Monday, April 30, 2007

Greetings from Charlotte!

I'm in North Carolina for a field meeting for work, returning home on Wednesday. I'm hoping to hear while I'm here about the job I've been interviewing for. The people who are making the decision will also be at this meeting and will be discussing their options. So keep your fingers (and toes) crossed for me.
The big news is that we closed on the sale of our old house on Friday, and on the purchase of our new house today!!! Wahoooooooooo!!!!!!! It's finally over. Our old house was on the market for over a year. The best part of the closing today was that Chris had to sign everything for me, since I'm out of state. That meant he had to initial and sign all of his own spots, then write/sign/intial mine and also note that he has power of attorney.... so he got major writers cramp :) ha!!
We ran 20 miles yesterday and then I had to bowl three games for a work bowling thingie. Today I feel pretty great, incredibly! I'm a tiny bit sore in the quads, but that's it. I guess that means that I've conditioned for the marathon properly.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

New Images

I have been playing with all of the new stuff I learned at the photography workshop and think I've discovered 'my' style in photography. Check out a couple of today's photographs (Libby and her fiancee, Ethan, and Chris and Amelia) here, then go to my site and see a bunch more from today








Thursday, April 26, 2007

The Official Workshop Recap

Hmmmm, what is there to say about the Audrey Woulard workshop........

IT WAS FREAKING AMAZING


Yep, sure was.I met some amazing women (and one man, Devon...the brave soul...) and learned more than I even know yet. I learned tons about the business end of photography. I grew as a photographer. My confidence grew. My images are more colorful. I'm shooting fully manual.Audrey is incredible with a camera, but even more impressive as a business woman. I admire her and respect her, and hope that I'll be fortunate enough to continue learning from her.I have been intimidated by the little 'M' on my camera for years. It has taunted me. I desperately wanted to turn the dial and step into the world of complete control. But I was so..... scared. On the first morning of the workshop I admitted that I did not shoot entirely manually.

Audrey then had a couple of sessions that morning so that we could observe and see how she interacts with her subjects and what she does technically. During a break she said that we could get up and take some shots of the little girl.... and I took a deep breath and turned the dial. The "M" stared me in the face, daring me to trip the shutter.

....and wouldn't you know it, I took better photos than I've ever done inside in natural light. I adjusted the shutter speed, tweaked the ISO, and opened the aperature up wide.... and it was magic--It all worked. I have a way to go, but I'm proud of myself and already see a difference in my work.

Things have changed on the business side, too. I've designed my business cards, changed my session fee and print prices, am working on marketting materials. I'm excited. And Audrey told me that she knows my business will 'rock'. How about that for something to type up and hang on my mirror to look at every day?

Here are some more of my photographs from the workshop.












Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Sneak Peek

The workshop was AMAZING!!!!! I don't have time to post now, but wanted to give you a sneak peek... a couple of photos I took in Chicago during the workshop. I made the move to shooting fully manually, and these were some of my first!
The little girl is going to be on my business card. She was a client of Audrey's who we were allowed to photograph when she finished their session. The women are Amy and Lisa who were also at the workshop. We had to be each others' models :)





Saturday, April 21, 2007

It's Finally Here!!!!

When I signed up for Audrey Woullard's photography workshop back in February, a large part of me truly believed that the world would stop turning and time would stand still. The day would never come. I would be stuck in a painful, never-ending, and debilitating wrinkle in time, knowing that the day of the workshop would never arrive.

BUT IT CAME!!!!!!!!

I leave tomorrow and I'm extremely excited and hugely nervous. I will learn so much and will return a much better photographer. But what if I'm the only one there who just can't catch on... or who nobody likes..... or Audrey thinks I'm a big poser....

I am going to run eight miles early in the morning, then get ready to hop in The Hornet and drive 1.5-2 hours to meet up with the only other Wisconsinite going to the workshop, then we'll drive down together. The whole group is meeting for dinner, then the workshop begins Monday morning and runs through Tuesday afternoon.

I'll be tired but on a major high when I drag myself into work on Wednesday morning. BUT I'm only there for two days, then go BACK down to Chicago on Friday for a final interview. (I haven't written anything about that on the blog...but I've been going through a two-month-long interview process and it's all coming down to Friday's meeting. THEN I run 20 miles on Sunday and jump on a plane to Charlotte Monday morning for a field force meeting until Wednesday. By Thursday I should be pretty spent....but hopefully very happy. We'll see. Please say prayers and cross fingers.

HOLY CRAP I'M GOING TO MY DREAM WORKSHOP TOMORROW!!!!!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Lens Has Landed!!!!

They shipped it yesterday afternoon and I got it today!! It's AMAZING. It was getting to be sunset when I got to take it out, so I didn't get to play as much as I'd like, but I already got some much higher quality shots. Oh. My. God. Just wait to see what I can do with this beast after my workshop!!!! Here are a few from tonight :)






Tuesday, April 17, 2007

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I just bought my new lens!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Olympus 50-200mm f2.8-3.5!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so effen excited!!!!!!! I got the go-ahead from The Boss to order it and request 2 day shipping so I have it for my workshop on Monday!!!!!!!


WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


Between the workshop and this lens, my photographs are going to improve a ton.
Just. You. Wait.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Lambs!!!!!!!

