Wednesday, March 29, 2006

And this is why the world will never make sense

I have a favorite professional photographers message board where I go to see how other people are photographing kids and get some ideas and technical help. There's a forum for beginners on this board. In this forum is a thread called (basically) "Come see pictures from my new 5D!!1!1!!" For those of you who don't know, a 5D is Canon's new pro camera. It sells for the cheap price of $3,500. Yes. That would be a beginner with a $3,500 camera. oh it gets better. She is not the only beginner with this camera. And then you open their threads and they say inane things like "which lens should I get?" and "why do I need one of those big flash things?" and "what's white balance?"

sigh. If I were to break a comandment and get all covetous, I would covet this camera. It's a fabulous camera. All the bells and whistles, full frame, spot metering (which the beginners haven't the slightest clue what it is much less how to use it.) It's a lovely camera. However, I've been at this photography thing for five years. There is no way I feel ready for a 5D. If I had a spare $3,500 I would not spend it on this camera.

It's insane to me that women who have no clue how to choose a lens think they are ready for pro level photography. They spend a couple of months learning how to do close ups of cute kids for their scrapbooks and think they are ready to start a business. And then, of course, they hit the message boards and expect those who know what they are doing to spoon feed them everything, including poses and basic camera knowlege (like depth of field and the difference between white balance and mega pixel.) These women can't even google or buy a book. The info is out there, extremely easy to find, but they don't even search the message board they are on for previous posts on the same subject, much less the web in general.

I'm sure that a lot of my feelings toward these crazy women is based on the fact that they are succeeding where I am not. If you can afford to drop $3,500 on a camera, you usually live in a nice house and have friends who have money to burn as well. And of course, they know someone with money to burn. So all of the sudden they have a huge list of contacts and their schedules are filling up and they haven't even the slightest clue about anything.

I sit here, having struggled to buy my XT. It was a huge, huge splurge and sadly I doubt my business will earn enough to cover it for many years. I don't live in a McMansion and I don't have rich friends. Word of Mouth doesn't work for me. I struggle to find contacts and ways to expand my business that don't cost a lot. I probably need to do more advertising of some kind, but the fact of the matter is it's a struggle to start a photography business in an area where Walmart pictures are seen as good enough and Sears is a splurge.

So, yeah, I'm jealous. That doesn't make it any smarter to drop that much money on camera equipment before your business is making enough to balance it out on your taxes.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

8 days

and counting until my birthday.

just needed to remind my mother. She used to needle me about how I was born six weeks late and she had major health complications because of that. Then she forgot my fifteenth birthday. Literally. Forgot. My sister asked what I wanted for dinner that night, it being my birthday and all, and mom said "huh?" sheesh. didn't even try to fake it. We are so totally even. ;)

This is also for Steve who likes to have me make wish lists even though he never ever sticks to it.

1. a small camera bag for my XT. not just any small bag. I want this one: Crumpler 3 million dollar home It will fit my XT and the kit lens and I can take my camera with me places without looking like I'm about to head out for a major photoshoot.

2. the odd size measuring cups to match my William Sonoma set. Yes on the list again. I seriously want this, people.

3. a reflector stand. Steve does not want to buy this for me because it's for my buisness (ha! ok, my pretend business we all pretend is real) and he says it's not a fun gift. dude! it's fun! really!

4. a gift certificate to a scrapbook store. not scrapbook stuff. a gift certificate. I like choosing stuff myself.

5. A Wacom tablet. this would be so cool. especially since I want to enter the Carolee's Creations scrapbook aprentice contest and it would be excellent for designing papers.

6. and just to throw it out there: an Alien Bee strobe. I could live with one right now. really. I could . . . but only if I had a reflector stand. LOL! sorry, only funny to me aparantly.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

How to get around a mean mom

My children have a knack for getting other kids to give them things. I swear everytime they go somewhere they come home with a new toy they got off their friend. They tell me that they don't ask for the things; their friends are just generous and offer them the stuff.
This drives me nuts. I don't like my kids begging or making their friends think that they have to give their stuff away to be friends with my kid. It's partly a charity abhorance and partly they have enough stuff of their own and partly the idea that if my own kids gave away anything other than McDonalds toys I'd be mad (extenuating circumstances do apply.)
How they manage to get junk off other poeple I don't know. They are power manipulators, I guess. I do know they are too smart for their own good. Yesterday, Joshua came home with another toy from a friend's house . . . and this note:

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what the heck do I do with that?! sigh.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Starting Over

I have a hard time with exercising. I hate feeling tired. I feel that way nearly all the time anyway, so why would I want to make myself feel worse on purpose? I also hate sweating. I can fix the second problem, though.

