My Week + A Baby Birthday

I'm just getting over being sick with wretched bronchitis. VERY sick. Thanks to my super husband-o, Mom and Dad, I'm on the mend and feelin good! However, one thing stuck. Something I am a wee bit embarressed about. And it goes a little something like this: me, on my computer, with earphones, watching Secret Life of the American Teenager on hulu.com. I don't drink coffee, I don't smoke and I've never tried a drug in my life, but I found my crack. Secret Life is my crack. At first, I chalked it up to my being on my deathbed, but now I realize I have forged a bond with this cheesy, awful display of acting, and I won't rest until I've watched all previous seasons. I find myself thinking, Gosh, to be 15 with a baby! I hope that never happens to me! My parents would kill me! Then I snap back to reality and realize I'm married. And I'm 26. And my parents and in-laws would LOVE if we had a baby! All in good time. And while we don't have a baby of our own just yet, there is a beautiful little girl in our life turning two today.

My adorably sweet goddaughter, Isla, is what you imagine a little girl to be like. She's pretty perfect. I wish I could be there today to celebrate the anniversary of such a wonderful world debut and squeeze a hug or two, or fifty, out of her. Happy Birthday little beauty, Aunt Katie loves you!

Completely Obsessed

We all learn differently. VERY differently. If there's one thing a degree in education taught me, it's that. Classroom instruction can be phenomenal, if the teacher is such. (like my photography instructor!) But outside of the classroom, you're on your own. Some learn by listening, some by seeing something done once, and some need to do it themselves seventy times and make up songs to remember certain formulas of success before it starts to click. I'm in the latter group. Problem is, I need about ten extra hours a day to do so. Unfortunately, I've yet to figure out how to rope in time to work solely in my favor, so here I am. As a self-diagnosed sufferer of ADD, I sometimes backtrack to what I practiced last week and have to literally familiarize myself from the beginning. This very act caused me to buy books. And manuals. And download tutorials. And stalk photography websites. And blogs. I was quickly accumulating quite a collection. Actually, a library. This only made me thirsty for more.

After work last Wednesday, Matt and I went to Barnes & Noble. He had a book in mind he wanted, and I am my mother's daughter, so I always have a book in mind. Currently, they are photography books. And manuals. And tutorials. You get the idea. I remembered an author my cousin, Sarah, recommended. I'm almost embarressed to admit it, but I've been living under a rock. I realized this after I took Sarah's recommendation and picked up THE single greatest photography book to ever grace bookstore shelves, appropriately named The Digital Photography Book (Vol. 3) by Scott Kelby. Notice I said Vol. 3. My ADD self picked up this book. So after work on Thursday, I trudged back to Barnes & Noble to pick up Vols. 1 and 2. Oops.

Totally worth it. I am passing along this recommendation because this man is my new best friend. Or at least his books are. Actually, they are like my little literary army. These books spell out photography in layman's terms, are organized to appeal to even the ADDest of minds. (i.e. me!) and have a little something for every type of photographer. Travel photographer? Check. Wedding photographer? Check. Beginner? Check. Confused about lenses? Check. Aperture and shutter speed baffle your mind? Check.

So if you are wondering what I'm doing right now, you can appropriately assume that I'm parked on my couch, surrounded by my literary army. We're battling ADD one "shot" at a time.

"Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated."

A Bit of Cheese

Valentine's Day is such a cheese. I really only half-care about it because it really is silly. However, I love cheese, and I LOVE love even more, so I can't help it. I'm a big believer in telling those you love that you do, and all the time. I can't walk out the door in the morning without a quick kiss from Matt. I love today, it's our first married Valentine's Day, and it reminds me just how lucky I am to share my life with this wonderful man. We celebrate this day by remembering the little things. We aren't into obnoxious displays of affection, we are both too levelheaded for it. In fact, in the almost six years we've been together, I've received flowers once... wait, let me rephrase... I received a flower once.

