{Photo Corner} Week 2: Lesson 2 ISO and Shutter Speed

Lesson 2 is on ISO and Shutter Speed.

ISO, or film speed, is really just a setting to determine how quickly an image will be captured by either the film or digital sensor. The higher the ISO, the quicker the image will be captured and the less light that is required. The lower the ISO, the longer it takes for the image to be captured and the more light you will need.

general rule of thumb:

• 100 - 200 sunny and outdoors
• 400 in the shade, overcast, indoors with good light
• 800 - 1600 indoors, low light conditions, sports or action

Shutter speed is how quickly the shutter, or the little door that opens in front of your film or image sensor, operates. It can range from several seconds (or minutes on the Bulb setting) to 1/1600 of a second or faster.

general rule of thumb:

• use a tripod or flat surface to steady your hand for anything 1/50th or under
• if you are handholding, use a minimum of 1/60th. Hold your breath while taking the photo to reduce camera shake.
• fast moving objects require at least 1/1000 to freeze the action.

My photos from the weekly challenge:

1/80 speed with ISO 1600



1/1000 speed with ISO 1600.



You can see that the action in the second photo is frozen more than first. Pretty cool!

{Photo Corner} Week 1: Lesson 1 - Aperture

One of my goals was to get more creative by learning to use my new DSLR camera in manual.

My camera: Canon Rebel T2i. I love it!

So to challenge myself and help me meet my 2011 goal, I am doing a 52 week challenge in which I take a photo once a week. I had thought about a 365 challenge but didn't think that was very feasible with my lifestyle and schedule to take a photo a day. So 52 weeks it is. For the first 12 weeks, I am doing a 12 week online course with a few friends. Each lesson has several challenges to help you learn each concept.

The first lesson is on aperture or f/stop. The size of the aperture, or f/stop, of a lens determines how much of your photograph is in focus. The f/stop numbers refer to how open or closed the aperture on the lens is. Basically:

• low f/stop = less of your photo will be in focus.
• high f/stop = MORE of your photo will be in focus.

So here are my photos from the weekly challenge using different f/stops.

f/3.5. You can see that the background is blurry in this photo.



f/8. Here you can see that the background has a little more clarity.



f/22. With the larger f/stop you can clearly see the flowers on the window. A great deal more clarity.



It was fun to learn something about taking photos in manual rather than relying on auto. I am excited that I can see the differences among the photos as well. On to the next lesson...

Happy 2011

It is a new year. We are in our newly remodeled home (I will post some pictures later) and it is great. I am not one to make New Year's resolutions rather I usually make some goals for the year. I hadn't really got the chance to think about any goals for this new year since we had been so busy with the move. So now that I have had a chance to think more about it, I realized that I need to focus more on myself. I have been so busy being mommy, that I haven't really had the chance to do the things I like or want to do. So this year is about carving out time for me. Yes, I am Mama Bear, but I am also me. My needs have been put aside for 19 months, but I think it is time to find a balance between meeting my needs and the needs of my family.

My goals for 2011:

Get creative. There are two things that I hope to do to be more creative.

1. Learn to use my camera in manual. I got a new DSLR camera for Christmas. I had been wanting one for years and I finally got one and I am so excited to be able to use it. Several of my friends are doing an online 12 week lesson. So this will get me on my way. I've already completed week 1 and I will start posting the results of my lessons here as well.
2. Continue to design invitations. I enjoy designing and last year go back into it with designing Baby Bear's birthday invitation, my friend's baby shower invitation, and my grandmother's 90th birthday invitation. It has been so fun to have a creative outlet and I am currently designing an invitation for a friend's baby shower. I will share that here soon.

Revisit what I enjoy doing to stay balanced. Being balanced helps me to be a better mommy and less stressed and I really feel that it is time to focus a little on myself so that I can have the patience to deal with the challenges of parenting and have a clear head to parent more positively.

1. Increase the intensity and rigor of my workout. Before becoming Mama Bear, I exercised and worked out regularly. I still do that, but the intensity and level of my activity was much more rigorous. Part of it is carving the time for it, but it is also about making it a priority. It is important for me to be in shape and I need to make it a bigger priority. I started the New Rules of Lifting for Women the end of last year. I finished stage 1 and I am now into stage 2. I will admit I slacked off with stage 2 when the holidays hit and we began our move. I am ready to get back at it.
2. Get back to my regular yoga practice. I absolutely love yoga, but I haven't been able to regularly go to classes like I did before Baby Bear was born. I tried on multiple occasions. Now that Baby Bear is older and we are in our house, I am making this a priority. I went to a class tonight and it was fabulous. I felt so refreshed and amazing. I want to feel like that all the time.
   

