MomShots

Check out this link.  What do you think?  It is a series of free online photography lessons that cover the basics and then tie it all up.  There is a forum where the people taking the class can discuss their thoughts on the lessons.  Is anyone up to doing this with me?  I am very interested in doing this.  I think I will learn so much!

I think I am going to start this the first week of January in 2009.  I was all gangbusters about starting it right this minute and then I realized that I would be totally overwhelmed since we are packing up our house to move in early December.  Not to mention that Christmas is just next month.  I’m sure we all have a lot on our plate.

If anyone is interested in working on these lessons together, I would love the company.  It will be really fun!

*****

On another completely different note…

Canon Powershot Commercial

Have you seen this Canon Powershot commercial?  While her dog Dulce is obviously adorable, is anyone else really bothered by this commercial???  

I mean no disrespect to the Canon Powershot or its users.  I’ve heard it’s a great little point and shoot camera.  But what about this commercial makes me want to buy one?  Nothing!!!

I guess when buying a camera, I want much more information than “it’s great for taking pictures of cute little fuzzy dogs.”  I want to know details!  What features does it have?  Why is this camera better than XYZ camera?

While I think many people will love this commercial because of its cuteness factor, I think it does a disservice to camera consumers.  This kind of advertising is not helpful at all in figuring out the facts about why I would ever buy this camera.

Some facts that I would love to know about, that I found on the Canon website are: 28mm f/2.8-5.8 lens, 4x optical zoom, 10.0 megapixels, Shutter speeds of 15 to 1/1600 seconds, Auto ISO settings, the list goes on.  Plus the nice 3 inch LCD screen makes it nice for viewing your photos.  

It sounds like a nifty little pocket camera now!  I would like to know more.  If there is anyone out there in Internet Land who would like to send me a Canon Powershot, I would LOVE to play with it and write up a real review.  I would even send it back!  hehehe

Anyway, that’s my consumer musings for the day…  

I was asked by a Momshots reader what point and shoots I would recommend.  After reading up about the Canon Powershot, I would say that it sounds like a good camera.  I have been thinking about and will write up a post sometime this week.  I would like to look at all the major brands and see how they compare.  If anyone has any experience with a new point and shoot, I would love to know your thoughts.  

As always, I love your comments.  Thanks for your positive words and insight.  Your thoughts make writing Momshots that much more fun for me and I’m sure for our readers.

This isn’t a Momshots giveaway but a giveaway over at The Vintage Pearl.  Her friend makes these beautiful camera strap covers and you can win one.  Check out her site and follow her instructions.  I hope I win, but if you win I will be equally excited!!!

Over the past few weeks, through my kitchen window, I have been watching my neighbor’s little maple tree turn from lush green to vibrant yellow and then slowly turn crimson.  It was been really a magnificent journey.  Each day the beautiful colors would make me catch my breath.  They were so vivid and were a true testament that Autumn is here.   One day I noticed that a few leaves were falling off of it.  As the day progressed, I noticed that it wasn’t just a few leaves, it was as if the tree had decided to just let go of its leaves and they were falling in bunches; hordes even.  I am now looking at a naked tree.  From Friday to Monday, all the leaves have fallen and November has begun.  A new season is truly here.

I am a bit disappointed with myself.  I thought over and over again that I should take some photos.  Not once did I do that.  I always had an excuse.  My main excuse was that it wasn’t a very good composition with the fence in the way.  Now I have missed my chance.  Yeah, sure I might be able to try again next year, but in reality it won’t be the same tree.  Even if we weren’t moving in a month, the tree would be different, more grown and older.  

I have these same thoughts about my kids.  Oh, I don’t want to get the camera out right now, I’m (insert lame excuse here).  We have to just get out the camera and shoot away or we will miss these precious moments forever.  

Each turning season reminds me that my children are getting older.  This Halloween I was reminded of that by thinking about what they had dressed as in past years.  This year we had an Indiana Jones and a Wall-e.  I am remiss to report that I didn’t dress Magnus up.  He was going to be a sailor but I didn’t do it.  How’s that for letting time pass?  I didn’t even give him the chance to be something.  In the end, I really don’t think it mattered because he had a really good time helping dad hand out candy to Trick-or-Treaters.  

Our neighborhood was a mad house.  My husband would sit down for literally 30 seconds and the doorbell would ring.  This went on all night - for a solid three hours.  We totally ran out of candy.  I think it was about the same time that our neighbors also ran out of candy too so it worked out.  

All in all, we had a wonderful Halloween.  My boys loved their costumes.  Gar was wearing Wall-e for the next two days and talking in a Wall-e voice.  Uly has been wearing his Indy hat and playing with his whip every chance he can.  He even asked to sleep with his whip the other night.  Good times!

They have been stuffing themselves with candy.  Ben and I just let them eat their candy until they couldn’t eat anymore.  I love how they will randomly appear with a sucker in their mouth after I think that all the candy is gone.  I may be finding little stashes through the next year!  That’s part of the fun of Halloween!

I hope your Halloween was a good one and your kids had fun and their bellies are full of sugar.  I also hope you drug out that camera and managed to get some great shots of your kids.  But more importantly, I hope you managed to get some shots of your kids.  The most important thing is to document their fun and memories.  We don’t need to be discouraged if our photos don’t turn out exactly as we had hoped.  We just need to take some.  Along the way we will end up with some great ones.  Hopefully!