Thursday, February 24, 2011

14: wedding band/jewelry

As maybe you can tell by my post about vinegar... I would rather be given food than jewelry so for this assignment I chose to work with Mike's wedding band (while he worked with his computer). I got to practice my tight crops, good exposure and interesting camera angles. The "good exposure" didn't work out too well, we have really bad lighting for taking pictures in.






Friday, February 18, 2011

13: routines

Only 5 days behind... Ohhh well, this way I will have "regular" blog posts well into March.

Day 13's assignment was routines. Capturing your loved one going through their daily routine. Of course the day that I get to this assignment would not be a typical day. Mia has no school so the "getting ready for school" routine was out. BUT we can always count on Mike and his morning tea.









Tuesday, February 15, 2011

12: the eyes

Lesson 12 was all about how to take a great picture of eyes. Where to place your subject, in what direction they should look, what light works best and to turn off the flash.

Even with the wiggly subjects I chose today I got some great pictures of their eyes. Even Mia has a hard time holding still if I need anything other than a quick snapshot.







11: dreams

"What does your loved one dream of accomplishing or doing?" was the prompt for this assignment. We have a lot of goals for the near future. I think having a new house comes with a big list of things to do. One of the biggest dreams Mike has is being more self-sufficient. Growing lots of our own food, hooking up the windmill to something so it can produce some kind of energy we can use and getting a few animals. (Chickens, (maybe)a pig or two and (maybe) a miniature cow... we are still in the discussion phase of some of the animals I just listed.) A little bit of that dream was delivered by UPS today... my big seed order! I am so excited for spring!







Sunday, February 13, 2011

07: generations

I finally got a chance to take some pictures for lesson #7 this afternoon when Gabriel was out cutting wood with Mike and Papa O. Gabriel loves working outside with his Daddy and with his Papa but with both, at the same time! He had a blast!!

I knew I was going to have to adjust my camera settings taking it outside on this nice sunny 49 degrees day. (Not that the temperature has anything to do with how much light the camera has to work with.) So before I walked the 1/4 mile back the snowy old railroad track bed where the chain-sawing was taking place, I adjusted everything so I had a great reading on the internal light meter. What I didn't take into account was the trees that blocked a lot of the light on the path. Luckily I got a few pictures that turned out anyway.







Friday, February 11, 2011

10: Space - where they are comfortable

See, I knew if I put it in writing I would take the time to read about how to select my focal points. It took maybe 5 minutes to find the part in the manual and figure out what buttons to push. I also too more baby steps and am starting to understand what all the settings actually do. Maybe by the time I finish this class I will stop asking Mike WHY he wanted to buy a camera with so many... buttons.

Mia and I had a lot of fun with this assignment. I don't think Mia has a "space" that she is most comfortable in, it could be a chair, the floor, up a tree. She is most comfortable with a book in her hand.







Thursday, February 10, 2011

09: passions and hobbies

For lesson 9 I was told to work more on my selective focal points (still haven't really figured out how to do this part) and my "baby steps to shooting in manual mode" (that does make it sound a little less scary). But did I do this... NO... I stuck my camera in AUTO and took the pictures! I'm going to tell both you and myself that I will take the time to read about how to do the selective focal points (I do know my camera has 17) then maybe I will. I DID get a few shots with different spots in focus so I don't think it is a big deal.

It took me a while to figure out what to shoot for this assignment. Passions and hobbies... It has been so long that Mike has had time for passions and hobbies. Maybe his passion is the business? Helping making it a success and not loosing his mind? But that didn't sound like much of a hobby to me. Then it came to me... firewood! Every spare moment he has he is trying to make sure we are warm.










06: who they love

With Mike's crazy work schedule it has been hard to get a picture of him without his computer in his lap. He had no choice this time... When your order of 200 fast growing poplar trees comes in you can't just let them die!! So Gabriel and Mike scooped dirt into the little bags that came to start them in. We are going to have a forest in the basement until it is warm enough to put the trees in the ground. I'm told if we plant 100 trees every year for the next five years we will have our own supply of firewood for the winters to come. I grabbed the camera and hoped to get some good shots of Mike with who he loves. (or is it Gabriel and who he loves?)







Tuesday, February 8, 2011

08: gift from the heart

Lesson 6 & 7 are coming... But Mike has been super busy and it is hard to get the perfect picture for them. But #8: something they have said, promised, done or given.

