Adventures With Doogle

Intro To DSLR - Week 3 Homework

There was one person that asked me specifically about the homework project for my class for this week so I figured in case anyone else was interested, I’d post the information here.  Basically, the assignment was to show the effect of large and small aperture.  The aperture is the size of the shutter opening that lets light into your camera so essentially, the larger the aperture, the brighter the image (all other settings bring equal) and vice versa.  Last week we focused on shutter speed which is basically how long the shutter remains open.  These two settings in conjunction determine the overall exposure of the image.

The cool thing about aperture, however, is that it also has a cool effect on your images in that it controls the depth of field.  If you’ve ever seen a portrait where the subject is nice and clear and the background is blurred out, that is done by controlling aperture.  The assignment was to show the effect of varying aperture and the teacher suggested a fence or a brick wall to do that.  Of course, I had to be a little different, so I used train cars.

Here are my homework pictures…  Class this week is tonight because of the holiday so I’ll be critiqued then.  I originally thought these were not fun pictures and chose to post the other ones from my photo shoot, but in looking back at these with a little help from some different perspective, I actually really like them.

     

Intro To DSLR - Week 3

Homework for this week was really boring and resulted in some boring pictures.  Mine show the concept that we were working on and I’m sure will be fine in class, but it did not make for a fun photography class homework adventure like last week.  So, I made my own adventure which is the norm for me.

There are a couple old buildings close to where we used to live in Charlotte that I have always been fascinated with.  Right by one of the buildings there is usually a long line of train cars that I needed for my homework.  So I went to take pictures of the train, but it allowed me to take some pictures of these old buildings after I got what I needed for my assignment.  Here is the result…

          

Memorial Day Weekend 2012 - Part 3

Doogle is still limping around the house and the boys are still as riled up as ever so today Nattie and I took them to Carowinds to release some of that kid energy.  It was not my best thought out plan, but everyone had a good time and all worked out for the best.

I grabbed a map when we walked in and we made a bee line for Snoopy Station where the boys took turns picking the rides and who they wanted to ride with.  We made it through a handful of rides and finally on the roller coaster that I was dying to go on.  It was probably the smallest one in the park, but it was still a roller coaster.  Harrison loved it so much he wanted to go again.  Carter was about as interested in going again as he was in being any where near the snoopy characters.

As nap time approached, we made our way out of the park and found a shaded place to sit and eat our lunch.  The boys devoured everything we brought for them and even asked for happy meals on the way home.  I guess they were hungry!  Neither one of them fell asleep in the car, but they were both passed out not long after we got home.

        

Memorial Day Weekend 2012 - Part 2

So Doogle had a little accident the other day that resulted in a sprained ankle.  I have a million things to do around the house, but since he cannot help chase the kids around at the moment, I decided instead to see what Nattie was up to with her parents that are in town.  They wanted to get to Lake Norman State Park while they were here so that’s where we went.  Nattie packed a lunch, the kids could run around and her parents would be able to see something they hadn’t before.  And Doogle could sit home and rest.

It was a fun morning.  Nattie’s mom got the boys squirt guns and I think I told Carter 100 times not to shoot people.  A fun morning was had by all and Harrison fell asleep on the way home with the top down and music blaring.  Mission accomplished!!

    

Memorial Day Weekend 2012 - Part 1

The unofficial start to summer is upon us, a long weekend at that, and I have no idea what to do to entertain the kids.  It normally wouldn’t need to be anything special, in fact I would prefer not to have plans and let the boys play at home while I worked on some things that I want to get done.  However, Doogle has a sprained ankle and so the “to do” list will have to get put on hold in favor of doing fun things with the boys.  Probably worked out for the best that way anyway as they could use some attention and a little change from the norm.

Thankfully one of Harrison’s friend’s parents mentioned the idea of a play date with the boys.  So at least that fills the morning of day 1 with something interesting to do.  I thought it was pretty special to get the three boys together who are about to graduate preschool and start kindergarten and have been friends since they’ve been 6 months old.

Of course now Carter is part of the mix as is Paige who is nearly 2 ½.  She is a little princess among all the boys, but everyone managed to have a great time with only a couple meltdowns.

A huge thank you to our hostess!!  I know this worked out well for her too because her husband wasn’t home and the extra adults around is always a good thing, but it was a real help to the rest of us as well!!

           

One Is Silver, And The Other's Gold...

