Photo Project: Birthday Suits

Cameras constructed by Littlest and Middle Kittens

I went on a photo shoot with Nina's photo class last night. Clark and Alli were great models which made photographing them really easy. I've been thinking about photos more like painting, asking questions instead of telling, expressing emotion and being conscious of formal elements.
I have to admit that I want to add captions to the photos above like... "do you thing the chickens survived the tornado?"

Sun

It's the same sensation as throwing an entire handful of Red Hots into my mouth all at once. It's so sweet and so hot that I almost can't stand it. It's overwhelming and delightful. I love the sun. It fills me up with energy all day long then drops me, exhausted at night.

I don't think I've ever enjoyed flowers more that I have this year. Maybe it's because I've been painting them. It's actually distracting. I feel this desire to stop and look at every single one. It's takes me so long to walk anywhere. I keep buying them too.
I told Dan Barney tonight, as we were hanging up our trowels on the back porch, that everyone should have lots of flowers and a sparkly chandelier on their patio. It's so dreamy...

Camera Sagas

I've been through two cameras this year alone. I don't know how but I just tend to thrash cameras and phones. I take pictures about everyday so immediately after I jammed up the last one at Goblin Valley, Dan Barney and I went shopping for another. We went up to the experts in Salt Lake at Picture Line. I showed my cameras to the guy and told him that I was interested in something a little more advance so I could take better pictures of artwork and be more like Nina. He just laugh and said, "sorry, you can't have one of those, you'll just break it."

He set me up with an Olympus Stylus TOUGH 8000. And it is indeed tough. It's designed for people like me, people who thrash about.

It can be thrown into the pool and even take video underwater. It was some good features. I'm excited about it. My new camera already has some scratches. Oh my goodness! I've just got to make some underwater movies!

How come everybody around me has a nice camera and don't seem to be breaking theirs? My cousin Amy, I suppose she's a little more graceful. My cousin Kat has one too, she's a quick reflex kind of gal so she could probably catch her camera if it fell.

I'm wondering about my brother Pete, he's a little like me but his camera is intact. My sister Emily is probably a little better than Pete but not as careful as Amy.

Collins' camera is actually attached to his arm. That's pretty cool. Maybe that's the secret, although I get lots of bruises on my body as well.

Nina is the queen. She's so good. Her photos are stunning and I can't imagine that she's ever busted anything. Just look at how she holds the camera so gracefully. Come to think of it, I've never even seen her trip.

I told Dan that I was going to borrow a camera and take Nina's photo class. I want to learn more about taking pictures. My high school class was a blast but it just wasn't enough. I didn't say it all pouty, I was alright with borrowing my dad's camera.

The day before the class, Dan Barney handed me my mother's day present, all charged up and ready to go. Two new cameras? Oh Dan Barney, he's a dream. I'm in love with him and my camera. I've been taking pictures every day.

My Nikon D90 is a dream. It sure has a lot of buttons on it. I'm being very careful with it.

I'm so happy to be working on my homework for Nina's class. I spent hours experimenting with this idea. I wanted to get the fortune sticks in action, falling dramatically. In my mind this is still a good idea so I'm going to keep experimenting with shutter speed. Getting good at something is work. I forget that Nina earned her skill and I'll have to earn mine.

One of our assignments was to play around with Aperture. I'm starting to get it and I'm getting better at focusing. I hope I don't forget. I can't wait to see what we'll do this week in class!