Lucky Girl

I am the lucky new owner of a Nikon D700, 24mm 2.8, 50mm 1.8 and 85mm 1.8 and I am completely in love! Here is the whole lot (minus the battery pack) - sorry it's a little blurry it was taken with a point and shoot.


This is our boy Charlie, taken with the 85mm 1.8 at 1.8, love the bokeh! Isn't he cute?? :-)

This is Charlie in our living room, taken from the same chair with the 24mm 2.8 at 2.8. I have wanted a wide angle lens since I first picked up a SLR camera about 15 years ago.

These next two were taken with the 24mm as well just to show you how great the color is (and to show how much stuff I got!)

Now this was taken with the 50mm 1.8 at 1.8. I actually really like this shot, there's something about it that just looks cool. Not to mention it was taken with my new camera!


Test shots hopefully coming soon!

Much much better...

My day, that is. I panicked a little yesterday as my camera (YAY!) was supposed to arrive sometime during the day when I couldn't be home - but it required a signature for delivery. I checked the tracking later and found that it had been delivered and someone signed for it, turns out it was my neighbor who happened to be home and saw the UPS man. Thank goodness for good neighbors!

Anyway the AC is back on at the house (YES!), my camera came (YES!), my book comes tomorrow and then my actual lenses come on Monday. I'm slightly bummed about the lenses, but you can't win 'em all! I'll have the manual for the camera (yikes-a-bee there are a lot of buttons on that camera) and my new book to read so I'll have lots to do until they get here.

Ten Meghan Bucks if you can name the movie "yikes-a-bee" is from.

Who watched Idol last night?? I thought Disco night was going to be a huge failure but it actually turned out alright! It really gave the contestants the freedom to get creative and most of them did with a few exceptions (the two I think might be headed home - Lil and Matt). I'm still not a huge fan on Kris, but he is consistently original and I think that's awesome.

No exciting picture yet, but I will have some hopefully this weekend!

Case of the Mondays...

So yesterday was Monday. No really, it was the mother of all Mondays. Yes I'm probably exaggerating but it wasn't great. As we broke record temperatures here in Stockton yesterday (high of 95 I believe) we realized here in the office that the air conditioning wasn't working. When I got in yesterday morning, knowing it would be a hot day, I turned down the AC to somewhere around 75 in hopes that would keep us at a comfortable level. Sometime around 2:30 or 3 the sun really started shining through our back windows and we all got very uncomfortable. After playing with the thermostat and realizing nothing was happening, Trish called Physical Plant to check it out. Turns out our AC had cracked and broken, leaving it completely useless. The wonderful guys in Physical Plant were on it in no time and said we should get AC back this morning. Unfortunately that left us a little uncomfortable for the rest of the afternoon.

Fast forward to 5pm. Matt and I drive home and when we get there we make sure the AC is set at 78. We don't want to waste electricity but with a two story house it tends to get a little warm. I had to make a quick stop at the store, but on my way back I get a text from Matt saying the power went out at the house. The whole neighborhood was out of power from 6:30pm to 3:00am the next morning, and unfortunately I was too uncomfortable to sleep until the power came back on and we could turn on a fan (it was still 80 in the house at 3am).

I am a sleepy person today. My camera should arrive shortly though! The only problem is the lenses and battery charger don't come until next Monday :-( I'll have lots of time to read the manual!

New camera...

The day finally arrived! I was able to order my camera on Friday night and even though it wasn't through the company that I thought would be the most reliable, I did end up finding the same deal on another reputable site. I just hope it all comes at once because I think it would be hilarious to watch me open several boxes of photography equipment. Anyway, here's the gear:

The Nikon D700 in all its full-frame glory :-)

The 24mm f/2.8 for getting wide shots of say, the baseball field?? :-)


The 50mm f/1.8. I've tried the 1.4 and I loved it, but this one was substantially cheaper and was bundled with the 24mm. I think I'll get a lot of use out of it.


The 85mm f/1.8. This is Jessica's favorite and I think it will be awesome in the Spanos Center as well as taking portraits!


