Movie 30: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part II

Harry Potter was great! Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to read the books yet, but I have followed the movies, and this was a great finale. Even if you don't know the story, the visual effects alone are worth it.

Photography 101: Week 1

So, last night was our first session of a six week photography class and I learned so much! We started off with the basics (memory, transferring files from the camera to the computer, and filing/backup systems) before moving on to the four basic shooting modes: Program, Shutter, Aperture, and Manual. We talked a bit about ISO and which settings are best for indoor versus outdoor shooting and then moved on to the main lesson: white balance. We learned that the camera is not sophisticated enough for the "Auto" setting to work correctly in every situation. I so wish I had known about white balance before I went on that trip to Washington last May—I think my photos would have been so much better. In addition to the "Auto" setting, my camera has the following white balance settings:



Our homework for the Week 1 is to go outside and find a good subject. We are meant to shoot the subject with the white balance setting that we think is correct, and then at least three more times with the incorrect settings so that we have a series of the same photograph like the image below:



Then, we are to go inside and do the same thing with no natural light (only tungsten or fluorescent) and no flash. When I've completed the assignment I'll post it here for you to see.

UPDATE: For the assignment, I ended up taking pictures of some graffiti by my house. It's interesting to see all of the different tones produced by changing a simple setting. Here's the series:

We Went Parasailing!

We spent a wonderful long weekend in Tampa with Scott and Marilyn. We went to the Tampa Pitcher Show (a movie theater/restaurant combo) and spent a day at Busch Gardens. On Sunday, we went to John's Pass and I finally got to go parasailing! It took some convincing to get Derrick to go, but eventually he agreed and it was perfect! So glad I got to cross this one off the list this summer.

Movie 29: Larry Crowne

I have to admit that I hadn't planned to see Larry Crowne but when we were in Tampa this weekend my family took us to see it at the Tampa Pitcher Show—a non-traditional movie theater that's more like a banquet hall with a huge projection screen. We sat and enjoyed dinner—a pitcher (get it?!) of beer and one of the best chili dogs I've ever had. All in all it was a great time and I'm glad we went.

Book 26: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

It took me a long time to get to this book, but I've finally finished it! I expected to get hooked sooner based on what people said, but it took me almost 200 pages to really get into the story. Once I did it was great—well thought out and suspenseful.

Now I just have to decide whether to continue on and read the next book in the series, or start the Game of Thrones book. Decisions, decisions!

First Quilting Lesson

Well, technically we were just sewing—quilting is the last step of the process. Yesterday I spent several hours with a wonderful girl named Hillary—the quilting/sewing/knitting guru. She had me choose a pattern (I picked Ports and Starboard, I think), pick out three pieces of fabric from her stash (light, medium, and dark), iron it all, cut my squares, and begin to sew them together.

I really enjoyed my first day, and love it already!

Here are some pictures from my first lesson, I can't wait to go back and finish up this square (which I plan to make into a pillow), then pick out fabric to start my first quilt.

Book 25: The Help

The Help was such a good book!

The characters were so well written, and the story was great. I saw the trailer for the movie before I started the book, and while I'm interested to see how Emma Stone will pull of the role of Skeeter, I have to say that Bryce Dallas Howard seems like she'll be a perfect Hilly.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie now, but am so glad that I read the book first.


Buy It Now
I've recently become an Amazon Affiliate. If you use this link to visit Amazon and purchase The Help within the same visit (through the cart—not the "one click" ordering) it will earn me rewards. I'm just testing this to see if it will be worth it—let's see how it goes!