Challenge Day 9

Someone You Love.

He stole my heart. I stole his last name.

(I wish that was original. But it's not. If you do want to believe it's originally from me, I'll let you)

My hubs sees his dad when he looks at this photo. 

I see his happy lines. By his eyes. That's one of my favorite things about him.

We went to install a new printer for my grandma and her boyfriend.

He is pretty photogenic, right?

I know this is about people. 

But you know what else I love?

Things that are absolutely ridiculous.

You can't see but the front tires have spikes.

You're welcome.

Although I am not sure this picture does the ridiculousness justice.

It really was though. 

Trust me.

Challenge Day 8 - Part Dos

Brownies

So.

Hubsters needs to work on principal school things.

So part dos is here.

These brownies were everything and more than I thought they would be.

Here our a few other photos from tonight

I even tried photographing some people.

Ah!

Wait a second, Josh felt you needed to know a couple things first..

This is my worst bad habit. Twiddling my hair when I am tired or anxious. AND in case you were curious, this is where the blogging magic happens :)

This is Josh's bad habit: pop. I said "Correction. We call that an addiction"

 

Ok, now we are ready for photos from the rest of our evening

another favorite.

one of my favorites.

Playing an interestingly fun game that starts with Q?

So, this is blurry but this photo is important for two reasons. She is the master baker and these are the things I want to be able to capture make look professional. I love her laugh.

wisdom being imparted

 Good times, even better people!

AND I have 10 followers!

Double digits, people!

Challenge Day 8

Bad Habit

There are many of those I could have chosen from.

Trust me.

So I chose three in one. 

Here we go.

"My pantry?" you ask? 

It's two fold really.

1. I don't keep this thing as organized as I would like

(perhaps, a label maker should be on the top of my Christmas list)

2. Do you see this large amount of food? Do I use it to make our meals? Rarely.

You can see my collection of egg cartons.

You know, just in case our HOA ever allows us to keep our own egg-laying chickens in our backyard.

Poor pantry organization and failure to use what I have.

Now let's take a closer look into this pantry to find my third bad habit.

Chocolate is so dang delicious!

In moderation, of course :)

You may get lucky and get a PART 2 of challenge day 8.

In t-minus 2 hours, we will be at a friends house. 

Who just so happens to be a local, organic baker.

(The Baked Equation. Go!)

And she is generously making me triple espresso brownies to put in my belly.

So she can get her reusable Copco cup back. That's right. I held it hostage.

I want me some espresso brownies, dang it!

Also, I did manual setting again today!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Go (Jedi In Training) me!

I'm sure my hubby found it odd to hear his wife mumbling to herself in front of the pantry:

"hmm..dark...ISO? less? more?"

"well that was a super slow click. not cool."

"big fraction? ...maybe little fraction?"

"what is that F for again?"

I gotta get better at this whole manual thing.

So from now on...

It's all manual. All the time.

 

Challenge Day 7

Fruit

I'm proud of this one. 

And let me tell you why.

It was my first shot I have taken for the challenge on the "Manual" setting.

I got to do the whole "balance the 3 settings"

As opposed to one of the automatic settings.

For example: my favorite automatic setting is "No Flash"

This is embarrassing information.

But I still don't know how to turn the flash off  except to have the camera on the no flash setting.

Maybe you can't? I don't know. 

You would think I would have looked that up first thing since I hate flash.

But I didn't. And I still have not.

(Jedi Josh?)

Another thing. 

It took me FOREVER to figure out how to get the photos on to the computer.

I was too scared to put the memory card into the computer for obvious reasons:

1. I would be putting it into the wrong slot

2. I would not be able to eject it

3. I would somehow lose all the photos I had taken and ruin my memory card

Totally realistic fears.

I can't tell you how long I searched for a USB cord.

Surely I had overlooked it somehow.

I was plugging a HDMI cord into my computer.

Because surely Canon had labeled it wrong and they meant to write USB.

Finally, I broke down. And slid the memory card into the slot I was 90% positive it went into then quickly ejected it.

Let me tell you, that was a nerve wracking 2.5 seconds.

A miniature panic attack may have taken place

To end this embarrassing blog here are some photos from movie and cuddle time with Wrigley today

(since I fall asleep during any movie that is started after 8:00 , I have to finish them the next day).

I'm SO the cool kid.

 this blog is nothing but evidence of that :)

Challenge Day 6

Low Angle

I have gotten several compliments about my writing.

