Miss Sophia's Christmas card shoot - sneak peek

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of photographing the little princess Sophia for her family's Christmas card. What an amazing learning experience that was and I'll forever be grateful to her parents for letting me have some time behind the lens to capture their pretty girl.

 Here is a sneek peak of some of the images:
Is she just not the cutest little thing you've ever seen?!  Sophia was having so much fun picking little red berries so they became part of the theme.



Her silver dress just sparkled.  

I had so many issues with lighting, let me tell you. Sun flares galore from behind that tree (but it kind of adds a dreamy effect, don't you think?) and shadows from the sun through the trees on their faces was a fight in an of itself...I could go on and on. I learned SO much that day. Mainly, I am not fast enough for a 2 year old. I wasn't prepared to set my shutter speed as if I were photographing a NASCAR event. Lesson learned.

 

In the end I think we got some cute pictures and we ordered the 5x7 Christmas card, yay! I might have permission to post that after Christmas, but not yet...we don't want family to see it just yet.

 

By the way, don't you just love these beautiful blog frames? They were designed by Annie Manning from Paint the Moon Photography. She's a delight and very helpful if you have problems  ---> (I have been her problem on more than a few occasions, ha, but she emails me right away and provides great customer service. Check out her website, blog and gorgeous (photoshop & elements) textures and actions HERE.

 

Thank you for the experience Lori & Al! With a cutie patootie like Sophia, every picture is adorable.

Rock Your Camera 101, week 1 photo assignment

Warning: Boring photograhy class blog. This may put most of you to sleep. Proceed with caffeine.

So last week I was THRILLED to have finally gotten into a 5-wk. online photography class (in my forum Clickin Moms) called Rock Your Camera 101 that I've been unsuccessful at getting into for the past 7 months!

I saw a Facebook announcement that there were a few spots left and nearly chipped my teeth getting to my wallet to sign up and pay. After I was registered I happy-danced around the house like a fool celebrating......then I realized......wow, you dumb arse....it's the holidays. No wonder there were spots left. Everyone else will be immersed in cornucopias, turkeys, wreaths and jingle bells these next few weeks and YOU will be turning in assignments. (dummy, dummy, dummy, dummy!!)

{{{smacking myself in the forehead}}}     Duh.

Then I stood up straight and tall, wiped away the sweat from my brow, put on my rose colored glasses and declared loudly to myself, "Well, that's okay! I'll just take pics of cornucopias, turkeys, wreaths and jingle bells and make them my photography assignments. WOO-HOO! You go girl!"

My goal is to practice in my manual camera settings as much as I can, nail my white balance, ISO settings, shutter speeds and fstops & learn to capture children....in focus (which, I've recently learned the hard way is the exact same as shooting a NASCAR race. A little kid = race car. Same thing. Enough said).

So I'm starting with RYC 101. Then I pray that I get into 201. (Probably next Thanksgiving)

Our first assignment is simply dealing with lighting. Our cameras had to be set in "auto white balance" because that's next week's assignment. All images are straight out of the camera (SOOC), absolutely NO editing allowed, no cropping either. Everything as taken in manual mode.

We had to turn in 4 images: Outside, Window light, Inside low light & Image of choice. It was fun! I had several "Ah-ha!" moments learning how to meter my light and then make everything balance to "0" and then click away!

Outside - Garden statue  ISO 640  SS 1/500  fstop 2.5

Window light (I took this literally) - My girls  ISO 500  SS 1/160  fstop 2.5

Inside low light - My dragonfly collection  ISO 3200  SS 1/125  fstop 2.5

Photo of choice - GO NAVY! Ornament in the gift shop Temptations that I volunteer in. I worked on Friday and yes, I bought it  :o)  I'm trying to work on my indoor, low light images and nail the focus. 

ISO 250  SS 1/100  fstop 1.8 (that's why the lighting works, I opened up to 1.8)

I couldn't help myself! While supper was baking I had to go in and do some post processing on my Christmas ornament. It needed a bit of lightening & sharpening and that brought out the soft pink hues. I love it!

                                                              

Before/After

I'm really getting into the holiday spirit. See? This photo class is going to be great.

I hear next week is going to be a doooozie. Mainly composition & white balance, but we'll have two weeks to finish. Wish me luck!

"The Cake"

I was wading through all of the images from Josh's farewll party and decided that the cake needed a post all it's own. It was SO CUTE! 

 

This is my girlfriend Lynn. She owns a catering company called "A Bit More Sweets & Specialties" (go to the link to "like" her facebook page). Lynn generously squeezed out some time between all of her farmers markets and jobs to make Josh's cake. Lynn also did my 40th birthday high tea in my home...oh man, I have to dig out those pics and show you what this lady is capable of. You'll love it.

All I told her was "make some kind of Army cake" and she ran with it. She created the camouflage fondant pattern herself!


ARMY STRONG!The cake was well protected. Just try and steal a piece! C'mon, I dare ya.


Complete with a little Army Ranger and his get uber cool jeep. (Josh has a slot for Ranger training).


My bald boy was ready to dig in. Anyone know how to remove a balloon string from his cute face?


It was almost too cute to cut into.


But of course, he got over it. You can't keep a boy from his cake. 
This? ...... I'm not really sure what's going here with Josh and Brandon, ha! But I can say, without a doubt, that everyone loved it.


