Oh yeah!

I forgot to mention that Benjamin lost his other front tooth last night! He was all excited about the tooth fairy coming, so I told him he had to clean up his room so she wouldn't trip and break her neck trying to give him his 4 quarters. I got a very "you're an idiot" look from him while he said, "Mom, I know that she can fly." Great. Let's hope she can hover 6 inches off the ground to get under that pillow, then hot shot! I did whack my head pretty hard getting up after swapping out the tooth, so I wish there was a hovering tooth fairy to do this job! (oh, and he was getting his hair fixed for school which is why he looks so crazy-like!!)

Oh well.

So I dropped out of school today. It finally got to the point that I just could not do it anymore. The cost, the time...but not the work. That's what is killing me. The actual work was fine. It was hard, but I was doing it. It was a matter of the school's equipment being faulty every single time I got it. I would get it all home, set it up, something was always broken. I made at least 5 trips up there every week, and it's an hour away. Plus the fact that I got kicked off campus the other day trying to print something because I had Avery with me didn't help. I know it's against the rules, but there is no way I can not have her with me every single time I have to go to campus. I never even tried to take her to class, just to print. I had done this probably 6 or 7 times and no one said anything, but it only took one person to make it clear that I can't do that. I am going to keep shooting as much as I can (I get to keep the camera, but I'll be paying student loans for a long long time) and I will still try to do things for money on the side so I can get more equipment so I can start really doing more professional type things. A lady in one of my classes also withdrew this week, and she has asked me to help her on any weddings or large shoots she does so hopefully that will pan out and I will be able to really get my foot in the door. I really do want to get back into school, but it is really starting to look like that won't happen until Avery is in school full time or we are back around more family that can help. I just know I need to keep what is important in perspective:

Self Portraits

The assignment for this week was to take 5 self portraits. I hated this assignment. I didn't give myself enough time or think it through enough after seeing everyone else's. I ended up in Knoxville because the rain from the hurricane was settling in for a 5 day stay here and the sun was shining in Knoxville. I had a lot of pictures to take with my large format camera that can't get wet so Elijah and I just decided to let me go on up and spend a day taking pictures.
Usually in class I am fairly confident about my pictures, but I wasn't Monday. These are okay, but you should have seen some of the others!! My idea on the first set was to do a "reflections" type thing because Avery looks so much like me, so kind of looking into a mirror (empty frame) and seeing myself in her sort of thing. This is what we ran into most of the time, Avery's personality overriding the project:

She kept crossing her eyes!! It was really frustrating, but she found it hilarious. The good serious ones didn't turn out completely focused, so we had to use the one where she was coming through the frame towards me, so this is the one I turned in:

The one I liked the most was of me sitting in front of the old church. I thought it was the best one, just because of the strong memories associated with it and all. But when I printed it I was slightly out of focus and could not use it. I was pretty disappointed because I had to turn in another one I didn't like nearly as much. I won't even post it because I don't like it.
The last one I'll post is just an extreme close up of my eyes. When the class critiqued it they said that it was the "mom death look" perfected. That wasn't what I was going for, but good thing to know that I have it down so well! It's just funny that since they know I have kids that is what they saw in it.

Anyway, there they are. I may try to reshoot this assignment, but I doubt it . It was so tough the first time I don't think I want to deal with it again. I get to redo 2 assignments, so I am going to use this next week off (Labor Day) to really take a lot of pictures, as long as the sun comes out, anyway!!

I got a 94!!

I have been really struggling in my Large Format class. The camera is huge and it takes a long time to set up and I had apparently exposed my first box of film so none of my pictures came out. I finally broke down and bought another box and finally got some prints to turn out. The instructor that I have is really great. He lets us re shoot things until we get them right and are satisfied with our grade. I turned in four pictures last night, and I got a 94 on two of them!!! I made lower grades on the other two, but I will re shoot them. I was out of focus on one and the other just wasn't aesthetically good. I scanned this picture with my home scanner, but it really doesn't do it justice. The quality of the transparency is awesome, but my scanner is not. The assignment was to shoot a door to show we could level everything and set up the camera right.

Water Works!!

