Dinner with Becca and Angel and Balanced Exposure with Kristen

On Thursday night, Becca and Angel came out to Naperville. We went out to Outback to meet Dave. He was working! So we sat in Dave's section. It was Owen's first visit to employer #1, Outback. Owen will soon visit employer #2.. Darien #61 Mark DeLay Elementary School once he has more vaccinations under his belt and maybe before cold/flu season kick in. The last thing I want is for Owen to get sick. Truth be told, last time I went to Dave's school I was turning 25! The aftermath... I have never been sicker. I seriously got 2 or 3 viruses from that 1 day visit and was sick for like 3 weeks with compound colds or something. It was horrible.  I never want to go back to that school again as I was so sick afterward.

So I digress. Becca and Angel came out and it was the first time, in a long time we all had seen each other. Becca lives in Chicago and Angel lives in Oak Park so it was nice for them to come and see Owen. Becca thinks Owen has filled out a lot since the last time she was here with Jackie. I agree. Owen is getting cuter, gaining weight, is no longer blotchy, and is just a doll and a pleasure to be around. It was good to catch up with the girls and laugh :)

I'm really lucky to have such an easy and pleasurable baby... especially in public places. :)

On Friday, I used my groupon. Kristen and I went to a DSLR class at Balanced Exposure, in Schaumburg. http://www.balancedexposure.com/2011_Class_Schedule.pdf

We learned about techniques about photography and hardware for each of our DSLR cameras. Kristen has a Nikon D3000 and I have a Canon Rebel xsi

Some highlights were:

1. going over apeture and shooting AV setting
2. going over shutter speed and shooting over TV setting
3. going over ISO settings
4. going over lens, how to care for lens
5. bracketing and HDR
6. how to take pictures of sunsets, fireworks, portraits
7. flash photography
8. etc.

Russ, the owner of Balanced Exposure teaching the 6 hr class

a neighbor in the class that was very friendly. This technique is called "shooting in thirds"

This technique shows 2 things.. how to space out a vertical picture.. and Kristen is showing how to properly hold your digital camera. 

Again, "shooting in thirds" technique and making sure your focal object is facing the direction vs. having her back towards it

practing my AV setting on my Canon

my manual

going over AF (metering on our camera)