Playtime at the park

At the end of January we had a beautiful weekend. Meagan was gone to Bible Drill so Jimmy and I took Garrett to an elementary school near our house. We went to practice shooting baskets for basketball but when we got there we discovered that the school removes their rims during the weekend. (Bigger kids will come along and hang off of the rims and ruin them.)

We walked a couple of laps (all of our elementary schools have 1/4 mile tracks) and then played on the playground equipment. This is the school where Garrett went to prekindergarten so these are his old stomping grounds so to speak.

I played around with my new camera some more. I'm getting better with it but I'm still no where near where I would like to be with it. I have learned to be more patient between pictures so I'm getting better pictures now.

These pictures turned out nice because of the bright sunlight. (Well, in my opinion anyway.)

Some layouts I recently finished

L - general pics R - opening gifts
L - pool pics R - water balloons

L - Waterburger Field Hooks game R - fireworks pics from after the game

L - dinner at Friday's R - Waterburger Field Hooks game

They are a little blurry. You can click on each picture to see it larger. They are also in reverse order so start at the bottom to follow the "story." These are the layouts from Meagan's 9th birthday. We went to Corpus on her actual birthday to the movies, to dinner and to a Hooks game. On Saturday she had a pool party at our house.

I am still learning how to use my new camera obviously. If I use the flash the pictures are clear and crisp. But when I do use the flash sometimes I get a shadow or a too bright spot.

Any book or websites suggestions on learning to use the manual modes on the computer??

Guess what I bought??

So, I bought a new camera! It is a Canon Power Shot SX10 IS.

The main reason I bought this one (well other than the fact that I couldn't afford the one I really want - a Rebel) was that it has a 20x zoom.

It also has a burst option which allows you to push the button one time and the camera will take mulitple pictures. This is a great feature for sports.

Another reason I liked it was that it uses the same type of memory card that I already own for my Kodak.

I looked at a Kodak that was similar to this Canon but Best Buy was out of them and didn't know when they were going to get any more in.

The camera is a big step up from the Kodak I had. It has tons of features that can be used when you aren't taking pictures on auto.

So, here are my New Year's Resolutions (really it has to do with the camera - I promise):

I want to become a better photographer. I have this nice new camera with lots of options and now I actually want to learn how to use them!

Some people that I read regularly (their blogs that is) are doing something called Project 365. I originally heard about it from Janelle at My Life. It is a scrapbook where you take at least one picture each day of the year and then journal about it. If you click on her link you can read more about it.

I thought this sounded really cool but am totally overwhelmed at the idea of adding another scrapbook project to the ones I've already got going (and am totally behind on!)

Rachael at little bites of heaven has created a second blog where she plans to post her daily picture. I thought that was a GREAT idea - no paper needed! So, I may borrow her idea. The bad news? I already missed a day of taking pictures. I didn't take a picture on January 2nd!

I have some other resolutions but I am not firm on them yet - lets tackle one big goal at a time okay?

P.S. I went to work on Friday to start cleaning out my room/organizing and it was harder than I thought it was going to be!