Black and White Wednesday - "Bethlehem, PA, Photo Workshop"

If I had to choose just one word to describe our Bethlehem, PA Photo Workshop with 16 amazing bloggers, led by the incomparable Lisa from The Long Road to China - it would be....

.....WOW!!!!

What a week-end!

(I'm in the throws of editing some of the over 700 RAW shots I took and will post more in a while. Meanwhile - check out some of the other entries here and get ready to be blown away.)

This was the defining moment for me. We shot the whole day in manuel after 2 hours of instruction. There are a lot of things to consider with each shot and my first attempt at this beautiful blue sky came out completely blown out. White....pure white. But Lisa was standing beside me and showed me her version of the sky and it was blue. My shutter speed was at about 1/160 of a second (too slow) so there was way too much light...thus...blown-out. Lisa said "try 1/3200" which I did and this is the result. Quelle difference!!!!

That was my biggest a-ha moment. ( I heart Lisa.)

We had some amazing models that day.

I'm hooked, smitten and want to sleep with my camera now. And I'm doing some pretty heavy flirting with Photoshop too. (Lightroom and I have been tight for months now.)

Thanks Lisa, Marla, Darling Dita and all you amazing gals who made this week-end such a blast!

Can't wait for Part 2!

Black and White Wednesday "I'm ready to roll!"

Bags are at the ready......
camera is charged, cleaned and buffed.....

bought some filters, an extra battery and an extra 8 GB flash card.

The excitement and level of giddyness is so high - I may not need that plane ticket to PA.

This is Black and White Wednesday......

but on Friday....

I will most definately be.......

ready to roll!

:)

A Day at the Beach........

....no....that's not right.

A Day at the Sandbox!

Yeah, that's better.

I'm linking up with Stephanie for this post.

I only had my little crappy point 'n shoot with me so these are...well....just what the link says.

Snapshots.

(just catching little life memories).

(I wonder what those three dudes are talking about?)

Happy Sunday! (Y'all)

Black and White Wednesday "That Face!"

It's a face I just can't get enough of.

Certainly as beautiful as a perfect rose.

Or any flower.


Now let's add a little color.


(This little nose-gay was on a table at my buddy Helen's house the other day. Sweet)





(The hostas are all in flower in my garden now.)

And now.....back to that face!






Guess what I said that made her crack up?

"Is it time for chocolate?"

Works everytime!


Join Lisa et al for more Black and White photography.

Thanksgiving Thursday

Things to be thankful for.

Where to start?

Check out this mama's cool site. She's got it going on.

These two monkeys darlings are the sunshine of my life.

I could just sit and watch them monkey play around forever. I'm constantly diving for my camera, most of the time the wrong lens is on and I have no time to set anything so I just grab what I can.


But I'm thankful that I get to be their Mom and they let me watch their lttle adventure. (And grab what I can as they wiz past me.)




Today, I'm especially thankful for Milana's courage. Today, I left her for the first time (except for with Daddy) in almost a year. (For 25 minutes.)

Today, Milana began her first (tiny) day at pre-school. And she, no we did great! It's a place where I had put my name in a long time ago, very close to home and I really wanted to get her in. Very reasonably priced, very flexible with a great educative program.

When they called about 2 months ago and said a spot was free, I grabbed it but asked if I could start her really slowly. Just a few hours at first and gradually increase it. Because Milana is a "cling-on" child, I've gotten nothing done in the past year and I really need to start some painting and a few other projects (wink,wink) so my hope was by this coming fall - she would be comfortable with 3 or 4 mornings a week.

That's the plan and today gave me some hope that we'll make it. It's hard for any kid to separate but for adopted kids (with in my case, a lot of baggage), it's extra hard.

I'm proud of my little trooper.

Update: Day 2.....started out a little shaky as predicted. She screamed for 2 minutes after I closed the door and then....silence. When I returned 25 minutes later, she was sitting on the teachers lap, surounded by about 8 other kiddos and guess who was orchestrating playtime? Yup....Milana. She was so busy pointing to everyone to do such and such (not with words but with very clear actions) and was so engaged she didn't even notice me. When she finally did, about 2 mintues later, she broke out in a huge grin and scrambled to show me everything she had accomplished. A puzzle, a drawing and stickers on a paper.

I exhaled!

And very thankful!

I'm thankful that I can sit in my backyard (not for long in this 100 degree heat) and watch my birds. Especially my cardinals. (Though I have to fill this feeder. What kind of mother is that?)



I love my backyard - not because it is pristine, because it is definately not, especially this year - but because it is private. And it's mine!

(see the sawdust?....I'll explain.)

It's my little haven and nobody can see anything (but us). But, my garden has been becoming more and more of a shade garden because of my two huge lime trees - over 50 feet tall each. Great for privacy - but they really block the sun. And they're so big I can't get anyone to cut them without taking out a morgage to pay them (joke).

Problem solved. Our hydro people came by on Monday and said - "time to cut back those trees - they're covering the hydro wires". "Oh, alright" I said......"cut if you must".

So yes, they're downright ugly right now but in a few years will fill in a bit. Meanwhile we have lovely dappled sun in our backyard again.

And my roses......

....and hydrangeas and a hundred other flowers will thank me (...er...the hydro people) for it.

Yes....much to be thankful for!