Pamper myself on occasion. This one is a bit of a challenge since it requires me to spend money, which is something we don't have a lot of since spending and hemorrhaging (as Papa Bear likes to say) so much money on our remodel. We really should be saving to replenish the money spent. But nevertheless I do think is an important part of focusing on me.

1. Get a manicure and pedicure once in a while. I haven't had a real manicure or pedicure since the day before Baby Bear was born. Being that Baby Bear is now 19 months old, that was 19 months ago! I am not talking about doing this on a regular basis, but it is nice to be pampered once in a while. I don't have a particular goal with regard to frequency. Maybe once every two-three months as a treat. I think that may be reasonable, we will have to see how our wallet likes that one.
   
2. Dress less frumpy. I just feel like I have very little time to make myself look beautiful each day. I am not talking about dressing up and being glamorous, just helping myself to feel less blah looking each day. I need some new clothes that fit. My pre-pregnancy clothing fit, but my body has changed so they don't fit as well as they used to. I am particular about the way clothes fit and look on me. I find that lately I don't feel good about how I look because clothes don't fit me right. Again, I don't want to spend a lot of money and I really don't have a lot of time to shop either. So this particular goal is going to be quite challenging, but I am going to try to make an effort to solve this issue. Not sure how quite yet.
   

De-clutter. Now that we are in our newly remodeled home, we have a little more space. But just because we have more space doesn't mean we can have more things. Packing and moving has made me realize that we have too much stuff and I think it is time for me to go through what we have to de-clutter and to pare down. On top of what we have at home, we have stuff in storage. It is time to really think about what we need and what is just clutter.

So there we have it, my goals for 2011.

I know she is with us

Tricia, you are greatly missed. Three years ago, Tricia was taken from us. She was taken too early by breast cancer. I miss my sister-in-law. Though she is not present on earth with us, I know that she is here watching over us.

I was thinking of her this morning. As I was thinking of her something wonderful happened. Somehow she came to my rescue. I truly believe she was my angel to make things happen. We have been preparing for our move next week and I have been trying to arrange for Baby Bear's care so that I can focus on the move. Trust me it will be so much easier if she is not here, she is a busy girl and will most likely get into everything that she is not supposed to. I had most days covered except for Thursday, which happens to be the day that we move most everything. I got a call this morning from my mother-in-law and her appointment that prevented her from taking Baby Bear was canceled. This all happened as I was thinking of Tricia. Coincidence or not, I believe that Tricia was watching over us and helping to lift some stress from our lives. Thank you Tricia. I love you and I miss you.

So much to do this Holiday Season

I love the holidays. This year is no different despite the chaos. We are hoping to move into our newly remodeled home next week. Just days before Christmas. And yes we are going to spend Christmas in our home. We may not be totally moved in but we will have Christmas in our house!

Papa Bear has been working like crazy to get it all done. There are painters, electricians, and carpenters (oh my!) at the house. Everything is all scheduled and hopefully the rain will clear up by early next week so that we can move in. I am excited and overwhelmed all at the same time. I have so much to do, I have to pack, move, and then unpack before people come on Christmas day. The day after we are hosting a holiday party. I have to cook and bake, wrap Christmas presents, get a Christmas tree, decorate, and many things that I can't even wrap my head around.

It is hard to prioritize what to do since space is limited and many things are being packed up. Do I wrap presents now? If I do then where do I put them so they don't get ruined or lost while moving. I am not sure. I am trying to pack but is also hard to organize myself. I know there is much that we no longer need, so I should sort as I pack. It is just all overwhelming.

Overwhelming as it may be, it will all be okay. We may not be totally moved in but we will definitely have a memorable Christmas as a family in our house. That to me feels really good.

Our Kitchen: Refrigerator purchased

We bought our new refrigerator tonight. I am very excited and can't wait to use it in my new kitchen. We picked out the Samsung 28.0 Cu. Ft. French Door Refrigerator in Stainless-Steel. It is a really nice looking fridge and I really like the FlexZone drawer feature that will come in handy when Baby Bear is older. It will be a great place for her snacks and drinks. It has a lot of great features that we really liked. I hope it will work as well as we hope it will. It will be delivered next Tuesday!



Everything is starting to come together.

Our Kitchen: More progress

Lots of progress is being made very quickly. We are planning to host our annual Christmas party with a group of close friends. The evite went out on December 1st, so there is no turning back now. We are committed. We have been slated to host for years, but have put it off since we didn't have the space. This year we said we would be ready to host and Papa Bear is working very hard to get us there. These photos were taken last month and much more progress has been made since then. Here are a few photos of the kitchen.

The hardwood floors are in.



The glass tile backsplash was installed. It looks kind of green in the photo, but it is actually more of beige color in real life.



Since this picture was taken the dishwasher has been installed in that hole.



We are getting closer and closer every day.