Jo's sheep had 9 lambs in the last two weeks, and the girls and I finally got to go and see. I had beautiful late day light and got some pretty shots of everyone...My cuties... my Earth-mama friend Jo and her gorgeous daughter... and the adorable lambs.




Sunday, April 15, 2007

Photos from yesterday's Big Event For Little Kids

Yesterday Libby and her fiancee Ethan had a date. They went to this awesome kids event and got to do all sorts of awesome things.....





Sixteen Miles v. The Trottin' Bitches

Jo and I are a running club of two. We are the Trottin' Bitches. That name was penned last year during marathon training and fits us to a 't'. We sort of are bitches...and we certainly bitch our way through our long runs...bitch about what hurts and how hard it is...bitch about our husbands....bitch about work....yadda yadda yadda. As for the 'trottin' part, well...there are a couple of reasons for that. We do trot. We are not fast nor slow--we sort of trot along. It also references the phenomenon that runners call the 'runners trots', something not completely foreign to us gals. We really want to have shirts printed with our running club name. We'd also like to recruit more members. We'd be like a running coffee klatch.
Today the Trottin' Bitches took on the weekly long run together. Jo ran four on her treadmill before joining me and setting off to conquer 16 more. I did my 20 miler a couple of weeks ago, but she did not--so she was going to get it in today while I did my scheduled 16 miler. We run 20 together in two weeks, the last really long run before the marathon. In the end Jo ran fifteen more while I finished one mile on my own to complete my 16.
We both started out rough, with a lot of fatigue and tightness in the muscles and lungs, but seemed to improve at about mile 4. For me it just got better from there, but Jo struggled the whole way. She did it, though, and I'm proud of her.
I turned my ankle badly on some big clumps of mud at mile 3.5 and thought the run was over for me. I shook it off and walked a touch, then just got mad and ran. It gave me some pain throughout the run but after my ice bath has been feeling much better, thank God. Then there was the psychotic blonde lady in the fancy SUV who tried to run us down at an intersection.... and the rabbid cat stalking us along the trail....
But we survived.
And I feel great. It was a relatively easy run for me after the first four miles, and I definitely could have gone further. My last mile was very strong, with a pace of 10:15.
The Trottin' Bitches rock out.

The Return of the 38 Word Movie Review!!

Okay, several people have pointed out that I'm not posting my movie reviews anymore. I will made up for that and keep back on track.

Three (cheesy) movies I've seen recently:

Jackass: The Movie
My husband selected this one for the Netflix queue. Puking, bottle rockets in grown men's butts, rocket skates, alligators in houses, muscle stimulator on testicles. A truly classy movie. Johnny Knoxville is hot, though. Must see to believe.


Goal!!
Muy caliente (very hot, for you gringos) illegal Mexican hottie and soccer player from Los Angelas wacko angry father and goes to England to play futbol. Santiago trades in landscaping boots for soccer cleats and becomes a star.

Zoom
Patches O'Hoolihan from Dodgeball plays General of the secret superhero army. Courtney can't-get-a-decent-post-Friends-role Cox is a nerdy scientist and Tim Allen's a aging hero. Child superheroes in training save the world. Cheesy.

Running and Coughing

I fell asleep last night at seven when I crawled into my bed with Libby to read to her. I slept well until midnight, then was coughing and tossing and turning a lot. I'm sick. Cough and cold, I think. And Jo and I are running 16 miles this morning....this should be interesting. Wish me luck.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Libbyisms and Amelia the Monster

Yesterday Libby said, "Amelia's a monster!!" Chris said, "well, you're her sister...so what does that make you?" She replied, "Scared".

I thought it was brilliant.

Yesterday she puked on the sitter's couch while she was waiting for me to pick her up. This morning when I was getting ready to leave for work (I went in for half of the day to get my stuff done, then came home so Chris could go in and get his stuff done) she said, "I'm sorry that I puked on Norah's couch". I replied, "It's okay, Libby...Norah knows that it was an accident, but you can tell her tomorrow." She said, "No, Mommy, I wasnt' talking to you. I was saying a prayer"

I thought that was beautiful.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Two Weeks and Counting

Some photos from Saturday's session are up on my site, if you care to check them out.

It looks as though I've booked another wedding for this Summer, so I have one each in July, August, and September. Fun!

I took some of my favorite photographs in today to Mark, the photographer who taught the class I took last Fall and does all of my photo printing. He is going to look them over and help me decide which 20 I should include in my portfolio. I need to have one anyway, but I am getting my butt in gear and getting it ready because I have to bring it with me to the workshop, WHICH IS IN TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!! I'm getting so excited!!

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Amelia Update and Easter Photos

Good news. The tests came back fine for Amelia. We have to continue to limit her milk intake and see if that helps her...and if not, she'll go to an allergist and look for food allergies. Still don't know why she is needing to drink so much, but at least everything looks okay. Schwew!!

I did two photo shoots yesterday: The first was of a 6 month old baby girl and her big brother. The second was a 10 week old English Bulldog and her owners, Chris' brother and his wife. I tortured my little puppy friend and put her in one of the girls' Easter basket. I think that she looks like a puppy in a calendar now. She's a regular calendar girl :) There are several on my Soul Reflection site, and the baby session will be up as soon as I get the mom's permission.

Here are a few photos from yesterday of the girls and our Easter.