Christmas Happenings

It's official.  Two more weeks until Christmas!

I told one little girl the news and this is how she responded.

I know Vannah.  I'm happy too.

We've been busy this past week.  With what I'm not exactly sure.  However, we have enjoyed a few Christmasy activities here and there and I even brought the ole' camera along.

We traveled to a beautiful Christmas tree farm to grab our tree...with picturesque rolling hills, family fun wagon rides, hot chocolate, and perfectly grown pine trees.

Oh, who am I kidding people. 
We just went to Lowe's.

But I imagined in my head I was on a beautiful Christmas tree farm.

We did the annual task of Steven picking up the first tree he saw ever so quickly, scanning it up and down, and exclaiming "this one looks good."

Well, actually, if I'm being honest it was the second tree he lifted up this year.  We're making progress folks.
To my husband's credit it was rather cold that morning and we did want to hurry back to the heat in our car.  I know, you can say I'm a sissy.  I'm okay with that.

We brought that baby home (the tree that is) and covered it with white lights and decorated it with familiar ornaments of old and new.

And voila.  Merry Christmas to you.

Oh, and if you notice there is a door right behind our tree.  Yep, that's our front door and there's literally no where else to put it.  The door or the tree.  So if you come see us in the next two weeks you'll really feel festive when you walk straight into a pine branch and poke your eye out.  No really, it's fun, you should try it.

And last but not least, I've tried to practice with my camera more.  I placed Savannah Banana on our bed where the natural light was streaming on her face one particular afternoon.  And I've been experimenting with the new Picasa editing services--I really don't have a great way to edit photos so I've been loving this simple and free way.

Who knew it would take so long for understanding my camera to actually take place.

It takes a whole lot of reading I've noticed.

I've found some good articles here and there that I can post soon if anyone is interested.  Most people already "get it" and I know it won't be any use to them...but I know I've always enjoyed reading what people have to say about photography and understanding exposure.

It really is all about understanding how the main three functions of your camera work together...aperture, shutter speed, and the iso.
I've come to realize that it does matter what type of lens you have...but not just that.  It takes understanding your camera and YOU picking the desired setting instead of your camera picking it for you.  And this cracks me up that I'm saying all this on my blog...because as you can see from my own pictures, I'm no expert.

But I do like to practice.

As Coach Saban once said, "It's a process."  ;)

So true Nick, so true.