Busy, busy

I’ve wanted to post more often but lately we’ve been busy and I wasn’t able too. Last week we went to see Emma’s great-grand parents, like we do every Wednesday when it’s possible. I think it’s awesome that she gets to play with her great-grand-parents so often. Emma’s been busy practicing her crawling skills, her toes-eating skills and her fruit-eating skills J

Monday we went to visit my friend Belma, her beautiful daughter Alisa and her 5 months-old son Eddy. Emma seemed to really enjoy interacting with Alisa. She’s getting more interested in the other kids. She had made friends with a little boy at Friday’s development workshop. He took her pacifier, she pulled his hair (!) but they seemed to like each other a lot despite their lack of social manners.

Today was my last photo class L we reviewed what we had previously learned. Eric showed us how the balance the whites and then showed us how to do basic touch-ups in Picasa. He took some of our pics from last week photo shoot and reviewed them with us, showing us when we didn’t frame it right and showing us how to reframe it correctly. We spend a bit of time exploring Picasa and what we can do with it. Now the “Picture & Stroller” class is over but his company offers other types of classes and he will be offering a second photo shoot soon (yay!). I love photo shoots!

So now that the class is over I’ll be reading the books I got about photography and practicing a lot because I want to start working on my list of 50 things that makes me happy.

Until then, here are some pictures of Emma’s new skills and play date with Alisa!

First Photo Shoot

Today was the best day ever! I’ve been waiting for it all week since we were to have our first “studio photo shoot”. I had chose Emma’s clothes in advance and was very excited about the whole thing.

First of all, I woke at 6am to realize that Emma had slept through the night ... let me say this again ... she slept through the night!!!! Then my wonderful husband said I could go back to bed so I slept until 10am! On my way to the photo class, I stopped by our mail box to find out that I had finally received my package from Lychee Baby (http://www.etsy.com/shop/LimePiranha). The sense-ploration blanket and baby-legs are awesome!

When I arrived at the photo class, Emma was napping in her car seat. Eric, the teacher, was setting up the equipment (white back-ground, flash kit and props). We were 6 mommies so we would go one by one and take two turns each. All 6 of us were working with a SLR so Eric told us to adjust our camera for a studio photo shoot: manual setting, ISO100, speed of 1/125, focal ratio at F11 and lens at 55mm. One of the goals for the photo shoot was to learn about “the rules of thirds” a.k.a. how to frame.  After each turn he reviewed our photos with us for some feed-back.

When it was my turn I changed Emma’s clothes for a really cute red velvet ballerina outfit. Eric showed me how to put the trigger on my Nikon and told me how to position myself to get the best shots. I chose to have Emma sitting on the fake fur blanket at first. Then I switched her in the basket for more photos and my first turn was over. She was awesome! She kept smiling and was very easy-going about the whole thing.

While waiting for my second turn he reviewed my first round of pics but he didn’t have too much to say since they were so good. It’s easy to take good pictures when you have such an awesome model ;) For the second turn, I dressed her in jeans and a pink hoodie. After a few shots I decided to add the bunny ears and the flowers. The problem was that Emma no longer wanted to look at me for the pictures, she just wanted to eat the flowers (!). We made a few more changes and our second turn was over. I’m very proud of the pictures. I have several very nice ones and they look very good. I’m now almost convinced to buy my own studio flash kit.

Here’s a few shots from today’s shoot, enjoy!

New camera!

I got my new camera! Yay! I’m so excited! I’ve been shopping around for the best “beginners” camera and I finally decided for a Nikon 3100. My husband was able to get a great deal on the price through his work so we ordered it on Monday and were told that it would take 2 days to ship to his office. I was bummed because my photo class is on Tuesday afternoon and it wouldn’t receive it on time.  One hour before my class, Anil arrived from work ... with my camera! I was so happy! It was delivered this morning and he left work early so that I could have my camera for the class. Unfortunately the battery needed to be charged so I did most of the class with the loaner Canon Rebel but the teacher took some extra time to help me set it up when the class was over.

