503 Online Photography Workshop

Amateur?

Beginner?

Photography loveeer?

Looking to sharpen your mad skills?


Yep!  That was me.  Until January when I took:
Jessica Cudzilo's 503 Photography Workshop.

Photography has always been a passion of mine.  I was the middle schooler who took pictures of everything.  Even fish at the aquarium.

Don't judge...  they're probably still in a box upstairs.

That's where it all started.  But my camera was still more skilled than I was.  It stayed on the green auto box and never wanted to leave.  It might as well have been stuck.  So were my photography skills.

I wanted more.  I wanted to know what those other buttons were.  How to make my pictures look better.  And that's when you know you're ready...  When you start feeling limited by your green square box and wanting to branch out to learn more about how complex cameras really are... 

You're ready to take Jessica's workshop.

She breaks everything down and makes it easier to understand.  But you're not just going to learn from her...  you're going to learn from all the other people in your workshop.  There is a forum where you upload all homework and ask one hundred and twenty seven questions.  You learn from other people asking their questions when you're too embarrassed to ask.  And of course, you get Jessica's feedback on your homework, which may be the best way to learn - learning how you could have made your pictures better. 

Did I mention the workshop is flexible?  It is.  Homework is emailed out once a week and you can go on the website any time.  That setup was perfect for me...  With a job that takes me away from home 50+ hours per week, I need flexibility. 

This workshop is just that.

And more.

Boys and girls (yes, boys were definitely in the workshop!):  If you have a DSLR that you leave on the green auto button, sign up for this workshop.  Seriously, I can't tell you that enough.  It will change your life and make you take pictures like a semi-professional.  Heck!  You've got a great camera - learn to use it!!  I've still got a lot of practicing and learning to go, but the foundation has been laid.  Now, you need to join me.  :)

And I'm available to practice my photo skills on you and yours.  There's a new lens coming my way that I am super excited about!  Please note - I'm still learning so all pics would be PRACTICE.  Practice makes perfect, right??

So stop reading and go sign up or at least write Jess a love message about how you definitely want to be apart of the next workshop.

You will LOVE it!  I did!

Utah - Day 3: Snowed in at Sundance?

Cross country skiing in the backyard during a semi snow storm:

Emily and Hunter in their awesome matching jackets.

Getting their gear on.

It's not everyday you have 2.5 feet of snow in your backyard.

Chris and I went after Hunt and Em got back.

Chris is the one on the left.  I'm in the outerwear to the right.

I wasn't going out there without protection.  The wind was blowing pretty hard and of course snow was flying.  So I put on our all gear and some borrowed.  My Dad taught me to be prepared.  And yes, I offered some to Chris, but he's more hard core than I am and declined my offer.  That's when I put it all on.

Long legs louise took some time to get his bearings.

It was a little tough and his feet are size 27 so that makes things hard.

I wasn't much help and evidently neither was the photographer we had.  (Who was it?  Emily or Allison??)

Later, back on his feet:

(Me to the left, Chris on the right)

We raced:

At this point, we were racing backwards.  I was winning.

Just kidding.  He was beating me by a long shot.  Those long legs have a wide stride.  You can actually see where I was cutting the corner off the track and going in for the kill.

He still won.

In case you were wondering where we were, here's the view from the road:

Casa Utah.  Because of all the gorgeous snow, the sky was a bit cloudy.  Evidently, when it's clear, you can see mountains and mountains behind the house.

Even with the foggy sky, it's still so beautiful!  And look at the house... 

nestled in the snow our warm hide-a-way.

5 feet of snow had fallen by this point.  The crazy part?  People were still driving!  And not just big SUVs like we had - they would drive little cars on the road right by our house.  Two inches of snow at home makes us stay locked up in our houses for days.

Utah has big equipment just for days like this:

Running day and night so our world didn't stop.

Snow wouldn't stop us!

The girls and I ran off to Sundance for some fantastic night skiing.

Allison and Emily

Don't they look just like gorgeous snow bunnies?

Sundance is smaller and has one lift.  That is totally fine when you consider one run there is like 5 back in NC.