However. None about my photography.

One. Maybe.

Do I take that as a hint?

I can't decide.

I'll just move past that tid bit of information.

Either way you are stuck with me and my photos for 24 more days.

Bummer for you

:)

Here is our cactus. That's correct.

He is ours (or our neighborhoods. same difference) 

And he has a name. 

Frank. 

I have admired Frank since we moved in almost a year ago

(say what?? Homeowners for almost a year?)

One of the first things I did when I got my big girl camera was run outside to get a picture of him. 

He most definitely deserves a spot in the actual challenge.

Now that I look at it, I think it is blurry. Oops?

(man, this was supposed to be a good one!)

Here is Frank's runner up photo

Here are a few other photos from our walk tonight..

lovely photo courtesy of Joshua Michael Photography

Also Joshua Michael Photography

For all you Phoenix naysayers: there is some green here!

Frank from a distance

Wrigley: attempting to get farther away from us at all times.

Also, have you heard of pinterest? I have decided it is the internet version of hoarding. 

And I absolutely love it.

(I actually pinned something as I tested the link for this page.)

Can you say a.d.d.i.c.t.i.n.g.?

Oh. and 9 followers now??
Holler.

Jedi In Training

N. Jedi

1. warrior that fights for the good of humanity in the world
2.   respected by people all over the galaxy, and are considered wise and authoritive 
3. gifted with heightened sensitivity to and awareness of "The Force"   

The force. As in photography. Totally makes sense, right?

I feel this accurately describes all the people I will be listing below :) Each person is not only gifted and respected in the area of photography, they have been great encouragement, or cheerleaders if you will, for my little personal photo journey.  

• Josh and Kelley: first of all, they are some of our very first Phoenix friends and I love the friendship that we have developed with this awesome couple. Josh does all the technical stuff and Kelley likes to snap a camera at pretty things and it ends up awesome. They recently joined radiant photography team. Kind of rock star, right? And here they are being introduced on their blog.  Josh is so patient and is willing to spend time teaching me all the technical stuff!
• Liana: Liana is a fun, new friend who is also a rock star in her own right. She has her own photography company, A Moment In Time. I nervously asked her if she would be my official photography mentor and she said yes!! It was kind of like a proposal. And I think she might be more excited than me sometimes. She helped me figure out what package to buy and where I could find the best deal! She is also going to graciously take me on shoots and talk me through every thing I need to know.
• Krista: Also a newer friend as well as a coworker of my hubsters. She is starting her own business, Bella Foto.  We have had a few chats about technical things and she is going to be someone I also take lots of notes from.
• Tommy: A close friend from high school who recently moved to New York to get into fashion photography. Not sure I can do that, BUT he has been very encouraging and is very talented! You can see some of his work here. Underwater photography? Crazy cool!

I am pretty positive I have "The Force" with me.

See. Jedi IS the appropriate term to use. 

Lucky + Blessed = This Girl

A.K.A. Jedi in training

Having my own website and all of that is like a way, way distant dream 

(I may or may not have named my company already. Shh. A girl can dream, right?)

I know, I know. It is only day 5 of the challenge.

I need to tell myself to chill.

I don't know if I have the skill yet. And that's ok. Like I said before. I will own it and accept it if I am not cut out.  As long as I don't wake up a 70 year old woman and ask myself, "What if?" 

(insert great article that one of my favorite Bowmans found)

Call it what you will. 
I will refer to it as my pre-mid life crisis. 

But I am pretty sure my Jedis will keep me in the know and I trust they will be honest with me. 

One day the good photos will outweigh the not-so-good photos. 

It will be a wonderful day.

Challenge Day 5

High Angle

I don't mean to brag but I have just about doubled my amount of followers. 

That's right. 

DOUBLED.

I've gone from 4 to 7.

I didn't start this to get more followers, but I'm not gonna lie.

I'm pretty stoked about the increase.

AND for all you stalkers, I don't know who you are, but I can see how many people come to see my site. And I enjoy the fact (and find comfort)

that there are a decent amount of people who are as sneaky and stalkerish as me.

So here is my photo. I'm not sure if this is a high enough angle? But I like him. I think he is nice looking. Also, I cheated. This picture was taken on Sunday. But tonight is Thursday coffee date night with this fine young thing below and I gotta scadaddle.

  I will take this chance to brag on him. He started, what we will call for all general and convenient purposes, principal school.

I adore this hard worker.