A couple months ago someone told me that a friend is a gift you give to yourself.  I have been very fortunate to experience this recently and I’ve decided that it really is true – it is an amazing gift!!  My “old” friends would probably say that I meet people easily and am very social.  I would agree.  But there is something so much different between meeting someone that may be a good acquaintance and making a new friend.  An acquaintance may meet you at a bar for a drink or to watch the game if they’re free, but a friend will drop what they're doing and drive across town because you are at work and need your spare set of keys.  A friend will hunt you down to give you a hug because they know it will make you happy.

I’m not on Facebook and as a result can’t measure myself in how many hundreds of friends I have.  I prefer quality to quantity in this regard though and I have always been able to count on one hand the amount of people that would drop what they’re doing because I need them or go out of their way for me.  Recently that number has grown.  It's not in the hundreds or even doubled, but even just one more friend is worth feeling blessed for.  One new friend is a gift.

It reminds me of that poem we used to recite way back in grammar school… “Make new friends, but keep the old… One is silver and the other is gold.”

Intro To DSLR - Week 2

I have always been interested in photography.  Unfortunately, due to time constraints among other things, my experience was limited to taking pictures of everything I could with my iPhone or relatively nice point and shoot camera.  However, the mathematician in me has always wanted to really understand the inner workings of an SLR camera.  For my birthday in October, I received a nice digital SLR camera and I’m finally realizing my wish by taking a photography class – Introduction to DSLR.  I figure it can’t hurt to learn how to use all the knobs and buttons on my camera as well as learn to take some good pictures.

I should probably add that sometime last year, a friend of mine became that mom at all the birthday parties that you only see behind her camera.  I am constantly in awe of the pictures she takes of her kids (and mine when we’re all together) so I have to credit her with inspiring me to finally do something that I’ve always wanted.  I actually have the same camera as her, went out and bought the same lens, and she took this same class.  I hope to be half as good as her when I’m through – I have to accept the fact that I can’t do anything about whether or not I have her talent or eye for great photos!

Class started 2 weeks ago with a very basic introduction to the camera.  It was very interesting and a very important foundation for the following weeks, but didn’t do much for me in terms of being able to take better pictures or learn any new skills.  Week 2 however, has been a different story.  We spent 3 hours talking about shutter speed and how that key component of the camera settings can capture movement or freeze it – depending on the desired effect.  For homework we had a few different things we had to do using this skill.  Some of my homework pictures aren’t great pictures, but show what I need them to.  There are two pictures, however, that I am particularly proud of that I’ll post below.

I’m not sure the topic of tonight’s class, but I’m sure I’ll learn some new skills and have more to share as I work on homework throughout the week.
 

Carter Showing Off His Sports Skills...

Hi There!  Been insanely busy between kids, work, friends, etc. so sorry I haven’t had time to check in.  Concert was amazing – the company was perfect and the show was sensational!!  Just wanted to post a couple pictures of Carter from a birthday party we went to over the weekend.  He was showing me his varied sports skills – the question is which one he’ll like better…football or wresting?
 

Random Question Of The Day

If you could do something really amazing that you knew you'd really enjoy and would make you very happy, BUT you knew it would make you sad or even be painful knowing it would end, would you still do it?

I would.  I wouldn't want to miss "The Dance".

 

Woo Hoo!! I Got My Tickets!!

I don't do concerts (Exception - BareNakedLadies - I've loved them since high school and would pay to see them if they're playing somewhere near where I am and I know about it.  Since I don't do concerts, I'm not really up on who's playing where so that hasn't happened in a very long time.).  It's not my idea of a good time to hang out in a crowded room listening to someone perform.  I would much rather download the music onto my iPod and go for a run or ride and be alone with the music.  However, I'm making an exception.

A few weeks (months? I can't remember when and I don't have time to go link to it now) I posted the lyrics to Matt Nathanson's "Come On Get Higher".  I LOVE that song.  I listen to it almost every day at some point.  Then a week or so ago, I wrote that I was excited to see Matt Nathanson was coming to town.  I am on cloud 9 this morning (my co-workers think there is definitely something wrong with me!) because I just got my tickets!!  I'm very excited - he sings two of my favorite songs and others that I really like!  And I'm sure I'll hear more that I'll fall in love with.

Just so you don't have to be subjected to my singing, here's the official video of Come On Get Higher...


And here's Faster - Another song of his that I really like...be careful it gets stuck in your head...