Porzio's Pond

So after Sydnie's Halloween parade I took a walk all the way down her school block to Porzio's pond to take a look. I have never gone there before and I was so pleasantly surprised when I saw how beautiful the scenery was especially since the trees had turned beautiful autumn colors. It was my mission to come back over the weekend and take some pictures of the kids here which I did on Saturday.

Here are just a couple of pics from the like 200 I snapped:

More Pictures of course

I bought a hot shoe cord that was recommended from one of the teachers at CPR. This way I can attach my external flash without it having to sit on the camera. I made Zachary stand in front of a wall in my family room and then I just kept shooting pictures holding the flash from different sides. This picture I had the flash pointed right at him giving him some shadow around the neck. I like this picture.

Pictures I've taken After the Retreat

Okay so I have been playing around with my camera and trying to practice what I have learned at the CPR. Here are some photos that I have access to here at work. I opened up an account on FLICKR and posted some photos there and got some positive feedback so practice practice practice.

This picture is one I took of Sydnie as she was clowning around on my couch. I played with the aperture and then converted it to black & white anding in a little bit of highlights.

CPR Retreat in Connecticut

I am back from the Creative Photography Retreat (CPR) and my head is spinning a bit. I don't know what I want to do first. I love photography and I really want to get good at it but where to begin. I learned so much this weekend and plan to do a lot of experimenting. I wish we had some additional classes in Photoshop because after looking at some of the pictures of me I had taken this weekend I noticed I need a lot of touching up around the eye area.
One of the things I did learn this weekend is if possible, never never point the flash at your subject. I found out why every Christmas Portrait picture I tried to take last year had a long shadow along the kids body.
I also learned that I need new lens. Everything cost money. As soon as I came home I ordered the 50mm f1.4 Canon lens and I can't wait to get it. I also want a new Zoom lens but this lens is very expensive so I will have to wait a while.
I will post some pictures from the event once I touch them up a bit.
Did you notice my new Blog Banner? I learned about Blog Banners from Renee Pearson. The teachers we had were 2nd to none. They were all great!!

Cape May 2008 Digital Layouts

Love this picture...aren't they so sweet.

Back from Cape May

So I have been back for almost a week now. The Cape was wonderful. The weather was excellent (accept for a 30min thunderstorm we had on Sunday), we had a great time with the kids on the beach. We went to the Cape May Zoo and the Aviation Museum. We also had to play minature golf like 5 times because we had to bribe Zach to get him to sit for dinner.
Lord knows how much money we spent at the arcade but the kids love it.
The family went rollerskating and NO Cape May vacation is complete without us riding one of those 4 wheel family caravan bikes (I can't remember the tech name for it).
We really had a blast and I got lots of great pictures that I am going to post.

Well back to work.

Pictures from Cape May

Cape May - 2nd Day

This morning we woke up around 6:30am. I guess there won't be any sleeping this week. I tried out my new rollerblades. They fit well and I feel a little spazzy on them. Have to get use to them again.
Today was a lot of fun. We went to the beach at about 10:30am and stayed on the beach until 3:00pm. I was smart this year and put on sunscreen so I did not burn like I usually do. Zachary is just a fish. He is getting a little bit TOO brave for me though. He is not afraid at all and is walking further out into the water so we have to go into the ocean with him. The water was really cold today.
The kids boogie boarded just for a little while and Zachary loved being tossed by the waves. He went under quite a few times but he loves it. Now Sydnie is another story. She got knocked over by one wave towards the end of the day that wiped her out. She was shaken a bit but she did not cry and she was not choking on the water so that is progress. She just needs to practice more. She is not the fish that her brother is but she is definitely getting braver.
We also played frisbee for a while and flew our kite for about 10 minutes before the kids decided they wanted to go back into the ocean.
We came back to the house, showered and went the Henry's for dinner. Sydnie loves their grilled cheese. We then went and played minature golf which is always a challenge with Zachary but he was good for the most part. He just needs to focus more. We may try again today. We ended the evening with another trip to the arcade. Zachary is really good at ski ball and got the ball in the 100 bucket a couple of times. Go Zach. We are now back at the house relaxing and watching Harry Potter.

Cape May - Aug 08

We arrived in Cape May on Friday and the first thing the kids wanted to do was go to the Arcade. Zachary wanted to ride the merry go round. He is way too big for it but it keeps him happy. Sydnie and Mike won 100 tickets in Deal or No Deal and Zachary won 200 tickets all by himself playing the game.
Zachary is getting really good at SkiBall. He doesn't have to cheat anymore. He zips the ball and got the ball in the 50 bucket a couple of times.
I got to use my new Flip Video recorder. It is a lot fun. The weater says rain for most of the week so we are going to the beach tomorrow.
See you tomorrow.

Back from Camp Crop

I am back from my scrapbooking weekend with my daughter. Sydnie finished her 2nd grade book finally. She is in 5th grade so she still needs to complete 2 more years before she catches up. I worked on my Disney book but it was the 2005 trip, not the 2008 trip.

I also finally completed my 40th Birthday Digital storybook. The party was only in March 2007 so it took me a little over a year to finish. I also did some digital scrapbook pages on my Heritage Makers website. This was fun also and it is a lot quicker to complete than traditional scrapbooking. Here are some of the pages I did.

Autism Walk 2008

Another year raising money for this very important cause on behalf of Autism Speaks.

Our team - Walking for Zachary had our sneakers on and our tribute tshirts and we were ready. Zachary had a bit of an episode on the ferry but other then that it was a successful day.

Here is a picture of our team and of me and the kiddies: