A Tiny Bit of Redemption

I suck at taking good pictures indoors. I think I have the outdoor action shots down. Last night we were at Will’s game and even though I had to take pictures through the chain link fence, I am very happy with them. I worked hard at composition and used the very helpful advice from Jon. He suggested that I not zoom all the way in on the kids. That way, I would be more likely not to cut off the tip of the bat or a foot. Pictures could then be cropped around the kids. And cropping is the one thing I can do in PhotoShop Elements like nobodies business.

Good advice, and it worked like a charm. I assigned myself the task of trying to get good pictures of all the young men on the team and I am very happy with the 200+ pictures I took. That repetitive shutter setting can really get away from me.

Yesterday morning, we headed over to Will’s school for the 5th grade musical production of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. Will played the role of the Candyman, which would probably be my dream job - to have a cart full of candy to push around.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful? That your only job in life was to push around a cart handing out morsels of sugared happiness to everyone? I would pay myself in Peanut Butter Reese’s Pieces. Since I am pretty up on the laws of physics, I know that I pushing around a heavy cart would cancel out any calories ingested from my paycheck. Heck, I would actually lose weight!

My new career path starts as soon as Will lets me borrow his candyman jacket.

Anyway ~

I did some homework on lighting for indoor pictures before we left. I knew that ISO was part of the puzzle piece, but really didn’t quite know how to fit that piece into the equation. The auditorium at the school had good lighting, and I don’t know how I did it, but the pictures turned out great. I am still not confident in my ability to consistently take good pictures indoors, but at least I am headed in the right direction.

Oh, and Will’s team - the Rough Riders won their game and the musical was very cute, despite a glitch in the audio system. Sammy was watching with the rest of the kids, sitting with her class. She was hustled off afterwards to learn something. I would have thought that getting a hug and a kiss from Grandma would have been more important than math. But I wasn’t asked.

Have the BEST day ever!

~ Dorothy