Photo Class

February 5, 2010 1:42 pm

I had a migraine all yesterday, so I considered not going to photography class last night. I started feeling a bit better after dinner, though, so I decided to try and tough it out. I'm glad I did, too, because it was a great class. It was on composition, which was one I'd really been looking forward to. I lucked out, too, in that the guest speaker left some of the lights on during his PowerPoint presentation, which helped a lot. I think I'm starting to see how some of these rules actually make your pictures more pleasing and aren't just arbitrary things that somebody made up once upon a time. Maybe. Anyway, here are the pics I took for critiquing last night. They're both of a tree outside our apartment.

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Eternal life? Not on my watch!

February 4, 2010 1:56 pm

Last night was our ward temple night, but Kyle and I decided to do sealings instead of a session. That was a nice change, plus we didn't actually remember much from our own sealing, so it was good to kind of get a refresher on what all happened. 🙂 Anyway, the fountain is normally turned off by the time we get out of our session, but since we were done earlier, it was still on, which led to us wandering around the grounds a bit.

391838097_0995eab37bYou can actually walk up some stairs and get up on a level next to that relief of Jesus and the apostles, where you can walk clear around the temple. There are flowers and some trees and such up there, and I bet it's really pretty when they're in bloom.

So we're walking along and we come around the side and there's this gorgeous view out over the lights of the city and you can see the bay and some bridges and it's really pretty. I kept walking along, and I heard this really drawn-out crrrrrunch. I had gone another couple of steps before I realized it wasn't just a leaf or something. Looking back, I saw this huge...something...that I had now tracked along with me, and it was wet. I made Kyle go back and assess the situation (I really didn't want a close-up view), and he confirmed that I'd just murdered a ginormous snail. Like, massive. It must've been a great-great-grandaddy, and I'd just done my impression of the Witch from Into the Woods on it. Cruuuuuuush. At least I didn't eat it?

I apologized profusely, explaining that I'd just done a lot of good work, but I don't think it helped. 🙁 I felt so bad. Poor thing was probably told that if it went to the temple, it'd live forever, and along comes me. Jess the Snail-Smasher. I'm such a jerk.

snail

Photography Class

January 28, 2010 11:41 pm

Jess and I found the local camera club and signed up to be in their photography class offered through Park & Rec. The first class was last week and was a bit of overview and instruction on all the features the cameras have, what they mean, and how to adjust them.

Tonight's class was about lighting and how it will affect the quality and mood of your photos. It's pretty fun. They ask students to bring pictures each week so they can show them on the projector and provide a light critique to help us improve. Jess and I both received very favorable reviews on our pictures.

I wanted to take a composed shot from a figurine lit with candles. However, options are kind of limited in terms of what you can do when you don't own a tripod or any other fancy/handy equipment. I was able to get a really nice picture though. I used a stack of books as my tripod, and my background is the carpet and a beige throw hung over a music stand:
IMGP0155Jess took these two pictures of some flowers I gave her in celebration of HollyDay:
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HollyDay 2010

11:36 pm

We've decided to call January 26 a "HollyDay" (Jess' middle name is Holly), as it marks the anniversary of the day Jess was released from the hospital with a vote of confidence that she was officially no longer dying.

We celebrated by having dinner at an Italian restaurant in Pleasanton, and then swinging by the Cheesecake Factory to bring home dessert.

I think it's safe to say that things are rather different now than they were a year ago—and rather for the better.

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm glad Jess survived.

Seriously, folks?

January 23, 2010 7:38 pm

Yeah, I'm gonna gripe for a bit here. I just got a letter from the State of Utah. And yeah, I'm in trouble. The legalese is all a bit muddy, but the best I can figure out, their third party (Insure-Rite, if you can believe it (the most ridiculous name they could probably have dreamt up)) can't find any proof that my car is insured. Which makes perfect sense, since my insurance policy in UT was canceled. What doesn't make sense is why they're paying any attention to my car at all—it's not registered in Utah anymore! I went to a great deal of ridiculous effort to make that happen, and California didn't even TELL Utah? What the heck!

So I've now received a "1st Notice" and am required to contact them about all this. I so love this sort of Super Fun Phone Call. I'm so irritated about this...

Oh, and apparently I was supposed to notify the Utah DMV of my change of address. I can't believe I didn't think of that! Wait...it makes NO SENSE! Maybe that's why it never occurred to me. I mean, if I'd stayed in the state, sure. It's not like I didn't address the issue of my car's registration. I just thought this was all taken care of months ago. The government is so interested in so many things about my car, but the states don't communicate when it moves its registration? This is bizarre.