I was living in my sorority house, and Matt had come over with a bunch of his frat buddies, but hadn't come upstairs to see me. My roommate went downstairs proclaiming that I was mad at him for it, since he'd been there all of fifteen minutes. (For the record, I wasn't!) I soon opened my bedroom door to my cute boyfriend standing, arm outstreched, holding a rose. (Pause here to awwwwww before I continue) ...A rose from a downstairs vase, sent from our sorority alumni association. After several attempts at trying to pass off the sentiment as his own, he admitted a vase downstairs was a hair shy of a dozen. What a guy.

I cheese over this story. It's silly, like us. And very telling of how my life with Matt would be. He always tries to make sure my moments are happy. He makes me laugh hard and love loud. And he kisses like he means it. He's perfect, and he's mine. We celebrated Valentine's Day by treating ourselves to a dinner with far too many calories, that we most definately deserve after sticking to our New Year's resolutions for a full five weeks. And just when you thought that wasn't crazy enough.. wait for it.. a movie. Perfection in my book. Happy Valentine's Day Sweetheart.. thanks for making me a believer of real, knock-your-socks-off love, for holding my hand when I fall apart, and for boosting me up when I need a push toward my dreams. Like this one.

A Good Day

A lot of life is characterized by moments. The moment you were born. The moment you knew flying over your bicycle handlebars was going to be painful. The moment you realized you loved someone. The moment you said I do. But for all of us, there are the other pivital moments that make our individual stories unique. The moment your hard work paid off. The moment you said goodbye. The moment you stepped off a plane in an unfamiliar place. I've had one such moment this week, and while seemingly insignificant to 99.9999% of the world, it has propelled me forward in an extremely important way. My photography teacher challenged us this week: gather 25 photos that we are most proud of to share with the class. A class of 35, I might add. (Eek!) This was hard. Not because I'm not proud of my photos, because I am, but to actually show strangers a piece of my heart made my insides scream and do somersaults. I toyed with playing the "I forgot my disk" card, but I told myself to shut it and woman up. This is what I was here for! So I began to choose my photos.

When I saw my teacher reached for my cd, I almost excused myself to the ladies' room. Actually, I almost bolted to the ladies' room. However, my classmate sitting next to me was leaning back so far in his chair, he was blocking my escape route. So I convinced myself, in a matter of seconds, that I didn't care. But I did. It didn't matter anyway, my photos had already loaded and were blown up to movie-theater-screen-huge for 36 strangers to critique.

By the time my teacher was handing my cd back to me, I had a giant, goofy grin plastered across my face. One I couldn't even hold in. I had nervously begun to preface that none of my photos had been edited when my teacher interrupted me by asking if I did wedding photography. Upon hearing my obvious answer, and an admission that I wasn't merely pursuing photography to pass the time, he said it. The moment that was filled with words I never expected to hear: You're well on your way.

Take that Fear!

Franklin Park

I've officially discovered my inner nerd. Since my journey from behind the lens began, I've devoured every detail of learning. I cannot believe how quickly the minutes tick away every Tuesday!

This past weekend, my class met at Franklin Park Conservatory to apply what we've been learning. I was pumped. Almost a little TOO pumped for the fact that I was waking up early on a Saturday to stare at plants. But when it's February in Ohio, opportunities to snap photos of anything besides people are few and far between. While I'm still in the early stages, I feel like I need days like these. Days to stare at something, camera in hand, without a voice attached to the subject, becoming increasingly tired of my endless attempts at just.. playing around. That day will come, and I will relish it when it does, but for now, plants are perfect!

I spent almost five hours at Franklin Park, and I realized something that had never crossed my mind before: photographers get quite a workout! By hour four, my entire body ached from standing completely still to shoot, from scrunching my face to see through the lens, and contorting my arms into pretzels while trying to play with lighting.

Here is what came out of my day.. none of my 587689 photos have been edited yet. Mostly because the second I installed Photoshop, I realized I need a class, or at the very least, a very detailed book to point me in the right direction. Or any direction, for that matter. Regardless, you get the idea. Enjoy! (Click on the photo to enlarge)

Chihuly Glass Exhibit.. very cool

Ending with a personal favorite. I can't wait to edit this!