June 2008 - Posts
of work - not counting today. I took this picture this morning when I arrived at work:
I really like how the sun turned out. I shot this with my 50 mm f/1.8 lens, using a technique I learned from the manual of setting the exposure when I wasn't pointed at the sun, locking it, and then taking the picture. That way the school didn't end up all dark. I did give this a little Lightroom/Photoshop love later though to brighten the sky and building tones.
My students took their Outlook certification tests today. Several were successful - those who weren't will take their retest in the coming days. In fact, this entire week is devoted to certification testing, as several students are in various stages of certification and still need to take their Word and/or PowerPoint exams.
Tonight, the hubby and I are finally watching the last two episodes of Lost - between our trip to Carlsbad to Peter's business trip, we just didn't have a chance to watch it. We're about half way through the final episode - it's ok, I guess. I think I'm getting a little bit over the whole Lost thing - just not as interesting as it used to be to me.
I was referred to a company called Borrow Lenses by photographer David Toth on the Fast Track Founders website. I had never considered renting lenses before but it seems like a great idea before committing to new glass that I'm not sure if I'd like to begin with. Now I need to figure out what to rent!
Anniversary Countdown 2008 - Day 2
I know I said I'd post a picture every day, but all the good pictures are on my other external hard drive, and I have two sleepy cats around me, so I can't get up right now, haha. Instead, I figured I'd post a link.
After we decided on Sedona as our wedding location, we needed to find a place to stay. After reading the reviews on TripAdvisor, we settled on the Apple Orchard Inn Bed and Breakfast because of its location, the pictures of the rooms, and the tasty sound breakfasts. It ended up being an amazing place to stay!
AKA reading the manual. I panicked for a moment - actually make that several moments - because I couldn't and still can't find my manual. I've always kept it in my camera bag, but when I looked this afternoon, it wasn't there. Fortunately, Canon has it posted on their website. I've spent the better part of the last hour and a half reading about what is known as the "Creative Zone" modes. I feel fine with Basic Zone modes, but have forced myself to shoot in the other modes almost from the moment I got my camera back in October so that I could take Raw photos. I'd seen early on how much more control I later had in Photoshop and now Lightroom when I was working with a Raw photo. You can't take Raw photos in the Basic Zone modes.
So, I whipped out my Moleskin (I LOVE these notebooks and regularly pick them up with coupons and Barnes and Noble even when I don't need them), got comfortable at my desk, and started taking notes. Jasper came up to visit and found a place sleeping on the couch next to me. This later ended up being convenient for my testing of said modes.
While doing the note taking, I did little practicing. Early on, while reading, I learned about a formula for calculating the minimum shutter speed to prevent blurring caused by camera shake (take the Lens focal length times 1.6, then use the reciprocal - this means my 50 mm lens should use a minimum of a 1/80 shutter speed - who knew?). I decided to try this out in the TV mode (shutter priority). My first pictures, although dark, came out very clear. I did a little more reading, and realized that that the beeping that was going on after I halfway depressed the shutter and blinking with the number in my view finder was for a reason - gee, ya think? (By the way, I'm being very sarcastic here, to illustrate how stupid I'm feeling about not knowing this earlier, haha). The lower number, which happens to be the aperture, blinks when the exposure will be too dark. In order to get the number to stop blinking and beeping, I needed to either pick a higher ISO speed, or lower the shutter speed, or a combination of both.
I experimented and shot nearly 40 frames of Jasper. Sometimes I tried to get his attention, other times I just shot away not really caring how he looked, but focusing more on the lighting of the picture. Basically, my experiment showed me that in order to shoot in that particular light (in our second floor study/office with one window with mid afternoon light coming in at an angle), at a 1/80 shutter speed, I would need to increase the ISO to get the proper exposure (AKA no more blinky beepy camera menu). Or I would have to lower the speed to like 1/40 or even 1/30, but then I still had to increase my ISO to 1600 to avoid the camera shake blur.
My favorite picture of Jasper's first real photo shoot is this one:
The SOOC image
After a little Photoshop love
Hope my new found knowledge helps during my impromptu photo shoot with my students tomorrow. I plan on documenting their last certification testing experience of the 2007-2008 school year!
Peter came home yesterday! I'm so happy to have him back. Driving to BWI was easy until I realized how dark the sky was getting with the impending rain - now that normally wouldn't be a problem, except I was wearing my sunglasses. My prescription sunglasses. And I couldn't seem to find my regular glasses. So I'm driving along, praying it won't get darker, when I arrive to the I-95 tunnel. Uh oh. I couldn't believe it but it wasn't that bad driving through the tunnel - darker than I'd like - yes - but impossible - no. But as I reached the airport, it was getting darker still, to the point that when I pulled under the building overhang for arrival pickups, that I had to call my hubby and say "hey, where are you? wave around a bit or something". I'm sure he thought I was crazy - like "why can't the wife see me?". But, I found him successfully. Alas, our first few reunion moments back together were spent with me frantically have him poke around the front seat for my glasses which we eventually found and I gratefully switched. Oops. Note to self: Never toss glasses case on front seat, it might roll off and end up under the seat causing driving panic.
We had a tasty lunch at Houlihans before going to see what I consider to be the best movie of the summer season - the SATC movie. I absolutely loved it! I was a totally fan of the show and have seen and own every single episode. I was so happy with the way it turned out - seemed just the way it should. While I'm a total fan of huge weddings, all of the people, the amazing details, the gorgeous clothes and tasty food, I also think there is something so amazing about intimate weddings - just the couple and/or a few of their close friends - I suppose that's why we chose the latter when we got married.
When we got home, Peter gave me two special gifts he brought back from his business trip.
A Hello Kitty Purse from their new travel collection - it has the coolest compartments. I love how the style and colors make this look like more of an adult purse - I'll definitely use it when we go out - heck, who am I kidding? I'll starting toting it to work this week I am sure.
A Hello Kitty fan for my desk at work. How cute is this? You pop her head open and turn on the switch to run the fan!
When I woke up this morning, I took a peek out at my little garden, and saw that my sunflowers are getting ready to bloom!
This brings me to a new blog section for the next few days: Anniversary Countdown 2008! This year, on June 24th, Peter and I will have been married for two years. That still makes a newlyweds don't you think? So every day, I'm going to share one of my favorite pictures from the days leading up to our wedding day, and the main event, along with a brief story.
Choosing the Location
After Peter proposed, we knew we wanted to get married as soon as possible. We'd been dating since 2001, and we were ready. We talked about doing the local thing with family and friends, but while we have a close circle of friends that we would have liked to be there, Peter's family is all abroad, in the Czech Republic, and one of his closest friends lives in India, and no one would be able to make the trip. So we started scouting travel mags and thinking about our favorite spots.
Knowing that this special trip would just be the four of us (my parents and us), I started looking at locations from the photographers point of view. I knew that at the end of the day, the one aspect of the entire wedding that was the most important to me was the photography. I wanted amazing pictures and I knew the location would have a lot to do with that. I've been fortunate to travel to most of the 50 states because my parents took me on many road trips growing up. I had wonderful memories of our summers spent out in Arizona in my early teens while my Mom was attending the University of Arizona through a distance learning program. One location was particularly memorable - Sedona.
The red rocks and mountains out there are absolutely incredible. I also remembered the Chapel at Tlaquepaque in Sedona. I remembered walking in a tiny chapel with beautiful light streaming through and thinking - "One day I should get married here". I found the chapel online and shared pictures of it with Peter who also loved it. So it was decided - we'd get married in Sedona.
We flew out a few days prior to the wedding and did a little hiking.
These were the incredible views I was talking about!