Thank you, Karen Russell!! I am now officially working in full manual on my camera. And it’s FUN! And not nearly as scary as I would have thought. I actually really, really like it. Way more control, especially in baaaad lighting situations. We will see how it goes during an actual shoot though. I might have to revert back to AV (apeture priority) mode… some of the little ones move waaaay too fast for me to be rechecking and changing the settings all the time. I am afraid I might totally miss the shot.

But, I had the BEST time in the class on Saturday (nevermind the fact that I had to get up at 5:30am, on the road with Beth at 6am in the pitch black pouring rain, and drove at least 1/2 an hour the wrong way) and it was so worth it in time and money. And Karen is such a great teacher…I had a few really good "a-ha!" moments in class. She just rocks. I even got to spend a little time with her after class just chatting and it really just made my day. My favorite thing about her is that she is so good at what she does but is in no way full of herself about it- she dosen’t talk down to you, no question is stupid, and she has such a way about explaining things so you really GET it. Not to mention she is so sweet. I like that she is so willing to share her knowledge and that she is still learning too. I am definitely a bunch of steps behind her in the photography department…but that works for me. I will continue to "stalk her blog" and just learn what she learns. So, thanks Karen! You are the best!! Hope you had fun in Philly.

Yup, those are my boys. Goofy thru and thru. They are so good to eachother though. Today Patrick ended up missing his class (all of third grade went) field trip to a Mexican Restaurant. He came home with a terrible stomach this morning and was SO BUMMED he was going to miss the trip. After being home for a while and eating a plain bagel and being completely fine, I was going to take him over to the restaurant to meet his class, but after he and I both gave it some additional thought, we skipped the trip. Mexican isn’t exactly the way you want to go after having stomach trouble and riding on a bumpy hot school bus right after eating…not so much.

So, we ended up taking him over to school after the trip so he could go the rest of the day. When we got there the buses were pulling up and Jack saw me and was hysterical crying. He was so upset that Patrick didn’t get to go. He had a good time, but even his teacher said he was missing Patrick and felt so bad that he couldn’t be there. Luckily, Patrick’s teacher is so sweet and picked up a gift certificate so that Patrick can go and eat there. So now his being home instead of going on the trip is going to cost me about $100 so we can ALL go eat there. He was fine the rest of the day, even had pizza and a meatball hero for dinner.

Getting ready for Halloween. Finally, the weather here is starting to feel like it might actually be fall. We were in shorts and t-shirts every day until yesterday. Now I’m freezing. Ok, so it’s really not all that cold out, I’m just freezing if it’s not 80 degrees out.

Off to Karen Russell’s photography class in PA tommorrow. Can’t wait!!

And here is Timmy driving around in his "pumpkin car" . See what I mean about the t-shirts. These were from earlier this week.

For me! For my birthday in September my great friend Maureen got me a gift certificate to a website called www.pinkinkstudios.com. They have great actions, masks, frames, texture overlays and stuff for photoshop. I did some shopping last night and got some really cool new stuff. Spent part of today playing with my new toys.

#1. Dead end- urban texture with frame

#2. boys on stairs- mask

#3. timmy on step- dirty frame

#4. timmy on beach- frame and desaturated.

They are all so cool. I just have to be careful not to go overboard and use them on EVERYTHING. I think I might be ordering a new canvas or two from my favorite museum gallery wrapped canvas supplier www.canvasondemand.com. I think the boys on the stairs would look so cool on a huge canvas with the brush stroke looking edges.

I had a photoshoot scheduled for today, but got rained out. Rescheduled for Sunday, I hope it’s nice by then. The photography show in NYC on Saturday was so. totally. cool. I left a serious trail of drool and envy around Javits. The whole thing was so great- so interesting to see all the different products out there. I loved the lensbaby (seriously cool stuff- a lens set on a bunch of springs that gives such blur except for one little spot in focus), I want Mark at the camera store to get satin finish paper (he has metallic coming in soon, which I also love). The make it yourself photobooks are super cool and he has a bunch of those coming in soon too. Highly reccommend those. So cute. But the lenses…oh, the lenses! I spent a few hundred thousand dollars (all in my head of course) on all the L glass I could see, a few new camera bodies, some accessories, and a ton of new programs from Adobe for post processing to round out the package. Oh, to dream….

This Saturday, I am heading to Pennsylvania for the day (yes, the day only) to take a photography class with one of my heros- Karen Russell. She is a scrapbooker and scrapbook designer first and foremost but has a background in photography and takes the most excellent pictures. And she has such a great way of explaining things so that I can understand and apply it. I took a scrapbook class taught by Karen in Conneticut a few months ago with my friend Beth. We drove 2hrs to that one and home the same day. But it was so worth it. So for the class on Saturday we are going to have to be on the road at around 6am (going with Beth again). So you know I must really love her classes. I don’t get up that early. EVER.