Artsy Fartsy Stephanie

CHECK IT!!

2011-01-05T22:03:00.000-05:00

http://365daysofdeeds.blogspot.com/

I have a new blog going for this year. You should check it out! I'm working toward one good deed every day this year. It's going to be quite a ride, that's for sure! =)

Fun!

2010-12-08T09:52:00.006-05:00

I learned how to do this yesterday in one of my editing programs. It's not perfect, but I am basically still learning. It's a lot of fun though!

This is the first image I did:
[I took this photo in November 2009, but I did the editing yesterday.]

This is the second image:
[I took this photo the other day, but edited it this morning.]

Just wanted to share since it's been a while.

2010-12-07T17:18:00.005-05:00

Major Change.

2010-08-28T13:34:00.005-04:00

I may no longer be a photography major within the next few weeks. If you want to know the entire story, then go ahead and read this entire post. If you do not want to know, then this is where you will want to exit this post. LOL.

Back in 2005, when I was a senior in high school, I was accepted into Kent State University's architecture program for Interior Design. Kent State was the only school I applied to because of how great their entire design program was [and still is] and because my parents both went there [that's where they met - awwwww]. Well, if you know me or anything about my life, you know that I didn't get to go to college because of an unexpected pregnancy at the very end of my senior year in high school. It sucked not being able to go to school, but I had new priorities in my life and I wouldn't change any of it for the world. However, part of my heart has always been with design, just like it has been photography. The thing is though, design was my original plan.

I am not taking any classes this session of the quarter at school, so I have had some time to think about school. I have thought about photography, just dropping out of school for a while to reflect on other stuff, changing my major, design, and other things that aren't art/school related. During all of this time and going over options, dropping out of school for a while just isn't an option that I want to take. These 5.5 weeks of not having classes is more of a break than I'd like, honestly. So I got out my catalog/handbook from the school and began looking at the other programs they offer. They offer Interior Design. The program has the same amount of credit hours as Photography, but not all of my credit hours/classes would transfer from Photography to Interior Design, so I would have to take a lot more classes. Right now, I do not want to take a lot more classes. As I was going through the catalog/handbook some more, I saw that they offer another design program - Kitchen & Bath Design - that I would not have to take a lot more classes. I got online and started reading more into the program and comparing it with what I have left to do in Photography and comparing it to the Interior Design program. The Kitchen & Bath Design program is an associate's degree, but I could always take more classes down the road to turn it into a bachelor's degree in the same field, Interior Design, or some other form of design.

After thinking about it by myself, I brought up the possibility of a major change to Mark. He's okay with it and knows that I have always loved design. We discussed it a little bit, and then I brought it up to my mom. We talked about it for a few minutes on the phone before I had to go because of the boys. [Yes, I still ask my parents for their opinions about some stuff. I love my parents will be asking them for their advice even after we all pass away.] I even talked to Mark's mom about it because she had called me to see how things are going for us. [She calls every weekend to check in with us since we live so far from home.] After talking to Mark, my mom, and briefly to Mark's mom about changing my major, I was comfortable with the decision to change my major. I was so comfortable that I e-mailed my academic counselor and requested to change my major from Photography to Kitchen & Bath Design.

Don't get me wrong, I love photography! I always have loved it. But I want to go down the original path I had for myself, which is design. If you know me, you know that I take every little detail into consideration when I am doing even the simplest task around the house, and even many people have asked for my personal opinion about their house. I am very creative.

I really hope that my academic counselor approves my request! I really want to go into design! I will focus on "green" design, which is incredibly important to me. I have already found some "green" design/construction companies down in Florida where I can do my two internships and then potentially work at when I get my degree.

Man, I really hope that this plan goes through for me.

Painting

2010-08-23T21:17:00.002-04:00

You know, I used to paint a lot when I was in high school. I would paint on paper, canvas, stuff I made in my ceramics classes, and other stuff. I once did a project with a few friends my senior year in high school that was for a Ralph Lauren perfume thing. I also worked on the backdrop for my senior prom's pictures with a few other art students. I used to paint because I loved it so much. Now you'll only ever catch me painting the walls in a house. Don't get me wrong, I love painting walls very much! But I miss sitting in a chair or standing in front of a piece of canvas and just freely painting. I don't have any of my old paintings, which is sad. The only painting that I've ever worked on that I have a picture of is the senior prom backdrop, and it's not even the whole backdrop.

I have painting on my mind lately because two weekends ago, we went to Wilmington and I saw this couple walk out of a store with a large painting. I saw the price tag on it - $129!!!!!! Let me tell you, it was not worth even half of that! It was one of the simplest paintings I have ever seen in my life - something one of my boys could paint. I sat there and thought for a little while about how we don't have any paintings in our house - just photographs, posters, and vinyls/records in frames, and some other pieces of artwork. No paintings though. I want paintings in my house. But I want to paint those paintings. I want to sit around, or stand around, and paint something that I am proud to hang on my walls. I want to be even prouder when someone asks, "Where did you get that? I really like it," and be able to say that I did it.

Not only do I want to paint more, but I want to draw more. I want to put all of my artistic abilities to use because I feel like they are being wasted right now. What's the point of having any talent at something and not even utilizing those talents?

I'm done for the quarter.

2010-08-18T13:13:00.003-04:00

The quarter doesn't end till late September [the quarters are split into two sessions], but I am done for the quarter. There were some problems with what the school had scheduled for me, money, and other stuff, so I just decided that I would take the second session of the quarter off so that I can focus on closing things up here before we move at the end of September. I wasn't upset when all of this came up about two weeks ago. Honestly, I was quite relieved because this is going to be a huge move for us. We're leaving NC and moving to FL. I know I've packed things up here in NC before and went back to OH, but that was only for 5-6 months and I put almost everything of ours in storage down here. This move consists of us packing everything and moving to a different state - a state where we will be living for 2-3 years. Also, we're moving everything ourselves. We aren't having a moving company or TMO do anything for us. So with the kids and having to take care of absolutely everything here by the end of September, I'm glad that I don't have to add any another distraction [school] to the mix. I love school, but moving is more important right now.

The two classes that ended today have gone really well the last five and a half weeks! I took Composition and Language and Fundamentals of the Internet. As of all of the assignments that have been graded thus far, I have an A in each class!! I simply owned the Composition and Language class. The Fundamentals class took me about a week to get into because it was all about HTML and CSS. The only HTML I knew before the class was what I remembered from my MySpace days when everyone would leave comments with bold-faced lettering, underline words, create hearts and other symbols, etc. Basically, I only knew the simple, childish stuff. HA! But I learned a lot in the Fundamentals class and even created my own Web site from scratch!!!! It's still a work-in-progress [I will continue to work on it even though the course is over], but I am very proud of myself for creating a Web site from scratch!

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!!

2010-06-21T00:04:00.002-04:00

Well, more like "School's out till July 12th"!

Saturday was the last day of my first year of school! I can't fully comprehend it just yet. It's so weird to think that in a few weeks, I'll be in my second year of photography school. I've completed 12 regular classes and two short courses. It took me until the last two quarters of this school year to really get into my classes, and I got a lot more involved in my classes this last quarter.

The first two quarters of the school year were kind of still a transitional period for me. The first quarter back was my first time back in any kind of school since February 2007, and my first time back to taking regular classes since I was in high school.
The second quarter was a bit hectic because I was trying to find a place for us to move to down to in North Carolina, moving to North Carolina, Mark coming home from deployment, and traveling back up to Ohio for a few weeks.
The third quarter was a bit rough since Mark ended up having to go to Haiti for a few months and I was traveling back and forth between North Carolina and Ohio, but I had gone through traveling and keeping up with school before, so I kind of knew how to handle it.
Once the fourth quarter came around, I was very comfortable with school and knew how to go about my classes with my daily schedule full of my life, Mark's life, and the kids lives. Even when I had surgery in May, I knew how I was going to handle the end of two classes and picking up another class. You can really tell in my grades that I was much more comfortable the fourth quarter because I got As in my classes; not even an A-, all As!! I was not going to settle for anything but As, even though I was a bit worried I was going to get an A- in that last class. I tend to "sell myself short" on assignments and figure I do worse on them than I actually did.

In just one year of school, I have learned so much!! I learned about art history, photo history, how to use multiple software programs for photo editing, some interesting things about cameras, and a bunch of other stuff. It amazes me how much I learned in one year! I am so excited to see what and how much I learn these next few years!!

I look forward to next school year! I really like school! Of course there are times where I just want to rip my hair out and give up on an assignment, but I push through it. I know that at the end of all of this, I will have a Bachelor of Science degree in photography, my degree will be from a top notch art school, and I will have so much knowledge, along with my talent, that I will become one hell of a photographer! I look forward to what lies ahead!! I want to say "I can't wait", but the truth is, I can wait because I want to be able to learn as much as possible and fully appreciate every moment until I get my degree and become the amazing photographer I know I can and will be!!

Three Images Made Into One

2010-04-23T23:32:00.006-04:00

So I had to do this assignment for my DII class. I'm not that great with Photoshop [I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that a million times throughout my blog already], but I was really excited that I actually remembered how to do this one task! I learned how to do it back in the Fall during the Photoshop short course I took, and I never used it outside of that course. I was just really proud of myself for remembering how to do it.

Now this is kind of rough, I'll admit. However, I'm happy with the outcome.

[Click on images to enlarge.]
Image One:

Image Two:

Image Three:

Final Image:

Again, I know it's rough. But I'm so excited that I know how to do this still and I plan on using it more often just for fun!

My Town

2010-04-22T12:07:00.005-04:00

For a recent assignment for my Digital Image Illustration class, I had to do a project called "My Town". The assignment called for me to go out in the area in which I live, and try to portray the town the best way I could. Being that we live right outside Camp Lejeune [it takes less than five minutes from our house to the closest gate], I decided to go with the military theme [naturally]. I went around Camp Lejeune and Jacksonville, and photographed as many military-related things as possible - buildings, signs, memorials, etc. It was a lot of fun because I had never even seen some of the places and things before I had to do this assignment.

Here are some of the images I submitted in the assignment.

[Click images to enlarge.]

School has been...

2010-04-22T09:14:00.004-04:00

...GREAT! I am almost finished with my first calendar year of school, and I am really excited about that! I have been working so hard the last year to do my absolute best in all of my classes. There have been a few classes that I absolutely disliked [one even close to hating], and there have been classes that I did not want to end because I loved them so much!! I love going to school for photography! I like learning things that just any random person on the street doesn't know, unless they did some serious "digging" and research on. I used to think I knew a lot about my camera, how a camera works, editing photos, etc. But I have learned that it doesn't matter how long and how many times you've read the manual of your camera, you aren't going to really know a whole lot about it; it doesn't matter how many hours you've spent editing photos and making photos look "good" because you have to learn what looks and is right; it doesn't matter what kind of camera you have if you don't know how to use it properly and continue shooting in AUTO; and there are so many other things that I have learned. I'm happy that I'm not just another person that went to the store, bought a camera, and call myself a photographer. If you know me, you know that I don't call myself a photographer now, even though I know a whole lot more than the people that have just picked up a camera and call themselves photographers when they have no photography experience at all - I am just a photography student right now. And you know what, I feel better by calling myself a photography student because I know that there is still more for me to learn before I can call myself a photographer. Yeah, I take photos for people, but I have yet to accept any money because it's all just a learning experience for me right now. Maybe in a little while I'll start accepting money, but I want to learn more before I start charging people.

Right now, I am currently taking a math class and Digital Image Illustration. Math is super easy because it's Algebra and I rock at Algebra! The Digital Image Illustration class is pretty cool! I'm learning a whole lot about Photoshop, and it's making me more comfortable with the program [but I still prefer to use Adobe Lightroom when editing because it's a FANTASTIC program and much quicker to use]. I have a certificate saying I passed a Photoshop course [simple tasks in the program, really], but even after taking that class, I wasn't very comfortable with Photoshop. I like to learn the more advanced stuff in programs, and this Digital Image Illustration class is teaching some advanced tasks. I love it! Here's just one example of something I learned to do in the class:

Photo One:

Photo Two:

And this is what I came up with in the end:

It was a bit tricky, and a little tough and frustrating at times, to get my ending image. But in the end, I'm happy with the results and I love that I now know how to do that! I honestly couldn't explain it to someone if my life depended on it, but I can whip out an image like that without any problems now. For the more advanced stuff, I like Photoshop; but for the routine editing, I prefer Lightroom because it's much quicker for me to edit photos.

I am now going to have to go through some of my past assignments and random photo outings of mine, and pick out with photos I would like to post in another blog entry.

Another Drawing

2009-10-21T10:53:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I have three drawing assignments each week for Drawing, and the fourth assignment is to critique four other students' drawings. Easy, I tell you. E-A-S-Y!! Well, I do all of my drawings at the beginning of the week or the week before so I don't have to worry so much, and then I can focus on my Photography assignments for the week. My mom saw a drawing I did for this week, and she was completely shocked when she saw it. But first, let me take you back to my freshman year in high school.