This is the battery pack that will add quite a bit of weight to my already heavy camera. However, it will give my camera the strength to shoot through a long afternoon of baseball or through several portrait shoots. I'm hoping the workout on my arms will start to slim me down a bit as well!
I did of course buy several batteries and a charger, as well as UV filters for all lenses - I can't have it any other way! I'm hoping this will all arrive by this coming Friday, but we'll have to see if I get that lucky. Once I get it (and read the manual) I will post some pictures taken with both my Canon Rebel and my new Nikon D700 to show the difference. I still love my Rebel and will keep it for sure, but I'm excited at the prospect of getting back into the Nikon world. Senior photography here I come!

Glen Sisk

There aren't many times when I get upset when someone leaves my life, at my life as I experience it right now. I have had some friends come and go, but even some of the friends that I've had the longest have left my life without me shedding a tear. Today, a very good friend of mine said his last in-person goodbye as he drove off to the bay area - where he will shortly fly out of on his way back to his wife, his dogs, and the place he calls home.

I could NOT be happier for Glen and Beth. They have been apart for some time now as Beth moved several months ago back to her home in Omaha, Nebraska to take a new job. I was very sad to see Beth leave, she was one of the few female friends I met and got to know while in Stockton. Thankfully she likes to write letters and emails so we get to talk ocassionally :-) They have both been very good friends to Matt and myself, whether it was giving Matt a place to stay while he looked for a rental home, or giving Matt and Meghan jobs to make some extra cash, or Beth helping Meghan through her financial aid troubles at Pacific - whether it be professionally or personally, these two made a huge impact on the two of us.

Today we had to say goodbye to Glen, a man who has lived in our house since we bought it in mid-March. He only had a few minutes to spend with us as his ride was waiting outside our house, and thank goodness this was the case. I was pretty silent the whole time, I was honestly trying to choke back tears. I had no idea the overwhelming feeling of sadness would came over me. You will be seriously missed in this house! Have a great time with your wife in Nebraska, hopefully we will see each other again soon. Charlie says hi ;-)

On Deck Photography

For whatever comes next in your life...

Who loves it?? I DO! Props to my wonderful husband ;-)

$$ SHOW ME THE MONEY $$

And they did. Money from the government is on its way and that means possibly ordering my new camera next week. Can you stand it?! I know I can't! That will give me some time to get used to it before the little nephew's birthday. I'm so excited!

Since I'm in the mood for looking at pictures from the past, here's one of me when I was 3 years old, just a few months after my brother was born. Little Sasha there was in her prime and I just loved her :-)

Have a great Friday and a fabulous weekend! I should have some pictures and exciting news next week.

Changes

It's raining again - Stockton actually had a Spring this year! In the 6 years I've lived here it's always gone from winter (winter being a relative term, it doesn't usually get below 30 degrees) to the hot 90+ summer weather we get (again, hot is relative). This year it's been a mild 70-80 degrees and sometimes getting around 65. It's been windy, but it's been Spring and that makes me happy.

Though Spring does give me allergies. I've tried several over-the-counter stuff and although they all seem to help my symptoms, they give me new ones. The side effects always outweighed the benefits so I stopped taking them. All of them. Alavert seemed to work the best but it really dried out my throat and it hasn't stopped hurting since then (that was... almost a week ago?). I miss the days when I didn't have allergies!

So my homework this week (yes, I'm such a nerd that I assign myself homework when I'm not even school. Can we say SCORE?!) is to follow some advice of a certain successful photographer and try to develop my brand. I learned a teeny tiny bit about brands in the one business course I took on campus, though I'm having to learn through other avenues to help me figure out what my brand could or should be. The best advice I've heard is to be yourself, get a brand, a logo, a website that truly reflects who you are. Now, I've got a pretty good handle on who I am as a person but I don't see how it'll help me in photography. For example, some photographers have assets such as a great personality and great writing skills. I have a personality, but I'm not quite as vibrant as I think would help me in selling myself as a photographer.