I learned a lot today during the class and it’s not always easy with Emma to take care of at the same time, although she was very cooperative today. The first thing we learned was how to use the speeds. I learned that whenever I want to take a photo of a baby, my speed needs to be of 1/60 or else it would turn out blurry. Ha! But with higher speed comes the need for high luminosity so we learned about using the ISO as well. Then, we went over the focal ratio (aperture) briefly. I can’t wait to start testing my new knowledge. I’ll probably end up taking a lot of ugly, blurry photos at first (!).

Next week is our first photo shoot. I can’t wait! I have to decide which outfit I will bring for Emma; if you have any good ideas let me know! The only time we had an “official” photo shoot of her was when she was 5 weeks old at Magenta and she was mostly naked for those pictures. Until then I’ll be trying my new camera, taking lots of pictures and practising what we learned in the class. After that I’ll be able to start on my list of things to photograph.

Challenge

I’ve been quite busy in the past 3 days. Between Emma being sick, visiting daycares, the snowstorm, yoga class, attending my weekly conference at “Maman Zen”, shopping for a camera and reorganizing our living room, I haven’t had much time to take pictures. So while reading my friend Erika’s blog (http://mysonmyreasonforliving.blogspot.com/) I came up with a challenge for myself (thanks Erika)! I will make a list of 50 things that make me happy, that I love and that inspire me and I will take a picture of every single thing on my list. This should be very interesting and fun but should take a bit of time as I’ll want to make sure that I come up with the best picture possible. In no specific order, here’s the list:

1.   Emma

2.   My husband

3.   My dogs (Kyra and Maya)

4.   Chocolate

5.   Wine

6.   The Beach

7.   My Kobo

8.   My I-pod

9.   My brothers

10. My parents

11.  Travelling

12.  Dolphins

13.  Sunsets

14.  Spring

15.  Puppies

16.  The ocean

17.  Palm trees

18.  Music

19.  Flip flops

20.  Hot baths

21.   Nail Polish

22.   Philosophy Bubble Bath

23.   Books

24.   Margaritas

25.   Pina Colada

26.   Eating on a terrace

27.   Yoga

28.   Swimming

29.   Cinnamon

30.   Indian Food

31.   Sleeping

32.   High heels

33.   Puerto Vallarta

34.   Rain

35.   Sun

36.   My birthday

37.   Pedicures

38.   Massages

39.   Laying in grass

40.   Photography

41.   Lilacs

42.   Lilies of the Valley

43.   Tattoos

44.   Earrings

45.   Coffee

46.   Ice cream

47.   Walking in the Arboretum

48.   Animals

49.   Pools

50.   Authentic Mexican Food

I’m sure I forgot many things so I’ll make a bonus list when I’ll be done with this one. I’ll be posting pics as I take them. I will use a few pictures that I already have since I don’t think I’ll be swimming with dolphins this year but I have really nice pictures of the 3 times I did swim with them back in Puerto Vallarta. I can’t wait to start taking the pictures!

First Photo Class

Today was my first photo class! The teacher was very nice and knowledgeable.  The first class was about learning how to use the different functions on our camera. I only had my compact camera, since I haven’t bought a SLR (single-lens reflex) yet, but I still learned a lot of new things. I plan on buying a SLR very soon but since I don’t have one yet and the next class will mostly be about speeds and exposure, I’m borrowing one to learn how to use it (thanks Bernard!).


The class is called “Picture & Stroller”, it’s meant for mommies with young infants who want to learn about taking better pictures of their babies. The atmosphere is obviously not “quiet” since there are 5 babies attending the class. Emma was cranky and tired due to having a fever all weekend so it was a bit of a challenge to stay focused on the teacher. Thankfully he had prepared good notes for us to take home and review.


We have a few assignments to do for next class and one of them is to take self-portraits of myself with Emma, using the timer, and the continuous-shooting option. That should be fun! I will also start shopping around for a SLR camera.


In the meantime, here’s my favourite pic of the day: