Done.

"....Friday, Friday, I can't believe its Friday, who knew the weekend would be here so soon, soon...Friday, Friday....".

Hey. If she can do it, I can too. :)

However, I'm soooo glad its Friday, this has been one of those weeks where I just felt stupid on multiple occasions on a daily basis. I'm blaming my spike in caffeine intake. Its "funny" but since I started drinking caffeine again, my food intake has once again decreased to MAYBE once a day. Again. I know its not good for me, but when you're not hungry you don't think about food. Not to mention how tired caffeine makes you...I don't think I've gone to bed before 12:00am in about two weeks. I'm seriously feeling it right about now.

Why isn't it summer yet?????

However, next week I'm weaning myself back off the addicting stuff. Mainly cause I'll be outta of cash/change. :D

I don't have much else to write about at the moment, well...technically I have a LOT but in an effort to respect other's privacy and to "not put everything on the internet" I won't. :) So you're left with this drab post! :)

I realize I haven't been posting many photos on this blog...um..so I decided to post these that I have taken for my studio still life class. I honestly didn't think I'd like it...but have been pleasantly surprised by my teacher and what we have to do!

Don't have anything overly exciting this weekend, trying to decided if Rob and I want to "road trip" to AVL this weekend for a puppy meeting or do the sensible/responsible thing and stay home and do homework.

We'll see.

Counting down the days until Summer Vaca!!!!  2 months +

TTFN!

Glass Bear with a blue and white Background: Canon Rebel xti; 50mm; Light Table, Two light setup, Blue Gel, 

Opaque Object: Oatmeal Lotion bottle surround by oatmeal. Canon Rebel xti; 50mm; One Light Medium Soft Box, ISO 100, f/4.0, 200 sec. 

Metal: Sony Alpha a200, 18-55mm, One Light, Light Tent, ISO 100, f/11, 160sec. 

Opaque Objects: Same as above 

Spring 2011: First Day

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis know I'm a world class procrastinator. Never do today, what can be done tomorrow is my motto.  You also know that one of my goals  in 2011 is to eliminate that ...or at least squash it down to only putting of mundane things. 
However, I have never registered for a semester four days after its started. 
Day before? Yes. Four days after? No. 
So to say I'm a little stressed about the semester is....an understatement. Ask my roommate. 

Anyway, I sat down with my advisor Tuesday and hashed out my schedule, adding more classes so I'd be up to my alloted 12 credit hours. The good news is I may just be finished by next semester. Being the extreme visual learner that I am, I put my full faith and trust in my advisor to make sure my school and work schedule could co-exist in peace. 


The bad news is..that didn't happen. Well actually, it did, my work and my school don't over lap, but as I was putting my schedule on my calender I noticed, that one of my classes ended at 3:35PM at the Main Campus, and the other started at 3:30PM on a campus 25-30 minutes away. Not.Going.To.Work. Thankfully I was able to find the class online, and sign up for it there.
However I have already missed the first assignment. While I've done many many online classes, all the info they are throwing at us to "help" is OVERWHELMING. I'm pRaYiNg I can focus enough to get two assignments done by this weekend. 
In the real world, I have put two classes (Studio Still Life and Introduction to Media Tech) behind me and my last class of the week begins in thirty minutes. (Photojournalism)  
Intro to Media will be one of those easy A classes. I hate that I have to sit through a semester of learning Powerpoint, Photoshop 6 (talk about back-in-the-day) and creating a blog. A BLOG. I had to laugh out loud when he said that.  Don't worry, he didn't hear me, since the class is broadcast from the main campus via live feed or what have you. I was surprised that the other two people in the room with me, had no knowledge of this stuff, so I offered to help them if they needed..
However I may regret that.....
Anyway, if I don't make an A in this class, I have issues. Or have too much on my plate or something. 
Now if I only were that confident in my other classes....

Take THAT!

So I did it, I was nervous, my voice was shaky and my thoughts flew out of my head as soon as I raised my hand, but I did it. 
I stood up for myself.
As expect, my "awesome" teacher in studio photography, started out class bashing our work last week, quite harshly, to the point where one of my more out spoken students asked him incredulously "How can you say that everyone in the class didn't study!?" Anyway, so I raised my hand once, but then he moved on and I put my hand back down. 