As a freshman at Brunswick High School, I took the very basic, introduction art class. Without this class, you can't take any other kind of art class in high school. I just took this class as one of those always lovable easy classes. [You know, just to get that "easy A" and help out your GPA. HA.] Man, I was so wrong about it being an "easy A", let me tell you. I had the toughest art teacher at the high school! Some of the assignments I did really well on, while others were horrible. Let me tell you, I couldn't draw if my life depended on it. I remember one of the very first drawings we had to do in that class was draw a horse from memory. O-M-G! My "horse" looked like a fat freakin' blob! It was HIDEOUS!! And, of course, the teacher put that drawing on display one day. HA. [Thanks, Mrs. K!] I was such a horrible "artist", and I swore I would NEVER take another art class while in high school. HAHAHA.

Fast forward about a year and a half to two years later. I had to spend some time in the hospital - about a week, maybe. During this time in the hospital, I started drawing to clear my mind. I remember drawing a picture with the world in my hands. After that drawing, things changed. I then realized that I wasn't as bad at drawing like I was my freshman year. When I came home from the hospital, my mom and I went to the one store and I got a drawing pad, pencils, markers, crayons, oil pastels, etc. It was too late to sign up to take art classes my junior year of high school. So I just had to stick with drawing at home that year. Once it came time to sign up for classes my senior year, my schedule was FILLED with art classes. During my senior year, my art skills really improved and I had art work on display in the halls of the school and at local hospitals and elsewhere. It was really cool and very humbling.

I haven't done a whole lot of drawing since high school, but I draw every once in a while. But now that I am taking a Drawing class, I draw three different things a week. I love it! Drawing is a lot of fun and it relaxes me.

My mom saw the drawing below, and she thought it was really good. She was on the phone with someone, and she said, "I remember years ago when she couldn't draw for shit. Now I just can't get over a lot of the drawings she does now. They are really good." I think the drawing is okay, nothing great. Plus, it's not even really finished, if you ask me. I still want to work on the shading some and add a background to it. But it was really nice to hear my mom say something like that about my drawings. Trust me, I used to be the most God awful drawer before - it was ridiculous! [And I'm not saying I'm spectacular now, but I definitely am nowhere near as bad as I used to be!!]

Bowl of fruit. Drawing done with charcoal.

Photographic Narrative

2009-10-17T22:45:00.002-04:00

You're given one week to come up with no less than three ideas for a photographic narrative. Of the no less than three ideas you've chosen, you have to choose one. Over the span of 5.5 weeks, you will have to post 36 photos you've taken for a total of five assignments relating to that one idea you've chosen. Not only do you have to post 36 images each week for the assignment, you have to write at least one paragraph.

Let me tell you, I had one hell of a time coming up with three ideas for the a photographic narrative. I submitted three ideas, but I didn't feel that any of them were very strong. Then at the beginning of the week, I suddenly thought of an idea, something very personal, that I could use as my photographic narrative project. I e-mailed my instructor to see if it was okay that I switched my topic, and luckily he's really cool and easy going, and he said that it sounded good to him and to "go for it". I was so happy to be able to switch my topic because this one is, like I said before, personal. Also, it will give me something to look back on and really appreciate.

This first week's sequence of photos weren't as strong as I'd like, but I only had a few days to work with, rather than a whole week. But now I have some ideas "brewing" for the sequences in upcoming weeks, and I hope that I can pull them off! I am just going to have a hard time, I'm sure, for some things because I don't know how stores are going to feel when I bust out a camera and possibly a tripod. HA! But I am planning on going to stores on weekdays, during the day, so that the stores aren't too crowded and I'm not freaking people out and managers could possibly be a little bit more understanding about it. At least I hope that the managers will be more understanding. If not, oh well, call the cops because I've got a project to work on that's major! LOL.

I have kind of planned each week to be another "chapter" in this story, and it's a bit interesting. The one week, though, might be a bit difficult because of something that should be happening to me. Hopefully I will be able to pull through and handle it.

If you had to do a photographic narrative, what would you choose as your topic?!

Drawing

2009-10-14T22:06:00.007-04:00

So in my last post, I said that maybe I would post some of my drawings. Here are three drawing that I have done so far. I know they aren't great, but I am proud of them.

These are the tomatoes I was drawing in my current Blogger and Facebook picture.

This was a simple still life I had to do this week.

This was a more complex still life I had to do this week.

In one of my drawing classes in high school, there was this one project we had to do. It was really cool and I was so impressed with how well mine turned out!! I have decided recently that I am going to do a few of those drawings again, and I can't wait to see the finished products! Once I have completed them [although I don't know when that will be], I will post them on here for you all to see.

I am LOVING Quarter 2, Session 1!!

2009-10-14T00:18:00.002-04:00

At the Art Institute, they run on quarters, and then they split their quarters up in to two sessions. So, like the title says, I am in my second quarter, first session. And let me tell you, I REALLY DO LOVE IT!!

Drawing has been amazing! I feel like I'm right back in my drawing classes in HS, and I did pretty effing awesome in those classes!! I find it incredibly relaxing to just sit down with a sketch pad and drawing utensils, and just draw for an hour or so. I love it! I'm already finished with this three of week's assignments and have two of them turned in, once of which is turned in a bit early. I am waiting another day to turn in assignment three [even though it'll be turned in well in advance], but I can't turn in the forth assignment because I have to wait for others to turn in their assignments so I can start critiquing. [Critiquing others assignments is the forth assignment for each week.]

Principles of Digital Photography has been great! This one assignment that I have to do for that class spans the whole 5.5 weeks. I had a really hard time coming up with my idea, but I have a pretty solid idea. This assignment isn't as simple as just picking up your camera and taking photographs. Oh no, you have to really THINK about it - and then you have to WRITE about it! I think that I am going to head out to the next town so that I can photograph for the big project! One thing I don't like about this class is that we have to shoot assignments using certain modes, and seriously, I can't shoot in AUTO. I have stayed so far away from AUTO since April that I literally get sick when I think about shooting in AUTO. ::gag:: [My thing is, I have a nice DSLR camera, and I shouldn't be shooting in AUTO. I don't find the point in having a DSLR camera and shooting in AUTO. If you want to shoot in AUTO, use a point-and-shoot camera. That's just me though....] But anyway, back to school and my assignments. The assignments are a lot of fun. I like that I get to go outside at this time of the year and photograph. Fall is so beautiful here! The colors are so vivid, and some are really bright. I love it! It's absolutely amazing!

Maybe some time within the next week or so, I will post some of my drawings on here to show you all. I am not some great artists, but I like some of my drawings. Plus, I put photos I've taken on here, why not show some of my other art work?!

Cameras, cameras, cameras!

2009-10-09T23:21:00.003-04:00

Today, while at Borders [when I was getting my copy of The Body Issue], I picked up a Buyer's Guide for 2010 about DSLR cameras. I swore that I was not going to be looking for another DSLR camera for a long while, but you can obviously see that idea has fallen through. HA. I want something that's more "powerful" than what I have now. I know I don't need a new DSLR camera, but I think I should have something more "powerful". Mark and I discussed me getting a new camera a while back, he said I could, but I then decided that I wouldn't get it. But now that I'm in school and learning more, I think maybe I should get something more "powerful" and better than what I have. Mark hasn't said anything about me not being able to get a new camera [because I have brought it up to him recently], but I just don't want to assume that he doesn't care if I get one, go out and get one, then Mark freak out. You know?! But this Buyer's Guide is pretty nice! I like it better than searching on a store's website or on the manufacturer's website.

Well, I recently just bought a new point-and-shoot camera though. I can't always lug around my DSLR, so I got a Canon PowerShot. It's so small! I'm not used to using small cameras these days! LOL. But it's nice to have because I can take it anywhere and it doesn't take up a lot of space and I don't need to carry around a large backpack. Also, toward the beginning of the year, I got Mark one of those flip video cameras. He loves it! So about a month or two ago, I got one for myself. LOVE IT! I didn't get the newer one, just the original. But still, it's pretty bad ass! I take that with me to a lot of places.

I swear, if it's some sort of camera, I want it! LOL. I've got a Sony Handycam, a flip, a Canon PowerShot, and Sony a300 DSLR camera. Crap, let's face it, I just love all technological devices! Along with my cameras, I love my BlackBerry and my iPod! Technology is my best friend!

ESPN Magazine: The Body Issue

2009-10-09T22:59:00.004-04:00

Today was a day I have been counting down to for about a week or two now! ESPN magazine came out with The Body Issue. This afternoon, I got ready and went out to Border's and got my tiny hands on one of them! The issue is hot, hot, HOT!! I'm not going to lie, there were quite a few HOT bodies in that magazine!!

But the main reason I got it, is because of my favorite athlete, Ryan Lochte!! YES, his body was featured in the issue!! I got to see the photo the other day, but having the magazine that contains that photo is even better!! If you're a Ryan Lochte fan, you have a GREAT LOVE for that white Speedo he's wearing!! I definitely love that white Speedo!! I know I'm a married woman and have two children, but you can't deny that Ryan Lochte is HOT! But let me tell you something, he's even HOTTER in person!! ::fans self:: WOOO! HA.

But something that's really cool is that a swimmer was in this issue! I honestly think ESPN would've been beyond stupid to not include a swimmer. I mean, HELLO, they have amazing bodies!! Plus, it's not Michael Phelps that's in the magazine, it's RYAN LOCHTE!! [Yeah, Phelps is a great swimmer, there's no denying that. But I am just so happy to see someone other than Phelps. And since it's Ryan, all the better!]

Also featured in The Body Issue is Dwight Howard, Serena Williams, Carl Edwards, Lolo Jones, and just a bunch of other athletes from other sports. I highly recommend getting this issue of the magazine! It's not expensive at all [I think I paid $5 for it, maybe]. So go get one...NOW!

Here's a link to a video about the issue: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4536943

Fall

2009-10-06T16:04:00.010-04:00

Yesterday, I walked a little bit around town with my camera, camera bag, and tripod. [Yeah, I'm sure I looked like a freakin' weirdo, but oh well.] It was nice to walk around and take photos. I went out for a photography assignment and had a fun time. I don't like that it gets cooler [I am such a summer girl], but I absolutely love the colors of fall!!

Here are some photos I took while I was out walking around.

FOR-EV-ER!

2009-10-03T19:51:00.002-04:00

Holy moly! It has been so long since I have posted anything on here - over 2 months!! O_O So let me give you a short update on what's been happening in my "photography life."

I've been going to school since July 13th!! I finished my first quarter one week ago! YAY! I got an A, a B, and a dang C. But I will say this, the class I got that C in really kicked my butt!! Like, REALLY kicked my butt!! I would literally spend over 6 hours most days working on assignments for that class. It was torture! HA. But I am very proud of myself for getting that C because I could've done worse in that class, like I'm sure a lot of other people did!! I start my second quarter on Monday, and I can't wait! I will be taking Drawing and Principles of Digital Photography!! I've already completed a few of my assignments for Drawing. HA. Go ahead, call me a nerd, over-achiever, whatever. LOL. I love drawing! I went to a store today and spent $62.99 on drawing supplies - pencils, blenders, erasers, sketch pad, etc. I would draw all day if I could! My Dig. Photography class, though, is going to be some SERIOUS business, let me tell you!! I'm used to having assignments be less than 50 points each, but the assignments for this class are 200-300 points each!! IN-SANE! But it's going to be a lot of fun! I can't wait to go outside with my camera and take photos of new scenery and such.

My mind and heart haven't changed at all - I still want to be that sports photographer!! And pretty soon, I am going to need your help!! [I'll let you know about that later on though - when the time comes.] And you know, I should post some of my photos from the USA Swimming Nationals back in July and baseball photos on here - as well as other photos that aren't related to sports. I need to start showcasing my work on more than just FB, and the occasional MySpace and Twitter.

I've been put in touch with higher ups in some major sports companies, and it's been great! I love having that connection! The people I have talked to are wonderful! And I have even had a few tell me that they can't wait to one day have me work along side them. That's definitely a major confidence booster right there! I want to be a sports photographer so badly, and I started networking a couple months ago. Networking is insanely important, especially if you want to make it in the field you're working in.

Hopefully I will get back into blogging and keeping this up-to-date. A LOT will be happening within the next few months, and I'd like to keep you all "in the know"!!

An AMAZING Opportunity!!

2009-07-21T20:54:00.002-04:00

I won't go in to any details right now, but I have an AWESOME opportunity right at my feet!! I am absolutely, definitely, 100% going at this opportunity, too!! I will take hold and try as hard as possible to get this!! You have no idea how AMAZING this is right now for me!! It has to deal with my DREAM JOB!! If it weren't for me going to Indy two weeks ago, this opportunity wouldn't have even presented itself to me!! I love how things have been working out in my life lately!!

PLEASE KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED FOR ME!! I really, really, really ~~want~~ need this!! My life would be absolutely wonderful if I got this!! [Not that it isn't absolutely wonderful already, but you know what I mean. HA.]

I could cry right now because of this opportunity presenting itself to me already!! It's unbelievable!!

