Monday, December 24, 2007

Camera Tips

Hi, just your friendly neighborhood camera person, here to give you a few tips on using your camera for the Christmas season.



1. Unless you want transparent children, turn on as many lights as possible.





2. Remember that the fancy camera that you paid an arm and a leg for has settings for low light situations.



He can move fast, but not THAT fast.



3. Remember that fancy camera? And that fancy 50mm f1.7 lens you have? Use it.



Getting better.



4. Don't use the on camera flash. Whatever you do. Do. Not. Use. The. On. Camera. Flash. Oh, and don't forget that you actually do have a nice flash that hooks onto the camera and blinds everyone in the room when you use it. I did.




See what happens when you use the on camera flash? Don't make the same mistakes as me.



5. Don't take pictures like this of your 14 year old daughter. She will not thank you later.


She doesn't really look like that. Really. It was the camera's fault.



6. Do take pictures of the lights on the tree. They are so pretty.





7. If you are still having trouble with low light (because you forgot all the other things except you have now changed the lens to the 50mm f1.7), don't worry about underexposing a little. Dark is better than blurry.





8. Or, you could try changing the ISO setting (this should not take clear until the end of decorating the Christmas tree to figure out, especially if you have taken a photography class, by the way).



That didn't work very well.


9. Lastly, maybe you should check your white balance at the beginning of taking the pictures, and not at the end. When you are done. That way, all the pictures will not turn out with a yellowish tint. That isn't very easily fixable in Photoshop. Obviously, I have a lot to learn.


Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Week 9

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Swim 30 min.
Wednesday: Bike 45 min.
Thursday: Run 30 min.
Friday: Swim 40 min.
Saturday: Brick--bike 55min./run 20min.
Sunday: Run 35 min.

I may have to find something else to occupy my time on Saturday (like Christmas shopping) because I don't like the brick. It is HARD! The first, and only, time I did it I forgot to take off my bike helmet so I went running down the road wearing the stupid thing. Dork.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Finished

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Shelves

A while back we started on some shelves for the girls' room. We got as far as cutting everything out and painting it, but we never could seem to get a good time to put them up. So the girls waited. And waited and waited and waited. And dreamed about what they would put on their shelves. And waited some more.

The other week we woke up late and missed church, so, since the two oldest girls were at the grandparent's house for the weekend, we thought it would be fun to surprise them with new shelves. Besides, it was cold outside.



Drilling holes makes it easier to screw everything together without breaking it.




Up on the wall...





Of course the shelves are not quite so empty now. Oldest daughter has one little corner, youngest daughter has her piggy bank up there (which disturbs her to no end, but I feel it is safer now), and middle daughter has dominated one entire shelf and part of the other with her Breyer horses and some gymnastics trophies.

Week 8

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Swim 30 min.
Wednesday: Bike 40 min.
Thursday: Run 20 min.
Friday: Swim 30 min.
Saturday: Brick-bike 45 min. run 15 min. (not gonna happen, middle daughter has a gymnastics meet)
Sunday:Run 30 min.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Week 7

This week:

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Swim 30 min.
Wednesday: Bike 45 min. (unless it is STORMY!!)
Thursday: Run 25 min.
Friday: Swim 40 min.
Saturday: Brick (45 min. bike, 15 min. run)
Sunday: Run 20 min.

Last weekend was another busy one so I didn't get to go for the bike ride Saturday. Instead I worked concessions at the OSU/UO football game and stood on my feet for five hours in the freezing cold. That has to count for something. On top of that, I was halfway to my pick up spot when I realized that I had forgotten my bag with my drivers license in it so I ran ALL the way back from the Willamette River bridge to Autzen Stadium, up the looooong flight of stairs, to the concession booth, and all the way back to my ride. In my boots. With my 5 layers of shirts and 2 layers of pants. I was hot.

Sunday it was TOO STORMY to even venture outside so we stayed in and put up shelves in the girls room. I have my limits as to what kind of weather I will go out and exercise in, and high winds and torrential rain is definitely over my limit.