New Camera Pix...and some questions!

We went on a hike on Sunday to the Cascades, which is a beautiful waterfall near Blacksburg, VA. The hike up was 2 miles and the kids were troopers! They really did great. We took the easier way back down and only minimal whining. I was messing around with camera settings and attempting to shoot in manual...







The second to last picture was taken in regular manual mode and the last picture was taken in portrait mode. I like the portrait mode...it makes the falls look kind of misty. Oh, and that girl you see walking across the falls? FREAKING STUPID WENCH. What was she thinking? REALLY good way to fall and break every bone in your body. And thankssomuch for setting that awesome example for my kids who thought it was really cool.

Now, here are some pictures I took of BabyGirl yesterday. I played with them quite a bit in Corel Paint Pro.





I joined the Clickin Moms website so I could learn more about photography and photo editing. It's a great site...I wish it had a little more detailed information but it does offer a lot. Unfortunately, I have a really old version of Photoshop (2.0) that doesn't recognize the Photoshop "actions" you can download from the Clickin Moms website. When I owned a stationery company I invested in the Corel Paint Pro 10 program which has a higher concentration on graphic design. It's great for photos, but it is amazing for graphic design. It was really expensive at the time and I'm not quite willing to switch and make the Photoshop investment just yet. Corel is almost exactly like Photoshop anyway in terms of editing. The only problem is that it doesn't recognize the Photoshop actions either! There's also a new photo editing program out called Lightroom but it's rather expensive as well. What to do, what to do...
So I have a few dum dum questions for those of you who might have a D40 with the regular lens it comes with (no fancy lens for me yet).

How do I change shutter speed? For instance, one of the clickin moms said her shutter speed was 1/4000 in a picture I loved. Did she use a special lens? (I felt too dumb to ask but since I have no shame with ya'll I'm going for it)

How do I change the aperture on my camera? That would be the f value, I think? Can I only do that with a fancy lens? (I can't find my manual so don't tell me to check the manual)

Finally, how do I set my camera to spot metering and Oh, by the way, what the hell does that even mean?

Thanks, friends!

Breathless

That's what we've been while watching the Olympics the past two nights. The swimming is amazing! Did anyone else see the U.S. win the 400 Free Relay last night? We thought for sure the U.S. was going to place second and then OUT. OF. NOWHERE. Jason Lezak brought it on! It was so awesome. Dr. Daddy and I were both so excited we could barely calm down and get our butts to sleep at 11:45pm. Poor Dr. Daddy. He had to be up at 5:30 am! Some pictures immediately following the race. I honestly do not know how Jason Lezak is even breathing at that point.





We've also had a great time watching gymnastics. I am absolutely convince that Shawn Johnson will take the gold in the all around. She is amazing! Her beam performance last night was flawless. And she's so cute! For a baby that was born with an Apgar score of 0, she seems to have come around!



I think BabyGirl has watched the DVR version of the gymnastics about 50 times already!

Ellie Update

Hallelujah! I went to shake out BabyGirl's blanket on her bed (which I've already done about ten times today while looking for Ellie) and guess who fell out! Of course...Ellie. Needless to say, I'm very relieved and now BabyGirl can sleep easy. Sigh.

The Cable Guy and other things...

I've been a really bad blogger this week. It's not that I'm ignoring you...I'm just trying to get organized for school to start. I've also been busy listing all of the kids' clothes from last year on EBay. So, if you have a 3 or 4 year old girl click the link to the right of the page that says "Me!" under favorite EBay sellers. Lots of good stuff.
Yesterday I noticed the cable company messing around with the box behind our house. I told BabyBoy not to freak out if the cable went out because the cable guy was working on the box. "The cable guy? Is his name Larry?", he asked. Huh? How does a six year old know about Larry the Cable Guy? Whatever.
BabyGirl has managed, once again, to lose her lovey, Ellie. It's this tattered old Elephant head with a blankie attached. She was sighted yesterday morning but hasn't been seen since. I've been getting rid of old clothes and taking bags to Goodwill. I'm hoping and praying Ellie didn't accidentally get put into one of those bags. I'll be crushed! She's like a member of the family. Of course, it wasn't noted that she was missing until bedtime last night. Dr. Daddy was with the kids while I went to a girl's night out at a friend's house. Apparently he tried to call my cell (which was in the pool bag...oops) and then tried to call the home of the friend I was with. She called this morning concerned that she had gotten the message this morning and he said something to the effect of "Well, this is where I thought she said she was going to be." Nice. Where'd he think I went? A stripclub? He he.
We've turned the house upside down and inside out trying to find Ellie. I even dug through the outside trashcan, since I've found her there before. No luck. I think I'll be sad forever if we don't find her!
Of course, girl's night out turned into way too many glasses of wine, then beer, then I don't even know what. I was quite certain when I fell asleep last night that I would not be hungover today. Hah! Clearly, that was the wine talking cause I've felt like crap all day. Thankfully, the kids have been rather low key. I'll be turning in early tonight.
Keep your fingers crossed that we find miss Ellie!

So Much to Say...

Maybe now you'll have that Dave Matthews song stuck in your head for a while. That's right...you can thank me later.
We had a great time at the beach. Lots of sun, lots of exercise, lots of relaxing, lots of drinking, lots of ummmm...good times.
Mimi holed up in her room and worked the entire time. BabyBoy and Seanie Boy did their best to play video games as much as humanly possible.
BabyGirl did lots of crafting. This is clearly her niche. I have NO idea where she gets it from!
Aaron did not disappoint...he brought the Megan. McShane, that is. We love us some Megan. Especially Dr. Daddy. I do think he'll cry when she marries. The beach would not be the same without our sweet Megan.
He also brought the gays. Much like Tory Spelling, I do love my gays. We had a blast. Nothing says preppy beach week like a night at a stripclub with three gays, one adorable college co-ed and an almost 50 year old husband. Am I wrong? And...we drove up in the Volvo station wagon. I mean really. It just doesn't get any better than that. Well, maybe when Aaron commented "I need to clean my leg...anyone have a wipey?" after an adorable Russian girl tried unsuccessfully to offer him a lap dance.
We played tennis, we jogged, we drank (heavily). BabyGirl learned how to (taught herself) how to swim. You have to love a girl who potty trains herself AND teaches herself to swim. The money I've saved...(will all go toward her superfly wedding at The Homestead).
We stopped by our favorite store, The Joggling Board, and I picked up some great sale items. I even bought a bikini...the first in several years. And, I think it might have even looked decent. Yay me for all that working out.





Some more great pics from the week...





















Now that I've spent a week with high school and college kids I've become obsessed with freakin Facebook. What the hell? It IS fun to see where everyone is, though. CRAZY!

Off to the Beach

See you next Saturday!

Camera Woes

Woe is me. As much as I'm loving my new Nikon D40, I noticed a flaw yesterday. I didn't notice it in the first few days of pictures, but in every picture in the past few days there have been two spots in the frame that look like an oil based stain on fabric. I took it to Best Buy and they said there must be something on the interior lens. Thankfully, since it was within two weeks of my purchasing the camera they were more than happy to exchange it. Unfortunately, they didn't have any in stock and I'm leaving today for the beach! I'll have to stop at a Best Buy on the way to South Carolina and do the exchange there.
Has anyone else had this problem before? I bought the two year Best Buy warranty so I'm not too concerned but I'd hate to have to keep changing out cameras!