Photography Class

I'm sitting in the last row of my photography class. I enjoy coming, but sometimes is excruciating to sit through. There's different levels of computer knowledge in here so sometimes when the teacher will say something basic ... she has to stop and re-teach that skill. Right now she's reminding some of the class participants how to open a file. I figured I would upload some more pictures while she does that.



This photo was taken in my backyard. I have no clue what kind of flower or plant it is. I just think it's pretty. We have all kinds of vegetation growing back there, but it seems to pop up and die quickly. My sister planted some little flowers in a pot and I think the rabbits are eating them because the petals are slowly disappearing bite by bite.


This is the same plant, just from a different angle, playing with background colors and focal points. I like the distress of the siding behind the plant. It's my neighbor's shed. Kind of an eye sore from a distance, but makes for some beautiful pictures. I guess that's what I like about photography. It helps me better appreciate my surroundings.


They were reporting last week about how when mothers look at pictures of their baby smiling, it boosts something in the mother and makes her instantly happier. That's what I thought about when I was able to capture this next picture. Lubbock was on Kevin's shoulders and was so happy. He got to spend so much time with Kevin this weekend. We woke up early on Saturday to get Lubbock his first ever haircut. Kevin told me that his first haircut is the last one I get to go to because from now on, it's a guy's day thing for just them. That's okay ... if I ever have a girl, we'll go get pedicures when they get their hair cut. Then we went downtown for our town's festival. We bought tickets to go on the rides. We didn't do the crazy ones. Kevin had Lubbock sit on his lap and they went down the really big slide. He was completely unimpressed. It cost $2 each for a 5 second trip down the slide and not even a laugh. He's a tough nut to crack sometimes. Then I took him on the little kid's roller coaster. It was so small, it made me dizzy. It only had about a ten foot circumference and they made this little ride go super fast. Ugh. I would have told the guy to stop the ride, but there was a 5 year old on, too, and I wasn't going to ruin her fun. There were two live bands playing. Lubbock danced for about an hour and a half. I didn't know we were going to be there so long and I didn't pack a dinner for him. I did find a vendor with bananas and got a chicken taco without the salsa.

He finally fell asleep and I was able to snap this photo with the moon light hitting him just right. I had to adjust the lighting on this photo in class since it was really dark. But, he really does look so peaceful. We walked home and put him to bed. The next morning, Kevin took Lubbock with him to get his oil changed. Kevin tried to keep him out of my hair so I could clean the house, but that's the day our water heater broke, so there wasn't a ton I could do with no hot water.






We're an hour into class and she just taught us something new. We learned how to cut things from one picture and create a whole new picture out of all these different pictures. Pretty exciting. I suppose if I had a bunch of cute portraits of Lubbock, I could make a triptych of him or make on of those funky new-age art pieces with four different color focuses. I just fixed this picture, though ... the coloring was off. I may work on making my bra strap disappear! I'm learning some useful things. If I could add makeup to pictures, that would be awesome.



That's one thing I've definitely quit doing now that I'm at home. I maybe do my makeup twice a month. I've never been a big makeup kinda girl, though. Kevin jokes that when we lived in Texas, I was a "girl." I wore high heels, skirts, curled my hair, wore makeup, and got pedicures. We moved up to Illinois and I quit doing all that stuff, except makeup because I had a "real" job. Now, I don't really leave the house enough to wear makeup. I might put some on to go to a play date, but the other moms know what it's like, so I know they won't judge me. So, Kevin will say things like "Back when you were a girl, blah, blah, blah." I think it's funny.


I actually bought a cute little red dress to wear next month to a concert we're going to. My friend from junior high and high school is coming up to visit. She's mostly coming to see Lubbock, but that weekend, we're all meeting some of her friends from downtown Chicago to see the Gypsy Kings. They played some song on Simply Mad About the Mouse (a Disney CD that I used to listen to when I was little) ... it's kind of Latin infused dance music. It should be a good time. So, Kevin should be happy about that. I might even curl my hair, too, but it's an outdoor concert, so I'll have to see how humid it's supposed to be. Well, I'm going to work on some other stuff. I'm done typing for now.

More tomorrow ... This whole blog thing makes journaling so easy. I know I'm not writing about anything in particular, but it still makes me think about stuff that's going on.