School

2009-07-17T10:14:00.002-04:00

This past Monday, July 13th, was my 22nd birthday and my first day of school!! It was such an awesome day!! Getting a phone call from my husband in the morning got my day off to a great start, but then the day just went "sour". That really sucked!! But then at night, I was told "happy birthday" from my favorite athlete!! I started to cry!! It was so wonderful!! How many people get to say that they were told "happy birthday" by their favorite athlete?! Not many, I'm sure!!

Anyway, school has been okay. I'm wrapping up week one here, and I know that it's going to take a little bit of getting used to for me. I haven't been in school in a long time, and I've never taken any online classes before. Plus, with two kids running around, it can be a bit difficult and stressful at times. So there's a lot of adjusting that needs to be done. I know I will be fine though. I just need to get next week over with, and I will probably be fine then. If not after next week, maybe I'll be fine after the third week.

I got to order my new photo editing software the other day through the school!! I was so excited to see the e-mail in my inbox saying that I can now order the software and that there was a special code for me to use so I got the right thing!! I don't know when I will get the software, but I should be finding out within the next few days. I hope it gets here soon because I am dying to edit my photos from last week when I was in Indy!! I hate that I have so many, yet people have only seen a very small portion of them!!

I can't wait till I start taking classes that really focus in on photography!! I can't wait to learn new things about photography, and then put those things to use!! It's going to be so amazing!! I absolutely LOVE photography - everything about it!! I hope that I do get to become that sports photographer I can only currently dream of becoming!! I feel that I already have quite a bit "under my belt" with sports photography since I have been going to sports events to test and work on my sports photography skills. A lot of people in my class already think that I've achieved quite a bit, but to me, it's not nearly close to what I want to achieve!! To me, I just do what I love!! If I have to pay nearly $1,000 for tickets and a hotel for one week, I will do it - and I did last week!! I don't care!! If that's what it takes to get me started and work on my skills, then that's what it takes!! You have to start somewhere!! I'm going to do what it takes to be a sports photographer!! Of course, I would absolutely love to see my name under a photograph [or under a bunch of photographs] in sports magazines one day, but if that doesn't happen, that's okay. Just as long as I am at a sports event, being paid to do what I love to do, then I'll be incredibly happy!! It's going to happen for me one day - I know it will!!

Do you remember how my one camera lens got all messed up and I had to take it to Best Buy to get it fixed?! Well, it's fixed and waiting for me at Best Buy!! YAY!! I can't wait to go get it tomorrow!! Also, I will probably buy a new camera bag - a back pack!! My MIL gave me the money to go get it for my birthday, but I just haven't gone to Best Buy yet to get it. I can't wait!! I want to get one that's big enough to fit a laptop in it, the camera body, the three camera lenses I already have, the large lens I will be getting by year's end, and all of my accessories [lens filters, batteries, lens hoods, etc.].

Life seems to just be working out very well for me lately!!

BEST WEEK EVER!!!!

2009-07-12T14:30:00.004-04:00

Today, I got home from the 2009 swimming Nationals/World Championship Trials. OMG! Let me tell you something, if you can ever go to a swim meet where the nation's best are competing, GO!!!! You will not regret it at all!! I kid you not when I say that last week was the best week of my life!! I have had so many amazing days and moments in life, but to have five consecutive day of nothing but pure awesomeness like I did last week has never happened to me!! I can't even begin to explain how amazing last week was!! It was so awesome, that as I got on the highway this morning to head back here to Ohio, I was on the verge of tears!!

I took over 2,000 photos last week!! I definitely have quite a few favorites already!! I can't wait till I get my new photo editing programs so I can resize, watermark, etc. the photos and share them with you guys!! I kid you not when I say I got some AMAZING shots last week!! Some of the shots I got look professional, which makes me very happy because sports photography is what I want to focus on!!

I got to meet SO MANY swimmers, past and present, last week. I got my picture taken with a lot of them, too!! I got autographs, photos of/with, had conversations with, joked around with, high-fived, and other stuff with swimmers, coaches, and family members of swimmers!! Even one of the swimmers "tweeted" about me on Twitter!! BAHAHAHA. That was so funny!! It was all just so amazing, wonderful, great, etc.!! Some of the photos of me with these people are really good, some are decent, and some are just down right hilarious!!!! Some of the photos had me crying because I was laughing so hard!!

I feel that while in Indy, I got to find part of myself that I lost a while ago. It was great being able to be that person again and have the fun that I did. I made some GREAT friends while in Indy, and I hope that next year, we will all be able to get together again at nationals!! We had so much fun and I will NEVER forget a lot of the memories we all shared together, if not all of the memories!! Those are memories I will be telling my children, grandchildren, and maybe even great-grandchildren [if I live that long]. I love what last week brought to me!! I haven't had that much fun in a LONG time, and I am so sad that it ended. I'm already making "mental plans" for next summer's Nationals, and maybe even going to some of the Grand Prix meets once they start back up later this year and go through next Spring/Summer.

I just don't know what else to say about last week. Words really can't even begin to try to explain how amazing last week was!! It was definitely a great way to celebrate the week before my birthday!! But now, it's back to my normal life, and I start school tomorrow!! I'm very nervous about starting school, but I'm ready for it, I think!! HA.

#50 - Lens Problems

2009-06-21T08:46:00.003-04:00

The other day, my lens gave out on me. The auto focus no longer worked properly. Everytime I'd turn my camera on, it would make a nasty noise because of the auto focus being so messed up. It was just weird though when it first happened because I was using my camera, turned it off for less than five minutes, and when I turned it back on, it made a loud grinding noise. Ugh. So I took the lens to Best Buy the next day, and the Geek Squad took it to send off to get it either fixed or replaced. It definitely sucks that I don't have my lens - especially since my MIL and I took the boys to the zoo yesterday.

However, I did order a new lens from B&H Photo last night for my camera!! My damaged lens was an 18-55mm, and the one I just ordered last night is an 18-70mm lens. It should be here by/on Thursday!! I really hope that it is - because over the weekend, my dad, my sister, Michael, and I are going to meet some of the players and coaches of the Cleveland Indians!!!! Yeah, what is up!! HA. I'm definitely going to need a smaller lens [rather than my 75-300mm lens] for that event!! It's going to be fun!! I can't wait!!

The Good & The Bad That Turned Into Good

2009-06-17T08:57:00.004-04:00

THE GOOD:
My books for two of my first three classes were suppose to arrive here today, but I was very happy to see the UPS man yesterday leaving a box by the front door!! Yes, that box had my books in there!! I was very excited!! Last night, I even started to read the first chapter of the art history book!! I haven't gotten to any of the incredibly interesting stuff in the book yet, but I'll get to it soon enough.

THE BAD [that turned into GOOD]:
Yesterday, I was getting ready to go outside with Michael while Brayden napped. Just like I always go, I grabbed my camera to take outside with me. I saw that my lens was a little smudged, so I wanted to clean it real fast. Now, I normally don't do this, but I was in a hurry to get outside because Michael just flies out the door the second he's asked if he wants to go outside - but I grabbed the bottle of Windex and lightly misted my camera lens, went to get a paper towel, then wiped off the lens. Everything looked fine, and I went outside after Michael. About 10 minutes later, I look at my lens because something seemed a bit off. Yeah, the Windex got in my lens!! I was so upset!! The Windex wasn't even on my lens for 5 seconds after I sprayed it!! I called the Geek Squad, then went to Best Buy to get it replaced. I get to Best Buy with my sister, and I go to Customer Service. After 5+ minutes of standing there, waiting for them to tell me what's going on, they inform me that I didn't have the protection plan and replacement plan!!!! I was FUMING because I definitely told the guy when I bought the camera that I wanted every little bit of protection/replacement plan and the longest warranty possible for my camera and all of the extra stuff!!!! They then told me that I would have to pay out of pocket for a new lens, but I might be able to get up to 30% off on that new lens. I go back to the camera section of the store, talk to someone who's working in that area, and they tell me that they don't sell my lens separately there, but that I'd have to go through Sony to get a new lens!!!! Are you kidding me?! I was about to lose it - right then and there!! My sister and I just decided to walk around Best Buy and look at pretty much everything else there. About 5-10 minutes later, I take my lens cap off to look at my lens, and guess what - my lens had completely dried out!! There was no more Windex in my camera lens!!!! OMG! I was so excited!! I was so excited that I decided to look at the iPods and accessories. [I've never had my own iPod. I've always borrowed Mark's, but can't now since he took it with him on the deployment. I told him I'd get my own while he was gone.] As I was looking at the iPods, some guy there was buying an iPod and talking to a worker at Best Buy. The worker told this guy about this iPod bundle deal that they have going on. I only heard bits and pieces of it, so after they were done talking about it, I asked the worker what the deal was. The deal was amazing!! It was an 8GB iPod nano, $15 iTunes gift card, iPod wall charger, and iPod arm band for just $179.99!! Yeah, pretty effing amazing!! The 8GB iPod nano is $149.99, the wall charger is $24.99, the arm band is $24.99, and the gift card is obviously $15!! So how could I pass that deal up?! I ended up getting that stuff, and I was so excited because they had only one blue 8GB iPod nano left!! Of course I got the blue iPod because blue is absolute favorite color!! I was so pumped though because that deal was absolutely amazing!! Also, I bought season three of "How I Met Your Mother" while I was at Best Buy. "How I Met Your Mother" is my favorite show!!!! I now have the first three seasons on DVD, and can't wait till season four is on DVD!! I have been watching that show since the very first episode aired on TV. I am a huge, die hard fan and know just about everything about that show!!

I'm just so happy that my camera lens dried out!! I don't know how long I'd have to wait for a new lens to come in and how much money I'd have to spend. I would be a major crab till I got the new lens if I had to get a new one!!

One Month, One Day.

2009-06-12T19:55:00.002-04:00

In one month and one day, not only will I be turning 22 years old, I will be starting school!! I am seriously looking forward to it!! I am so ready to be going to school for photography!! I feel that going to school, especially through The Art Institute, will definitely help me become a great photographer and help me get at least a decent photography job when I'm finished.

I called the school today because I had a question to ask. I wanted to know when I would be getting the "voucher" for my software since I got the one for my books. I was hoping that I'd get it real soon, but I won't be getting it till after I start my first class [which is just an "orientation" class]. That blows that I won't be getting it any time soon!! I was really hoping that I'd get it within the next week or two. Oh well, I guess. I just can't wait till I can get the software for school!! I am going to have so much fun editing photos and learning new things on all of the different programs I'll have!!

So I got an e-mail today letting me know when my books should arrive. I should get them in five days [June 17th]. I can't wait to get them and start reading them!! [Yes, I do love reading school books in my spare time. HA. I have school books that are at least 5 years old that I occasionally pick up and read.] I am definitely looking forward to getting my book for my History of Art in Early Civilization class. I love history!! History has always been one of my favorite subjects, and to learn the history of art is really exciting to me!! I still have to order my books for my Computer Literacy class, but that class doesn't start till August 20th. But I need, like, five books for that class alone - and two of them are for the Adobe CS4 series. Those books will definitely help me out with two of the Adobe editing programs I'll have to get for school.

I am getting more excited about school as each day goes by!! This is going to be absolutely amazing!!

"Two out of Three ain't bad!!"

2009-06-11T12:15:00.002-04:00

HA. I love Meatloaf!! Such an awesome singer!!

So, my first three classes for school are scheduled!! AND, I ordered my books for two out of the three classes!! I'm just going to be taking one class for the first 5.5 weeks, then take two classes the next 5.5 weeks. [The Art Institute divides their quarters in half, which makes each class normally only 5.5 weeks long.] I am just so excited about this!! It's absolutely amazing!! I can't wait to start school on July 13th [my 22nd birthday, BTW]!!

Right now, life has been really good to me!! I don't know the last time I had so many days in a row where things just felt right!! I love this!! Hopefully this is a wonderful sign letting me know that things are only going to get better - even though it doesn't feel like things can get much better!!

Photography School...HERE I COME!!!!

2009-06-10T19:34:00.003-04:00

OMG!!

This is way exciting for me!!

I am almost ready to start school NEXT MONTH!!!! Really!! Today has been one busy, yet amazing, day for me and getting things taken care of with the school!! All I have left to do is schedule my classes, then order my books and software!! Holy crap!! AND, I will probably have my classes scheduled within the next few days, which I will then be able to order my books and software!! YAY!

The only thing I hate about going back to school - loans!! Yuck! I hate money!! Money is the root of all evil, I kid you not!! Going to The Art Institute is way expensive - so much so that I won't have enough money through loans to cover the schooling by quite a hefty chunk of money!! Ugh. But I know that things will work out - as long as I keep my head on straight, work toward my goal, and stay on track with everything. I'm just going to have to start working on a portfolio ASAP so I can network myself and build a reputation and get clients. That way, I'll make money, save it, and use it in any way possible toward school and loans.

I am so ready for this!! I am going to make the absolute best of this experience!!

ONE MONTH TO GO!!!!

