Archive for » January, 2015 «

Behold….

SF Golden Gate

Last weekend was fun.

Instead of idling away a Saturday in my usual comfortable but predictable fashion, my husband sent me away on an all day on location photography class in San Francisco. What a sweet man!

I spent the day with a fun group of photography hobbyists, two professional instructors, and we snapped away with our cameras from morning until night.

The class


I learned many new tricks with my camera.

See this picture.

Not a clear day


The day was barely sunny, the clouds were grayish, and the bridge was hazy. I had no idea that in my camera bag, there sat a polarizing filter lens. I never knew what it was for!

I learned to simply fit it over my camera lens, and by turning it, I could manipulate the sunlight to give my image a more colorful look, and even turn the sky into nicer shade of blue!

The Golden Gate


“WOW! I don’t have to photo shop anymore! You just saved me lots of time” I shouted happily to Alley, one of the two instructors with us that day.

Ha, ha, Alley walked away laughing.

Oh, I especially love this picture.

The dark room at Fort Point

This used to be an impossible picture for me to take.

You would not be able to tell, but this image was taken from an incredibly dark space. In fact, so dark, I could barely make out the barrel sitting in the corner. I learned to control the shutter speed to allow in a great deal of light to take this picture. (No flash, no bringing in extra light). Some of the shots actually turned out too bright!

Hooray for shutter speed control!

Here are additional long exposure shoots I took that day.

Fort Point

Fort Point Hallway

The beach

Beach near night time

The Golden Gate at night

I came home from the class late at night.

“How was the class?” hubby asked.

“It was awesome. Loved every minute of it.” me.

“What did you learn?” hubby.

“I learned that I need to take more classes, and I need a better camera.” me.

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This is an odd toy taking up space in our house.

Frozen Ball Pit


Santa had dropped off this brand new Ball Pit in front of my 14 year-old’s bedroom door on Christmas Eve.

Ha, Santa must have made a mistake!

No! My 14 year-old could not be more thrilled with this gift on the morning of Christmas day. This is exactly what she prayed for.

Our 14 year-old was greatly burdened by the demands of her new High School curriculum, and longed for the carefree days of her toddlerhood. She saw pictures of herself playing happily in her old ball pit, and dreamed of getting this toy again, to turn her fantasy of spending idle and mindless time sitting in a ball pit a reality.

When the 14 year-old was four...


She shamelessly dropped all sorts of hints of desiring this big silly toy.

Ball pit on the Christmas wish list ball


Santa delivered.

WHAT?! She made it to Santa’s nice list!!?

I find myself staring at this big toy, and wondering when I can give it away to a real toddler.

“No! I plan to take it to my college dorm someday.” said the 14 year-old.

I wondered where I must’ve made an error as a mother.

Then it occurred to me that if my teen had to misidentify with her age group, it is preferable for her to act like a big baby, than paint her face with powerful makeup, wear tiny skin-tight clothes, high heels, and pretend to be a 21 year-old.

The Ball Pit can stay.

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