The first two of these three pictures are what I turned in for my project this week. Part of it was to capture action, to freeze something in the moment and make it a better picture because of the action being frozen. I also had to slow action down and there were some other boring parts, but here are the pictures that I like from this week's assignment. The last picture is the aftermath of the previous night's attempt to take pictures of the kids being still while the water park sprays moved, but it was a huge disaster. Getting those two to stand still so I can capture movement of water on film is impossible!! It wasn't a well thought out adventure because I didn't take a change of clothes for either of them so they were thrilled to ride home in just their underwear. Benjamin was especially excited. We rolled down the windows and tried to air dry them because it was already after 8:00 and it was a school night.

I just love these two pictures. I can't use them for school because they don't relate to any of my assignments, but I just love them.

I didn't get to go to school last night because Elijah had some issues with his management team. Like them not coming back from vacation. I was, and still am, pretty upset about it. He didn't call till it was too late for me to get a friend to cover. I have to go up there in a little bit to turn my assignment in (with an automatic 10% off) and I have to do about an hours worth of printing with Avery with me, which is against the rules. Hopefully I won't get caught!!

So I haven't posted anything in a while. We have all been busy at Jennifer's house so this got put aside. I am not doing too great in my classes. My large format class is really expensive and I am having a hard time getting all the supplies I need. I have 5 pictures I have to shoot this weekend so I will be busy doing that and visiting the American Girl store with Eliza for her 9th birthday. Here are some pics, though....

This one was taken with my old camera so the detail isn't as good, but I love this picture.

Avery really cracked me up today. Tracy has been talking about how Elena is asking lots of deep questions, and it made me laugh because of the maturity that will come to Avery this next year from 3 to 4. Here is the conversation we had on the way home from playgroup:
A: I'm hungry.
Me: Okay. Let's eat lunch when we get home.
A: We don't eat poop, mommy.
Me: That's right, we don't.
A: We don't eat peepee either.
Me: Right. We eat food.
A:. Right, and pee and poop aren't food.
Me: Right.
A: (for all of 10 seconds!)
We don't eat rocks, either.
Me: No. No rocks.
A: How about grass?? Horses eat grass and cows eat grass and zebras eat grass but I don't eat grass or rocks or pee or poop. I eat food.
Me:. while I try to contain myself from either laughing or crying from frustration of trying to follow an almost 3 year old logic.
A: I'm hungry. But I don't want poop. I want yogurt.
Me: Fine.

Benjamin's Big Day!!

Benjamin started 1st grade today. I am both sad and happy. I am sad that my little man is growing up that fast, but I am happy that I have 6 1/2 hours less of refereeing to do. Avery cried for him at first, but when we got in the car she saw a motorcycle that he never lets her touch and she saw the opporturnity. "Can I have Boo's motorcicle???" It was cute. Coniving, but cute. Here is man before school...

Last night was even better for him. He finally lost that front tooth he's been messing with for months!! It had gotten so loose it was laying sideways against his other front tooth and was just making me nauseous. So when Elijah came home I had him go ahead an pull it. It went a lot better this time than the last few, so here's his new smile!!

I had a very frustrating weekend as far as shooting my photography projects. I wasted a lot of time and a lot more gas trying to get the right equipment that actually worked. The school loans the Large Format cameras but some of the equipment was broken, or missing, or just wrong. The ended up giving me six sheets of Polaroids for all my trouble. Six sheets equals about $30, so that was nice, considering their bad equipment ruined four of mine.

Avery finally settled on the kind of party she wants to have. I hate saying "theme" because that sounds hokey, but we typically do a theme for the kids. She told me today she wants a "Fancy Fancy" aka Fancy Nancy party. I'm not too sure how we'll do that, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. The party is looking like it will be on September 20 for those who can come. Here she is in an outfit Mom got her...

Kayla/James Wedding

I thought I would go ahead and post some of the pictures from one of the weddings I shot. This one was in March. Kayla and James are the couple, but I forget their last name!

I am going to miss summer. Benjamin has finally started sleeping in till 8:00 and Avery has finally learned to go read books quietly in the playroom until he gets up. Starting Wednesday we have to get back in our old routine of getting up early for school. Oh well, had to happen sometime!!