2009-06-06T17:54:00.002-04:00

In one month, I'll either still be on my way or already in INDY!!!! Ah, so exciting!! It's going to be simply amazing!! I so look forward to watching 5 days worth of swimming [which will be aired on NBC, BTW]!! I really look forward to taking some hundred [maybe even over a thousand] photos!!!! I really do hope, though, that I do get to meet some of the swimmers there!! That'd be such a HUGE thing to happen to me!!!! I'm not even kidding - I'd be happy for the rest.of.my.life!!!! Of course, there are a certain few swimmers that I am dying to meet!! [::cough cough:: Ryan Lochte ::cough cough:: Dara Torres ::cough cough:: Aaron Piersol ::cough cough:: There are a couple others, as well, but those are the three I'd love to meet the absolute most.] I am just so ready for it to be July 6th, so my sister and I can be on our merry way to Indy, then wake up bright and early on the 7th and haul ass over to the Natatorium!!!! It's going to be so amazing photographing and watching the swim meet - for 5 days!!!! It'll be so cool having photos of Olympic swimmers [some of which are Olympic gold medalists]!! Those photos will definitely be cherished - as well as on display in our house once we move back down to NC!! Plus, those photos can be passed down to my kids, grandkids, etc., and they'll be able to see that I was able to go watch Olympic swimmers swim at a meet. I think that'd be really cool.

Also, in a little over a week, I'm planning on going to another Cleveland Indians baseball game!! I hope to get some really cool photos while I'm there. [Maybe Grady Sizemore will make a diving catch at this game, and I'll actually be able to get a photo of it.]

I love going to sporting events and taking photos. I really want to be a sports photographer!!

Finally Back!!

2009-05-31T21:13:00.003-04:00

I am finally back in Ohio!! Let me tell you, I am very happy!! To me, it is very important to have family around, and it's my main reason for coming home while Mark's deployed. [However, this will be the last time coming home during a deployment since Michael will be old enough to go to school next year.] I grew up surrounded by family, and I look back at all of that family I had around me and truly appreciate it. Actually, we got in yesterday morning around 3:40, and today we went to a birthday party for one of my cousins. [I'm telling you, my family is very close, and I will never take that for granted.] I want my children to be able to have as much family around as possible growing up. I don't want them to wonder who their family members are and what they are/were like.

But now that we're back, that means that I am just that much closer to starting school!! In a couple of hours, I will be able to say that I start school next month!! HA. Within the next few days, I am going to be filling out my student loan application. Once that is taken care of, I will just have to schedule my classes and order my books and software, and then I'll be ready to go for school!! YAY! You have no idea how excited I am to start school!! It's going to be so exciting!! I am so ready for everything that's to come!! I am ready to learn something else that I am so passionate and serious about!!

Today, I stopped at Staples and finally got my 1 TB external hard drive!!!! I've started to transfer some important stuff to it, and once that's all taken care of, I am going to see if my cousin can wipe out the laptop and start over from "scratch". Something's still wrong with the laptop, and I just need to wipe everything out. I'm just transferring my fonts, music, and photos that are saved on the laptop. Then after the laptop's been wiped out, everything's been restored, and I get my new $510 16-program editing set, I will be ready to go!! I can't wait!! I am going to be doing some serious "damage" around here with all of the photography stuff!!

I have a BRILLIANT idea!!

2009-05-20T20:19:00.004-04:00

Today, I was watching TV and a commercial for this one show kept coming on. It's about this religion camp thing. I don't know, I can't stand to watch the commercials because the lady loses her damn mind and scares me. There's a difference [and fine line] between teaching children about God and shoving everything you interpret from the Bible down children's throats and scaring them half to death.

But anyway, the commercial gave me an idea for a photo shoot. I'm not going to say what my idea is because I want to keep it to myself for now. I want to be able to pull it off, and have no one know about it till I start asking people to be a part of it, then show the photos. My plan is to do this shoot during the summer while I'm in Ohio. I hope that I am able to do it at one of the local parks with a good number of people. It'll be about an issue that I am very passionate about. If I am able to pull off this photo shoot, I can't even begin to tell you how amazing it will be!!

I have some people in mind right now that I want to ask to do this photo shoot with me, and I am also thinking about just posting on my MySpace and Facebook telling people in the area that if they would like to be a part of a photo shoot I'm doing, then they will just have to get in contact with me and I'd give them the information. And even though there's a subject/purpose/reason for this photo shoot, it shouldn't be hard to find people willing to do such a photo shoot.

Seriously, I can't even explain how great it would be to pull this off. Honestly, it could be a little bit "ground breaking", for a lack of better words. I think it would maybe make people open their eyes and minds a little bit. It's just something that means so much to me. It's something I believe in that goes "across the board" and involves everyone, which is why it shouldn't be too difficult to find some models.

If I can pull this off, I will submit the photos to the school [The Art Institute], to contests, and use them in my portfolio. I might even contemplate submitting them elsewhere, making it known that now is the time for things to change with certain issues. I know my idea may be "controversial", but I don't care about that. Something being controversial is something that can create change - and right now, we need this change.

I one day hope to win some small award or be recognized for the photos I'll take, and this idea of mine can get me started. I normally don't set my expectations high, unless it's something I know I am, or can be, good at doing. Photography happens to be one of those things, and I hope that I am able to accomplish at least two of my goals.

HOLY MOLY!!!!

2009-05-14T20:02:00.003-04:00

So last night, I was looking through some of the stuff for The Art Institute that was on the list of things to do before starting school. One thing on the list is about the software and they have a website for the school to order the software you need, as well as extra stuff. I looked at the website last night, and just browsed through the software, hardware, and all of that stuff. The one cool thing about The Art Institute is that, if you order stuff through their website for school, you get 85% off of everything!!!! AMAZING! There's this one thing I've been wanting to get [Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection], but it's about $2,500!! Yeah, there's no way on God's green earth that I'd spend that much on software right now. But as I was browsing the school's website last night, they sell the collection to students for $510!!!! One of the programs I am required to have is in the collection, and it's about $100 by itself. So Mark and I talked last night, and he said that I could go ahead and get the CS4 Master Collection. Why pay about $100 for one software program when I can pay a little over $400 more and get 16 programs?! It just makes sense to us if I just got the whole collection. And I have to admit, I am so happy that I have a husband that is supporting me 100% with going to school for photography and letting me get some new things so I am able to start at a semi-professional level with all of it. Gosh, I love him so much!!!!

Speaking of Mark, he left this morning. I miss him like crazy already!! We were lucky enough to be able to text each other for a while before he got on the ship. It just sucks that I won't be getting a million texts from him a daily basis for the next 6 months or so. He did send me one last photo though from his phone before he left. He was frowning in the photo. He's not thrilled one bit about this deployment, but we're hoping that this is the last one for a while. The boys have no idea that Mark's gone and not coming home for a while - they were asleep in the stroller when he left. It just hurts because they don't know. But at the same time, I'm glad they didn't see him leave because Michael was such a mess the last time Mark left on deployment. I just hope that this transition without Daddy and the move go smoothly with the boys. I know it's going to be a lot on the right now, but I'm happy that we're getting it all done with within a short period of time. [I hate dragging things out.]

So here's to deployment #3!! I hope that this deployment goes smoothly and that we're an even happier, closer family in the end!!

It's O-F-F-I-C-I-A-L!!!!

2009-05-13T18:07:00.004-04:00

Today, I got a small package in the mail from The Art Institute...I'VE OFFICIALLY BEEN ACCEPTED TO THE PHOTOGRAPHY PROGRAM!!!! YAY! Now all I have to do is get everything set so I can start class(es) in July!! I am probably going to call in a little bit or tomorrow to speak with someone so I know exactly where I am on the list of things I need to get taken care of. I'm pretty sure I only have to take care of my accuplacer exam, scheduling my class(es), and getting books and software!! AHHHHH! I can't believe that this is actually going to happen - I'm going to school!!!! HA. This is absolutely amazing!! I am so ready for this!!

But, with this wonderful news comes some sad news - my husband should be gone in less than 12 hours!! Yuck! I'm really sad that we have to go through another deployment, but I've been able to keep myself together and just enjoy the time we've had together. And let me tell you something, not being such an emotional mess [like the last two times] has been nothing short of wonderful!! I'm glad that I've been able to just have real conversations with him rather than breaking down in front of him every 5-10 seconds. It sucks that he has to go, but I know it's what he has to do.

Reason for lack of blogging and photos.

2009-05-06T11:35:00.003-04:00

I apologize for not blogging for a while, and having not put up any new photos!! I am so sorry!!

Ever since the laptop was infected with viruses, spyware, and all of that ridiculous nonsense, things haven't been working right on the laptop. I had the laptop taken care of the evening it got infected with everything, but the next morning, something else infected the laptop. So that had to get taken care of. I put Norton 360 on the laptop and am now using Firefox, but the laptop is still acting all weird. I am now unable to open my photo editing program!! Such trash, I tell you!! So all of the photos I took at least a week and a half ago aren't edited/resized, and I can't put them online. I am so effing mad!! I thought I only took 300-400 photos of the Indians/Red Sox game, but after going through the photos, I think I counted somewhere between 600 and 700 photos!! So just from one night alone, I have a ton of photos to go through, edit, resize, and all of that stuff!! I am losing my mind over here!! Hopefully the laptop stops being lame and starts working properly for me...and SOON!!!!

Also, I've been super busy with getting things packed up and moved to storage since we're moving before the month's over. Just about all of the big furniture that's to be put in storage before Mark leaves is gone - only 4 bigger pieces are left to be taken over. I can't believe that Mark will be leaving so soon!! It honestly hasn't even hit me yet that he's leaving!!

Hopefully this laptop will get it's shit together and start working properly!! I know I'm going to be getting myself a laptop this summer, but I can't wait forever and a day to be able to edit and upload new photos!!

Monday Night's Game

2009-04-29T00:31:00.004-04:00

As you should know, Mark and I went to the Indians game on Monday night. We lost - those stupid Red Sox beat us. But let me tell you something, it was a great game!! Pitching from both teams was great!! [Of course Cliff Lee was going to deliver. After all, he did win the Cy Young award last year!! HELL YES!!] It just sucked though that my Indians lost Monday. [However, they beat the Red Sox Tuesday night!! WWOOOOOOO!!!!]

Mark and I had tickets for seats in Pronkville. We only stayed there though till the end of the 4th inning. After that, we went and sat on the Party Deck for the rest of the game. If I stood up, bent forward, and leaned over a little bit, I would've been touching the foul pole in right field. There was only one row of seats in front of us, too. So we were right by the field, and we were right next to the visitor's bullpen. OMG it was amazing!! I took 300-400 photos throughout the game, plus a few before the game. [We got there early and walked around Heritage Park and stood in the first row by right-center field during the Red Sox batting practice. We ALMOST got a ball that one of Red Sox players hit.]

During the game, Grady Sizemore made this amazing diving catch!! I was so ready for it!! My camera was right on Grady - I knew he was going to dive for it and catch it!! As soon as I pushed down on the button to snap that shot, my husband just had to stand up RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, RUINING THE SHOT!!!! Ugh! I was so pissed - and still am!! SERIOUSLY!! I could've had this absolutely amazing shot of one of my favorite Indians players, but noooooo, my husband had to leap up out of his chair and cheer for Grady. ::rolls eyes:: I told Mark that I will never let that moment die down for as long as I live. HA. [Seriously though, I probably won't let it go - ever.]

I don't have the photos I took uploaded yet. I actually don't even have them tranferred yet because I don't have enough space on the flash drive I brought with me to Ohio. So once I get back to NC, I'll get to transferring and uploading them so I can share some of the photos with you!!

OH!! After the game, since we were right by the visitor's bullpen, Mark asked for a baseball, and we got one!!!! To me, it doesn't matter if it's a ball used by an opposing team - a ball touched by multiple multi-million-dollar professional athletes is better than nothing!!!! HA. I'm going to buy a case for it, I kid you not!! It's going to go in our next house when we [or should I say I?] deck out a room or wall in Cleveland stuff.

I had so much fun at the game Monday night!! I'm hoping to go to a few more games this summer once the boys and I are back up here. I want to go and see my favorite baseball team of my entire life play, and take some photos of those guys playing baseball!! I ♥ baseball!!

Also, Cleveland has a single-A team in Kinston, NC. That's not very far from where we live down there. So we're going to try to go to one of their games before Mark deploys in May. I can't wait!! We're going to take the boys, too - their very first baseball game!! So if we go to a K-Tribe game, I'm going to take photos there, too!! Maybe one day they'll end up playing in Cleveland for the Indians, and then we'll get to say that we saw them when they were playing in Kinston. [We're also going to try to get some autographs, if possible.] Mark always says, "Maybe we'll get to see the next Grady Sizemore." And he's right - maybe we will.

Understanding My Camera

2009-04-27T12:04:00.003-04:00

Over the last week or so, I have been learning a lot more about my camera. I've read the book that came with my camera at least 20-25 times [no joke], but reading can only get you so far. Lately, I've been using different modes on my camera that I wasn't comfortable using before. I made myself use those modes and nothing else for a short, yet decent, amount of time. Now, I am very comfortable shooting in A [Aperture Priority] and M [Manual]. So I can add those two modes to the list of modes I am comfortable using. [Next mode I need to work on/get comfortable using is P [Portrait]. Sounds pretty easy, but I'd like to just get the chance to use it more often.] I'm very happy now that I know how to use those modes, and what to use them for. Honestly, I find it very exciting to be able to know how to use multiple shooting modes on my camera and know what mode is best for different situations.

