1st assignment for Photography Class

Today while the kids were at school, I worked on my first assignment for my Photography Class. So far I'm enjoying it and learning a lot. This teacher is all business and wants things a particular way, I'll say that for sure. This week we learned about Aperture and next week we'll start on Shutter Speeds and how they work together. She said, "if you think all we're doing in this class is photographing sunsets and babies, you've got another thing coming." Basically telling everyone to take this class seriously and that it isn't just an easy "A". I could care less about the grade, I just want to learn. Later in the semester, after we've gotten the technical aspects down she'll focus on creativity and taking artistic photos. What if I really do want to photograph babies? If I could become a photographer I'd want to shoot families, kids and seniors. My absolute favorite children's photographers are Kelly Ryden and Audrey Woulard. I've linked their blogs so if you have any free time, be sure to check them out. I don't understand how Kelly gets newborns to smile. A few months ago, she posted a photograph of twins intertwined with each other and both of them are smiling... they were only a few weeks old if that.

I must have looked like a complete lunatic out in my front yard doing this. I first tried to line up chairs but those didn't turn out as well. At an Aperture of F4.0 there is a shallow depth of field so most of the background is blurry but in the last one with an Aperture of F22, you have alarge depth of field and you can see all the detail in the back... even the house.
Click to enlarge if interested.

Poor Brian, I talked to him earlier and he is absolutely exhausted. They had a working structure fire last night (The Black Bear Cafe) and he was up all night. They had to get up on the roof and vent it and everything. Of course today, he wasn't able to sleep because they still had all of their daily work. I hope he goes to bed early.

I hurt my back this afternoon. All I did was reach into the dryer to pull some clothes out and I felt it pull and it was hard to straighten up. Am I getting old or what? I'm fine as long as I'm not bending over... gee that should be easy. Everything I do is bending over... picking up children, clothes, toys, bathing them, dressing them. I hope I'm better tomorrow because I work the evening shift. I'm taking a Motrin and heading out to the hot tub pronto!