Photo Practice

Last week my friend and I attended a 5 hour intro to digital photography class. It was pretty long for two pregnant ladies but we both learned so much on how to use our cameras. It was well worth the price of the groupon! We learned tons on lenses and exposure and basic functions of my camera that I had no idea how to use. I walked away feeling like I could start taking better pictures. Now each time I practice with my camera I've been learning something new and it has been very gratifying. I'm trying to get all the knowledge I can before baby brother comes so we can get some decent newborn and sibling pictures, especially since our amazing personal photographer lives SO far away! It's made me pretty excited to see major improvements in the pictures I've been taking and I've been so excited that I've had multiple photography dreams...weird! I still have tons to learn...and eventually I will start learning about photo editing which I know nothing about.

Yesterday, Charlie and I set up a practice photo shoot to get ready for baby brother. Since Charlie is an extremely wiggly toddler and will not look at the camera very often, we needed to use stuffed animals.

We started with cow... 

It didn't take long for Charlie to realize that I was playing with his animals so he jumped in and pretended to sleep .

He thought he was so funny when he revealed that he wasn't really sleeping...only pretending! 

So then the photos ended up being of Charlie playing with his cow.

Apparently Charlie thought that all that posing must be making cow thirsty so they took a snack break.  

I gave Charlie some fruit snacks to share with his cow but he was very content eating them all by himself.

So then we went outside to get some practice with the direct sunlight, cloudy, and shady lighting.  

I was finally figuring out how to focus on what I wanted...

Later in the day I had a doctor's appointment. (I was able to get an ultrasound to see that baby is head down...and doing great...very exciting but also not the point of this post)

When my appointment was finished I enjoyed a couple moments to myself looking over Portland. There is a great view from up on the hill where my doctor's office is, and it was a beautiful day.


I was able to zoom in to see OMSI!

The clouds looked unreal 

And there was the muddy Willamette River.

And life-flight flew right over my head which was pretty exciting.

So the point is, my camera was an awesome birthday present and I feel like it is the gift that keeps on giving. I get so excited about learning and practicing more!