Beth V Photography Class: Black and White

Assignment: Black and White

I love black and white photos. A lot of times I have a hard time deciding whether I like a photo I've taken in color or in blk/wht. I just think it gives it a timeless feel, and I love the way black and white photos looked framed. So, I loved this assigment!

I took this one day this weekend. I love the daddy/daughter moment. Like always, this was unplanned, and impromtu, so I don't love Matthew's loud Hawaiian shirt, or ballcap, but this is what a weekend looks like for us : )

And again, I'm not sure I don't love the color more. I love the warm colors and sunlight, and the glow it's creating around Presley's head.

Beth V Photography Class: Favorite

I'm skipping ahead to the last assignment, and then I'll go back and post my last few.

Assignment: Favorite
This last assignment is to just pick the photo you are most proud of or your favorite photo.

This is my favorite, I think. I just love it, and I've ordered a print of it to frame. I'm noticing lately though that when I post a pic that I've edited in Picasa, the quality seems diminished when I post it on blogger. This photo is an example...this pic is much better on my computer than it looks here. Weird.

I loved doing this class, and I DEFINITELY learned some things. I now shoot in manual mode (most of the time), and I feel pretty comfortable with that, and that is a huge accomplishment for me. I feel like I learned some things (like spot metering, which I used in the photo above) that I had clue about before. Overall, I highly, highly recommend this class if she ever offers it again. You can check out her blog for details on newsletters, future classes, etc.

Beth V Photography Class: Fast

Assignment: Fast

The instructions were to bump your shutter speed way, way up and try to catch some motion that would otherwise be a blur.

Oooooh, I found this difficult. Trying to get the balance b/t shutter speed, iso, and apereture was tricky to me once I started getting my shutter speed way up. Trying to keep them from being grainy b/c of the high iso was my challenge.

The example picture the teacher used was of running water out of a faucet. So I tried this first, since I knew I could play and take as many pictures as I wanted. Since I had the shutter speed up, you can see air bubbles and such in the water stream. And I liked this in black and white.

iso 400, 1/800, f/2.0

These next two were taken when we were playing outside one day this weekend. I was trying to see if I could capture a drop of water the moment it dripped from this cup. I got a couple of shots I wouldn't have otherwise gotten if my shutter speed had been down lower. Not sure how interesting the subject matter is, but I do think the reflections in the water droplet are kind of neat.

iso 1600, 1/1000, f/3.2

iso 1600, 1/1000, f/3.2

The Nash Family is Growing

No pregnancy announcement, ha! Although I'm getting tickled thinking of my family who might see the post title, and click on it with bugged-eyes expecting to see news like that. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Although I am not pregnant, our family is growing in a way that I wanted to share.

I have been familiar with Compassion International for a while, maybe a year or more, and I was aware of the work they did and the opportunity the provide for people like you and me to sponsor children in impoverished countries, and to have the opportunity to "release a child from poverty in Jesus' name". Several of the bloggers I read have been "Compassion Bloggers", where they traveled to one of the countries where Compassion does work, and subsequently blogged about their experiences in an effort to raise awareness and increase sponsorship. I can't remember the first Compassion Blogger I followed, but I think it was Melissa Fitzpatrick when she went to India and chronicled her trip on the LPM blog.

From the first time I heard about this organization and saw what they did, I thought this is something our family should do. And then life would get busy, and I'd never get around to following through with it. That's no excuse, but usually my line of thinking would be "This is something our family should do. I need to talk to Matthew about that". And then I never would.

Long story short, about a month ago, Matthew and I finally talked about it. Mattie is five years old now, and we both agreed that this will be a great way for us to give Mattie some world perspective, and help her to learn compassion for those less fortunate. I'll admit that when I first told Mattie what we were going to do, which was send some of our money, because God has given us plenty, to a little girl in a country far away who doesn't have enough, her reaction was embarrasing. Basically she wanted to keep all of "our" money for us. Which is exactly why I think this will be a good teaching experience for her.

With Compassion, you have the opportunity to browse profiles, and select the child you want to sponsor based on several search criteria (age, gender, country). Mattie and I sat down together and did this. My heart was drawn to Africa for several reasons, one of them being that I support The Mercy House, and my heart has kind of been tied to Africa through following that.

We finally selected Mary.

She's a little girl, about Mattie's age, and she lives in Eastern Uganda, near the border of Kenya.

Aside from sponsoring her finicially, one of the most important things we will be doing for her is praying for her. We are committing to lift her up in prayer along with our own children, as well as build a relationship with her through letter writing and correspondence.

Something I thought was neat was that Mary and I share a birthday.

If you think your family might be interested in doing this, please visit the Compassion International site. The cost is low, but the benefits, for sponsor and sponsoree, are well worth it.