I think it's so funny to think back a month or two ago, and think about how little I knew about my camera. I know so much about it now, and I love learning more!! [Good thing I want to go to school for photography, huh? HA.] I know I have a lot more to learn, but that's a ~~good~~ great thing!! I hate when I've learned so much about something that it gets boring and I have to move on to the next thing. [And I can get bored with things pretty easily, too.]

Well, it's a beautiful day here and Mark's outside with the boys - so I am going to join them and, of course, take lots and lots of photos of them playing around. And I can't wait till tonight because Mark and I are going to the Indians vs. Red Sox game!! YAY! I don't know when I'll get more photos up though because our laptop is messed up with viruses and spyware, so it all needs to be wiped out before we can use it again. [Thank God we're visiting family in Ohio and can use my parents' computer/Internet. But it's so slow that I don't even want to attempt uploading photos.]

Enjoy your day, people!!

Cleveland: Firework Photos

2009-04-26T22:02:00.003-04:00

After the Indians game on Friday, there were fireworks. [There are always fireworks after Friday night games, as long as the weather permits.] I LOVE the firework shows they put on there!! They play music and set the fireworks off. AMAZING!! They play the song "Cleveland Rocks", and then songs by Jimi Hendrix, Beach Boys, The Who, and a bunch of other great artists/bands!! But it only makes sense that they play the best music because, after all, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is in Cleveland!!

Here are some of the photos I took of the firworks. They aren't great, but it was my very first time photographing fireworks.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

I can't wait till the Fourth of July because then I'll get another chance to photograph fireworks. I really want to work on photographing fireworks and having great shots!!

Cleveland: Indians vs. Twins Photos

2009-04-26T21:23:00.003-04:00

Mark and I had a good time at the baseball game on Friday night. The Indians lost, but we still had fun!! I took so many photos during the game!! And I am so excited because Mark and I are going to another Indians game!! We're going to tomorrow night's game against the Boston Red Sox!!!! We'll be sitting in "Pronkville" this time [that's in right field]!! We won't be in the lower section, but the second level and in the first row!! I hope I can get some amazing photos!!

But anyway, on to some of the photos I took during Friday night's game.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

They had this sign up at Progressive Field, and it was facing Quicken Loans Arena [where the Cavs play]. I think it's so nice...and cute. HA.

DOUBLE PLAY!!

They showed this during the baseball game:

Everyone there went wild when this showed up on the scoreboard!!

Next, some fireworks photos from the Indians game!!

Cleveland: The Cavs & Quicken Loans Arena

2009-04-26T19:06:00.006-04:00

On Friday night, Mark and I went to the Cleveland Indians game. We got there before they opened Progressive Field, so we walked around the outside of Quicken Loans Arena for a little bit. [The Q and Progressive Field are right by one another.] People were already standing outside The Q, waiting to be let in to view the Cavs/Pistons game. [At The Q, they allow people to go there to watch the away play-off games. Pretty cool, huh?]

Well, here are some of the photos I took of The Q.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

Today, the Cavs swept the Detroit Pistons!!!! HELL YEAH!! I hope we will sweep the next team, too!! Crap, let's just sweep everyone we play till the end so we can win the NBA Championship!! Cleveland is so ready to bring home a championship win of some sort!! LET'S GO CAVS!!!!

Columbus Photos: Randoms

2009-04-24T08:24:00.004-04:00

Here are some random photos I took while we were in Columbus.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

Brutus in cammies right outside the ROTC doors.

Brutus in band uniform, dotting the "i". Also, we went to that store, College Traditions. We spent so much time in there, looking at everything!! We found so much stuff that we really want to get!!

Just a shot of some flowers.

I just had my camera hanging down and took some random "street photography" shots.

This is a tree that was under the bridge.

A set of stairs that allow you to walk under the bridge and on a different walkway to places.

Buckeye All-America Grove
For every All-American athlete at Ohio State, a tree is planted in their honor. Such a cool idea!!

Mark and I ate at this place. OMG it was so good!!!!

Columbus Photos: Bridges

2009-04-24T08:20:00.003-04:00

Here are some photos I took of a bridge in Columbus.

I have no idea what the name of this bridge is, and I apologize for that. Maybe someone reading this will be able to let me know what the name is.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

And here's another bridge in Columbus.

Columbus Photos: Jesse Owens Memorial

2009-04-24T08:08:00.006-04:00

Here are a few photos I took of the Jesse Owens memorial right in front of The Shoe. It was really cool!!

[Click on image to enlarge.]

On the inside of the memorial, there's something written on each "wall". I took photos of them, but when I got home, I saw that I was missing one of the walls from an angle. That's why I'm not posting any of those photos. Sorry. I thought I got every wall at every angle to show everyone what the walls said, but I missed one. I'm pretty upset with myself about that!!

If you know nothing about Jesse Owens, then GO HERE.

Columbus Photos: The Shoe

2009-04-24T07:33:00.003-04:00

Here are photos I took of The Shoe while Mark and I were in Columbus on Wednesday.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

My husband standing in front of The Shoe.

My husband sitting at the 50-yard line. He sat there for 5-10 minutes, just enjoying the view of the field.

I was very excited about my first time at The Shoe. HA.

Columbus

2009-04-23T11:19:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was the day that Mark and I went to Columbus. We left my parents' house around 7:00-7:15 AM. It only takes about an hour and a half to get there, but we didn't know what kind of traffic we'd be in and how long it'd take to find a place to park once we got to Ohio State [University]. Well, we got there about an hour early! [The meeting with Capt Rosenthal was scheduled for 10:30, we got there around 9:30.] It was okay though because Capt Rosenthal told us that he had blocked out his whole morning, and he let us have the meeting then. He was very nice and he really informed us about MECEP and other stuff. He was honest, and he said that Mark was a good candidate, but he wouldn't go in that "Definite" pile of applicants right away for MECEP. He said that Mark would be put in the "Maybe" pile, and that there's a slight chance he'd get accepted for MECEP this fall. Mark has a great ACT score and ASVAB score [or whatever it's called], but his PFT is lacking a little bit. Mark can do all of the pull-ups and sit-ups/crunches, but his run isn't as fast as they'd like it. His run isn't that bad, but it's "bad enough" to have him sit in that "Maybe" pile. So after the meeting, Mark and I were talking about MECEP, and we've decided that he'll still try to put in the application this year, and we'll just kind of expect him to not get in. So if he doesn't get in this time around, he'll just apply next year because then they'll know he's serious about going the Officer route, he'll have more time to knock down his run time, he can take some college courses so they'll see he has some continued education, and we'll both know what to expect next year when it comes time to get things in order to turn in the application. If Mark would happen to get accepted this year, we'll be thrilled!! We just wanted to go ahead and come up with a plan in case he doesn't get accepted. I think our plan is a good one.

After the meeting, we walked around Columbus for a few hours. It was AWESOME!! We went to The Shoe first. [That's where the football games are played, in case you didn't know.] We were walking around and I was taking photos, and when we got right by the front gate, a guy that worked there told us that if we wanted, we could around to Gate 23 and come in the stadium and walk around, but we couldn't go on the field!!!! Umm...AWESOME!! So Mark and I had the whole place to ourselves [outside of the people that were working there]!! We spent some time there walking around, looking at stuff, and it was just amazing!! I took so many photos!! It was my first time there, and I just loved every second of it!! Plus, when we were there, I was thinking about Mark's Uncle Chuck who played for Ohio State back in the day. I think it's so cool that my husband has a connection with Ohio State football, because Ohio State football means so much to him!! [I, also, believe that Uncle Chuck had his ashes spread out in the stadium. I'm not 100% positive on that, but I think his ashes were spread there.]

After our time at The Shoe, we had lunch at a place called Varsity Club, went to a store called College Traditions, and walked around Columbus/Ohio State for a while. It was a fun day!! I really enjoyed it!! I will put some photos up either later today or tomorrow. I have to sort through which ones I like the most and want to put on here because I took over 200 photos!! So be on the look-out for those photos - some are pretty cool!!

On Our Way to Ohio: Ohio Photos

2009-04-21T18:15:00.005-04:00

Here are some of the photos I took in Ohio while we were driving to my parents' house. I didn't get to take a whole lot because it was getting pretty dark, and the photos weren't showing up very well.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

Tomorrow, we're going to Columbus!! I am so excited!! So I'll try to have some Columbus photos up within a few days!!

On Our Way to Ohio: West Virginia Photos

2009-04-21T17:46:00.004-04:00

Here are some of the photos I took in West Virginia.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

Ohio photos to come next!

On Our Way to Ohio: Virginia Photos

2009-04-21T15:41:00.003-04:00

Here are some of the photos I took in Virginia.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

West Virginia photos to come next!

On Our Way to Ohio: North Carolina Photos

2009-04-21T14:07:00.006-04:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we are now in Ohio. It's nice being here.

Here are some photos I took in North Carolina:

[Click on image to enlarge.]

Virginia photos to come next!

Made it to Ohio!

2009-04-20T22:32:00.003-04:00

Well, we made it to my parents' house just before 9:00 PM. It was a long ride here, but it was okay - except the beginning. HA. I forgot my camera battery charger, and didn't notice it till we were about 20-30 minutes from our house. HA. We turned around, got it, and started our journey to Ohio all over again. I'm not too upset about that whole mess though because we still got here at a good time.

I took lots of photos on the way here, but only got a few of Ohio. It was too dark to get many decent ones, and no matter what I did with my camera, the pictures were still too dark...and there was no way in hell I was going to take photos with the flash on because of it being a safety issue, plus there would've been a glare anyway from the windows and windshield. It's okay though because I'll be taking plenty of photos of places in Ohio while we're here and on our way back to North Carolina.

I don't know when I'll put the photos up, but I will in due time. You can count on that!! I am going to go now though because I'm tired and want to talk to my parents some more before I go to bed.

Going Home & Drive-by Photography

2009-04-19T23:17:00.005-04:00

That is what I will be doing tomorrow...12 long hours in the car!! HA. And I am hoping that with my wonderful Sony a300, I'll be able to get some amazing shots that I could never get with my old Canon Powershot piece of poop. HA. [Actually, the Powershot was good for that kind of camera. I just don't like it now because it's so two-thousand-~~eight~~late!! LOL.]

I know I'll probably get the usual shot of "Mount Boob". LMAO. [Ashleigh, I think it's you that knows what I'm talking about. HAHA.] I'm looking forward to this one area in either Virginia or West Virginia...the scenery is beautiful!! I love it a whole lot more at night time, but we'll be driving through it during the day. BOO! I'm going to be lame and try to get a photo of every sign "welcoming" us into the state. HA. I know that once we get into Ohio, I definitely want to get photos of certain areas we'll be driving through. I'm going to try to get a lot of photos of my hometown. I think it'd be cool to show you all where I'm from. You'll get to see the one place I love to leave, but hate to be away from. [Am I the only person that has that weird feeling about where they're from?!] I love drive-by photography!! It's amazing!!

Maybe while we're home, I'll go around to places and take photos. I'll try to go to the center of town, the schools I attended, places that have some meaning to me, and just some other places in town that I like. I'd like to show you all where I grew up...Brunswick, OH.

I can't wait to go to Columbus!! I hope that we get to spend some time there after meeting with the ROTC Instructor. I want to go see The Shoe [the football stadium where The Ohio State University plays]. It may come as a surprise to some, maybe most, of you, but I have never seen/been to The Shoe in my life!! Gasp! So I am really hoping that I get to go see it while we're home. That'd be so cool if I got to!! I, also, am hoping that we'll just get to walk around the school and Columbus for a little bit. I want to get some photos of the city - the state's capital.

I can't wait to go to Cleveland to walk around the city and to go to the Indians game!! The Indians have been eh lately, but I love going to watch them play!! I want to go to Cleveland a good while before the game, walk around the city, photograph some of the amazing things there, hopefully get to the field/stadium early so I can photograph the guys warming up, then go to our seats, watch the game, take photographs throughout the game, and enjoy and photograph the fireworks once the game is over!! I ♥ Cleveland!! I really do!! It's such a fun city!!

I am definitely looking forward to going home. In less than 24 hours, we'll be home!! It's going to be so nice being home and being around my family!! I miss my family so much!! And I do miss that little shit hole town I grew up in!! HA.

Laptop, Studio, School

2009-04-19T12:07:00.006-04:00

I know I posted last night about the five things I would LOVE to have for all of my photography stuff - whether it be somewhere to store photos, store my camera and accessories, or just adding accessories. But this morning, I woke up and thought to myself:

Stephanie, you should get your own laptop just for photography purposes. That could be where you put all of your software, save articles you would find helpful, do your schoolwork, etc. Then Mark wouldn't have to sit around and see all of your stuff on the laptop we have now.

I think it'd be really smart to get my own laptop, and still get that 1 TB external hard drive I want.

