on summer vacation

i am officially on summer vacation as of last thursday.

school starts on august 31st (blech...before labor day!)

despite the horrendous non-summer- like weather massachusetts has been having, i have been enjoying it so far! today is a beautiful day and the sun is still shining for a change!

the close of school is always busy and i am ready for some rest so i can recharge my batteries for september! speaking of september, i am so excited for squam art workshops! i don't want to rush my summer away but it does give me something to look forward to.

this week i've been doing some baking and trying out recipes for david's dad's 71st birthday coming up. we are celebrating it at a party this weekend and i am making the cake. i made this last year and i remember spending way too much time in the kitchen. i learned so much just by baking that one cake though! i have decided to make the "perfect party cake" from dorie greenspan's book "baking from my home to yours". it is a lemon flavored cake with lemon buttercream frosting and layered with raspberry jam. i plan to use fresh strawberries with strawberry preserves instead of raspberries. mmmmmm....

i have been doing a lot more photography lately. i've been neglecting my blog but will continue to post on flickr and may eventually post solely on flickr because honestly, i don't like to write (so not good at it!) and and enjoy posting photos and getting feedback. it is a wonderful community to learn from.

if you visit my blog, please please visit me on flickr.

i am certainly more active over there.

on vacation....live model shoot

i am officially on vacation this week!  woot-woot! i began my vacation by attending a most excellent digital photography seminar held at the hyatt regency  in boston over the weekend.  i was busy saturday so i was only able to go to the intermediate session on sunday from 9 am to 5 pm.  it was a great learning experience for me.  i have been reading up on how to take better pictures by taking control of my camera and getting off "auto".  this workshop gave me a better grasp of my camera controls. 

in the late morning there was a 90 minute live model shoot where we were able to shoot in professional conditions with lighting and backdrops.  i shot these photos using the only lens i have which is the one that came with the rebel.  i desperately want to get a zoom lens but the one i want is a bit pricey!!!  i was limited in the shots i could get and was jealous of the participants that were equipped with these monstrous telephotos lenses!

back to the pics...we were told to shoot in aperture priority mode at iso 800 and white balance set to tungsten/incandescent since we were indoors and would not be using flash.  we practiced shooting outdoors at well so adjustments needed to be made with white balance and iso settings.   after lunch we watched a presentation on setting up a work flow and using adobe lightroom 2.0 to edit photos...something i do not do and have no plans to do in the near future due to cost.  i use iphoto to edit and david has photoshop so i can make do with those for now.

all in all, it was a great workshop and i highly recommend it to anyone looking to expand their knowledge of digital photography a bit further.  digital days travels to 18 cities throughout the year and i am fortunate to live within a half hour of boston.

shooting the live model....just like paparazzi!


practicing locking the focus here to get the snakes jumping out of the can.  a bit overexposed.




it is possible to take candle light photos without a tripod.