The New Rules of Lifting for Women

My mother-in-law recently gave me a copy of The New Rules of Lifting for Women (NROLFW). I had heard of it before and wanted to check it out, so I was really excited that she had an extra copy and gave it to me. I finally got the chance to sit down and read it (it is not often in the last year that I have had the opportunity to read anything that was not baby related).

I really enjoyed what the book had to say. It dispels many of the myths of lifting weights for women. I have always known the benefits of lifting and actually preferring strength training to cardio, so I really liked what the authors had to say. I agreed with much of what they had to say and learned some new things as well.

The workout plan seems very doable. I have been looking to make a change in my workout routine and needed a good plan to follow to see better results. I have just been winging it in terms of my strength training. I knew I needed something that would fit into my busy schedule as a working mother. NROLFW is just what I need. It is a routine that is done 2-3 times a week and it is a full body workout that can be done in less than an hour. Perfect for my schedule. With my schedule and commitments, I have 4 mornings available to workout. The ideal is to follow their plan 3 days a week with a full rest day between workouts, however I only have 2 days with a rest in between to devote with my schedule. The other 2 days I have will be my cardio (rest) days. It is a 6 month program doing it 3 days a week, so it will be a little longer for me. That is just fine with me, I realize and understand that it takes time. My goals are long term.

I really appreciate that the plan is efficient use of time. They talk about doing functional exercises that not just isolate but work several muscles at a time. That makes a lot of sense to me. It really isn't an efficient use of my time to do bicep curls that only work my biceps when I can do a push up that works so much more. Plus, I actually love push ups. I know I am crazy.

So I look forward to going through this program and started this week and so far so good. My legs are definitely feeling it. I think I may need to increase the weight to feel it in my upper body. I do think I can keep this up. I am not very good at following programs on my own, but I really think this is something I can do. This program is very doable.

Our Kitchen: Before and in progress

The granite counter tops are in!!! Here are some photos with the new cabinets (still need to get the backsplash in):





Some close-up photos of the granite. I love it!





We still have to get the glass tile backsplash up. We had a sample of the white glass tile backsplash, but I didn't like how it looked, it was too stark white with the granite. We just need a color that is closer to the color of the granite, an off-white or cream, which shouldn't be a problem. There is still much work to do, but we have come a long way. Take a look at some before shots of the kitchen:





Here is a picture of the kitchen after Mr. Bear tore out the wall joining the dining room and kitchen.

Our Kitchen: The granite

We went to Arizona Tile in Ontario, CA to pick out granite for our kitchen counter tops over the weekend. What a great showroom and a painless experience. I thought that I had an idea in my head of what I wanted. I wanted lighter colored granite. But after walking around and looking at all the beautiful granite, I started to become unsure. There were many options and they were all so beautiful. Granite really is beautiful. Papa Bear told me to pick out what ever I wanted and he said that there really was no way to go wrong with granite since it is just beautiful. So it really was up to me to find the right fit for our kitchen.

I had found one that I really liked and Papa Bear agreed it was very special, but it had a lot of variations within the slab. It was called Typhoon Bordeaux; it started off with some browns and golds with burgundy on the top half and then gradually changed to a cream with gray, burgundy, and gold on the bottom half. It was indeed beautiful with all the variations in the granite, but Papa Bear reminded me that we would be using about a 2 foot part of the slab for the counter tops so not all of the variations that I liked would show up (the slabs were really big, maybe 7-8 feet tall and 10 feet wide). I am glad he brought that up. I really liked the cream part of the slab especially since I was sure I wanted to go with light granite; but we would have to get the entire slab. A little disappointed, I walked around more to take another look while Papa Bear went off with Baby Bear. He went and talked to the sales person and he told the sales person what I was looking for. The sales person mentioned that he had some slabs of that same granite that was just the cream colored part. It was the same but the cut of granite only had the lighter part.

Meanwhile, I walked around and looked at all the granite again. I found two lighter colored granite styles that I kind of liked and asked Papa Bear to look at a couple of them. He mentioned that the original one we liked came in just the lighter variation of the granite. So we asked them to pull out a few different slabs so that I could take a better look at them and make a final decision. We picked the Typhoon Bordeaux that was all cream. I am so glad that Papa Bear mentioned to the sales person what I liked because they only had 3 slabs left. We need only need 2 slabs but they like to reserve 3 slab just in case something happens along the way. Granite can break and when working with the heavy large slabs you never know what will happen.

Here it is.



These pictures are from the website (the second photo shows it close up):

The pictures does not do it any justice, it is really beautiful with some burgundy, gold, and gray in it. It really is special and exactly what I was looking for. I thought it would be so much harder to pick something out. And before I saw this one; I had narrowed it down to 2 others that I liked but but did not love. Thank goodness Papa Bear likes to talk to people, because as soon as they brought this one out, I told Papa Bear: "That is it!." I had no doubts. I can't wait to see it with my cabinets.