Wow, talk about WAY behind!! In my last post, Jackson was still a tiny tot! Well, he's not so tiny anymore! He's 10 months old, and is quite the talker! He babbles constantly, mostly dadada, but he can also say mamamama, nanana, papapa, and the newest - gagaga. He is 28in long and weighs 19lb. He has no urge to move as far as crawling or scooting, but he does manage to get around somehow. We put him down on his blanket, and a few minutes later he'll be off the blanket, but we really don't have a clue how he does it! He rocks forward onto his hands, and then sits back and kicks his feet. I don't know if he somehow moves himself during this process, but it's the only way I can think of that he is moving.
Last fall I was trained to place PICC lines, and during that process I was introduced to a photographer. I was talking with the nurse that was training me about wanting to take a photography class. She said that Tin Star Photography here in Waxahachie was planning a "Mamarazzi" class. I checked up on the website and emailed the owner of the studio. When I mentioned this to my sister, she got excited and said, "I wanna do that too!" Needless to say, we both got enrolled. The class was called "The Everyday Mamarazzi." The focus was to learn to use our cameras to take really great everyday pictures of our kids and family. The class was small - only 10 moms. We had 3 seminar classes, one in January, February, and March. For the weeks between, we had a private group on Facebook, and we had a weekly assignment with a corresponding photo album. We posted our pictures, gave each other feedback, and were able to come together as a group of women, all in various stages of parenthood. It was really awesome! I learned a lot about the basics of using that fancy camera Marc got me for my birthday, made some new friends, and learned to take some really great pictures of Jackson. I'm still learning, but I feel like I've come leaps and bounds from the beginning. Dana was really great at making us feel comfortable, and empowering us to be creative in our pictures. She is very approachable, very real, and she has touched my life in a way she will never realize. She gave me the confidence to think about what I'm trying to capture in a picture and the skill to know I can do it! I'm so proud of myself, I've decided to share some of my pictures with you.
Here is my before picture - and might I add, I've NEVER used my flash since!:
The first week was about apeture, just some basic settings on the camera:
Then we used the shutter/time setting to stop an action:
We learned about taking pictures in low light using higher ISO (remember, no flash!):
Then, we started to get into some of the fun stuff, like Bokeh - that kind of "dreamy" feeling.
We got a little more creative and learned some more rules of general photography, and that's where I learned about taking these pictures:
I can't give away everything - then you wouldn't be interested in taking the class! By the final day, I could take pictures like this:
Needless to say, it's been a lot of fun, and I'm sad that it's over. Here's to many more years of being a MAMARAZZI!!
