Happy Monday!

Weekend recap...

Friday night:
We met up with some friends and carved pumpkins. Well, Amber and I carved pumpkins. Blake and Nic played nintendo. Then we headed out to Oktoberfest, which was quite the experience. We were only out there for an hour before they closed, but it was fun while we were there.

Saturday:
I had my first family photoshoot of my friend Tamara's family. You can see how the pics turned out here. It was a lot of fun and I know I learned a lot! I then went and saw Couple's Retreat with the ladies from my small group followed by lunch and Target. Blake changed my headlight and studied.

Sunday:
Church, then lunch then a birthday party. Small group was cancelled so Blake studied some more and I edited more pics.

What was your favorite part of this weekend?

Yum In My Tum

My food blog has been relaunched. It will now be a collaborative effort between myself and my bff Jessica Brewer errrr Howell. She just got married in July (See here & here) and I still think of her as Jessica Brewer:) This should mean more recipes, more often, with more variety.

Check us out: yuminmytum.com!

Photography Class

I had my first photography class last Thursday. It was pretty interesting, a little more technical than I was hoping for, and I'm thankful I've been doing a lot of reading on my own or I think I would have been lost. We got our first assignment and I have ideas for three of the four pictures I have to take, but need suggestions on the fourth. All pictures have to be taken in manual mode on the camera, which means I have to set the aperture (depth of field), shutter speed (motion) and ISO (I SO have no idea what I'm talking about) myself. Each setting has a different affect (effect?) on how much light is let into the shot and you have to balance the three to get the image you want. This sounds easy. It's not. I promise.

I've never shot in manual, I've mostly been shooting in aperture priority because I.LOVE.IT. But, methinks I love it because it's the only one I understand, and because you get such a pretty effect when you shoot in low aperture- one thing in focus with the rest blurry. If you look at all the pictures I posted from the farm you'll see that that's what I did with pretty much every picture. I'm so adventurous, aren't I? Anyways, here are the four settings I have to do:

1. Low Aperture- pretty much have this one down, except, I've only shot in low aperture with the other things automatically set. I think I'm going to go out, take a picture in aperture priority to get the shot I want, then see to what the camera set iso and shutter speed. Sneaky sneaky:)
*Works well for portraits.

2. High Aperture- I know this one too, it's just not as fun to me because it's not really a cool effect (affect?).
*Good for things like landscapes where everything in the shot is important.

3. High Shutter Speed- Understand this one pretty well, I just need Blake to jump around a little bit and I can take the pic and freeze his motion.
*Use when you want to freeze motion- sports and action shots.

4. Low Shutter Speed- this is my problem child. I know what this does, and I even know when it's good for taking pictures, but I don't know what to take pictures of with this in October. You would use this setting for things like fireworks, when you want to capture the trails of the motion. Or a picture of a subway with one person standing still in front and you get the blurry speeding subway with a clear person because you paid them to not move. Great in theory, but I don't live near a subway and its not the 4th of July. Ideas?

I have a sneaky feeling I'm also supposed to shoot something in high and low ISO, but I wasn't feeling the greatest and pretty much just took my papers at the end and left, so I need to look at them and see if that was an assigment too. If so, uh oh, because I really don't compredo ISO.

Ok, this was a really long post and I doubt most of you care about any of this stuff, but it's what's going on in my life right now so I thought I'd share. In other news, Blake got an A on his last Kinetics test and he's really handsome with his scruffy duck hunting beard.

Posts without pictures

The main reason I am not posting as much as I was is because in reading a few other people's blogs I realized how much better pictures make posts. I take LOTS of pictures, but I don't download pictures to my computer that often. This is because I happen to be really picky about my pictures, and editing to me is an art form. I love the process, fiddleing with each image to make it perfect, seeing what cool effects I can give it in Photoshop, etc. I love it so much that a simple download of pictures can turn into HOURS of editing. And I don't have hours to spare on any given night. And so, the photos sit on my memory card, waiting to be downloaded, waiting to accessorize my blog posts, and because I don't want to write about things without the images to go with the story, I haven't been posting as much lately. And I don't like that. This blog is supposed to be my way of communicating with family and friends, and keeping a journal of Blake and I's first years of marriage. And so, I plan to write more, with or without photos.

Tonight Blake and I are going to dinner and a football game with some friends of ours and tomorrow night I start my photography course! Friday we are heading to Dallas, TX for OU vs Texas- the biggest game of the season. Then church and small group Sunday.

Right now I am loving all things fall- pumpkin spice cappucino, hot spiced apple cider, pumpkin patches, fires, chili etc. What is your favorite things about fall? Let me know by leaving a comment!!!!

Pictures from the farm

Blake and I went up to Lamar last weekend for his Grandma Laura's 75th Birthday and while we were up there I got to play around with my new camera! I start my first photography course October 15, so I'm sure I'll be posting lots more pictures, but here are some from my first time out...

I love cows.

Foxy

Some pretty flowers

A farm fencepost

Our super cute puppy Gus man.

Pretty things

Darrel's cornfield

Fall corn

The best model ever- so handsome and rugged:)

Well hello there...

We have, of course, been very busy lately, so I've got lots to catch everyone up on! I'm going to try to do so in a couple of posts.

September 22 was our two year anniversary!

Blake and I celebrated with a fancy schmancy dinner out the Friday before at a place we've been wanting to try since we moved here: Bodeans. It was so good and it was restaurant week so it was at a discounted price and part of our bill went to charity.

Our appetizers- steamed mussels and salmon pate

Our main courses- champagne salmon and shrimp scampi

Our desserts- chocolate dome and creme brulee

On our actual anniversary, we cooked at home some really yummy tuna steaks and scallops- can you tell we love to eat?

The food was fantastic, but mostly it was just great to have a reason to treat each other to special things and spend time together. Blake is an amazing husband and it's wonderful to talk about where we've been, where we are now and where we hope to be in 5, 10, 50 years.