Mr. Sun... Sun... Mr. Golden Sun....

.... Please shine down on me!

Another day of no sun, but things are looking up for Friday and Saturday Kansas City!
 
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Lucky Us!

Lucky for Megan and I we have access to our friend Drew at work who is awesome with cameras and can talk photography ALL DAY.

We set up a quick little "teach us everything you know in 30 minutes" session with Drew today to figure out some things we've been dying to learn in our class but haven't quite mastered it.

Photo blurring.  Basically we wanted to know how to blur the background of pictures and getting the person in the front (full body) perfectly clear.  We mastered how to do this with objects up close, but couldn't figure it out how to do it for our desired full body pictures.  Turns out... our lens' are not up to par and time to invest in a fixed focal lens like this one!!! Ugh... more $$$. But at least this is a reasonable price.  The other fixed focal lens (50mm 1.4 was upwards of $275+).  All and all he said it wasn't necessary to get that type of lens yet. This is an expensive hobby!

If YOU want to know how to do the simple blur background with an image close up here's a quick how to:

1. Put your camera in aperture priority mode
2. Get your camera set on the lowest F Stop. This varies camera to camera.  My lowest is 5.6.
3. Get close to your subject or object whichever you are shooting and get the little box or dot in your viewfinder to focus on an object and when you see what you want to be in focus and the background blur... CLICK!
4. Takes some practice but love these pictures if you can't tell.  They are my favorites especially when there is a lot going on around your subject/object.
5. Another option could be to to use Photoshop if you have it.  I used to do that and still do for some photos until I get my new lens.  Here are the best instructions I have found

Good news is though Drew dumbed it down for us and we finally are figuring out how to perfect our up close blurred photos! So a big thanks to Drew for teaching us goobers how to do something we should have figured out long ago!

Drew

My attempt at the blurred photo

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I See, You See.

Time to get back on track.  Last week our friend Megan from ChasingDavies took a vacation so she wasn't able to get to the sunset picture. Also, we weren't given an assignment last class so we decided to make our own "I See, You See" assignment for the week.

Assignment: Picture of each other

Think it doesn't sound challenging?  Try taking photos after a long day of work in gloomy weather.  We both laughed when our teacher said today was a horrible day to be taking pictures outside, and we both looked at each other and were like... Ooops!

I saw:

She saw:

You love her outfit and want to know where she got it?  Check out her blog! Like my outfit? Ha... ya right :)

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March Sadness

Yes KU lost, that was sad.  But even more sad is when I woke up this morning, at the end of March, and saw snow stuck on the blooming trees outside my house!

Yes, SNOW. Why does it continue to keep snowing in Kansas City.  I remember being so excited to have the first snow fall of the year, but now I'm over it.  Time for the sunshine and the warmth.

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Safe Haven

When you're having a bad day like I'm having (KU lost today...) then you either A) Want to go shopping B) Want to cry C) Drink.

I opted for option C. Lisa, Linds, and I decided we'd drink our sorrows away. Well, not in the...inappropriate...what happened to those girls today... way. But in the, "let's make the best of it," way.

Although this day was less than thrilling because KU lost, it turned out not so bad being with some good friends on a snowy (yes, snowy) Sunday.

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Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

I'm so excited to announce the winner of my very first giveaway.

The Prize: $25 towards PaisleyPeepers Etsy shop with the chance to customize coloring for the item you pick which has a value of ($40).

And now for the winner who was chosen via Random.org.

Which is....Lindsay!

Congrats Lindsay! I will email you with information on how to collect your prize.

Again, thanks to PaisleyPeepers who was so nice to participate in this giveaway. Even if you didn't win this time, stick around and check out PaisleyPeepers Etsy shop!

Last Chance!!!

To enter my very first giveaway!!!

It's for $25 towards your choice of something on PaisleyPeepers Etsy shop.  She is willing to customize something for you which is usually $35-$40 so why not enter and see how your luck is doing lately?

What's Behind Door #1?

So I'm being lazy this week and utilizing a lot of my pictures I took while I was at Liberty Memorial on Tuesday for my photography class.

There was a door there that looked pretty cool in the daylight, but when it got dark outside and the lights hit it just right it looked even better! Had to get a picture, right?

I wish I could open the door and walk right onto the beach in Cabo this week.

Rough Week = Need of a Vacay.

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Guess What?

Thoughts on what you think this picture is?

Would you believe it was a really ugly light on the ground and with a little touching up I got it to look like this?

Thank God for photo editing.  I can't get enough of it!

Per a request, I wanted to show you where I started from with this picture.

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Bird's Eye View

Yesterday was one of my FAVORITE classes so far in my 8-week course.  We went over to Liberty Memorial and took pictures for two hours! Yes is was a little long for me as I was exhausted from work and think my weekend finally caught up with me, but all and all it was a blast.

I got over 100 pictures if you can believe it.  We worked on getting our panoramic pictures that we will get printed at the end of the course and HDR shots which I'm really excited to try in Photoshop this week.

One of my favorites (pre-photoshop) was this one:

I think I'm getting the hang of things... well sorta.  I about threw my camera over the ledge at one point. The wind was blowing SO hard last night which made it really difficult to get a clear picture when I so badly wanted one.

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