I don't know what kind of laptop I would get though. I don't need something that's crazy-expensive, but I don't want some cheap-o either. I'm just going to have to do some research, talk about it with Mark, and go from there. I just know that having my own laptop for photography purposes would be worth it and an incredibly smart thing to have.

Something else I've been thinking about for a couple of weeks now is getting equipment for studio photography. I don't think I'll be getting much, if anything, for studio photography any time soon, but it would be really nice to have that kind of stuff. I'd like to even set up my own little studio wherever we live, right in our house in a spare bedroom, basement, or garage [depending on what we'd have that'd be able to hold all of the stuff]. I know it's not always legal to do that when renting, but I would really like to have an in-home studio with the lights, backgrounds, etc. How cool would that be?! People would come over, I'd give them a little tour of the house and be like, "Welcome to our house. Here's [this] room, [this] room, and here's my kick ass in-home studio." HA. I've already looked into getting studio equipment at B&H Photo Video's website. Trust me, I'm always looking at stuff on B&H Photo Video!! That place is amazing!! And I can't wait to start school because then I'll get a 10% DISCOUNT!! Heck yes!

I can't wait to start school!! It's going to be amazing!! I hate that I have to take "regular" classes, but I'm going to take those classes before I take the year's photography classes. I just want to get the "regular" classes out of the way and then focus on my major. Ugh, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh...I can't wait!! Even if I'm just taking online courses, I can't wait!! I am seriously looking forward to the things I am going to learn and how I am going to grow as a photographer. I'm not going to lie, I think I am a pretty decent photographer. I keep practicing and learning new things on my own, and I think that with taking classes [especially classes from AiP - only one of the best, if not the best, photography schools], I feel like I can become great!! I doubt that I'll ever be one of the famous, well-known photographers out there, but I feel that I'll be great at what I do. But if I do become a great photographer and graduate from AiP, those two things will help me get through the door somewhere, if I ever really want to go work for someone else. The Art Institute is a great school for anything that deals with the arts. Only time will tell what's in store for me, though...and I'm hoping something amazing is awaiting!!

Five Things

2009-04-18T23:27:00.010-04:00

Here are five things that I would LOVE to have right now for my photography stuff.

1. External Hard Drive.
The one I want has 1 TB of memory. [That's 1024 GB!!!!] Having one of these with a lot of memory will allow me to go ahead and shoot in RAW and not worry so much about how much memory gets used per photo.

2. A Lowepro back pack.
I need a back pack for my camera, lenses, lens filters, memory cards, etc. because the bag I have now is just a dinky little thing, with all of my things jammed in there.

3. Tripod.
I really want to get a tripod, and soon, because it'll allow me to take pictures with longer shutter speeds and not have to worry about whether I'm shaking my camera at all or not. Plus, it's a bit more professional to have one - at least I think so.

4. Wide-Angle Zoom Lens.
If you've ever seen photos taken with a wide-angle zoom lens, then you know how awesome those photos are!! Absolutely amazing, and I want one!!

5. G-Series Telephoto Zoom Lens.
I've already mentioned this lens before, so it should come as no surprise that it's on this list. It's amazing!!

Bubbles!!

2009-04-18T22:35:00.003-04:00

Who doesn't love bubbles, honestly?! I hate that your hands get all sticky from the soapiness and all, but bubbles are so much fun!! And if you have kids, you know that bubbles can entertain kids for a long time!! So for the person that invented bubbles, I tip my hat to you!!

Today was such a wonderful, beautiful, spectacular day, so Mark and I took the boys out for a little bit to play and get some fresh air. The boys had fun running around and playing with bubbles. And, like always, I was taking photos of them playing. Here are a couple of my favorites:
[Click image to enlarge.]

My mom got a bubble machine thing for the boys for when we go home on leave. It blows, like, 10,000 bubbles per minute or something like that. Michael and Brayden are going to lose their minds when they get to play with it!! HA. I can't wait to take photos of the boys playing with it and all of the bubbles.

Two photos I love.

2009-04-17T12:08:00.007-04:00

At the beginning of the month, we went to the Family Day thing for the MEU at Camp Lejeune. I had an okay time. I took lots of pictures while we were there, but with all of the people around, I just didn't get any good shots of all the aircraft and whatnot alone. Oh well. I guess I'll just stick to the fly-by shots when they're flying over our house. HA.

One shot I got that I really like was on our way back to the car. Mark was pushing the boys in the jogging stroller, and I was behind them by 2-3 steps because, of course, I was photographing a bunch of stuff while we were walking to the car. So here's the picture:

That blue thing is Michael's balloon fishing rod that the clown there made for him. It was such a cute little thing, and Michael loved it!! But there's just something about this photo that I really love, and I can't really put my finger on it. I just love it!! I guess that's something I like about photography though, you love a picture but can't always figure out why.

Another shot I got that day was while we were at home. I was messing around with the shutter speed on my camera while Mark and I were outside with the boys, and just taking photos while Mark and the boys played. At one point, the boys were just sitting down, and Mark was bouncing Michael's Spiderman ball, so I started taking photos. I got your usual photos with the ball up in the air, but I got this one, as well:

If you enlarge it, you'll get to see the ball a lot better. The ball just looks so funny and weird!! HA. I love it! It's almost flattened - kind of!! HA. I guess I was just quick with the camera.

I love using shutter speeds!! It took me so long to understand it and what ISO sensitivity had to do with it. While I'm no mastermind still, I can honestly say that I am pretty good with it. I now love shooting in S mode, and I use 95% of the time. I still shoot in AUTO once in a while, but I'm just trying to get away from using it and learning and focusing on other modes to shoot in. The next two modes I really want to focus on are M [manual] and A [aperture priority]. I think I could benefit greatly from those two modes. I'm also thinking about buying an external hard drive with a lot of memory so I can just go ahead and shoot in RAW. I've shot photos in RAW before and was very pleased with how the photos turned out, I just wasn't thrilled with how much memory is used when shooting in RAW. So I figure if I have an external hard drive with lots of memory, I won't be too worried about how much memory gets used.

School Update & More

2009-04-16T15:39:00.005-04:00

I got a call from my advisor dude at AiP last night, and things are going well. Actually, he said things are looking really great for me!! YAY! All of the stuff that needed to be done on my end is complete!! WOOHOO! Next is just the financial aid stuff has to be taken care of on the school's end. I don't know how long that'll take them, but I do have a while before it needs to be done since I'm suppose to start on July 13th. I just can't believe that I'm wanting to go back to school, especially as much as I do - let alone actually trying to make it happen!! HA. I swore up and down I'd never go back to school for anything, especially if I had to take "core classes". Guess I was way wrong!! HA. But it does feel really good to actually be able to go to school for something that means a lot to me and something that I really want to push myself and succeed in.

So yesterday was pay day. I woke up early, got ready, got the boys ready, and we were out the door by about 6:45 to go grocery shopping. Since we're leaving Monday morning, I only needed to by things for 5 days. I know I shouldn't have done this, but I did anyway...I went to the makeup aisles and bought some makeup. And only one of those things is something that I'll use every time I put makeup on. HA. The other things I bought were 3 Cover Girl eyeshadows [that are brand new colors from CG], 6 Maybelline eyeshadows [most of which are brand new colors], and Maybelline's new Lash Stiletto mascara. The CG eyeshadows I got are INSANE!!! They are bright, metallic colors and I just love them!! I actually really want to go get some more!! Some of the Maybelline eyeshadows I got are pretty awesome, too - while 1-2 are just okay!! I have yet to use the Lash Stiletto mascara. I seriously didn't even need to buy the mascara. I already had 6-7 tubes of mascara before buying the new one yesterday. [And all but two of the mascaras I had before were ones I've bought within the last month or two. I love mascara and have to have different mascaras for different looks.] But the makeup I bought yesterday is to maybe test out and use for when I go home and maybe test the waters and do the extreme beauty shots on people. I know my sister is willing to let me try any kind of hair and make up stuff on her whenever I'm in the creative mood. She's such a good sport!! HA. I'm thinking about buying some fake eyelashes, too, for whenever I do extreme beauty shots. Fake eyelashes are amazing...it just sucks that I can't put them on myself!! If I could put them on myself, I'd be rockin' them almost every time I walked out of the house!!

I've decided that next time we move back down here, I'm not going to paint walls because we hopefully won't be here for long. We'll either go to Columbus, Ohio, because Mark got accepted into MECEP and Ohio State, or we'll be stationed elsewhere. So instead of painting walls, I'm just going to probably get a bunch of new picture frames and hang up some of my photographs on the walls. I don't want plain, boring walls, and photos will definitely "spruce things up a bit". I've already gone through some of my photos and picked out the ones that have to be hanging up on the walls. I'm not going to lie, I am very proud of a lot of the photos I've taken, especially recently, and I think that they should be on display wherever I may live. Plus, I think photos are more personal than just any type of decor. Don't get me wrong, I do love those little things you can find places, but photos are more personal and when I see lots of photos in someone's house, I feel like they are letting me be more into their life than someone who only has a few photos up. Do you know what I mean? But I just want people to be able to walk into my home and look at my photos, and feel like I'm welcoming them into my own little world. And you just never know, maybe someone will really love a photo I have up and be moved by it, even if it's just a little bit of that feeling. I know that I am often moved by photos. Some photos just have that ability to touch ones soul instantly, and those are my favorites.

Looking Forward to Monday!!

2009-04-15T21:26:00.003-04:00

Monday morning, we are heading home to Ohio for pre-deployment leave. I am so excited about going home, but definitely not excited about the reason for us going home. Yuck! Also, I am not looking forward to the 12 hour drive in rain!! Laaaaame! I hate driving/being in the car for so long while it's raining!!

[A commercial for the Art Institute was just on TV. YAY! HA.]

And once again, we've changed the date for the Indians game we're going to. HA. We're now going to Friday night's game!! And do you know what they do after Friday night games in Cleveland?! FIREWORKS!!!! I am so excited because I will get to practice photographing fireworks!! YAY! Honestly, photographing fireworks is something I've been wanting to do for a little while now, and [as long as the weather permits] I'll get that opportunity in a little over a week!! I just hope that the weather is decent for the game. The Weather Channel is showing that it's supposed to be mostly sunny, 20% chance of rain, and the high is 55 degrees for the 24th. Let's just hope that TWC is right!! I don't want rain!! I want to be at a game in decent weather so I can have fun, watch the game, photograph parts of the game, and photograph the fireworks!! Is that too much to ask for?! I think not!!

Since we're going to a night game, we might just go ahead and walk around Cleveland for a while before the game and I can photograph the city. I would love to be able to just walk around the city for an hour or two before we head over to the stadium and just take photos of anything and everything. How fun would that be though?! Just walk around a major city and just snap away, taking photographs of anything and everything in sight?! Who wouldn't love doing that?!

Ring Lights.

2009-04-15T12:54:00.003-04:00

I WANT ONE!!

The other night while watching America's Next Top Model on Oxygen, there was this photo shoot that the top four girls were doing while in Japan, and the photographer was using a ring light on his camera. I never really paid much attention to the photographers on ANTM [as well as Make Me a Supermodel] until a few months ago. I've seen ring lights in stores and online, but never knew how it was used - until the other night. Ever since I saw the photographer using a ring light, I have really wanted to just go out and buy one!!

I don't know though if I want one because it simply looks badass on a camera or because I think I could put it to a lot of use for macrophotography [which is the main purpose for a ring light]. I'm kind of leaning a little bit toward the fact that it looks badass. HA. Either way, though, I'd really like to have a ring light!!

Sony has a ring light that's compatible with my camera, but I don't know if I want to get that one. I want one that's a bit more "powerful" than Sony's, to be honest with you. I want one with some umph behind it because I don't think I'd really use one for macrophotography, but rather use it for photographing in darker areas/rooms with a little bit of light when the use of a regular flash unit is a bit much.

Maybe I'll get a ring light at some point in time, maybe I won't. But I do know that I'd really like to have one!!

Rain, Rain Go Away...

2009-04-14T20:18:00.005-04:00

...but let me take some photos first!

Today was yet another rainy day here in Jacksonville. I'm not a fan of rain in general, but I do love how rain is something so beautiful and, if you catch that right moment, you can have an amazing photograph of rain. So instead of being a lazy bum today while it rained, I decided that while the boys were napping, I'd step outside on the front porch and back patio and take some photos. I took 210 photos when I finally decided that I was done photographing the rain. Not all of those photos have been saved though. I had about 10-20 "duds" in there - but I am okay with those "duds". You continue to grow and learn from those mistakes you've made, right?! And with photographing rain, I really did learn more than I thought I would have.

I used the two lenses I have throughout the time I was photographing, just switching back and forth between the two when I felt it was time to switch it up. I shot in S mode [Shutter Speed Priority]. Out of all of the modes on my camera, I am most comfortable shooting in S. I know it's not completely different than some other modes on a camera, but I like knowing that the shutter speed is the priority, and I can adjust to whatever I feel is necessary since I have to little boys who are constantly moving around. [Plus, I feel it's necessary for me to be comfortable shooting in S because sports photography is what I'd love to mainly focus on.]