Anyway, the homework was to find words that describe me as a PERSON, not as a photographer, and then find out how that helps define who I am and what my style is. The other part of the homework was to find things that I enjoy and list the reasons WHY I like it. It was interesting but I got some good insight into myself. The third part of the homework was to list my liabilities. That was a hard one, no one likes to spell out the bad things about yourself. I do get stressed when my plan doesn't see action all the way through. I am a bit shy when I first meet someone or when I'm in a big crowd of people (but I think we can all agree that I don't shut up once you get to know me).

So, I'm asking a favor. If you could help answer any of these three things for me, please put a comment below!

As for the picture, my friend Jessica Moores and I were talking about senior portraits - we both decided to share ours from "way back when". Anyone getting the subtlety???? :-)

Many things

I'm in a good mood today. Not sure why, I'm still sleepy but I'm at least in a good mood! Must have been the exercise. Endorphins rock, right?

Anyway, I had a great weekend and I feel like I need to recount it. Here it goes...

1. The Nikon D700. I have been drooling over several options for new cameras in the last year or so and have settled on the D700. It is HUGE and HEAVY and my weak little arms would have a really hard time holding it up for long periods of time (especially with the battery pack on it) but I LOVE it. Full frame sensor, YEAH! Basically your normal camera won't take a picture exactly how you see it through the view finder. The end result will be slightly cropped which can be easy to overcome if you know about it but otherwise it's pretty darn frustrating. The full frame sensor is pretty close to perfect, what you see is what you get! YES! This is in the works, but I won't get it until after we get our tax refunds back.

2. Mini m&ms. Have you HAD These? Yes they taste exactly like regular m&ms, but they're tiny and oh-so-good. The candy shell melts faster and just leaves you with creamy chocolate, I just love these little things. It takes me back to my childhood when my brother and I would eat them one at a time just how we do for the bigger version, only they lasted much longer.

3. Exercise. Yes, Matt kicked my butt on the tennis court but with our forms I'm pretty sure neither of us "won". After 40 minutes of "playing" (it might seem like I use quotation marks like Joey on FRIENDS but I assure you, we weren't playing by the actual rules of tennis) I was completely worn out and sore - ALREADY?! Yes, already. My bum shoulder (swimming injury - don't laugh, Doug knows what I'm talking about!) was hurting pretty soon after being done so I made sure to ice it down, it feels a lot better now. I woke up with a few other sore muscles but I feel better for just getting off my butt and doing something active again. I sincerely miss being active so I'm glad to be back into it (after day 1, hopefully I can say that in a few months).

4. TV. Movies. TV shows on DVD. YEEAAAHHH! Matt and I watched Marley and Me this weekend, man did I cry my eyes out. If you love your pets AT ALL you will cry, I promise you that. It was a beautiful movie and Owen Wilson did a beautiful job with such a dramatic role, he really exceded my expectations. We also bought Slumdog Millionaire which is supposed to be fantastic, but we just didn't have the urge to watch it this weekend. We also got PSYCH seasons 1 and 2, probably why we didn't feel up for watching Slumdog. Have you seen this show? It's ridiculous, and yet it makes me laugh the whole way through. I have grown to enjoy it and now I have one more thing to watch with my darling husband. You know, when we're not out "playing" tennis.

5. Friends. I got some fabulous news from three separate friends this weekend and it sounds like they are all as happy as they could ever be and that makes me even happier. These people deserve the absolute best in this world and I truly mean that. I'm so excited that their wishes are coming true right before their eyes. I love you all and can't wait to see where we go from here!

6. This is slightly repetitive after #1 above, but photography made me super happy this weekend. I only used my camera once but I think I got some great shots out at the women's waterpolo game. I wish I could have gone to more than one game, but the girls played their heart out and I think my shots did that justice. I handed over my media card so I haven't seen them for real other than the two posted on the website, but I'm excited to see them.

I think that's it! I think 6 is a good number for happy things, especially since it is a Monday and I feel so tired that I think I could sleep on my keyboard. I am seriously slow in posting a new thing you might not know about me so here it is:

You might not know that I've had quite a bit of dental work that never included a cavity. I had an expander (nasty thing, hated it!), braces on my two front teeth, then braces on all my teeth, headgear, rubberbands, several types of braces, two retainers at the same time, countless molds, all 4 wisdom teeth removed, and oral surgery on my back molars. But no cavities :-)