Pre-blizzard.

Middle of blizzard:

Yep, the snow storm that was brewing earlier came full force while we skied.

Refreshment break:

So, you know how ski boots have a tongue in them like regular shoes?  They do...  It's cushioned more than (let's call them lips) the harder outer lips where you buckle the boots together.  This is embarrassing, but I'm going to tell you - somehow, the tongue in my boot was half in and half out.  During the whole first run, I went down the mountain with part of my chin on cushion and the other half on sharp hard rubber.

By the time we were down, I was almost crying.

I did go back up for more runs, but Allison and Emily looked like professionals compared to me.

One time I fell in the middle of a downhill slope.  This guy felt sorry for me so he helped me collect my gear that had been thrown all over the hill.  It took a bit because I couldn't stop laughing.  That guy was very nice.  I am thankful for him being there.  I could still be there if it wasn't for him.  Nahhh, Em and Al would eventually come looking for me.

I could blame the snow blizzard we were in...  but I won't.  I was done after that run.

The girls went up for "one" more while I stayed back.  Only to learn that no one was able to enter or leave the resort.

ARE YOU JOKING?

"It could be another two hours."

The boys were in route to us and had been sent back the other direction.  The cafe, the store, the sitting areas around were all full.  There were people everywhere.  We weren't going anywhere and that was made clear.  An accident was blocking the way and the blizzard was only getting worse.

We were stranded.

So I did what I would normally do - shopped and made friends with the locals.  One lady told me we might have to spend the night if they didn't let us go sooner than later.  The roads would only get more impassable.  Then she told me where the good ice skating was and how she had just been to a documentary film.

Then the word came - the roads were opening back up.  If we wanted to leave, we better go now.  We decided we definitely wanted to see our husbands (and babies) again so the end of our skiing experience had come.  All gear was gathered and we trekked back to the car.  We took one last picture to remember the trip:

Then traveled for 4 hours to eat Mexican with the crew.  (A 40ish minute drive feels like 4 hours when you're holding your breath which we all did.)

Yummy, warm, and delicious Mexicano food awaited us.

We missed our people.

And they missed us.

Signature father and daughter face.

Day three - the end.

The Many Faces of River

At the ripe ol' age of three weeks, our photo shoot started out a little rocky...

So, Dad came in and gave him belly kisses to make things better.

It helped.

He calmed down and started looking right at me.  But those little hands just wouldn't stay down!

That's okay though.  His hands went down occasionally.

So, River went for the wide eyed, opened mouth shot:

He's precious, isn't he?

We realized he kept sliding down, so we moved him up a bit.  I'm sure here he's looking at his pretty mother...

He loves to look directly at the camera. 

And he loves to move those little hands.  :)

Check out this look:

He just had his diaper changed.  I love how expressive he is!

You can't beat that clean feeling!!

But he couldn't help but make a little face.

This is happy baby River:

What a personality so early in life!

Utah Day 2 - Babies, Heber, and Park City

Ohhh, UTAH!  

Where the snow falls in multiple inches.  Where you wear three layers of clothes at all times.  Where you keep the fire going all day and even have a fireplace in your bedroom.

Utah.  It's magical.  The snow is definitely the greatest.

I'll tell you...  snuggling up with these two babies made the trip even better...

Sydney and Liam.  Syd is almost two (Update: Sydney turned two on Feb 3rd - Happy Birthday, Sydney!!) and Liam is right around 7.5 months here.

Sydney got her dad's skin and hair, but her mother's gorgeous eyes.  Beautiful child.

On the trip, we learned how to hug babies...

Syd giving sweet hugs to her friend Liam.

When you're two, it's hard to figure out when you're giving a bit too much hug...  Everyone up until then has been bigger than you, so you've never had to worry about hugging.

Liam just knows he's going down...

Luckily your mom is close by to let you know when too much is too much.

"But seriously, when can you have too much love in your life??"

You can't have too much love in your life.  And you can't have too much of these babies in your life either...

Aren't they adorable?

If they were up for adoption, Chris and I would be first in line.

Heck, we'd fight someone for them.

