Digital Photography

This weekend I was lucky enough to take a class on digital photography, taught by a very talented local artist, Lennon Michalski.  I have always loved taking photographs.  I remember taking over my parents' camera whenever we would go anywhere, because of course I could take better pictures!  As I've grown up, many of my "big" gifts have been cameras (thanks to my parents for indulging me!).  But as much as I've loved photography, and as much as we have invested in cameras, I've never had any instruction on how to take better photographs.  I'm a hands-on learner, so just reading a manual doesn't always cut it for me. 

So when my mom found this opportunity for me through UK, I didn't want to miss it.  We spent about 2.5 hours in the lecture room for instruction on ISO, aperture, and shutter speed, and then we went out to the Arboretum for practice in the field.  We had a lunch break in between, and I'm pretty sure that during that hour, everything I thought I learned flew right out of my head!  When I walked up to the first subject to take a photo, I had NO IDEA what to do.  Honestly, I couldn't even take a picture in focus!  Finally I just decided to take several pictures of the same thing using different settings, and that helped me tremendously. 

I don't think for a minute that I took excellent photos, but I learned, and that was important for me.  I look forward to taking thousands more photos, and hopefully I'll continue to learn and grow in this area.  Below are just a few results of the day.  I'll spare you the out-of-focus shots!!

eta: These weren't edited in any way, because I just wanted to focus on what I did, not what my photograph could look like. 

Dinner & a Cutie

I am late posting about this past week's CSA delivery, but better late than never, right?  We got lots of leafy veg this week, including a TON of spinach, butter lettuce, field greens, and some greens (not sure eactly the variety), as well as some oregano, snap peas (pic below - I love the sweet little flowery-looking tops!) and asparagus. 

With so many greens, I knew I had to do something more than just a plethora of salads, so I decided to make a pizza with the asparagus, spinach & oregano.  I think anything and everything must taste good on a pizza, but that's just me!  Used a basic pizza crust recipe, using half AP flour and half whole wheat flour, sauteed some onions and spinach, chopped up the asparagus & oregano, and threw it all on the par-baked crust, then topped with a light layer of mixed italian cheeses.  It's hard to feel bad about eating this pizza when it tastes so good!!

 

In addition to this delicious food, I have a cutie to share with you.  This picture may not seem special to anyone, but G is wearing his daddy's outfit from 28 years ago.  Thanks so much to the Walters' for keeping these things to share with us.  He's such a cutie!

 

 

Carseat Advice Needed!

Okay folks - and by folks I mean you all with babes that can offer us some advice.  Our G. Bob has finally outgrown his infant car seat (although he may have an ounce or two to spare, he's over on length), and we're moving on to a convertible car seat.  This (<---clickety click) is the one we got, in case anyone is just dying to know, thanks to the advice from several people (thanks Kelli!).

Anyways, the seat is wonderful, and G. Bob looks so comfy in it.  There's one problem though: 2 cars - 2 transporters.  Keith and I have completely different schedules, and we both HAVE to drive him to and from his caregivers' place.  So what do we do?  We can't take the seat in and out everyday, and it might become a pain to have to switch cars on days where that might actually work.  But the BIGGEST issue is that more than one day a week one of us drops him off and the other one picks him up.  It seems like our only option is to buy a second seat.  But oh how we would love to avoid this!!  So, what do we do??

Thoughts and/or advice anyone?!?!?!?  It will be much appreciated!!!! 

We do it for him.  Maybe he'll beam us up later to thank us.

Baby Love!

Congratulations to my dear friends the Swansons on the birth of their fourth BEAUTIFUL boy this morning!!  He's soooo precious, and TINY! :)