Monday, February 17, 2014

Happy Valentines Day 2014!

I was working on a present for Valentines Day this year and so needed some shots of my cute kiddos - this was all pre-class starting and editing so was just the best I could do.  I have learned a lot since then and wish I would have known it then - but oh well - they still turned out pretty dang cute!
These are my loves!  Although Chip and I were both MISERABLY sick on Valentine's Day this year - we still managed to have a nice quiet night at home together and read our 100 reasons we love each other.  It is one of my favorite traditions and I love that he will take time to write them and we have fun reading them to each other.  Crazy how much is the same, and yet so many are different from the previous years.  I planned the night and had a fun romantic Sheet game called "the Love Game" that was a huge hit, accompanied by a few presents and yummy treats.  It was low-key, but romantic and the perfect Valentines for us!  Hope you all had a great day celebrating your loves!

Enjoy the Pics!

My favorite of the boys!










 2 of my favorites of IVY!





 LOVE HER!!!

 Silly girl!




 My 2 crazy boys!









































Happy Love Month!



Monday, February 10, 2014

Photo 101 & Photoshop 101 classes

My classes are in their second week and I am LOVING them both!  I feel like I am gaining a ton of knowledge, it is fun being back in the classroom type setting (even if it is online classes) again and I just love that I have HW and assignments and quizzes and things to think about.  It really is something I am loving ----- the only downside is I wish I had ALL the knowledge already and so I find I get frustrated when at first my stuff isn't perfect, and I am constantly having to tell myself I am a beginner and just learning and it will come, but I must be patient.  It is helpful for me to practice my patience with my self, which hopefully will transfer over to patience with my kiddos and hubby and everyone else! 

Anyways, wanted to post my pictures from this weeks' HW so that I can look back and see how far I have come at the end of my journey (or since it won't end at least later on when I am MUCH better - haha)!

This week I had 4 different mini assignments within my photo 101 class!  First, I shutter speed.  This shows motion and I had to test out slow and fast shutter speeds, while keeping the exposure the same so that it was correct and then see the difference.  Here are my pics!

fast shutter speed! Stopped motion!

Slow shutter speed! Motion blurred!






Fast shutter speed!

 slow shutter speed!

Then I had to do an Aperture shoot - taking pics and focusing with a low f-stop number on the foreground subject, so the background was more blurred, and then a higher f-stop number so that the two were both in focus and a greater depth of field was present. (while maintaining the same exposure yet again!) Here are the pics I did!


 Low f-stop, shallow depth of field! (opened up all the way)

Higher f-stop, higher depth of field!  (closed down)

Then we had to do an ISO practice to see the difference in quality of pictures.  First we had to shoot outside at ISO 100, and then another shot of ISO 400 or more, and then another shot inside at ISO 400 or greater, all while keeping exposure the same (and we have to do this on the MANUAL setting - no pre-sets to help us out!)

 ISO 100  (Ivy was saying cheese and doing the funniest faces I just had to keep this one!)

 This is actually my favorite shot of the day and I so wish it was at the ISO 100 but it was shot at ISO 400, so a little more pixellated if I were to blow it up big - but I LOVE it!!!

This one was at the end of bathtime when she wanted OUT of the tub and was upset I was taking pictures instead of getting her out - shot at ISO 1600!  But I do like the pic anyways! hehe

Then we had to do a photoshoot where we carried our camera around everywhere and followed a subject and took pictures of them all day long so that we could tell about their day through pictures - you could pic a subject such as a water bottle, a person, or pretty much whatever subject you wanted!  I chose to do a day in the life of my little toddler!  

So here are the pics of cute miss Ivy Jane from her day! 

Bath time in the morning, loving her baby!

 Clean baby!

Taking her dollies on a walk outside!


 Shopping at Target with mom, and of course checking out aisle 9 where the princesses are!

Home for lunch - fruit snacks are one of her favorite things!




 Nap time was next, and this pic was upon her waking up!

Story time with her best buddy!

 Photoshoot with mom for a Valentine's project!

 Out to play with her brothers while eating a yummy snack!

Ending her day with another baby with her brothers, and here she is sneaking by to get their lego castle while they are unaware!


All of the photos for this class have to be submitted without ANY editing and so you have to think about and really get the shot how you want it.  I like that, and also learning to shoot 100% Manually, which at first made me VERY frustrated but I am finally getting the relationship and figuring things out!

Now onto week 2!!!