A Scrap of Life

School is out (YEAH!!!) and summer is here... well, maybe it's officially here though the sunshine and great weather have yet to make a regular appearance. I hope they show up soon or we just might miss it! I know I've been in and out lately and haven't posted much, but it's because I've been busy. First was the end-of-the-year stuff that comes with teaching preschool. We had projects to finish, parties to plan and a pretty great graduation to top it all off. The other thing that has me busy lately is my photography. I mentioned taking Karen Russell's class and that has been great for me. And I got my new lens (which I *love*) that has also been keeping me occupied (you must play with the new toys, right?!?). I think I also mentioned that I started a photography business earlier this year. Now that the weather is finally getting nicer, things are picking up. Saturday was my very first wedding and it was a blast! I did walk away totally exhausted from the 3-hour ...

I'm on a roll now! I've been taking tons of photos lately for my photo class, and even though I haven't used all of them for my lessons, I have liked many of them well enough to edit and save them for use. Carissa and her headphones. I want to do a scrapbook layout about her love of music and her current playlist of favorite songs. Plus I love how blue her eyes are here. Oh yes, the teenage years are in full swing. This is often how I will find Chase after school, hanging in bed with his computer in his lap. LOL Just a pretty one of Carissa that I took when I was playing with my new lens. Did I mention that I love it??? Chase leading the schools opening flag ceremony for the 8th grade awards. He also led it for the Evening of Excellence at his school. I promise that I've also taken pictures of Tristan, however they are mostly with his Nerf gun, as seen in the previous post, because that's what he does in his spare time. :)

The final assignment of week 4 was to take the lessons on focusing and do something creative with your focus. Focus in on something different or take a different perspective of an object or situation. Here's mine...

This week I had a lightbulb moment. Reading all these things, changing settings and *gasp* turning on manual! It just clicked and I feel like I'm really getting it. Plus, I got my sweet new lens that I'm already totally in love with! The first part of Week 4 was Exposure Compensation. That means overexposing or underexposing your picture according to your tastes instead of the cameras. For instance, here's a picture of the cat with the cameras settings (which were a little messed up because she was lying on a shiny surface in bright sunlight). And here's the settings I prefered, a slightly overexposed version. In playing with it, I found that sometimes underexposed shots are fun too. Here's an underexposed one I loved. Part 2 of our assignment was to take a try at manual. Now that I'm understanding the bits and pieces of photography, it wasn't as hard as I thought. This one was shot in the shade, hence the more muted colors in this photo. Anyways, here...

I edited photos so I thought it was time for a catch-up post. A few weeks ago the boys walked the "Cop Walk". It's a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and was a fundraiser for Boy Scouts too. They were only required to walk one 2.25 mile leg of the relay. Instead, they decided to walk all 12.5 miles. Here they are about mile 11... in good spirits and so happy. They did a great job and I was so proud of them. (Especially Tristan who forgot a belt and walked the whole way holding up his pants. LOL) Brian and his new gig... man, is he loving marine! Now that the weather is nice he gets to wear polo shirts and shorts to work, with deck shoes on his feet. Not too shabby. Miss Riss... holy, moly, is this girl growing up. I swear, she look older every time I see her. OK, since there are never any photos of me, here's one. That's my way over-candled cupcake for my birthday. No, they didn't fit enough candles on, but they tried. This was my 37th birthday. I ...

We were warned about this early on - week 3 is tough. Really tough. A lot of reading, a lot of really technical stuff and starting to pull together all the pieces of the photography puzzle. It was a tough week, but it was good. This week was all about aperture . Can I just say that I *love* aperture ! The difference it can make in photos is amazing. She's even convinced me into buying a new lens with a lower aperture so I can make the most of my photography sessions. I ordered it last week and it should come on Monday. I'm so excited!!! Anyways... back to aperture . Our first assignment was to have two willing subjects, set apart by about 1 - 2 feet. Then you play with the aperture , taking shots at all the full aperture settings to see how changing the aperture affects the shutter speed and how it affects the depth of field on your photo. I took several different tries at this, taking pictures of the kids themselves, then them with their pets. Here is my favorite and not-so...

Our second week was all about shutter speed and both capturing and implying motion. Capturing motion wasn't so hard, though capturing something in motion and still beautiful was a little more difficult. Often you end up with wierd shots at wierd angles. I took the kids to the park for this assignment and shot them practicing for their Taekwondo belt testing that's happening next week. Let me tell you, these photos sure showed the kids where their forms and kicks aren't quite right. But we also caught some pieces that were really great. This was my favorite picture capturing motion: I did find that implying motion (purposefully catching the blurred motion) was harder. Here's the photo I submitted, though I know that it's not exactly right (it's focused on the grass, not her). The last part of the assignment was to play around with freezing and/or implying motion and then post your favorite photo. I did this assignment on the day it was due (thanks to all our rain...