Baby Photography and ShootFLYShoot: How I finally Learned to Use my DSLR and You Can Too

Hey kids. I've been way too busy Christmasing to post recently, but I took some pictures this week that were just too freaking adorable to keep to myself.

Isn't that just the cutest little sock monkey hat you've ever seen? It's even cuter when the two of us where them at the same time, but I don't have that documented.

Austin really wanted to get some pictures of her with he light saber, but really good ones haven't quite happened yet. For some reason they turned out pretty well with her new paint brush toy though.

And then yesterday I took some pictures of Norie practicing her almost crawl while I was working on some other stuff. 

I am so happy I decided to take the shootFLYshoot Photography 101 course and learned how to use my camera.

It only took me 7 years. Yep, seven whole years. Not the actual learning. That only took a couple of hours thanks to Kevin and Josh, but it took me seven years to do something about the fact that I didn't know how to use my camera. Sound familiar?

My husband bought me an amazing Cannon EOS Rebel DSLR as a graduation gift circa 2005. I had never used anything but a point and shoot before, but had a lot of fun with the program settings. They worked pretty well and I liked the pictures I took on vacations of landscapes and flowers and other pretty outside stuff.

Then I started a blog and wanted to take pictures inside. It was a whole new ballgame and my pictures were okay at best. Mostly they looked like were amateur shots taken with the flash in poorish lighting. I knew they weren't great, but I didn't know how to do any better.

One day Layla over at The Lettered Cottage linked to a series of posts by Centsational Girl about blog photography. I read them and got motivated to try my hand at shooting in manual mode. I busted out my camera's manual and figured out how to adjust the settings she mentioned to the ones she used, but since I had no idea what they did I couldn't adjust them to the picture I was trying to take. I was lost.

Then Layla's husband Kevin started a photography website called ShootFLYShoot.
I liked the facebook page and added the RSS feed for their blog to my Google Reader, but I didn't actually sign up and pay for their Photography 101 course. I wasn't quite ready to commit. I mean, it was $69 whole dollars.

The conversation in my head went something like this.

$69? That's kind of a lot of money. Like more than half a week of day care. Can I really justify spending that much?


Then I realized that I wasn't able to use my several hundred dollar camera the way I wanted to because I was too cheap to spend 69 bucks.

I bit the proverbial bullet an paid for their Photography 101 course. It was totally worth it. probably the single best $69 I have ever spent. Kevin and Josh are amazing and I actually understand what all those setting do.

I feel like my own personal photo taking super hero. Not that I'm suddenly a professional photographer. I'm not, but I do know how to take a great blog or baby scrapbook pic.I''m sure it helps that my baby is ridiculously adorable, but I take credit fir that too.

Coincidence? I think not.

My husband sent me a link to The Frecklewonder Blog yesterday because the author is a friend of his cousin Kerry and he thought I might like it.

Funny story, I found it independently a couple of months ago while doing some research on vintage cookbooks, but had failed to add it to my Reader feed and, hence, failed to read it in the interim. I did and now I'm hooked. She's fabulous and I think I'll try and finagle a way to meet her in person or at least become blog buddies. Chalk another one up for the blogs I love.

We do lunch. It's our thing.

I have lunch with my sister. We live about 7 hours apart, but we make a point of calling each other when we take a break from whatever we're doing for lunch.

The other day we had a little talk about her kitchen. She and her husband have been thinking about changing it since they moved in and it's about that time. They've been thinking over several options from replacing all the cabinetry and moving things all around to refacing them and everything in between. She was very excited about the refacing place she had found since they also custom make cabinets if you want to add some and can make new drawers to replace the busted ones which aren't a standard size anymore and are the main reason they were thinking about replacing the cabinets in the first place.

I've been thinking a lot about kitchen remodels since we're closing on the house Nov. 5. If you haven't noticed, I'm obsessed with cooking and an attractive kitchen is key to my happiness. No seriously. It influences my mood in ways I don't think other people really get. I need to cook in a pretty space. Need. Trust me.

I suggested she paint them white since a ton of the woodwork in her house in already white and her husband is near obsessed with making sure the house is bright and well lit. Sometimes it scares me how much he has in common with my dad. I also really like the look of white kitchen cabinets. We decided that we're painting her cabinets ASAP. Since we're both a little busy that's after Thanksgiving.

I sent her this email to seal the deal.

The before and after photos from the lettered cottage.
http://www.theletteredcottage.net/2009/09/presto-chango.html

The kitchen remodel with white painting of cabinets
http://www.whisperwoodcottage.com/2009/12/whisperwood-cottage-kitchenthe-during.html

and the beadboard wallpaper how to for the cabinet sides.
http://southernhospitalityblog.com/beadboard-wallpaper-project/

I especially love the beadboard wallpaper on the ends. It just makes the whole thing seem more finished. I'll keep you posted with pictures when it happens.