I set up my backdrop this morning, dressed up the sweet Miss L and grabbed my camera to snap some pictures for her birthday party invites. Yes, we are rapidly approaching the big 3, much to my delight. Thought I’d share some of the outtakes from our “session.”

Second day with no serger. My house is pretty clean. Laundry is nearly done. My sweet daughter let me snap a couple of pics of her in her new Matilda Jane duds. All in all, a productive day.

And my serger will be ready in the morning. Yay!

Ah, vacation. How I miss you.

Honey and I had a blast in Chicago. Rather than bore you with a play-by-play travelogue, I’ll just hit the highlights (with a few pics thrown in for good measure; see the rest at my Flickr.)

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OK, a quick purse show off before I shut down (gotta run to the P.O.!). This purse is a pattern by Melly & Me, the Black Forest. Love! The pattern calls for Shapewell which maybe is the same as Timtex (anyone?) and would help this bag hold it’s shape better. I took a page from Amy Karol’s book and used flannel for the interfacing. Oh my gosh, I am sold! The feel is so much nicer than any interfacing I’ve ever used.

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I sent our younger son out to mow the lawn this weekend. Actually, I sent him out to finish mowing the lawn, since his initial attempt was so poorly done (he mowed only the very front of the yard, not the sides, and left grass mohawks EVERYWHERE). While in the backyard, he nearly mowed over a turtle — but didn’t — and brought it up for us to check out.

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Thanks for the help with my photos. I ended up taking more than I was supposed to, but I figured (rightly so) that I wouldn’t be the only one and that we could cruise through them pretty quickly.  All of them were well received, even the ones I thought were less good (I had to take one — took two — that was “bad” so we could get critiqued on how to improve it). All in all, it was a good learning experience. And I definitely got some print-and-hang-worthy photos from it.

My last Digital 102 class is Wednesday night and I also need to take photos for my final presentation, which may include a little crossover from this class.  Registration has started for the next session but I’m going to take a break because of all we have going on now that school has started for the boys.

Oh, and I opted to take the sleeping girl, head in hands, looking over shoulder, standing with pettiskirt and the umbrella-and-rainboots from my first class (a few weeks ago), as well as the ones of the boys on the rocks and all three together (those were my fixeruppers).

Tomorrow morning is my final class for my second photography course, Photographing Children in the Real World. Anyone want to help me choose four to five photos to take for critique? Here are the choices:

And please feel free to give constructive criticism — it helps me get better!

The other two photographs I need to include in this week’s homework are one showing the use of flash and one using this zoom technique. I ended up grabbing one I took in February for the flash pic:

That’s my sister in law with Miss L, during a trip back home in February. We were out to dinner at the time and I was playing around with the flash. I’m pretty pleased with the lighting and think it looks pretty natural.

Here’s my zoom shot:

Thank goodness for the Internet and the kindness of bloggers, because I was just not getting this technique. (It involves switching the camera to manual focus and snapping the picture while zooming in or out with a zoom lens.) The very sweet Capello gave me some tips and thus this photo became an addition to my homework. It’s a neat technique but I don’t know if I have the patience to master it. Who am I kidding? I have no patience to do much of anything, which is why I was getting so frustrated with both the zooming and panning portion of the homework. (Procrastination is also my downfall and may or may not have played a role in my frustration level, as well.)

In other news, I finished the last six preschooler totes today and sewed two pairs of toddler pants (one still needs a waistband) before heading off to the pool with the bunny for a play date.  I have an appointment at 6 and then class at 8:15, so it’s unlikely that I’ll get any more sewing done today. Which means I’ll be back at it bright and early tomorrow!

Today I started my second photography class, Photographing Children in the Real World. It’s a three-week course and appealed to me for obvious reasons. Of course now it means I have twice the photography class homework, at least for the next three weeks. Really, I need to think through my commitments at least once a year.

On Saturday, I had a field trip for my first class. We met at Underground Atlanta to practice shooting in low-light situations and also with our flash. This presented a slight problem for me: I’m claustrophobic. Going into an underground mall with tons of people is really just a wee bit beyond my comfort level. I ended up staying only an hour, and I’d guess about half of that was spent in Underground.  That’s OK. I did manage to snap this:

He started playing right before I walked over to the stage. I fired off a few shots from in front of him, then walked along a sidewalk adjacent to the stage to check out this view. I think I like it. It’s definitely more interesting to me than the “sing into the microphone” ones I snapped.

This week, I need to take four images for critique, employing these techniques/challenges:

• Panning
• Zooming
• Low light
• Flash

Low light? Check. Flash and zooming, I’m still working on. Panning? Holy cow, is that a toughie. I’ve probably taken about 100 photos to get this one:

It’s not great, but I think it will do. Not sure I really care about mastering this technique. Still, I guess it’s good to break out of my comfort zone and try something new. Right?

A few people have commented that the first picture in my most recent Homework post has them stumped. Without further adieu …

Here ’tis in all it’s inflated, water-spraying glory. Purchased at the $100 Store and finally used last week, much to the glee of that little blonde cutie. I left it draped over the front steps to finish draining and found it all droplet-covered and bright, just begging to be photographed.