Photography Classes

I have now taken two photography classes. One with Val Westover Photography and the other at the Leisure Learing Center. ***Disclaimer (which I feel the need to put toward the beginning of this post)...these classes did not... I repeat...did not make me a professional photographer.  Taking pictures is something that I really enjoy and it has become sort of a hobby of mine.  I guess you could call me a DSLR faker, actress, fancy camera holder, want-a-be... 

The first class I took was in October 2010.  It was hosted by Val Westover and Stephanie Adriana. I really enjoyed this class and I would recommend it to anyone that is interested in photography.  Val and Stephanie were very fun and eager to help and answer questions.  Don't get me wrong...  I am still not sure what I am doing... but I did really enjoy the class...and if they are ever in town and offering another class (or even this one again) I would love to go. 

The class not only had a sit down book portion but there was also a couple hours of hands on. They called it a "safari". It was fabulous and I really can not express enough how wonderful I thought both Val and Stephanie were.  Did I mention that I really liked this class....

The following three pictures where taken in the aperture priority setting...
f/4, f/13, then f/25.

The next two were just cool views so I snapped a pic...

This is Stephanie helping Demetra with a question and showing her how to work her camera... very hands on!

This is panning practice... where we would take a picture of a moving objest adjusting the shutter speed.

Checking out our shots to make sure we were doing it right...

The second class that I took was at Leisure Learning... it was more of a class room setting and I found it to be a little boring... informative but boring. We did bring pictures to our last class and it was fun to look at all the creativity from other students...some made me feel better about my knowledge and other's made me feel a little behind.   The pictures below are examples of product illustration.  I recreated it from a picture that I saw and really liked...I got real close to the original (but the idea was not mine).  The teacher said I got a gold star because the picture was taken vertically...hey if that is a complimanet...I'll take it..

 This was actually the first shot before I got out the mirror...it is also has more "natural" lighting instead of flash lighting (which caused the above shadowing)..

Happy "Love" Day!!

Today A few days ago I celebrate Valentines with my two very special Loves- My honey and our daughter.  How could anyone ask for anything more.  Keith and I don't normally do much for Valentines Day for each other...the day is a little over-rated if you ask me and this year was no different.  However, I did buy a new lens for my camera (50mm f/1.8) and called it a valentines gift...does that count?  He of course got a Hoops and YoYo card...that sang!!  If that does not profess my love I don't know what will....giggle...

Now Ahliana on the other hand got all kinds of junk stuff.  She got enough valentines candy to last her for a couple of months at school (glad I did not buy her any).  All we got her was a couple of cards, a cute stuffed giraffe and bandaids... yes, you read it right, bandaids...and she loves 'em!  And they don't make her bounce off the walls for hours.  Perfect!

We were able to get out and about last weekend and the weather was gorgeous!  I mean let the sun shine baby!  Sounds like a contradiction form an earlier post.  Please don't get me wrong, I do like cold weather, and I would have loved to have seen snow.  But really can you beat a day that is about 70 degrees, sunny, with low to no humidity... Hello... I don't really think so.  I would take that every.single.day.of.the.year.  Okay that's a lie too... I would at least like it to be cold around around the Christmas Holidays. Okay enough rambling and back to the wonderful weather.  We went to a pre-rodeo festival that was put on by the Texas Rodeo Committee.  They put on this event every year for free and it is really alot of fun.  they have several bounce houses, pony rides, ring tosses, football throwing, train rides, and so much more. 

They had a dog show out there that was being put on by an entire different group...but wow...these dogs and their tricks are amazing...they can really "catch air".  The kids were only interested in that for about a minute but my husband really enjoyed it...he took all the dog pics...

The picture below is the only picture that I am able to upload that I took with my new lens (upload problems have nothing to do with the lens itself).  Apparently I use more space then I am allocated with my "free" Picasa/Google/Blogger account so I need to purchase more GB's...LOL.  I guess I need to really learn how to resize my pics for posting???  Hopefully after this weekend I will be able to post more amazing fun pics...after my whooping $5 purchase for more space...again LOL!!

OHHHH.... AHHHHH...Isn't that so cool!?!? 

Burrr Rabit!

Today we had our second Arctic blast blow through Houston...Wow it is really flipping cold in Houston right now.  I am really not complaining... I actually like the cold in small spurts... and really... do we have a right to complain?  It's not like we live in Chicago right now or anything...it's just cold.  But if I seriously hear the phrase "Arctic Blast" again I might just scream.  I was unable to go into work last Friday because the road conditions were to icy and Houston is just not prepared to get hit with this kind of weather.  Today we actually had snow flakes falling from the sky... it was beautiful!  Unfortunately the snow did not stick.  There was not enough of it and the ground was still too warm.  But I did get to drive home with ice drops on my truck.  I wanted Ahli to see the snow so bad this year and she was all set for  it... what are the chances of snow in 2012...do you think it can happen for Houston 3 years in a row? Doubtful but we will keep our fingers crossed.

Hard to believe that we went to a pool party the week before last... and it was 70 and muggy outside.  Ahhh Houston!  The pool party was for one of Ahliana's friends.  He takes swim lessons and Ahli L.O.V.E.S to swim.  I of course took pics while daddy swam (I have a hard enough time getting into a swim suit in the summer when a tan hides some of the hail damage that weight and age has added to my ...bleep).  The pool water looks a little murky, maybe because it was an indoor pool?!?  You can tell that my baby girl had a great time though. 

We also baked cupcakes for Grandma again.  Ahli is at an age where she loves to help.  So I set everything up in little bowls so it was easy for her to poor everything into the mixing bowl and watch as she mixes away.  Stir 15 times this way and 10 times this way...lol