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.