HDR Photography! It's a technique that allows a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image, different then current imaging methods. I take three photographs at different stops, merge them, and then process them. Here's a little of what I've done so far. The subject matter is not that interesting, but HDR makes EVERYTHING a little more interesting.
It started with Christmas. Actually it started with our trip to Great Wolf, then Christmas Eve and finally Christmas. But it's been a week since I blogged, and a lot has happened.
I think this is the first year that the kids didn't wake up just a few hours after I went to sleep. Ashton was the first one up at 8:30AM! Have you ever heard of such a thing?! It was my Christmas miracle! :) Anyway, since we took a trip to Great Wolf for Christmas, the kids only had their stockings and a few presents to open. Their big gift was an XBOX 360 with Kinect. Later that afternoon we went caroling at a retirement home with some friends of ours and their family. It was better then I thought it would be. I don't sing PERIOD. (Unless I'm in the car or at home...only around family). I don't sing at church and I don't even pretend to sing and mouth the words. What's the point of that? To show people that you're singing? Who cares? I certainly don't. But another Christmas miracle. I sang at the retirement home. Weird. Something came over me and I felt like singing....not very loud and not the right words, but I sang.
I have been so stressed out! Last week was HORRIBLE. We have been getting so many "special orders" from Dazzled By Twilight this season because they are out of stock on a lot of merchandise and everybody wants their stuff by Christmas. The bad part about that is, I got 10+ e-mails of what people ordered, with their addresses, and got so confused when I had to order the clothing through our supplier in Portland that I ordered stuff that I didn't need, forgot stuff that I did need and then our supplier screwed up giving us sizes we didn't need, left out sizes we did need, forgetting stuff I ordered and then giving us the wrong thing. It was a disaster. This all happened on Friday, but despite of that, I was able to complete about 20 orders and get them shipped. Most of the items were of "Team Edward", but the rest were of different designs with only 1 or 2 items of each design. It was a pain. Tomorrow, because of all the mess ups, I have to go back down to our supplier and get the rest of what we need and exchange the stuff they gave us and get the right stuff. I have to go get it, print it,ship it and make Ammon's Dr. appt. at 3PM! On top of that the kids are on their holiday break and it's so hard to get work done while making sure they don't kill each other. Tomorrow is going to be STRESSFUL, and hopefully I will get to relax for a day before we head up to Great Wolf Lodge...
It kind of sucks that we have to pay for the plane ticket to North Carolina for Anson's internship interview, but whatever. He has another interview! Well it's a phone interview at first, but if that goes well I'm assuming they schedule a face to face interview. Anyway, the phone interview is for a facility in Indi-freakin-ana. I'm not sure which city, but man, why couldn't he get interviews in Arizona or somewhere this side of the US?
We are still waiting on a few more acceptance/rejection letters before we know if these are our only options. He interviews well but these places interview like 20 people and only choose 1 or 2. I guess the only advantage of moving across the US is to see what it's like beyond Utah, Montana and Wyoming because that's the farthest I've ever traveled and it would be nice to see what else is out there.
Anson has been getting one rejection letter after another and was convinced that he wouldn't get an interview for this first round of picks. BUT today he got an interview for......North freakin' Carolina, all the way across the US on the East Coast! His interview is in late January so we won't know anything for awhile.
I used to loved drawing, painting and other forms of art, but in the last couple of years my "art" has changed. I haven't enjoyed drawing for years because it takes so much time and you have to be so precise and accurate. It just wasn't fun anymore. The same goes with painting....it took a long time and the clean-up afterward sucked. I didn't enjoy that anymore either. So, I took up photography a couple of years ago because it was quick and easy. I didn't have to create anything. The art was right in front of me and all I had to do was push a button! I have come to realize over the last couple of years, that the type of photography I enjoy is nature and landscape but it wasn't until yesterday that I came across a photography blog of a "natural light photographer" and it hit me... That is exactly what I am, a natural light photographer!
Everything makes so much sense now. A couple of years ago, Anson bought me portable lights and umbrellas. What a great gift, right? But I didn't like them and took them back. Anson couldn't understand why I would do that. He really thought I wanted to do portrait photography but I didn't want to do that kind at all. I didn't want to deal with taking equipment somewhere, and blah, blah, blah. That was taking all the fun out of it, but I didn't understand that at the time.
Now I finally have a name for what I enjoy.
It feels really good to come to a realization like that!
I hardly ever win anything...really. So when I came across a blog that I follow called, Junk Sophisticate, who were actually contacted by the show American Pickers to giveaway their complete first season on DVD, I entered. It wasn't hard. All I had to do was leave a comment on their blog or facebook wall and mention something about the giveaway. I thought it would up my chances of winning if I actually mentioned my favorite episodes, which was "Mole Man" from season 1 and "Hobo Jack" from season 2.
If you've never watched the show before, two guys drive all over America looking for and buying collectibles and antiques. It sounds boring but it's not. They explore people's homes, sheds, barns and outbuildings and find all kinds of cool stuff. They meet a lot of unusual people who have a lot of unusual things.
Mole Man was a guy who dug tunnels underground and reinforced the walls with cinder blocks, old doors, furniture, and anything else he can scrounge. It's really amazing to see just how long the tunnels ran and how deep they went. That's a place I would have loved to have seen in person....as long as I wasn't alone with Mole Man. 
Hobo Jack (season 2)was a pretty cool episode too. The American Pickers didn't drive down the driveway area to Hobo Jacks place because it was really muddy and they thought the van might get stuck. It was a heavily wooded area and the guys began walking down the long driveway. They heard music as they walked and it got louder and louder until finally they saw Hobo Jack sitting on the back of a car strumming his guitar and playing the harmonica. How cool would that be?! Hobo Jack turned out to have quite the collection too!
I Heart Faces, a blog that I follow is having a self portrait challenge and I thought that I would participate, since self portraits are something I like to do every once in awhile. This is a self portrait that I took last Friday.
I think I blogged about this at some point, but just to refresh your memory, I entered a photo contest with my Credit Union and won 1st place and $200. Remember? Okay, good. Every year they make a calendar and put 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in it as well as other entries. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting, worried that they weren't going to do it this year because it was so late in the year, but it FINALLY came in the mail today! I was SO EXCITED!!! They sell for $10 at the Credit Union and all proceeds got to Doernbecher Children's Hospital. How great is that?! Anyway...
1st Place
3rd Place
And the back cover.
