Picture the Holi-daze!

So, I did it! I just signed up for Tracey Clark's Picture the Holidays class! Originally I was thinking that I'd be too busy for this class (and that may still be the case), but I figured I've learned so much taking her previous two, I should definitely give it a try and make this December one to remember! That is the case with the other months I've dedicated to her classes (July and October). Focusing on the prompts, picture assignments, and posting in the student gallery have made a huge difference in capturing and remembering the daily activities themselves. It should be fun, and I hope you think about doing it too! It starts next week!

At Long Last - The 10.10.10 Photowalk Pictures...

Perhaps you've been wondering about that little photo walk I put together last month, wherein I  met up with international blogging all-star, Kat, and her sister Laurie, to wander gingerly through Northwest Portland, snapping away at any old thing that caught our fancy? Didn't it rain cats and dogs? And wasn't there a 15,000 person marathon happening about three streets away? And didn't it rain on them too? Yes to all of it! We came, we saw, we took pictures...and had a great time!

Here's Kat, all the way from Italy! Isn't she cute?

Bear with me on the quality of some of my shots, please. I found out that it's not so easy to balance my camera, my umbrella, and my extra huge, yet very chic camera bag while walking in the rain and trying to use manual focus. I had to make the sad decision to leave my coffee at Starbucks and switch to autofocus. Kat is a serious pro at this kind of multi-tasking (she may have three arms).

After seeing her get her camera all wet, I started to loosen up about keeping every drop off mine. Her pictures always turn out so well, I had to just follow her lead and I'm so glad I did. These aren't exactly straight out of the camera, but most of them are close. As I went through them, I kind of liked the soft gloomy glow that the clouds provided. It was a great experience to meet Kat (and Laurie!) face-to-face, and I'm hoping that more of these meet-ups will happen soon! 

Oh! Also, Kat and I are synchronizing our blogs to showcase our photo walk pictures on the same day (so James Bond of us!), so be sure to check hers out too! I can't wait to see how she captured the very same things I was looking at.

Check out the rain drops on her lens! Brave lady!

 Thanks again, Kat! This was a great idea, and I can't wait to do it again!!

Snap Happy

Since receiving my new camera (a Canon Rebel T2i) for Mother's Day, I have been taking pictures every day, reading my manuals, playing with lenses, and generally loving it. It occurred to me recently that the little digi point-and-shoot that I had been using before was just sitting in the drawer, unused and unloved. I bought that camera last summer as an emergency purchase - we were on vacation in Maui and lost our other one (I may have...uh-hum...thrown it away...totally by accident!!). I didn't have much of a selection or time to pick out anything good, so I went with a little Sony number and it saved our vacation. Alas, I couldn't stand it! The happy ending is that having a not-so-great camera influenced me to get a Great One, and now I have an awesome new hobby, great pics of the kids, a new blog, fame, glory, powerful friends (yep, I get emails from the President himself!), and so on.

Anyhow, back to the drawer. I said to my kids, "Would you guys like to take this old camera for a spin?" There was a bunch of jumping up and down and shouts of, "Yes! Yes! Yes! You're the best mommy in the world!" Awww. My daughter watched me throughout July while I was doing my assignments for Picture Summer (often she was part of the assignments), and she was eager to try out some of the stuff I had done. Without further ado, here are some of Rachel's super awesome pictures (and who knows, Oliver could have taken some, but I usually saw the camera in the hands of the big sister)...

Cool, right? I didn't edit these in the slightest. Not even cropped. I love that one of Ollie taking his picture in the reflection of somebody's car. So creative!

The three of us went to the zoo on Friday, and there was even more picture taking! This time by me.

Lemon-flavored cotton candy - kind of good in an icky sort of way. Oh, and the teeth!

Shivers