Day 1,2 & 3

*YIKES!! Just realized I forgot to publish this post....I wrote this last week on the 5th haha*

So I officially started the photo challenge yesterday. And I am totally reeled in!

The first task was all about reading the camera's manual....the thought of it felt like pulling teeth really. So after hunting the dreaded thing down, I grabbed the camera a notebook and a pen and set out for the task at hand. Let me tell you what.....she wasn't lying when she said there are treasures to unlock in that booklet.

I took THREE pages of notes!! On a cameral user manual!!! HAHA.

I always remember things much more clearly after writing them down so I jotted some notes, highlighted some of it, and underlined more. Every time I read about something I picked up my camera and tweaked with said setting. I was taking pictures of my coffee cup, my husband playing his video games. None of them really good BUT I could see the difference from picture to picture. I would giggle and get really excited with every nugget of info I learned and would excitedly pull Brett away from his game so he could see what I did. One thing that I learned (remember I'm new to this whole thing) is how to manually focus our lens. Neither of us knew we could do that and just that made a HUGE difference in the pictures I was taking. After an hour or so I was to the point where it was telling me how to upload photos onto my computer and I figured from there I could handle.....so I moved right on along to the next day which teaches about shutter speed. You can find it here.

I had picked up a few tips on shutter speed when I was reading the manual so this was a great follow up!  Her analogy to filling a cup with water was a great visual for me. So after reading the post I took the camera to the back yard where the dogs were hanging out and started snapping. Again I wasn't going for great shots just learning about controlling the shutter speed.

 Yikes! WAY WAY WAY over exposed :)

 Still a little too slow 

 Could totally use more light but I love her big smile in this one

 Happy Dodger!!

 This picture and the following clearly all the same seconds apart playing with the speed :)

So I forgot to mark the shutter speeds that I was using...oops

Until next time.

Remember Me?

I won't be offended if you don't. Not in the slightest. With all the craziness that the last six months of 2011 held for me I made a decision to put my blog on the back burner. Even though I started a blog to follow through the planning process.....whoops.

I've thought pretty hard about just deleting this thing and maybe never ever starting a new one. I mean really....I don't do awesome things with this like the title promises. But I have decided it's more for myself then informing the world of my awesomeness. It's a challenge to stay connected to myself, to make memories more permanent, and to have an emotional and creative outlet in a space that is mine (and visible to the world which creates an odd sense of accountability. So once again....I am resolving to write more. Well not really to write more necessarily but to connect more and writing on here is one way I can do it. Without going into a terribly dreadful woe is me story I will say that I struggle with attachment. This stems from things in my childhood and teen years....heck even in my adult years....that I went through and failed to completely heal from. It's not a rare struggle by any means, I have talked to many friends and family members that have the same kind of realizations.

So by me challenging myself to show up on my blog from time to time its forcing me attach to multiple things. To what I write about....to what I remember....and to the people I meet and friends I already know. So enough about that for now........

Today I am starting a lovely photo challenge. It's called 31 days to a better photo. I am not doing this to become a professional photographer, my desire is to simply be a better picture taker :) My husband owns a Nikon D40 and we don't use it to its full potential, and I want to change that. So I'm gonna give it a shot.......pictures create memories and memories allow me to attach get the theme ;) With that I'm gonna go get started, today requires me to read the manuals. Gag. But I have been promised that there are treasures to unlock in those pages and who am I to say otherwise. 

Til next time....which hopefully is BEFORE January 4 2013 :)

Ari

**UPDATE: I am having a blast reading the manual!!