So I was outside, photographing while it rained. I'm sure some people in the neighborhood thought I was weird for being outside in a hoodie [with the hood up], gym shorts, and Adidas sandals while it rained, and just snapping a lot of photos. HA. Oh well. I got some okay shots, good shots, and a few that I think are pretty bitchin'!! HA. It was fun photographing while it rained. I got to mess around with my shutter speed and see what's good, what's bad, and what's amazing. I love trying different things with my camera, and photographing the rain really allowed to me test some new things. And after photographing rain, I'd like to photograph other types of climates/weather. I hate snow, but I think it'd be pretty interesting to photograph a snowstorm. Maybe I'll get the opportunity to while I'm in Ohio since I'll be there during November...and it usually snows in November up there.

Anyway, here are some of the many photos I took today while it rained here in Jacksonville. Enjoy!!

[Click on images to enlarge.]

One Step Closer.

2009-04-13T20:23:00.002-04:00

After waiting over a week for a phone call back from my advisor at The Art Institute, he finally called me today. THANK GOD!! We talked about my FAFSA form and how the financial advisors have my paperwork in order [I just had to fill out the FAFSA form], and got some problems taken care of. I was having a hard time with FAFSA because the student loan that I'm still paying on right now is under my maiden name because the financial aid people were being lame about changing my name before. But I got all of that stuff taken care of, and my mom [who was so awesome and offered to fill out my FAFSA form] filled out my new form. So that means I am just one step closer to starting school this summer!! YAY!!

I am seriously so excited about this!! It's crazy!!

I have decided to fill out my application and FAFSA and just start off as a part time student, just so I can get a "feel" of things. Part time for the online division is just one class per every five and a half (5.5) weeks. So once those 5.5 weeks are up, you get anywhere from no break to three and a half (3.5) weeks for a break. I'm thinking that after the first or second quarter, I am going to start taking two classes at a time, making me a full time student. It'd be nice to get more work done so I can just finish the photography program that much faster. Also, the school is a year-round school, so no summer break that lasts 2-3 months long - but I am okay with that because I'll just be taking classes online, instead of spending hours in a classroom away from the boys.

I am really looking forward to this!! I can't wait to actually start!! The proposed starting date I have is July 13th...my birthday!!!! So I will be coming home from my week long trip in Indy on the 12th, then starting school the next day. HA. It'll be one hell of an interesting, yet unbelievably awesome, week for me!! It's going to be great!!

Tree Art

2009-04-09T11:58:00.012-04:00

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!
I received an e-mail at the end of March from one of Mark's aunts. I've been meaning to put these pictures up here, but have forgotten to. So now I share with you the Tree of Life at the Animal Kingdom Park in Walt Disney World [Orlando, FL] .

[Click on images to view them larger.]

BTW, the Tree of Life is not a real tree. Rather, it is made out of "artificial" materials. But this still is so cool, nonetheless.

Out in the Yard

2009-04-08T13:53:00.003-04:00

Here are some photos I have taken within the last few weeks while I was outside.

[Click on images to enlarge.]

A little lizard on our fence.

Lizard on our fence.

Lizard on our fence.

The sun shining and some clouds.

Someone left a tire by a fence, so I took a photograph of it.

Another edit of the tire by the fence.

A frog climbing up our house.

Another photo of the frog climbing our house.

A toad trying to blend in with the lava rocks in one of our flowerbeds.

Another photo of the toad trying to blend in with the lava rocks.

A close-up of the toad trying to blend in with the lava rocks.

I want this!! I NEED this!!!!

2009-04-08T13:01:00.004-04:00

Ever since I got my Sony a300 DSLR camera, I have been a bit obsessed with looking for accessories for it. You know - lenses, lens filters, flashes, tripod(s), camera bag [backpack, not a little bag], etc. I'm just always searching for that "next thing I have to buy for my camera". I think it drives Mark crazy because I'm always telling him "I need this", "I need that", "I am definitely going to get that", "You know I'd get some amazing shots if I had that"...you get the idea. HA. I'm just on a quest for accessories for my camera, even though I probably won't get 95% of the things I want no matter how many times I say I need it. The Rolling Stones said it best - "You can't always get what you want." [Even though that line continues with "...but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need." And I do "need" a lot of things for my camera. HA.]

So enough about the Rolling Stones and back to my camera. There is this one thing that I just always find myself staring at - hoping, praying, wishing that I have it before the year's over. I absolutely am "in love" with it!! It's just beautiful!! It's this amazing Telephoto Zoom Lens!! Go ahead, look at it...lust over it. HA. I know, I know - it's a bit pricey. However, I could put that bad boy to use quite often!! I want to become a sports photographer, so I really do need that lens!! You can't disagree with the fact that I need it - nobody can. I just think it'd be pretty bad ass if I got it before I go to USA Swimming's 2009 ConocoPhillips National Championships this July!! Can you imagine the photos I could get of Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelps, Aaron Piersol, Brendan Hansen, Dara Torres, Natalie Coughlin, and all of the other US Olympic swimmers from 2008 there?! OMG!! I could get some amazing shots of them and have such great memories of that week for the rest of my life!! [Not to mention, some pictures of hot male swimmers to drool over!! HA.] I just want to get that damn lens right now!!!!

Looking forward to the game.

2009-04-07T13:54:00.004-04:00

The Cleveland Indians game, that is!!

Last night, Mark and I decided to go ahead and change the day we're going to go see the Indians play in Cleveland when we're home on leave. We were originally going to go to the game on the 20th [a night game], but since we're heading to Columbus on Wednesday morning [all bright and early], we decided it'd be best for us to switch to Thursday's game in the afternoon. It just would've sucked getting home late Tuesday night from the game, then barely getting any sleep before we woke up early on Wedesday to head to Columbus to meet with an ROTC Instructor at Ohio State. Plus, with driving for 12 hours on Monday, we probably would've been zombies come Wednesday morning for the meeting with the ROTC Instructor. HA. So we changed our schedule a little bit, and that's a good thing.

I mean, sure, I would've like to have taken some night shots of the Indians game, but now I'll have natural light over the field to take pictures, granted the weather isn't shiteous. [Keep your fingers and toes crossed that the weather is BEAUTIFUL on the 23rd in Cleveland, Ohio!! PLEASE do that for me!! HA.] And since we'll be going to an afternoon game, we'll be able to walk around Cleveland for a little bit after the game, and I can possibly get both day and night shots of the city!! I just know of a few places that I really want to take photos of!! But the bad thing about the afternoon game is that we may not be able to go IN the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum!! BOOOOOO!! Maybe we'll just have to go another day while we're home. We'll see what happens. I'm just really looking forward to going home!! It'll be nice!!

Not Photography, But Still Art

2009-04-05T08:14:00.007-04:00

Last night was the 2009 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. This year, the ceremony was held in Cleveland, Ohio. Every three years [at least that's the current plan - so let's see if they hold up to it in 2012], the ceremony is held in Cleveland because that is where the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum "lives". [Now, I think it's completely effing stupid to hold the induction ceremony in Cleveland every three years since the dang place is in Cleveland. But whatever, the people who decided on that need to be slapped - hard.]

Anyway, the ceremony was in Cleveland!! YAY!! Some of my family members hold passes to get into the R&RHoF&M, and it's really cool what they get with their passes. There are many different types of passes you can get, but they're still cool, nonetheless. But since they have passes, they get some "priority" when it comes down to the induction ceremony and getting into it. Well last night, two of my uncles, an aunt, and my dad went to the induction ceremony!!!! Ummm...JEALOUS, RIGHT HERE!!!! I can't even begin to explain how jealous I am of them for going!! When my mom called me and told me that my dad was going to the induction ceremony, I starting screaming/yelling about how cool that is and how jealous I was!! If Mark gets into MECEP and we move to Columbus, you better believe that we'll be holding passes for the R&RHoF&M!! I would LOVE to be able to go to the induction ceremony in three years!!!! Do you know how AMAZING that would be - to actually be there and experience it?!?! DO YOU?!

If you know me, you know I LOVE music - everything about it. I will listen to just about any type of music [some not as much as others though]. I've been to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum twice - both times during last year, 2008. My whole life, I lived about 30 minutes south of Cleveland, but never went to the R&RHoF&M [since it was built]. However, that changed last year. I'd always wanted to go there, to see the artifacts, learn about some of the artists' lives, etc. Let me tell you, IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! I can't even begin to tell you how awesome it was!! Then during the summer, Mark and I went there again, but this time with two of my uncles and two of my cousins. We went and saw a film on Bob Dylan. Right then and there, my love for Bob Dylan started. I'd heard some of his stuff growing up, but not very often. I was raised more on classic rock and "psychedelic" rock [as I call it]. It was such an amazing film, though, on Bob Dylan. Ever since then, I have downloaded around 20 songs of his, memorized just about every word to all of those songs, and have watched everything that's come on TV about him. [FACT: Bob Dylan is a genius!!]

I love the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum!! Mark and I are actually planning on going there again when we go home on pre-deployment leave later this month!! I want to go and see the new artifacts they have of the new inductees and see the new exhibit on the top floor. [The first time we went, the top floor's exhibit was of The Doors. It was SPECTACULAR!!]

You know how some people say "you have to do that/go there before you die"?! Well, I think everyone should go to the Roll & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum before they die - especially if they love music!! I suggest not going during the winter though because it's right by the lake and Cleveland gets some nasty snow. But if you go during the summer, it's amazing. There's so much to do right in downtown Cleveland. I love going to Cleveland to go watch baseball games, go see the Rock Hall [that's what us Ohioans call it], go to Tower City and shop and eat, go to Quicken Loans Arena, and other stuff. It's truly an amazing city. I hope that Mark and I get to spend a whole day there when we go home on leave. If we do, I hope that I can get some wonderful photos of the city and then share them on here, MySpace, and possibly Facebook [I don't go on Facebook often because I find it to be L-A-M-E].

Seriously though, if you're ever going up toward Ohio, add a day to your trip and just go to Cleveland and go to the Rock Hall if nothing else!! It's WORTH IT!! It's, like, $22 per person to get in, but only $17 per person to get in [due to military discount]!! The only sucky thing is that you can't take photos in the museum. [However, I am going to call to see if there's a way that I can. I'll pay extra just to take some damn photos in there - I don't care.] But just go there - see and experience the Rock Hall!!!! You will only regret it if you DON'T go...SO GO!!!!

Here are some pictures I took back in early 2008 when Mark and I went to the Rock Hall for the first time:

Click on images to view them larger.

Question: Do you shoot in RAW?

2009-04-03T20:43:00.004-04:00

So I've been wondering, for those of you that read my blog, do you shoot in JPEG, Fine, Standard, or RAW?! I ask this because I have been reading it's best to shoot in RAW, and then I read that at AiP you have to shoot in RAW.

Now, I have never used RAW before. The main reason [and probably the only reason] is because of how much memory space it uses. I am very stubborn and whatnot, and I like to get the most for the memory I have. I like being able to get over 1,000 pictures with my 4GB card, versus only getting 180-190 if I shot using RAW. To me, not getting 200 pictures on a 4GB card is ridiculous!! I mean, yeah I transfer pictures over to a flash drive, and then onto a disc at the end of the month, but I just hate not being able to get a lot of photos on my freakin' card!!

I know the benefits of shooting in RAW, versus the other formats available, but I think it comes down to me being stubborn and wanting "more bang for the buck". HA.

I think I'll give RAW a chance tomorrow at the Family Day shindig for the MEU. Maybe I'll fall in love with it and look passed the fact that it uses up so much memory space.

So what do you shoot in - JPEG, Standard, Fine, or RAW?!

Do you ever get like this?!

2009-04-02T07:20:00.003-04:00

So, you're getting closer and closer to taking a trip/vacation somewhere, and the one thing you think about so often [or maybe the most] is about what you want to do and where you want to go simply because of the photo opportunities you'll have there?!

Mark's pre-deployment leave is fast approaching [yuck!], and all I keep thinking about is how we're going to Cleveland one day because we're going to a Cleveland Indians baseball game; going to Columbus one day so that Mark can talk to an ROTC Instructor and get help with the MECEP stuff, even though it isn't necessary for us to go there, but I look forward to [hopefully] walking around Columbus and seeing The Ohio State University; a birthday party that's for Mark [my idea] because it'll be his fifth year not being home on his birthday [I've never seen him on his birthday - ever]. Those are just things we're definitely doing while we're home, and those are great photo opportunities!!

Mark and I have been thinking about maybe taking the boys to the zoo while we're home [as long as the weather's nice] because we think they'll love it and have fun. So if we go to the zoo, I'll have another photo opportunity!! I just know that if Michael gets to see so many animals, he'll lose his mind!! That boy loves animals and gets so excited over seeing them just on TV. HA.