Then he came back to us "Ignoring the directions so we could be creative" and I could not let that comment slide. How in the world could the ENTIRE class NOT READ the DIRECTIONS!?! 


Me: I know for me, I saw what you did in class and took those visual and applied them to your directions and my assignment. 
Mr. G: But I gave you written directions
Me: I know but  for me personally I took what you did in class and added it too what you wrote, thinking they were one and the same. I read the assignment and then used the visuals from our last class to set up. 
Mr G: *crickets* Ok...........well the written directions take prevalence 
Me: So could you give us some kind of disclaimer so we know what you want us to do and what you don't want us to do?
Mr G: Well 99.9% of what I do I want you to do. Cause I didn't change up much when I was doing it
Me: But  you did make some adjustments and we just did what we saw you do
Mr. G: Ok.....ok.......ok.... (Yes he pauses about 30 seconds between paragraphs haha)


And class went on. The rest of class (though as incredibly boring as always) was better and he felt a little more approachable! We'll see how that plays out through out the rest of the semester, but I think I may request an advisor change, cause I'd really prefer different teachers if possible next semester. 

Touch Up Tuesday

Its Touch Up Tuesday at the Paper Heart Camera!

One of my assignments for studio photography that I seriously botched. Not on purpose mind you but we, meaning my fellow classmates and I, were under the impression after a very through demonstration of what we THOUGHT was the next assignments; all went out and did our still life shoots, very creatively.

Much to the dismay of Mr. G.

The assignment was photographing still life, using the soft boxes, light umbrellas, dish lamps etc.. He was shocked that we had more than four photos in our file, and that we moved the object and lights around.

Funny, we thought, that's exactly what you did in class? The paper did not specify otherwise, in fact it encouraged us to change things up and I quote "One thing at a time".

Apparently he meant only the lights coverings and nothing.else.

Well say that next time!!!!!!!

We all chafed a bit as he berated us for "not reading the assignment". *deep breaths* Is anyone else feeling a since of deja vu here!? Anyway, here's one of the photos I did, using a soft box, I believe. We had all the lights in the studio out, so I couldn't really tell how much exposure I needed. My histogram showed this one to be properly exposed, but blowing it up on the computer, I found it a little dark, and just raised the exposure a bit and saturation.
 Before:

After:

Has This Ever Happened to you?

Just another Thoughtless Thursday

Let’s play a little game called: “Have You Ever!”

Let’s set the scene. Its 7:08AM Thursday morning, your snuggled under a mountain of blankets, one dog curled up on against my side, one dog somewhere else on the bed, and another dog at the foot of the bed, hoping you won’t know that he’s violated his “NO BED” rule. The alarm clock starts chiming (believe me when I say those chimes could wake the dead) and you absent mindedly smack the large snooze button. You pick up your phone to see what the “real” time is (as your alarm clock is about 45 minutes fast) and your eyes resume there previo………

The alarm chimes again, and this time dog #3 hops of the bed and whines at the door, despite encouraging him to come back and lay on his bed, he is insistent and you stumble out of bed, to take him outside. You watch in alarm as he seems to have a bad case of diarrhea, and your mind explodes with questions. What in the world? Where is he going to stay while at work? Should I live him alone? What about class? Nah I should keep him with me, he obviously can hold it a little bit, but what if that’s too long? Should I feed him? OH man I know why he’s like this! (I have a neighbor who throws out her chips/bread/whatever for the birds. I hate to break it too her that no bird is scarfing down that food!)

You come back inside, and watch as your dog gulps down the bowl of water in the kitchen, your brain coming a little more awake with each passing moment. Unfortunately its not awake enough to keep you out of your bed for just a few. Minutes. More. Once the alarm goes off for a third time, you realize that this is pointless and climb out of bed, and start getting dressed. You glance at the clock (7:28am!?!) you know you have to leave the house at 7:30am so you are jolted out of your morning stupor and start prying the other two dogs out of bed, (I swear its like having kids sometimes) and send them outside, your roommate finally gets out of the bathroom, and you dash in to grab your hair supplies. This is one time you’ll be doing your hair at the locker room at work. Again.  Dogs come inside, dogs get arranged around the house, with the “sick” one in the kitchen (easy clean up) and the other two in the rest of the house, water, here, food there.

