The Parker Family

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

SITTIN' PRETTY

All this sitting action in less than one hour. It was a jackpot in the pretend play department.

What a lucky kid.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

A HARBOR CRUISE AND FUN IN LONG BEACH

The Port of Long Beach hosted The Greenport Festival not too long ago and we made sure to scoot on down and enjoy all the free festivities including a harbor cruise/boat ride. We got to see the port up close and enjoy a beautiful day on the water.

Afterwards we spent some time in the park near the pier playing in the grass and taking pictures on the boardwalk. What a glorious day!

I think Gavin was a robot here.

Thanks Long Beach for the awesome day. Better believe we'll be back soon!

A. DAY. IN. MY. LIFE.

For the final assignment in my photography class we were to document a day in our life. To tell the story of our day through pictures only. This is a pretty typical day for us. Although, there are many little detail pictures I wish I would have included, but there never is time for such things, especially with school deadlines. Anyone else's day look like this?

PHOTOGRAPHY 101. HIGHLIGHTS FROM MY FIRST SEMESTER.

As some of you were aware I took a photography class this last fall semester at Santa Monica College.....and just happened to love it. So much so that I am going back for more (and maybe even a degree). February 14th will be the beginning of my next semester and many more photos to be taken. I thought maybe I would share some of the pictures I took over the last semester to change things up around here a bit. Heck, maybe I'll start including some posts with photography tips and little lessons that I learn along the way. What do you think? Well, for now here are just a few images from varying assignments in Photography 1 with Ms. Gregory.

Oh, and all of these images are straight out of camera--no editing allowed. Not even cropping. So keep that in mind. And it's hard to always get it right in camera.

For this assignment I photographed lots of different produce from the 3rd St. Farmers Market. It was pouring rain this day while we were on a field trip for the class and I was juggling holding both an umbrella and my camera. Not easy. But I thoroughly enjoyed myself walking around in the rain and looking at pretty vegtables.

Farmers Market assignment.

This particular assignment was called 'Urban Landscapes'.

It was such a challenge for me to run around town just looking for cool pictures, not knowing before hand where to go or where I'd park and having time restraints with Gavin. But I was so happy that I pushed myself outside my comfort zone and normal subject matter (ie. Gavin) for this assignment. Well, I guess I had to if I wanted a good grade in the class. It wasn't easy to do, but I think I was the most happy with these images out of all that I took that semester.

Urban Landscapes assignment.

Here's one image from my 'Depth of Field' assignment where we were trying to get just a little bit of the image sharp and the rest of it out of focus, or shallow depth of field. These squares are from the wall of a local deli.

Well, and here we have the 'Environmental Portraits' assignment where of course Gavin made his SMC debut. What teacher could resist this face and give me anything but an A, right? I did use other people besides Gavin for this assignment, but at least half of them contained the little guy. Doesn't he look like such a menace here?

Environmental Portrait assignment

Environmental Portrait assignment.

Next up for Spring semester.....Black and White film AND Digital Imaging. Can't wait!

Stay tuned for more!

WALKING WITH DINOSAURS

THE. COOLEST. SHOW. EVER.

If you ever have a chance to go see it, please DO because you won't want to miss this one. Of course Gavin was messmerized, but even Curtis and I were so impressed. Life size dinasaurs are extremely entertaining, to say the least, and the show was even pretty educational. Two thumbs up from this family!

The grand finale was T-Rex and man was he ominous and scary. I wouldn't want to meet this guy face to face.

Oh, at this moment in the show T-Rex walked right up to the audience and got his face super close and then paused and all you could hear was him snorting/breathing loudly and then all of the sudden.......ROAR!!! It was so realistic it just gave me chills. I think Gavin covered his ears, but luckily no tears.

Oh yeah, here are the tears. The water works weren't from a scary dinosaur though, but from a mean Mommy monster insisting on taking a picture. Just one little picture was all I wanted. (And do you see him holding Pea Green dinosaur? He came along to the show too. This was Curtis' favorite stuffed animal as a kid and now it is Gavin's favorite as well. So sweet.)