I think I am most looking forward to going to Cleveland and the baseball game though. The seats we have are behind home plate, a few levels up. They are GREAT seats!! We've had a few foul balls come up our way before. I always got good shots of the games we've been to with just the dinky cameras I've had, so I should get some really good ones with the camera I now have!! I hope that they do fireworks at the end of the game - I always love that!! Of course they'll do fireworks if someone from the Indians hits a homerun, but I love it when they do a huge fireworks show at the end of the game. One year, Mark and I went to a game with my dad and Uncle Kevin, and they did fireworks after the game, but they had the show set up with music and stuff. It was so cool!!

But please, tell me I am not the only one like this. Of course I think about seeing family and stuff, but I do tend to focus a lot on all of the things we'll be doing that present a great photo opportunity.

Some of my favorites.

2009-04-01T20:16:00.003-04:00

I am always looking at photoblogs, sites for camera accessories, sites for pictures, and stuff like that. There are a few sites though that I am searching every time I sit down at the desk and am online. I thought that I would just share my top three with you, in case you've never heard of them.

My NUMBER ONE site is B&H Photo Video.
They have EVERYTHING on that site!! I first heard of B&H about a little over a year ago because we got this monstrous catalog in the mail. It was for someone that used to live here, but I just started flipping through it and looking at all of the amazing things that just the catalog had!! Fast forward to now, and I am constantly on the website, searching for things that I'd like to have one day for my camera [and future camera]. You can go to this site and spend hundreds of hours searching it for stuff, and you'll be nowhere near seeing half of the things they sell!! Plus, it'll be nice when I start my AiP online classes because I'll get a 10% off discount from B&H!! HECK YES!! I love looking for stuff on that site. It's seriously addicting - especially if you have a strong passion for photography and just want everything out there for your camera!!

Another site I love going to is Photocritic. I love reading the articles and learning how to do some really cool things with taking photos and editing. Probably the coolest article there is Digital Schizophrenia. Once I get a tripod, I am definitely going to try doing that!! It's just so cool looking! I love it!

As you should already know, I would love to be a sports photographer. So it's only proper for me to have a photoblog in my favorites that's by a sports photographer. That site would be Beyond the Best Seat in the House. This guy used to work for a newspaper or something, but due to the shit-filled economy, he decided to take the severance package from the newspaper company and go his own way. And what's really cool is that in some of the photos he's taken, he has Drew Carey in them!! Being from the Cleveland area [in Ohio], I obviously love Drew Carey...and miss always watching "The Drew Carey Show". [Seriously, who doesn't miss that show?! It was absolutely genius!!]

Of course, there are PLENTY of other sites that I go to, but none more faithfully than the three I listed above.

THIS IS NOT A JOKE! I REPEAT - NOT A JOKE!!!!

2009-04-01T14:59:00.003-04:00

HA.

Anyway, today has been a good day so far. Wait. Scratch that. It has been a GREAT day so far!! Why? you may be asking yourself. Well, I will tell you why. I HAVE OFFICIALLY APPLIED TO THE ART INSTITUTE OF PITTSBURGH!!!! [Obviously their online division. Duh! I'm not going to Pittsburgh anytime soon - if ever.] The other day, I just started the application process, and today I finished it!! YAY!! I am SO EFFING STOKED about this!!!! I know it's expensive, I don't know how much financial aid I'll be able to get, don't know if I'll get a scholarship, or anything like that, but I'm happy!! I am not planning on trying to "zip" through the program, but rather try and stretch it out as much as possible. If it wasn't so expensive, or we had a crap load of money, I would definitely do as much at once as possible, but it's just not realistic right now. Plus, with two kids, it'd be better to not try and cram in a ton of classes and stuff. I am just definitely hoping that things work out. I am sure everything will work out. But you know how it is - you sometimes second guess yourself and the way the world works once you've done something you think you should've done. Don't you just hate that?! Ugh, so annoying!!

I've been looking through the classes that they have/offer for the photography program at AiP, and the one I am probably most "in love" with right now is the Sports Photography class. If I could, I would definitely become a sports photographer!! I know - a FEMALE sports photgrapher...STRANGE!! HA. But get this, the other class I am looking forward to is Figure/Fashion Photography!! HAHAHA. Two different extremes, yet they are what I absolutely love!! Only I would be so in love with two different extremes. HA. And of course, they just happen to be the two most difficult types of photography to get in to and be taken very seriously. Oh well. I guess I just like to set the bar high, huh?

So this weekend is Family Day for all of the families of the MEU that Mark's deploying on/with. I'm really excited about it!! The weather is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL, which makes it even more exciting!! I have never been to a Family Day before. But I am going to be there taking a million photos with my camera. Oh, you better believe it!! HA. I am going to say right now I will easily take over 100 photos while we're there.

The Art Institute

2009-03-30T21:44:00.004-04:00

Between last night and this [early] evening, I think I was close to punching someone straight in the throat. I was SO MAD because of our realtor trying to screw us over, but a good man changed my mood by just talking for a little over two hours.

So, about that phone. The guy called me about 5 minutes after Mark walked in the door when he got home from work. He told me his name and that he's from THE ART INSTITUTE OF PITTSBURGH!!!!! Umm, HELLO!! I was PUMPED!! So we talked for a little over two hours, going over everything [ie. classes, money/financial aid/grants, etc.], and I started to fill out my application for the school's online courses!!!! OMG!! I am SO PUMPED about it!! Mark was happy for me when he found out who I was talking to and what about!! [I have to give Mark credit because he's the one that gave me that final little shove to get my butt in gear and just look at places with photography programs.] On Wednesday, I am going to finish my application and pay the application fee. But seriously, the guy I talked to was telling me that I sounded like I was definitely passionate about photography and have a great drive and determination, and that the school would love to have someone like me be a part of their school. I know, a lot of places say things like that, but if you could ever hear me talk about how much I love photography [and arts, in general], you would truly understand that I love it all and not for dumb, typical reasons. I am HOPING to start taking classes in July!!!! That's my goal for right now. It just stinks because it is EXPENSIVE to go to/through The Art Institute!!!! So if I stick with AiP till I am completely done, it'll take me quite some time finish. I am just so happy about this right now!! I love all things art, I love being able to express myself in an artistic manner, I love every little thing about it all!!!! I just hope that this all works out and that I can take the online courses!! This is something I am so driven to do!!

I have been looking through the Course Catalog online because the guy told me to "favorite" the page, and some of the courses seem really cool. Like, there are darkroom courses, business/marketing courses to help you market yourself and create a business, photo history [I love history of the arts], and some other cool courses. There are some courses that I can tell that I will just fly through, especially because of the cosmetology education/background I have. I also like that you have to do an internship somewhere. It'd be really nice getting to work with photographers that've been doing that stuff for years, and learn from them.

That's all I really have for now. I am going to continue looking at the Course Catalog.

Sony a900

2009-03-26T06:31:00.005-04:00

Not too long ago, I got a new camera. It's a Sony a300. Nothing too, too fancy, but it is a nice camera - especially for a starter. It's got 10.2 megapixels, 12 different modes to shoot in [including AUTO], a lot of nice features, and I got two lenses when I got it. The camera came with a 3.5-5.6/18-70 lens, which is your standard. But I also got a 4.5-5.6/75-300 lens since I got the "bundle package" at Best Buy.

The camera [a300] is really nice and I am always using it. I take at least 75 pictures every day! I will take pictures of anything and everything. I don't care how many pictures of one tree I already have, I'll take another picture of that tree. I don't care how boring it can be for some people to constantly see pictures of my kids playing outside, I am going to take lots of pictures of them. I just love taking pictures!! And that, my friends, is why I am going to take photography courses and/or join the photography society back home - once I get there, of course!! I'd like to "step up my game" when it comes to photography and get super serious about it. Why not?! It'd be nice to add something else to the list of things I can do - and be good at.

It's also nice that I want to take the photographer route because in Mark's family, there are three photographers. One of his uncle's is a photographer, one of his cousins is a photographer, and his cousin's wife is a photographer. So I have other people there that could kind of help me out and we could talk about photography.

But back to my camera. In the last week or two, I have gotten 4 lens filters for my camera. I have a Diffusion filter, Neutral Density filter, Ultraviolet filter, and Circular Polarizer filter. My favorite lens filter to use is the CP filter. I love it!! It's like sunglasses for the camera! HA. It really is though. I want to go to the beach one day and test it out there. Ii just love using the lens filters now, that it makes it difficult sometimes to not have one on my camera.

Now, onto the Sony a900. Since I have a Sony DSLR camera, I am constantly going to Sony's website to check out the things I can get for my camera. Yesterday, I decided to just look at the other cameras Sony has in the Alpha series. Let me tell you, I am in LOVE with the a900!!!! I want it so bad - even if it is $2,999.99!! HA. But Mark and I made a deal. When he reenlists later this year, I can get the a900. If I get very serious about photography [like I intend to] and do photo shoots and people buy pictures from me, I can get a SECOND a900!!!! But he said my parents don't count - they can't buy pictures from me for the deal to work. HA. [Another part of the deal is that I will only get one cosmetic surgery procedure done. I'm the one who came up with that part, which was the first part of the deal that got things "rolling" with the rest of the deal.] But that's awesome!! TWO a900 cameras!! OH YEAH!! And it's cool because the lenses I have for my a300 are compatible with the a900. Also, Mark and I have been looking into lenses for my camera because I'd like to have a nice variety/range of lenses. I kind of want to get into sports photography [because I LOVE sports], so I'd need a nice, big telephoto zoom lens. Of course, I won't get the biggest one Sony sells - that's $5,999.99 alone!! HA.

Well, here's a picture of the Sony a900. If you click on the picture, it'll take you to the page on Sony's website that's about the a900. It's AMAZING!!

Who wouldn't want to upgrade to this camera?!

March 20, 2009

2009-03-20T13:19:00.006-04:00

I've been busy lately, and I've taken many pictures. My boys definitely keep me on my toes - with my camera always in my hands. Over the last few days, I've taken many pictures of my boys playing around, and I'd just like to share some of them.

On to some other news that deals with photography:
My husband and I have been talking [more like e-mailing] lately about how I love taking photographs and how I really would love to learn more about photography. I'd love to go to school for photography, like really go to school for it, but I just don't like the idea of having to take "normal classes". Plus, with two kids and a husband hoping to go to school in 2010 so he can become an Officer in the Marine Corps, time and money just aren't there for me to be able to go to school for it. So my husband told me to just look into taking courses for just photography [where I wouldn't have to take anything but photography courses]. I looked into it, and there's this one place back near where I'm from that has courses. Problem is, the courses begin May 30th, and I might not be moved back up to Ohio by then. I would absolutely LOVE to take the courses, but I don't know if I'll be there when they start. I am going to probably contact the place and see how late they accept registration and stuff, because if I do get back to Ohio in time, I would love to go!! I think it'd be great if I could learn more about photography and go on the "field trips" to actually stand next to a [professional] photographer and get their feedback right there on the spot. But if I can't take these courses, then it's going to suck because the next time the courses start again is in January 2010, and I won't be in Ohio then to take them. Hopefully it'll all work out though - and work out in my favor. We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?!

Flowers and Birds in a Tree.

2009-03-15T20:34:00.010-04:00

Today I saw a bird in one of the trees in our front yard, so I decided to take a few pictures. Then, another bird came along, and I kept on "snapping" away. The second bird flew up by the first bird, and I took some more photos. Then the first bird flew away, while the second bird stayed...and I took even more photos. Once the second bird flew away, I was done taking photos. A little bit later in the day, one of those two birds came back, so I took a few photos of it.

Here are photos of the birds from earlier in the day:

Here are some photos from when one of the birds came back later in the day:

On Friday, I received flowers that Mark, my husband, had ordered for me "just because" while he's training on ship. I love the range of different flowers he got for me, and the colors are beautiful.

Here are some photos I took today of the flowers:

WELCOME!!

2009-03-15T20:13:00.002-04:00

Welcome to my photography blog!! I am just an "amateur" at photography, but I do have a great passion for it. For as long as I can remember, I have been highly intrigued by just about all forms of art, especially the arts that closely relate to the fashion world. I am a licensed cosmetologist, so the art of hair, nails, and make up intrigue me the most. I do not shy away from what most of the world finds "crazy" in hair, nails, and make up; I embrace it. I love fashion, every little bit of it. I don't always dress very fashionable; but if you know me, you know that I can definitely dress the part what the time calls for it. I can sew pretty well, and I hope to one day create some of my own things to wear. I love art, like the art classes you take in high school. I have drawing pencils, drawing pads, and a bunch of other necessary utensils for drawing. Imagining something and putting it on paper, fabric, etc. feels amazing. I miss working with clay and "throwing" on the wheel. Sculpting and creating things with clay just always felt right to me. I hope to one day get into some ceramic classes so I can work with clay again, and just be "free" while I create my own works of art.

My favorite type of photography isn't getting people to pose this way or that way, but just catching people in their natural environment. Taking pictures this way tends to create better memories, at least to me it does. I also love taking pictures of life: plants, flowers, animals, etc. I love black and whites photos, but I also love bright, vivid colors in photos.

I hope that my love for photography will continue to grow. And I hope that I will use this blog often to post some of my favorite photos that I have taken. Maybe once in a while, I will even post some of my favorite pieces of art that someone else has created. But mostly, I hope that you enjoy this blog and my photos!!