Until then, we're still working on the hugging process:

This would be called the tackle love hug.

She meant well - but Liam didn't even have a chance!  Not yet at least.

"I thought he could handle it."

Her dad is teaching her well.  :)

Totally uneffected.

Children, they're tough.  Resilient and seem to be made of rubber.

We don't have any of our own (yet) but that's the conclusion we're coming too.

Later that day:

Allison goes cross country skiing to get her heart pumping.

My heart felt better inside.  Evidently, Emily's heart felt better inside as well.

Allison was gone for about 30 minutes in this:

There was some internal debate of going out after her, but then the fire called me back to reality...

The fires are the best in Utah!

Little did we know, our heart pumping exercise would come soon enough.

While the men were gone for their all day ski lesson, we drove into the large town of Heber for lunch.  Our first choice wasn't open for lunch, but we had already parked and removed the children from their seats. 

{I had no idea what a process getting in and out of the car can be.}

A vote was made and the decision was to walk back to the restaurant ONLY few blocks away.

Can you guess where this is going??

Pre-walk, oblivious to what is ahead:

1.4 miles of pushing these strollers through feet of snow, slush, and ice.

It got so desperate, Allison went back for the car.  She ran while Emily and I continued to push.  At one point, Liam and his stroller got away from us, but we saved him soon enough.  Right before he face planted into a snow drift.

Just kidding.  It wasn't that bad - he only rolled a couple of feet into oncoming traffic...

Now, I'm REALLY kidding.  The darling children were protected the entire time. 

Kids are safe with us.

After we bailed the walk and jumped into the car with Allison (I use the term jump loosely - there is a process with two children...), we made it to our destination.

Breadstix:  A lovely, delicious, wonderful place to dine with friends.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of dinner with the men at the Blind Dog or of how the girls ditched the kids with the dudes and ran off for a night on the town in Park City.

(Ditched = all they had to do was put them to bed; night on the town = walking the streets and shopping in a blizzard.)

WONDERFUL DAY!

PS:  Chris, this has in no way detered my desire to have multiple children with you.

First Married Valentine's Day

happy, lovely, perfect Valentine's Day...

We spent the weekend enjoying chocolate, love, laughter, and being TOGETHER.  It was our first married Valentine's day.  We kept it pretty low-key, as I believe most Vdays should be. 

Friday night found us at Kate and Seth's enjoying Fox's Pizza.  Emery went to bed before we arrived, so she missed the fun.  {Thank you S&K for having us over!!  As we always do, we had a blast.}

Saturday morning, Chris gave me a heart-shaped chocolate tin and three pairs of boxers...

He wanted his boxers back.  I've been sleeping in them at night, with his permission of course, but we both go for the softest pair.  Now I have my own.  ;)

Chris got little love notes through the day(s):

from me...  and a tumbler that proudly states Alabama as the 2009 National Champions.  After my sister mentioned the idea, I knew he would love it.  {Thank you, Beth, for looking out for those Alabama fans!}

We went to see VALENTINE'S DAY at the theater that night.  It was a great movie!  Full of a million "A-list" celebrities, they pulled the plot together nicely.  Most everyone had a good ending...  If you've seen the movie, you'll understand my only two negative points:  1.  Why do the two cutest guys end up being gay?  and 2.  Why do you have to accept someone you've been out with a handful of times when you find out they moonlight as a "call" girl?  Past that though, it was perfectly romantic and makes you want to hug up on your guy even more.  Not that I need any encouragement...

Sunday came and we just enjoyed the day...  Church and Brugger's bagels...  Macy got a haircut and we had her teeth brushed.  She's had some killer breath lately so we splurged the $11 for them to brush her teeth.  They probably ripped us off, but it was worth it.

We made banana bread and watched a movie.

Then before bed, Chris asked me to dance. 

As "You look wonderful tonight" played over the speakers,

I thanked God for the day, for my life, and for such a wonderful man.

It was a beautiful Valentine's Day weekend.

Love Quote

"If God is the DJ, life is the dance floor; 

Love is the rhythm and You are the music."

-Unknown