I guess when I signed off last week, I failed to mention that I was leaving town for a week and that is why I elected to submit my computer to the "doctor" that week instead of any other. Well, the family and I went to visit my parents for a week. While we were there, we celebrated my son’s second birthday. What a bitter sweet day. Now, I no longer have a baby. I could claim he was still a baby while he was one, but now that he’s two he really is not a baby anymore. That makes my heart ache just a little. Now, on the other hand… I no longer have a BABY! And when you say it like that, I’m one step closer to having a bit of life back. And that makes my heart soar. So… it’s bitter sweet.
As my first real post back at home, I thought I’d share a couple shots from his birthday. These are not anything more than a mother’s snapshots capturing her baby on his birthday. The flash was on (gasp!) and everything. But I elected to just get the shots rather than try to use this as a masterful photographer’s artistic learning day. So here you go. My baby becomes a boy.
In case anyone is counting – there are 13 packages there for him to unwrap. Isn’t that crazy? Grandparents (only one set at that!), siblings and parents were all the givers. But he loved them all. He actually said "thank you" each time he was handed a new one to open. Can you believe it?! A two year old who says thank you?! My mommy-pride is oozing right now.
A little aside… every wonder what my hubby looks like? That’s him. He’s the man who makes my toes tingle. (Insert happy sigh here….)
It was a big Thomas the Train fest. Most of the toys were related to the Thomas theme. Probably 7 or 8 of them anyway. The boy loves trains.
Here he is pretending to know what to do with that candle. He never did blow it out. He is also smitten with fire trucks lately which is why his loving Grammy ordered him a Fire Truck cake. Now… this woman can make a killer cake and decorate it to look like it belongs in a magazine or something. I know because she made many for me and a couple for previous grand children’s birthdays. But she had her three beautiful grandchildren visiting for only one week and she didn’t want to spend many hours doing that – so she ordered it. I still think it’s lovely and he was all aglow over it. Fire truck is one of the newest things he points out and talks about.
And just to prove my point about why this was not the occasion for me to attempt to play with f stops and turning the flash off… I tried one picture and this is what I got -
Sometimes, you just have to let auto-focus and the flash make the picture good enough. This was one of those times.
And my final picture of the event. I think it might be my favorite from the birthday party – not in a technical way… just in a mommy-who-loves-her-kid’s-glee way.
Thank you for looking at my family photo album with me. I promise to get back to photography lessons and reviews soon.
I’m back at home. The dust is settling. Laundry is in full swing. I hope to upload a few pictures for you tomorrow. It feels like forever since I’ve been here with you. Right now it’s 11 PM and I’m finally sitting before my computer (which is working much better now) so I think I should probably just call it a night and head to bed. Talk to you tomorrow!
I was reading Shelly’s post at This Eclectic Life about Dream Jobs and I had to keep this quote for myself.
"Remember, those who never chase a dream never catch one."
Do you remember what it was like when you fell in love? You couldn’t stop thinking about the new love. You couldn’t sleep deeply because your new love was on your mind. You didn’t want to go to class. You didn’t even want to go out with your old friends! Life had changed in an instant.
That is exactly how I feel. My house is a disaster. I need to do laundry, clean my kitchen, fix myself lunch. I had a date on the calendar to go to a rubber stamping class last night and I didn’t want to go! I’ve been invited out with friends one night this week and I don’t even want to do that! All I want to do is spend my time reading and learning about photography. Playing with my camera and getting to know it better. I want to know and absorb everything I can about the subject. Every spare moment (and those are rare when you have three children toddler and preschool ages) is spent devouring my photography material.
I found a book in my collection that I’m currently enjoying a lot. I’ll share that with you tomorrow but right now I need to go eat something.
I just want to shout it to the world… I’m in love!
"No one commencing the study of music can, for example, sit down to the piano and play the piece of the master at the first effort. He must not conclude, however, nor does he conclude, that the piece of the master can not be played by him. Or, for that matter, by anyone. He begins to practice the piece."
-Character Building Thought Power
In the last two days, I’ve been having this little devil thought that is trying to tell me that I’ll never be as good as the great photographers who inspire me. I keep banishing the thought when it enters my head but it sneaks in. I came across this quote today and thought it was just what the doctor ordered. I’m going to keep practicing, growing and perfecting. Eventually, it’ll pay off. Wish me luck.
My theory for purchasing a camera is that you should buy the best you can afford and grow into it. At the time that I was looking for a new camera the summer before last summer, I did just that. The $1,000 it took to buy my Canon Rebel XT was quite a stretch for me at the time. In fact, I sold stuff on ebay to earn the $500 beyond what our family budget could afford just to buy it. My main purpose for wanting this one at the time was that it had very little lag time when I pressed the shutter button. With three small children, this was essential to me. Beyond that, I liked the fact that I could potentially use it to grow into the photographer I hope to be some day. Honestly, since I’ve owned it, I’ve rarely used anything but the preset basic functions it is programed with. I am such a wannabe that playing with macro and night mode were new to me! I find that even a know-not-much-of-anything photographer like me can occasionally get a great shot if you shoot enough. Getting to know the camera by playing with it often is the best way to do this. I take hundreds of shots when I do a photo shoot with my children and I usually get a couple that turn out pretty decent. What’s there to lose with a digital, right? Nothing but time and memory space. I’ve become better at hitting the delete button on those that are really not worth saving but I still have entirely too many pics saved. What can I say? They are my "creations" of my babies. Who wouldn’t be attached to that?! Well, anyway… enough rambling. I thought I’d share with you a few of my favorites.
Other than cropping one of them, resizing all of them and turning two to black and white, I haven’t done any further editing. I don’t know enough about editing to play in the so-called digital darkroom yet. Until recently, I thought that was cheating – to be honest. I thought if it wasn’t what you composed in the frame then changing it afterward was more "magic of software" than "great photography". I’m starting to change my mind on that though. Some day we’ll explore editing together… but not yet. I still think that great photography begins with learning to take a great photograph in the camera and then – perhaps – tweaking it. So, that’s where I’m going to begin. Learning to take a great photograph.
Well, here I am. I’m starting a blog. I secretly always thought they were a little silly and wondered why anyone would spend their time creating one, yet recently I find myself visiting some. With this in mind, I thought it would be fun to start one of my own to catalog my journey as I learn about photography. I’ve always been fascinated with good photography and my only regret in life is that I didn’t take the photography class offered at my high school. I thought it was too expensive… Ha! If only I’d known. I also regret never taking any of a zillion other classes on it that were offered around me. So, here I am. Wishing I could be a professional photographer yet being miles away from that. Hence, the title of my blog. It might evolve into something else over time but I envision it being a place to share what I’m learning. And a reason to learn new things about photography. Maybe if I’m accountable to someone, I’ll move toward what I really want. I don’t really expect anyone to follow this thing but maybe someone out there will stumble on it and learn something with me. Maybe someone else will share something they learned with me. Wouldn’t that be great?