Lynn sliced fresh bananas into the center.


And then she made a delicious banana cream filling. The mix of the chocolate, vanilla, bananas.....oh. Heart be still. It's making my mouth water right now just typing about it. It was truly remarkable.


The next day, this is all that was left of the wreckage we made of it. By evening, after Josh's friends had popped in twice to storm the refrigerator of left over BBQ, there was hardly any left at all! (And I kept the little Army Ranger in my memory box. Too cute!)

Sorry! No electricity!

I wanted to post Josh's farewell party today, but we are having a bad wind storm and the electricity keeps popping off and on. Now its been of for about 45 minutes....I'm happy I have my blackberry.

I give up, lol! I don't want to start my uploads then lose everything at the last minute so I'm going to wait until tomorrow.

The good news is...if there's no electricity, there's no working stove. No working stove...no cooking!! Yay!! Sorry. Was that too much excitement? Hey, I'm no dummy. If Dominion Power wants to give me a night off, I'll take it!

Hope everyone is having a good day :o)
Sent from Brenda's BlackBerry

Josh's farewll party ~ Pt. 1

Oh my gosh, today marks 2 weeks that Josh has been off to boot camp!!

I'll admit, the first week was tough. But now I'm getting used to it and I'm able to look at his farewell photos & videos without bursting into tears and screaming, "They've taken my baby!!!!!" like some deranged freak who just escaped from her straight jacket. What? I'm not a drama queen.

I have to state for the record to the entire world (meaning....the now 9 people who read my blog) that I am married to the MOST patient man on the planet. Honestly, I am.

Johnny simply wiped the spurting blood off that shot out of his ears from my shrieking, kept listening to me, giving me hugs and supporting me during the panic, whining, utter dispair, thrashing and pure hysteria.

And that was just in the parking lot waving goodbye to Josh on the bus. Hmmm....come to think of it, I haven't seen Johnny since. But he IS patient.

So in the days leading up to the farewell party I was on Johnny constantly to make his farewell poster. We bought poster boards at Michaels like proud parents sending their child off to boot camp so that we could do our rightful duty and embarrass the hell out of our boy one last time.  {{high five}}

I, of course, being the ultra crafty, talented, artsy chick that I am (NOT) bought everything in sight to help me put together my masterpiece. I'm telling you, this project brought sweat to my brow since I can't even make a stick figure look good. I have NO artistic gene in my body. Thank God for Michaels. And my 40% coupons....


The one thing that I DO have are photos. Uuhhh...approximately 8,999,085,000 of them just on my hard drive from 2010 alone. Plus, I stole a bunch of pics straight off of Josh's facebook page so that I could do a "memory lane" kinda theme. I used my handy-dandy little 4x6 printer and got to work.


Those are poofy pom-pom bows in their hair. See? Me = Artistic. Shut up.


I love this pic of Josh from Halloween last year.


So proud!


Hee-hee. He's bald now.


I found all of these little Army stickers and jazzed up the pics   :o)


I made a little Army Josh!


♥  My hero  ♥


Beef cake, haha For several painstaking hours I printed, cut, glued, hit the vodka, taped, sweated, stickered, glittered, trembled, pom-pomed on my little poster that could. Then I prayed that everything would still be on the posterboard in the morning.


In the meantime, 90 minutes before bedtime Johnny hopped on his computer and got to work.  I'm all: "What?!? Where is your poster board? Where are your scissors? Glue? Tired, swollen eyes? Sweaty arm pits? Raw hands?!?!? Bags under your eyes?!?!?!?!?!?!" 
Johnny: Yeah, uuuhhh, right, honey....I'll just do my magic on the laptop, print it out real fast on the plotter in the morning, tape it to the poster board then head over to the club house to decorate. Me: Whaaaaaa???? Me again: HUH? What do you mean "the plotter?" What's a plotter and ....what? We were supposed to sit here all night and make posters together, you know...have a fun, romantic, bonding, couples craft night!  :o) Johnny: I don't do crafts. 
He made little Joshie's too.....only he did it in 30 seconds, not 23 minutes.


Like we can't tell that's fake. Sheeeesh.


Well.....OK, that one is kinda cool.


That one too. Dang it!  Note to self: Take a Powerpoint class.  Another note to self: Before boot camp graduation.


Look at the 3D stickers he added at the end, too cute! Yes, I'm a Johnny fan. I can't stay ticked very long.


Now it's ready for "The Plotter" Ooooohhhhhh-Aaaahhhhhhhh....


Great job honey! I'll reschedule our craft night for another time. It'll be F-U-N! So Johnny's poster looked amazing in the end; so professional, clean, awesome & very "Military."


Mine looked like the craft store threw up on it. But that's okay, it came from my big, proud Mommy heart ♥


And while Johnny was out printing his poster on "The Plotter" (Ooooohhhhhh-Aaaahhhhhhhh) I was out buying everything I could get my hands on that had an Army/Military or American Hero theme. Decorating is going to be a blast! And Johnny is going to help me! And "The Plotter" (Ooooohhhhhh-Aaaahhhhhhhh) won't be able to help him this time! {{{Evil laugh}}}   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~ I'll post the party tomorrow (wait until you see my sister and brother in law's & Madison's poster-too adorable!) ~  ~ Thanks for stopping by ~