I've taken up swimming. so far, I've only completed one week's workout. Three days of 30 minutes of continuous lap swimming. I'll be alternating adding five minutes and adding crawl laps into the routine. Right now I just do breast stroke the whole time. It's not the hardest workout ever, but it's what I need. Just to get started.

I've done workout routines in the past. I remember my first try. Sarah was 18 months old and I bought Cindy Crawford's workout tape. The first few times I did it I made myself literally sick. Then I found out that I was pregnant. I have tried walking, workout tapes, eliptical machines at the gym, whatever, I've done it and dropped it. It's that whole making myself tired on purpose thing. I don't get the energy burst from workouts that people talk about all the time. Even when I keep it up for months, i don't get that. I get lots of burned calories, but not much in the way of energy. It makes it hard to keep going, to get myself up an hour earlier, to go work.

So, I'm starting over. I want to keep it up this time. I want to get back in shape, to wear a smaller size of jeans, to actually look nice at my sister's wedding this summer. I have a feeling that I'll be starting this goal over many times over the next few months, but as long as I keep starting over, I'm ok.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

sigh. not as cool as I thought I was

so yesterday all the calls were made for Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame contest (all this spelled out for my mother's sake, my friends know what HOF means.) I was feeling pretty good about myself because I didn't get all crazy hanging over my phone. I didn't start throwing things when everyone except Creating Keepsakes called. I even felt happy for all the people who did get calls.

I was feeling so good about myself. I'm a cool person. I am in control.

HA!! today the calls are being made for the honorable mentions in the same contest. I'm a wreck.

excuse me, my mixer says it needs to make cookies. and maybe pretzles. and my car says it wants me to run to the grocery store for chocolate.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Steve on Points

Steve: I got 500 pts for that? cool!

Amy: do you know how my points system works?

Steve: no. but it's probably like frequent flier miles and you have to get a million to get anything.

darn. he's got me figured out. I did forget to tell him that the prize you can cash in for at that level is one day of not nagging about the garbage. He works so hard for his points. I didn't want to ruin the glow.

Husband Scoreboard now reads: 500pts

Steve was at a gas station yeserday buying a sandwich and saw they were giving away their candy racks. So he brought me home one. it's pretty cool. It holds a ton of stuff. the bottom shelves would hold 12x12 paper but I don't trust Libby to leave it alone. LOL! so I spent my morning organizing.

because it's a candy rack it's got those little slots in the ends of the racks so I can slip lables in. I'm going to use patterned paper too so the whole edge of the rack will be cute.

here's my rack:
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Saturday, March 11, 2006

Spotlight

The other day I participated in a readers theater style skit during a Relief Society (church women's group) dinner. It's one of those things that many women groan over being asked to do, like the last thing they want is to stand up in front of a crowd and speak but they say yes to be nice. So in the past when I was asked to do these things, I gave the same attitude, the whole, well if you want me to thing. Little grimace and all that.

But I love to be asked to do it. I love getting to participate in dramatic stuff and doing readings. Secretly, I think I'm pretty darn good at it. It's fun to get up and do something I'm good at and get the praise for it. I like standing in front of the crowd and showing off.

And that's precisely why I've put up the front for years. Because nice girls don't show off, right? It felt like bragging and attention seeking to say I actually like doing it. There's a part of me that desperately wants the public recognition from doing these things, and because I want it, it feels wrong to want it, so I pretend I don't.

Except this time. I said yes happily. I said thank you for asking me. I actually said I liked doing them. And it felt right and ok to say. And I'll say it again next time I'm asked. Because it is fun. and I do like it. I've come to the point where I don't care if makes me look like an attention seeker. I'm ok with that, as long as I get to do something I love in the meantime. :)

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Look I got crafty!


finally, two years of deleting flylady e-mails got me something: a layout title. wouldn't she be proud?

Monday, March 06, 2006

still here

just haven't been much in the mood for writing. I might get it back soon, but for right now, there really isnt' much to say that's entertaining. Life is happening. Same life anyone else has. Same piles of laundry and dishes. Same little bickering fights. Same hugs and kisses to make up.

that's all.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

busted

I have a counter installed on my blog. It not only lets me see how many visitors I get, but also how they found me. It's always interesting to see what search terms people use to find this blog. Some of them are so far off that I wonder how they thought this blog could possibly help them.

Today I found this: "clean wax off tablecloths"

Apparently, someone somewhere does actually have a problem with this. I just feel this warm glow that I was able to help someone out. Because of me, Great Aunt Betsy's lace table cloth can be rescued from bad pillars. My work here is done.

(PS. If you are the unfortunate who found me because of a wax mishap, let me know where the party is, k? I'll bring the deep fried cheese sticks.)

(PPS. Kelli, someone was looking for you. poor soul found me instead. )