For the last two years Mike has been in Paris on Valentine's Day. I don't really mind if he has work trips on holidays... as long as he is home for the really important days like my birthday, kid's birthdays, Christmas or MY birthday. The first time I asked him to bring me home something "French" & "Valentine's Day-ish". He had a hard time figuring out something that I would love. He ended up getting me some wonderful smelling French perfume called Chloe (yes he picked it because of the name). I don't wear perfume but I really do like this one (I think I have put it on twice).

The next year he brought home something way better than perfume, jewelry, flowers or chocolate... Balsamic Vinegar! I love this guy!!! I made it last almost a year and last weekend I went to the craft store and got a flower to stick in the bottle (It looks great in my kitchen).

After spending a few days playing with the focal points and metering today was the day. Today's lesson: Baby steps to manual mode... at least I get to take baby steps. I just spent 30 min figuring out the in-camera light meter. With a little help from the new lights Mike got to help us start our garden I got a very nice picture (along with some very NOT nice ones) of my vinegar bottle.

05: love to hate

I am a little behind... SURPRISE... but don't give up on me yet!

Day five was something that drives you nuts. Oh boy, the possibilities for this! ;-)
I am working on not letting everything Mike does that make me say "WHY?" bug me. But one thing that I just can't let go is, in the van, when I am driving down the road talking to him, and it is his turn to respond or say SOMETHING, and I glance over to the passenger seat, and he is on his phone looking up something or emailing! It drives me NUTS! I didn't think taking a picture of Mike on his phone while I was driving down the road was the best idea so I took a picture of IT...



I am now learning my camera's selective focal points and exploring my metering more. I still have to find in the manual how to toggle my focal points... I always just push the picture taking button halfway down and if what I want focused isn't in a little box I try again. Hehehe! I am nervous about taking the camera off auto mode. But I'll work on it.

Friday, February 4, 2011

04: what they wear

This was a fun assignment, photograph your loved one's clothes, accessories, shoes, pjs, diapers, training pants, etc. For the camera tip of the day I got to explore my camera's metering.

What is more perfect for this task than Mia's socks? They NEVER match! For her birthday she asked Grandma Nancy for socks she could miss match and got a gift bag full of fun socks.


Thursday, February 3, 2011

03: then and now

Three days in and I am still doing good! Today's assignment was to show what has changed since you first met your loved one. For the lesson she talked about cropping both with the camera and in photo editing software.

I think if Mike wasn't in San Francisco I would have use him. I am amazed at how much older marrying me has made him look! (Maybe when I pick him up tomorrow I will add an extra day 3 to the blog.) But this little guy has changed so much in the last 3 years! You would think I would remember that babies grow up fast but I guess not. Today Mia called home from school for a ride (she had thought she was getting picked up so didn't get on the bus). I told Gabriel that we needed to go pick up Mia from school because she missed the bus and his response was... "Oh no, don't tell me that".



Wednesday, February 2, 2011

02: how they look

Today's assignment is to capture the true essence/attitude of your loved one. Some of the idea's given are their facial expression, in pjs, in a typical outfit for them, funny face they make (the list goes on).

The little skill I get out of the lesson today is camera position. This was not hard for me to do with today's loved one because it was Mia and she is just about as tall as I am. That makes it easy to have my camera on the same plane as my subject.

Mia had a snow day today (along with A LOT of other people) and before she even got out of her pjs she went outside to try her new snowshoes (that Santa brought her for Christmas)! So here is Mia and "how she looks" all dressed up to go romping through the snow.










Tuesday, February 1, 2011

01: what they do

Today's assignment for the joy of LOVE was to document your loved ones "doing" something they "do". I am sure most of the pictures for this class will be of Gabriel because I am home with him all day (and he is so cute) and who really has time at the end of the day to get the camera out? Between making dinner, cleaning up dinner and getting the kids ready for bed... not me!

The lesson today was about indoor lighting, how to find it in your home and catchlights.

So here it is... Gabriel doing two things he does... making a mess with the games and playing with trains! It was nice and sunny today and we have huge windows so I had no problem finding my light.






BONUS PICTURE: Something else I love doing what it does... food... cooking.

Goodbye New Year's

Looks like I skipped right over the holidays and right over all of January (who likes January anyway, it is cold and dark). I will do a Christmas time post because I have a goose story to tell you. I just have to find a few more pictures.

Over the next month I am taking a FREE online photography class given by Willette Designs (thanks Nicole for posting the link to this great way of getting my butt back into my blog). The class is called "the joy of LOVE" and it starts today! Everyday I will get an e-mail with a task/moment to look for during the day along with a small tutorial on photography and how to improve your (or get some) skills. It's not to late to sign up, just CLICK THIS LINK!