You remember you need to get gas, and beat yourself up for not doing that yesterday. You head for your car….*Snap* you forgot my USB drive for school, grab that, ok purse..where’s your purse? Oh in the car. Dumb (insert name). Dash outside. Wait no purse. Oh, you must have taken it inside anyway!  (Note this house is very organized so it’s not hard to find things. Most of the time) Run into your bedroom and check the places you normal store  your bag, hmmm not there, what not there either? Must be out in the Living Room, though you don’t remember seeing it, psht. you don’t remember bringing it in the house period! Its gotta be here somewhere, check Kitchen chairs, table,  sink, Nothing. Desk, under the desk, dog room, roommates room…NOTHING. Begin feeling a slight sense of panic, as you realize the possibility of it being stolen, is very high. It has happened to you before, but you’re normally conscious of those things… surely not God! Deep breaths, glance at the time 7:50am?? You are so late. Email boss from phone as you dash back out too the car to look, check in the trunk, stranger things have happened…nothing. Walk back towards the house and suddenly realize…you know EXACTLY where your purse is. At work. Outside. Behind a wall.

Panic for real now, and scramble to check your bank account, as you rush to your parent’s house to borrow some money for gas.

You Head for work, rushing as much as your $3 worth of gasoline, praying the entire time, that by some miracle your purse is still outside; simultaneously thanking God it didn’t rain last night, and you had the presence of mind to take your cell phone with you! (Did I mention said cell phone now works?)

As you pull into your parking garage, you let out a happy scream as you see your black purse still sitting in the bushes were you left it, as you jump out to grab it you notice your co-worker waiting to pull in, snickering at you. You don’t care however, and are just overjoyed to have your belongings back with you.

The End.

Things like this don’t happen to anyone else but me do they? Please tell me it doesn’t!!?

A little background:

Well due to the accident, my father had an appointment made with the insurance company, to get an estimate done. However I didn’t find out that was going to happen yesterday (Wednesday) until late Tuesday evening. So we came up with the plan to have my mom take me to work, and get all that done, and pick me up. She got a little turned around downtown, so I stood outside of the parking garage trying to “walk her” through the streets, and back out of the area she was in. While this was going on, I set my purse down behind a concrete wall, so it wouldn’t be readily seen. My mom came; I walked towards the car got in, and drove away. I am sooo incredibly thankful that everything was still in there, especially since theft is high at the university. Oh yes, and good news! THE CELL PHONE IS ALIVE!!! The rice bath worked, and you would never know it had a problem! $200 that stays in my bank account!!! :)

This week Meme’s (I seem to be doing just a few a week, gotta study ya know) is brought you by Murdocks Mama 

Just Thursday!

Outside my window……well since I don’t have a window, I don’t really know, but outside my door my co-workers are walking around.

The time is…….11:25AM

Today I feel……Tired. Despite getting 7.5 hours of sleep last night (according to my SleepBot App)

I am thinking..…..my office feels like a cave. We have to keep my office door closed, since it houses the fire suppression system *don’t ask* and since there is no windows its weird in here. I was also thinking something else but I forgot.

At the moment, I am thankful..……….That my purse wasn’t stolen, and that my phone is working!!!

I am going…to classes after work

I am wearing………Work Uniform and Coat. Yes Coat.

I wish…………I could go back to bed

I am reading…… “The Geography of Bliss”

I am working on………Weekly Newsletter for company

I am hoping……Next week goes ok

I am hearing………The hum of the huge A/C system

I bet you didn't know..…I set up a Tumblr site for my daily photos

One of my favorite……???

I confess………I’m really not looking forward to next week.

Weekend Plans.. 

[Thursday]  -Work – Run Home – Class #1 – Class #2

[Friday] Class and more Class grocery shop

[Saturday] – Work at Church in preparation for event next week, nap

[Sunday] – Church, nap, prep for coming week.

Well I'm off 1.5 hours to get home, get Pompeii, clean up the mess he left while I was gone, decide if I should take him into public like this, and leave for classes. Speaking of class, I leave you with Assignment #2 for my Photography II class. 

Classes Day 2

Have you ever started a semester, and within the first week wondered why on earth you were doing it? I kind of felt that way, as I raced from work, to my house, and back out to my class. What on earth would posses me to schedule two classes as two different campus's? 


