbowl squares and Bryan was in charge of both.  Needless to say, when you are selling 200 superbowl squares, you get a lot of email.  He spent so much time putting in names and keeping track.  Thank goodness they both sold out in 4 days!

Nice laundry basket in the background, huh? The point is to chronicle real life and goodness knows that laundry is a big stinkin' part of mine!

365 Pictures Day 5, 6 and 7



Day Four was Wednesday.  I spent most of my day on a wild goose chase for a cute knit hat to use for pics with my nephew.  I finally ended up coming home at the same time as the kids.  That night Caden had basket ball practice and I tried to get a good shot of him playing but it was not meant to be.  Instead I got this cute shot of Meghan "patiently" waiting for practice to end. I did a little editing in Photoshop with some M4H actions. She's all decked out in "Peanut Butter"!

Day 5 started out pretty good.  I got a nice long nap on the couch and then Bry texted to see if I wanted a lunch date. Duh? Of course!  So we had a nice lunch at a local restaurant and came home. I was in the middle of doing laundry and picking up a half full laundry basket when I heard a pop in my lower back and just fell to the ground.  The pain was excruciating.  I got a prescription for some muscle relaxers and steroids to help the swelling in my back.  Now, on Saturday, I feel much better but still walk like a little old lady. I had planned on taking much better pics but this is the only one I have from that day.  Shamrock was soundly sleeping on the couch (where she is NOT supposed to be) with the sunlight warming her up.

Last but not least is Friday.  I felt much better yesterday but I still had a hard time moving around.  On top of that, the muscle relaxers make my body feel like it is filled with lead and I just want to go to sleep!  Today we are only taking 1/2 considering I have two basketball games to go to as well as picking Meg up from rehearsal.  Falling asleep sitting up would not be good! But its only fitting that the last picture is of the things that are sustaining me right now.



My challenge for 2011

So for the last couple of years, the blog/scrapping/photography world has had a 365 days challenge. Take a picture a day for the entire year.  I've admired it but never attempted it. This year I am actually going to try.  I am successful so far except for January 1st. The picture I used was technically taken on the 1st, just very very early in the morning. :)  Just wasn't in the shape for picture taking on the actual day.  The rest however, I'm doing really well with.

We are now at the 4th of January and this is what I have so far....

January 1

My first self-portrait of the year, with my lovely friend Janice.

January 2

This would be the mess on my dining room table after taking down the real Christmas Tree and putting it out on the curb for recycling.  Unfortunately, this mess is still there.

January 3

This pic is probably my favorite because it is the kids backpacks all lined up and waiting for them to take them and get on the bus. That's right.... school is back in session!!

January 4

This is today's picture.  It is basically all I am able to drink right now.  I have given up Coke for my New Year's Resolution.  "People" say that you can lose a lot of weight by foregoing soda so I'm going to try.  We'll see if I've lost any weight by the end of this month.  That will pretty much determine if I keep up with it! I miss my pop sooooo much!

So that's it for now.  Fingers crossed I'll be able to keep up, especially once baseball/softball season starts.



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!