Photo Class: Session2

After the run, I had session 2 of my photo class. It was a great class and I am definitely learning a lot. I am shooting everything in manual now!

We had to bring in photos this time and the instructor took a look at our work. Out of 59 photos that I brought, I had to select 6 to display. I didn't get to choose them, 2 other partners selected 4 and then I picked an extra 2.

Then the teacher looked at each student's photos and critiqued them in front of the whole class. This was a little nerve wracking! Here are the two of my photos that he said were not in need of any cropping, photoshopping or anything else:



This one he said needed a little photoshopping (which I am not going to get into because I like straight out of the camera shots). He said he would take out some of the dark strawberry seeds in the bottom left corner as they are a little distracting (you"ll need to click on the image to see it bigger to really notice them):



This shot he liked. But I need to work a bit on my focus and he said the entire donut would be better all in focus. You can see it is not entirely focused and I knew that would be an issue:

Official Results

Just as a follow up to the post below, the official race results came in.

I was 5th in my age group, 16th out of 142 women, and 56th overall! wOOt!

Race Day

Thanks for all of your well wishes before the race. I will share some pictures with you in this post but I want to say first that it was AWESOME! What a rush it was to finally race after 10 weeks of training. I look back to my first run where I ran for 60 seconds and I thought I might need medical attention. And here I was yesterday, running in a real live race! Very rewarding.

Thank you to Lynette and Helen who showed up to the race early to look after the kids and help me prepare for the race. Lynette was also my talented photographer who was under SO much pressure to "catch the shots"! She probably had more stress than I did ;)

I had no idea what to do but I registered and they gave me a packet. Number goes on your front, microchip tag thingie gets attached to your shoe. There is a sensor under the finish line that records your time from this tag as you pass over it.



My friend and neighbor, Micah did the run too. Here we are before the race. Micah claims that if I put his picture on my blog, my traffic will increase by 1000%. So here it is, ladies:



They anounced that we needed to start "staging". I was like "What the heck does that mean?". Well, it just means to line up :) So here I am all staged and ready to go:



We had a few minutes to get ready. Here we are in our last few seconds. See me laughing? I think that was the moment that Micah told me about the traffic to my blog:



And we're off!



Micah and I ran together for about, oh, 3 seconds until he took off and left me in the dust. But then, he was all hopped up on supplements and energy drinks and I was running "au naturel", all me, baby!

Here is our cheering section. Do we have the cutest cheering section or what?



The run itself was great. I had been told it would be totally different running on race day and it is certainly true. You get so focused that you really don't feel too much pain, and you push yourself like you never thought you could. Being out there, just you and the road, it causes you to learn about yourself and what you are capable of. I know it sounds very hokey but it is all true. I never thought I would be a running race. If you had asked me a few months ago, I would have laughed.

So, about 24 minutes after I started, I was near the finish line:


And over the line in 24 minutes and 13 seconds!



Victory!
And a wonderful congratulations from the kids:


I need to go now so I can sign myself up for a 10k!

Who knew?

That painting over a light purple with white would take 3 long coats? I need a massage!

The white is up and I have started putting the mural on the wall. This is going to take forever but look very cool. Worth it, right?

I will have pictures up probably before Monday.

Busy!

It has actually turned out to be a very busy week for me. I thought I would cruise through the 10 days that Dama is gone but it didn't quite work out that way.

Yesterday, I did my homework for my photography class. I went down to the river trail (I seem to spend a lot of time there these days!) and snapped all the photos I need to bring in Saturday. Lucas assisted me as my subject for the shutter speed assignment. I needed to shoot an object that is moving quickly with various shutter speeds. Who better to use than my whirlwinded, energetic, active boy?

I am also in the final prep stage for the run on Saturday. My nerves are definitely gearing up. I KNOW I will make the run, but the thought of it being a race and with all the extra people there is making me nervous. I am so glad that my wonderful friend will be there to keep my kids while I run and to provide me with encouragement as she has done for the weeks I have been running :)

On the creativity front, I am painting the spare room today, the mural I have planned will probably be done Thursday. I have all the materials and tools. I just have to get started.

Great Run Today

I did a 5k today, the last week of the running program I have been following. I did it in 26.5 mins. The race is coming up soon so I hope to be under 27 minutes again on that day.

So Funny

Someone Special is 4 Today

I loved you from the very start,

You stole my breath, embraced my heart.
Our life together has just begun,
You're part of me my little one.

When I first saw your precious face,
I prayed your life be touched with grace.
I thanked the angels from above,
And promised you unending love.

Each night I lay you down to sleep,
I gently kiss your head and cheek.
I count your little fingers and toes,
I memorize your eyes and nose.
I linger at your bedroom door,
Amazed each day I love you more.

Through misty eyes, I dim the light,
I whisper "I love you" every night.

I loved you from the very start,
You stole my breath, embraced my heart.
As mother and daughter, our journey's begun,
My heart's yours forever, my little one.

Tulips '08

Creativity

Lookie what I did!


It's a cute little cabinet that I picked up at $40% off at Michael's. I altered it using rub ons, photos, patterned paper, wood letters, and other assorted embellishments.

Click on the photo below to see more detail:

Swimming

The Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials are on right now in Montreal, Canada. I watched a little bit of it last night.

It made me feel a little old. 20 years ago, as a 15 year old girl, I was competing in the 1988 Olympic Trials in that same pool!