While I am tired, and feeling slightly insane, I did make it with plenty of time to spare as it turns out. But that niggling thought in the back of my head, keeps me from celebrating that it actually worked how I was hoping it would. 


English 1010 
My instructor for this class; I don't know really what to say about him still, I mean he's very bored sounding when he talks to us, and really acts like he doesn't want to be there. For a young guy, he's really "Not Hip" with the whole 21st century outlook just yet. I mean seriously WHY am I sitting in class HAND WRITING a paper to turn in? Last year was only developmental english and we were using computers right there and EMAILING our pages in, instead of going home, typing them up and printing them off. *which reminds me that I need ink for my printer...* 

After 10 minutes of writing, my hand was completely cramped up and I struggled to fill in my last page simply due to my hand not cooperating. Even still I finished early was able to leave about 20 minutes early. *SCORE!


But that meant when we arrived at Campus No.2 we were about 45 minutes early for my next class. So Pompei and I got out and pounded some pavement, and did some training and walked and walked and walked. We both were worn out by the time we made our way too our room.

Photography II 
A few minutes into the class, I knew I was going to like this instructor, not only did he NOT insult anyone right off  but quickly allayed my fears about "making mistakes", in fact he wanted us to make mistake, to put ourselves out there on a limb, to be creative, work 50% technical and 50% creative, AND he's going to let us EDIT!!!! *SCORE 2!! :)

He had us go around introduce ourselves, tell everyone why we were interested in photography and show off some of our "best" work. After last semester, I was horribly doubting myself so you can imagine my relief, while when going through some photos on my Flickr account, he told me he could see why I was into kid + pet photography because, in his words "You're good at it."

If it wouldn't of been seriously awkward, I'd have probably hugged him.

Its not that I don't believe that I'm good, I do, you have to believe in yourself to be good at whatever, in my humble opinion. But when every assignment you get back, is just almost crushing, its tough to keep your head up and keep going. I was conditioned to think that's the way the photog department at my college felt.
Stupid Emotions/feelings. Anyway, so I've gone from dreading this class to feeling like this will be fun!

Want to know our first assignment? Self Portraits.


And then I remember I have another photo class that's starts tomorrow.  Erin. Shut up.

PS. Um.....have I posted daily? Wow. I'm impressed with myself. who knew I could form coherent posts more than twice a week! 

Oh man I almost forgot but Jess @  The Little Blonde Girl  passed the "Blog With Substance" award on too me earlier!! THANK YOU!!! The Rules for this award would be: Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation and experience using five words. Can I be totally honest when I say, the first thought that popped into my ehad would be: 


Stress- stress- stress - stress - stress and did I mention stress? 


I know its not been, but lately that's kinds of what its felt like. But my overall experience, in blogging these last 4 years would be: 

School- Hope - Laughter - Fun - Puppies 

Yep That pretty much sums it up!

Next I'm supposed to pass it on so I'll pass it too, these bloggers but I hate picking a few and leaving other out, cause if I'm following you, its because I like to read your blog.  So if you drop by today, please, please, please take it with love from me. :-)

More on Photography

Are  ya sick of me talking about it yet? :)


Especially as a newbie photographer, I take this photo meme's and a huge opportunity to get out and make myself shoot every single day. Its hard cause I have things to do, or I'm in an office  for 6-8 hours daily. But with my current schedule, I know I'm going to be blowing my cameras up, so I might as well get used to it! Anyway I stumbled across this forum on Jessica Claire's Facebook page, which I thought had some incredible tips. 

1. Understand Lighting - . Learn how to see YOUR best light, the light that defines your images.  Achieving great lighting is the first step to a great photo.
2. Rent Equipment - Advice from Jessica Claire herself:  Don't buy a ton of equipment right away. Rent it until you really understand and figure out what you want. That way you aren't wasting $$ best spent on other things.THanks to my school, I can borrow lens and such from there, which makes me incredibly excited. Yeehaw! I'm big on the "Try before you buy" which is why I have been so hesitant to purchase more lens for my Sony. 
3. Don't compare yourselves to other photographers. - A toughie for sure! But that's words I will make myself live by this semester. 
4. Know Your Camera
5. Shoot A LOT - Advice from Jessica Claire: Shoot a LOT. Shoot every single chance you get. Try to shoot at least 500 images every single day and once you are comfortable shooting objects in all kinds of light, work on moving objects--kids, cats, dogs, anything that moves!
6. Be Yourself - Pick a style. Be confident in it, don't question yourself, it'll show in your post processing.
7. Know When to Edit -Think before you edit... often we get so caught up in the latest preset or action and just run that on a bunch of our photos, or we are excited to try a new way of processing without thinking about the effect on the photo. Watch for what your editing does to the skin of your subjects.

