All of the dogs

Sophie......


Sophie and Abby playing......

Chloe........

Abby....

Memorial Weekend

We had a good weekend, didn't do much until Sunday. We went down to Galveston with some friends. We spent Sunday on the beach, if you want to call it a beach...... then we went and got ready and went to eat at Casey Gaido's along Seawall Blvd. After dinner, we went to Murphy's and had a few drinks.

Sasha and I at Murphy's.....


On Sunday, we got up and went to Kemah Boardwalk, had lunch at Babin's Seafood House, sat on the patio and watched all the boats come in.

Kemah..........

Now I am just counting down the days until school is out.....6 more days...then off to Lafayette for 10 days.....

Baby Veron

I am sure you remember this post where I mentioned my brother would be a father....

Well.............

What does this mean?

My bank account will have a lot less money for the next few years!!!

Content

Hebrews 13:5 (New International Version)

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Is this as hard for everyone else as it is for me? There are so many things I want to have, but yet I am supposed to be content with what I have, which is really more than enough. I would absolutely love to move out of my apartment and into a bigger place, but there are so many people that are living in much smaller and worse off places than I am living in.

I could go on and on about things that I want, wishes for more money. I definitely need to work on being content with what I have.

Recipes and summer plans

On the menu for this week
Monday: leftover spaghetti
Tuesday: leftover spaghetti due to photography class from 6:30-9:30
Wednesday: Mexican chicken, black bean and rice salad
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: pork tenderloin, garlic and rosemary roasted potatoes, side salad, fruit freeze

Recipes to come later!!

I am waiting for the 2 hour season finale of Desperate Housewives to come on. The other show I watch regularly is Grey's Anatomy, which just had a wild season finale! The Bachelorette starts tomorrow! Those are about the only TV shows I ever watch, well plus the Hills.

This is our last full week of school!!!! Can you believe that!!!! We have 12 1/2 days left!!! WOO HOO!!!! The beginning of my summer will be a little hectic. After the last day of school, I have to rush to Lafayette to prepare for Michal's bridal shower at my parent's house and then a few days later, we leave for Pensacola for the bachelorette party! I come back for a week then planning a potential road trip to Lafayette/New Orleans to bring some of my Houston friends to my hometown on the last weekend of June. Then 3 days after that, we head to Cancun for July 4! Then I will have a free week then its off to Lafayette again for wedding festivities! By July 20, I will be free (I think).

I am excited because 2 of my friends from college are moving to Houston! Having more friends in an unfamiliar place is always great!

Sad day at the lake

5 little ducklings swimming in a pond...............

4 little ducklings walking on the grass................

First there were 5, then there were 4. While they were swimming, something from underwater ate one of them! It was so sad, especially because they were out of the water and I basically chased them into the water trying to take their pictures! So one of them died because of me!

This little guy kept staring at me every time I moved......

Last night, Wes and I had a great date! We went to Azuma to eat sushi. They have a great red devil roll and crazy Irish man roll! Then we went to Benjy's in Rice Village for a drink. We had a great evening together. He is going to his friend, Michael's bachelor party tonight. That should be interesting. He leaves for Dallas Sunday night for a few days for work stuff. I am looking forward to Memorial Day weekend because he is actually off! We are thinking about going to Galveston, but no definite plans yet. Any one have any great ideas for Memorial Day weekend fun??

fstops and shutter speeds

I am finally learning some things about my new camera! As you can see from the above picture, I am learning how to focus on 1 object while blurring out the background. My model was so cooperative!! Sophie was not too happy that her toy was taken away for a brief moment though!!

Camera terminology:
shutter speed- refers to the amount of time your shutter is open. 1/4,000 of a second is the fastest time on my camera. It can stay open for as long as 30 seconds, maybe even longer. The longer it stays open, the more light gets in. So for dark areas, you need a longer shutter speed. In order to freeze moving objects, you need a very short speed such as 1/500 of a second.

f stops- f stops are a number located in the lens, can be anything from 1.8, 2.8, 3.5, 5.6 all the way to 40. The smaller the number, the less things you have in focus. For example, if your f stop is 2.8, you may have 2 things in focus. If your f stop is 32, you may have 32 things in focus or infinity (pretty much everything).

aperture- the opening allowing light in. This goes along with f stops. f2.8 is a big opening, allowing much light to come through. f32 would be a small opening, allowing a little light to come through.

depth of field- area in focus. The larger the f stop, the more depth of field. The lower the f stop, you will have a more shallow depth of field.

In order to get the blurred background, you want to have a low f stop The above picture was taken at a f stop of 5.3 with a shutter speed of 1/25 in manual setting.

As your shutter speed gets longer, your f point gets higher. So you want to have a relatively short shutter speed if possible.

Also, do not put your subject right in front of the background if possible. The monkey was about 10 feet away from the trees. I was as close to the monkey as possible. With a further away background, you can blow more of it out of focus. A close background is hard to blow out of focus and you must have a really small f stop.

Anyway, this is my camera knowledge for the day. Who knows if I even know what I am talking about! Hopefully some photographer will come across this and correct me where I am wrong or add to it! But I doubt it........