Cupcake Afternoon

So the day after easter provided some very

beautiful natural light through my window,

What better subject matter then the

leftover cupcakes from the day before.

Perhaps with some milk....or tea.

{the dahlias were boysenberry jam filled}

{the butterflies were vanilla pudding filled}

{african autumn orange tea....mmmm}

Cheers

Our Easter

Here is a little of what my Easter looked like,

bright warm sunshine, gardens growing,

my nieces' new dresses...

then a scrumptious sunday dinner

{thank you mother and father}

cupcake decorating

marshmallow dahlias and chocolate butterflies.

Evy's Vegetable Cupcakes

I helped my sister Jenny decorate some cupcakes for her

little girl's Peter Rabbit themed 1st birthday. They are

chocolate and vanilla cake, frosted with chocolate frosting

and sprinkled with chocolate wafers for the dirt. The veggies

were molded out of airhead candies, starbursts, m & m's,

and cornflakes dipped in green chocolate. I love the cinnamon

that we dusted the carrots with to make them look freshly pulled

up. Jenny made the signs out of white chocolate covered graham

crackers and iced lettering.

Of course Evy got her own cake to plunge into....yummy.

Evy got another party on a latter sunday dinner,

there her older sister Nora was a fairy the entire

night. Pretty dang cute.

April

Wow april was insane! So many things that needed

to be done and then there are all those things that I

wanted to do that I sliped in here and there. Looking

back, April was a busy busy month and I accomplished

a ton, although there were times while I was in the midst

of everything that I felt like I was drowning and that I

wouldn't be able to do it all....but some how everything

worked out and Im finding myself at the end of the

tunnel a little dazed....but at the end of the tunnel

nonetheless.

Some of what the month of April included:

-Two photographic assignments due in my classes: 118 prints

to grade

-Gallery stroll write up: 59 papers to read and grade

-All the late work/redos coming into grade....countless

-Final portfolios due: 295 matted photos to grade

-Taxes...income,state,federal, sales....Im still learning

-Road trip to Cali over a weekend

-Easter!...all the craftiness to be posted soon.

-Intense cupcake decorating for somebody's 1st birthday

-Babysitting cousin's girls 6 days....school, practicing piano,

naps, chores, barf, and lots of other fun adventures

-Cleaning cousins house

-Cleaning my house (the start of my in depth spring cleaning,

not to mention slaving away at cleaning cat pee out of my prized

leather couch cushions... culprit has since been banished to the

backyard)

-2 UTIs and 1 possible kidney infection (many trips to the doctor)

-Teaching Photo 1 Enrichment night "top 10 ways to turn your

pictures from Crummy to Yummy"

-Visiting teaching

-A trip to the symphony

-Joined a book club (excited but rushed to finish the book)

-First session of weeding the yard.... my back is basically thrown out now

-Took in a cat with an injured paw to nurse back to health

-Many subsequent visits to the vet

An now May has come bringing: a two month respite from

teaching, a sickness that has wiped me out for days, but yet an

incredible book club meeting, many new friendships,

sunshine, a yard that is getting greener by the day, sisters

interested in photography (finally, YAY!) and in a few days....a trip to

Disneyland, Santa Barbara, and the beach with my family.

Final portfolios Spring 2009

Here are some images from the final portfolios of a few of

my students. It is so fun to see the students produce such

nice work and to be proud of it. I hope that all you students

will continue shooting and progressing in your photography

skills. Good luck!

Celeste A.

Cassidie R.

Alisha S.

Loni B.

Marie B.

Mathis H.

Tiana P.

Todd S.

Trent G.

Will B.

Light Painting Class Demo

This is the image that my 3:00 class and I

created during my light painting demo for the

abstract idea lecture and assignment.

I ask for a model, a light-turner-offer,

a projection light blocker, two painters,

and Im the flasher (not in that kinda way!)

I explained that in a completely dark room the

shutter can be open for really long times

this exposure was for 30 sec.

The two painters painted with two mini flashlights

pointing towards the camera shining through colored

CD covers (improvised gels)

We projected an earlier image that we took on the

wall behind the model since the projection

was so bright we needed someone special to cover up

the light around 5 sec into the exposure,

I flashed my strobe (but suggested that this could be the

flash of just another camera) 3 times while the model moved

positions in between each flash.

I shoot tethered to my laptop which is hooked up to a projector

so we got to see our images projected on the board.

It is pretty magical to see that we created something

so different than anything we saw.

For some fun lightpainting in the wild check out my

chicka's blog...

Assignment #9: Abstract Idea

The last assignment asked for the students to

use everything they had learned up to this point

to visually communicate an abstract idea.

We talked about how there are certain emotions

that are evoked by certain elements of design

and camera techniques. Low Key images

communicate more somber moods while

high key translate to heavenly/softer feelings.

Thick/heavy lines communicate boldness

even sternness, where thin lines that curve,

communicate delicacy. I also taught them how

to do light painting and a few ways to create

a multiple exposure. 1)double expose the film in

camera 2) Flash a subject multiple times during

a long exposure in a dimly lit area

3) print multiple images on one piece of

paper in the darkroom. That is usually a very

fun lecture, the students really get into practicing

and generating all the funky effects. These effects

also can communicate certain feelings as they are

capturing things that aren't physically there, like

feelings.

Again I typed up a bit a bunch of abstract ideas like

love, hate, jealousy, shyness, power, freedom, good

dream, bad dream, happiness, greed.... and they had

to pull out their abstract idea out of a hat to help them

challenge them and get them to brainstorm and

pre-visualize so they can construct a meaningful

photograph.

Here is what they came up with...

Katherine B. {shyness }

Myron L. {Faith}

Allen W. {Fear }