Yesterday, I got a chance to watch a pro photographer shoot a wedding live via the internet. Thanks to my dear friend, and AMAZING photog Abby for tweeting about it! It was amazing, I mean so.freakin.cool. its one thing to hear it in class, and to read it on line, its a completely different world to watch a pro in action.

Jasmine Star Photography  held a FREE online course in shooting weddings. While that's not something I plan to do professionally...um.. seriously do you know all the tips I got just from watching? It was amazing. Thank you Creative Live!!

I started watching around 730pm just as the reception started, and didn't stop until they cut the sound at 11pm (EST..they are in Cali) when the dancing started.  I also jumped back on today and watched as she went through her images individually and talked about what she did to get that shot and how VERY LITTLE she edited them for her clients/herself/magazines.

It was way cool.

Time for me to start saving up for either a Canon EOS 50D or an Sony Alpha a700. Yeah when I upgrade I UPgrade.

And I'll stop there because I have run out of writing steam.

TATA!

=]

School Schedule

The End is Soon.

Five days of summer left. How depressing.

Friday I was able to get in and see my advisor, and get my last few credits that I needed. I also gave my schedule to the Human Resource department, so they could let my teachers know about Pompei. Last it worked out perfectly and I don’t expect anything different this time around.

The schedule breakdown would be this:

Fall 2010 

ENGL 1010 - English Composition 1 

3 Credit Hours

Tuesday & Thursday - 4:00PM - 5:20PM

Photography 2 

3 Credit Hours

Thursday - 6:15PM - 9:15PM  

Intro to Studio Photography 

3 Credit Hours

Friday - 12:25PM - 3:35PM

Photography Portfolio 1 Begins November 11th

1 Credit Hour

Wednesday 2:35-5:35PM 

Digital Imaging and Workflow 

3 Credit Hours 

Friday - 9:10AM - 12:05PM 

At first glance, it looks like this has the potential to be a relatively easy semester…despite the long class hours.  I am happy to report, that I didn’t get “the teacher” from last year, in any of those classes, which I am eternally grateful for. I don’t know if I could have done two semesters of him.

I have had “bad” teachers twice in the past, and it was not fun. At. All. *shudders*

 Thankfully I was able to skip the “Introduction to Mac” class, which was basically teaching me how to use an Apple Computer and Adobe software, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, but I was able to convince the instructor, that not only had I taken two Computer Art classes, which basically covered what he was talking about, but owned a Mac, so he said, he just sign that one off before I graduated.

That makes me happy, since I hate taking “filler” classes.

To tell you the truth, I am still scared about putting my photos out there for critiquing once again. Last year, I found out that I am an extreme visual learner, and having my photo teacher, give me text assignments, without any examples of what he meant, made it hard for me, to feel confident in..Anything..I turned in. But all I can do is my best.

Which brings me to a few things last semester taught me. Although I have been in college…a long, long, long time… 7 semesters, I still find myself, learning different things that may help me.

1. Homework First. 
2. I’m a procrastinator, and the harder the assignment the longer I put it off.
3.  Proper sleep and eating habits
4.  Push myself
5.  Work Hard
6.   Schedule and stick too it! 
7. Especially with my three little munchkins, I have to make sure they get the proper amount of attention…so I can concentrate on my assignments more.
8. Write, write, and write some more. :) Read what is needed. :) Which does not equal too what is required. Cause sometimes what is required is not needed. See? :)

Last semester, though extremely stressful, was a good one and I hope this one will be the same.

Family & Friends

Photography class is going.....learning how to manual moode on our camera,as well as the in camera light meter. For some reason that concept is a little difficult for me to grasp. I can't remember if I am supposed to go with what the camera says, or always meter it to zero to get middle gray.

Yeah.

See why I'm confused?