DIY Padawan?

I take the (more than) occasional trip to the one and only

pinterest

You know it and love it, just like me.

And if you don't know it yet, you will love it.

There are many benefits to "pinteresting"
1. Makes online hoarding doable, acceptable and even somewhat cool
2. Gives you plenty of yummy recipes
3. Makes you feel capable of being crafty


I have been feeling in a "fallish" mood and stumbled upon this little, fun pretty

I was determined to actually do a DIY project so off I went to hobby lobby to get the goods.

half wrapped "D" and my photo of inspiration

After lots of hot glue gun burns and some frustration, here is what I ended with

I have yet to decide if it is too many patterns all at once. 
It's funny how you second guess EVERYTHING when you decide to put it on the internet.

But for now, it's on my door :)


Honestly though, too many hot glue gun burns to not hang it somewhere.

Pooped Padawan

I'm pooped!

Within 24 hours I went up to Chino Valley, AZ with my mentor and jedi, Liana (from A Moment In Time Photography), to shoot my first wedding and then woke up and shot my first newborn photos!

Phew!

Here is some knowledge I have gained in the past 30 hours

I need to build up stamina. 

Seriously. Shooting a wedding is like running a marthon. Except you are also carrying heavy camera stuff everywhere and doing squats while not taking any breaks.

I think I'm gonna start running marathons and lifting weights. 

Which leads me to my number 2. 

I'm weak.

Like super duper weak.

My arms are so sore today and my big girl camera doesn't even compare to the mother of all cameras that Liana was carrying.

(I did use her mother lens at the reception for a little while but I had to change it...my arms were so tired! I was too scared I was gonna drop it and cause a scene and never be invited to a wedding shoot again)

Insane, right?

Lighting always changes.

ALWAYS

Even if it is only 10 steps in the opposite direction.

Gr.

Dancing people are hard to capture....

The ratio of not bad photos to "blurry blurs" is about 1:80.

I had to apologize in advance to Liana for all the photos she was going to need to delete.

I'm meant to be a zumba instructor

It was really hard to not get my groove thing on during all the fun music.

Eventually the awesomeness of music with a great beat broke me down. I couldn't contain myself.

If you ever want a dancing photographer, you know where to go.

Newborns like to smile for the 2 seconds you put down the camera

Hopefully some out of the 400 I took, she will at least have two opened eyes :)

Babies are faster than you think

All their cute, slow, baby-like movements?

No.

You would be surprised at all the blurry hands and feet I got.

But maybe that is just because I was on manual and should have adjusted something.

Windows "Fix" doesn't cut it

I'm getting ready for big girl editing stuff.

Wedding hangover is real

...and it's not the drinking kind

It was all so much overwhelming fun, I don't know how to contain myself except for fall asleep out of exhaustion.

But, hey..
I haven't even had Zoila for 3 months yet and I already got to tag a long for a wedding with a legit photographer

Holler!

Flag

Flag

We have some visitors staying with us.

We all took a day trip up to Flagstaff, AZ today to do some sight seeing.

We got to pretend we were ancient Native Americans all day.

Attempting to pronounce odd Aztec names (and other hard to pronounce northern AZ names)

and planning retirement homes.

Here are some of our highlights!

 

Some chilly weather, sight-seeing, and photos?

A good time was had by all.

The Grand Finale! Part A

Self Portrait

Finished.

Done.

Succeeded.

Accomplished.

There are so many things I want to cover that I made part A just in case I forget something and need to make a part B.

So like I said at the very, very beginning.

It's a process people.

I can't believe I have learned SO much and still have no idea what I am doing all at the same time :)

I have learned there are lots of different settings to adjust and what there names are. 

Inanimate objects are beautiful but are getting SUPER boring. Time to move on to people

My husband gets bored really fast when he is my human subject. 

Technical terms like bokeh.

How to appreciate good lighting outside.

It's no fun to take photos inside

I'm too scared to ask people if I can take their photo. Even though I really want to practice.

Editing can really help fix an oops. and I would like to have a better photo editing program.

Apparent some people think I am good at writing. That's hilarious in itself.

Overall though, I feel this accurately describes how I feel when opening my Canon camera bag.

This really is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship :)

I SO completely and naively thought that self portait on the last day would be much easier and way less awkward.

WRONG.

It was horrendous, and I felt like I was doing a trashy myspace photo all over again.

Let's enjoy these gems, shall we?

Precious.

I wish I could tell you that was all of the not-so-good. 

There was this times about 40.

I don't think self portraits are meant to be flattering or easy.

I've decided it's next to impossible.

They got a little better eventually.

And I will leave you with the two. 

(I guess I can consider that a win...I'm ending this with two photos...of me of all people)

My hubby likes one and I like the other. Can you guess who likes which one?

I don't think the above one is the best. And I don't think it is an awesome photo of me.

But it is the most natural.

and that is my goal.

To capture the natural beauty that does exist in this world.

I have so much more to learn and am so excited to learn it.

Oh and without further ado. 

And much deliberation.

The name of my "yettobenamed" Canon Rebel is

Zoila

She is named after a housekeeper on a reality show called Flipping Out.

Here is clip of her. (Viewer discretion advised :))

She is spunky and fun and has an attitude and is beautiful

And has an accent.

My camera would be all of those things and more.

Thanks for reading my crazy rants and putting up with me for 30 days.

This happy padawan greatly appreciates it.

Challenge Day 29

Black and White

I may be a few days late. Oopsies.

This one is going to be short and sweet. 

At first I wanted to do feet.

Fail.

Then I decided to do one of my favorite parts of my husband.

His hands.

With his wedding ring, of course.

It may be alittle bit of a "grain storm" as one of my Jedi's would say.

But I kinda like it on this photo anyways.

See ya soon

 

Challenge Day 28

Flower

I went for a nice long 3 mile walk this morning.

The second mile and a half I had 3 buddies.

My hubby, our dogs friend Carlos, and yettobenamed Rebel.

Join us on our walk, won't you?

It is mostly brown with some green like this

and some mountains like this

But every once in a while you get a pop of color!

like this...

I spy mr. bee

 

why hello again, mr. bee

this bicycle is just plain ole' fun

why hello weird little bugs that are thankfully not near our house.

 why hello mrs. butterfly

But here is my favorite from the walk!

I LOVE capturing these beautiful colors.

Want to hear my big birl news??

I got to tag-a-long on a big girl photo shoot with A Moment In Time Photography

I almost peed my pants in nervousness and the excitement that was combined for a magical 20 minute engagement shoot.

This came at the most perfect time.

I'm not gonna lie, I love this photo challenge but inanimate objects are getting old.

Challenge Day 27

From A Distance

Not gonna lie.

I was expecting a fail.

But I actually enjoy this one! Yay!

We drove out specifically to get this shot.

I have never pulled off to the side of the road to get a photo before.

I'm so artsy, it's insane.

This is on a road near our house: Happy Valley.

Who doesn't love that name?

I do think this photo makes the small, fancy Norterra area look much cooler than it really is

But the mountains are wonderful, aren't they?

I LOVE being able to capture beautiful things.

 Winning.

Here are a couple other photos from my roadside adventure

I don't think this is water you should drink

Tiny little purple dot on the right hand side is our Harkins theater. I feel it is necessary to point that out for whatever reason.

Off to enjoy a beautiful (but still too hot) night.

Who is also glad it is Friday?

I have 15 followers now!!

I am still finding it way super ODD that people are enjoying my blog.

Weird.

I might just be a miniature, blog version of Ellen.

Probably true.

:)