Project 365

Ain't he purdy?

Warning: Potentially icky photo ahead.
I warned you.

Update on gimpy the glass man!

(he was mad I took my camera to the ER)

Remember last week me telling you about Gene falling off of a semi? Well, Saturday morning, we woke up, and he was complaining that he was in pain, I asked him if he wanted to go to the ER, and he said yes! So you know it had to hurt if a man was actually WILLING to go to the dr. No lie.

They did x-rays on his wrist and elbow, it is not broken! Yay!

So they cleaned up his elbow (icky photo below) as he'd really ripped a chunk of skin off his elbow when he fell, and then put the wrist guard back on him and went out the door. It was much more "enjoyable" (by me at least) than the last trip to the ER 7 weeks ago!! We even got the same nurse. I think she got just a little too much enjoyment out of giving Gene 2 shots in the rear.

Saturday we had a wedding and I told him he didn't have to shoot, I'd be ok on my own, and he insisted. I let him because he rotates the camera the exact opposite of me, and so the weight was in his left hand, not his right hand.

By the end of the night, he said it actually felt *better*. Not what we expected. That night we stayed at his mom and dad's and when he was rubbing it, it popped so loud his mom heard it across the room. It's feeling better, which makes me think that he potenially popped it out of place when he fell.

Monday, he went back to work, and actually installed glass. He was actually the only glass guy there as everyone else was sick.

Irony.

A scuffed up elbow!

I told you it was icky.

In the end, he's gonna be ok. Thank goodness. I really think he kinda wanted to lay in bed for 8 weeks while it repaired itself. Watch him fall on it again on purpose. lol.

However, I'm glad that did not happen as I'd be up on murder charges in about 3 weeks!

I need to introduce you to my new love

Hello.
Meet the new love of my life, Mr. Canon 50D.

Ain't he handsome?


I really needed to upgrade, as I was really maxing out my 30D at wedding ceremonies in dimly lit churches.

The feature I was most interested in was the ISO capabilities of up to 12800 in the custom functions feature. If you don't know what that means, it's basically, the higher the number, the darker the place you can take a picture in. 12800 is 8 times higher than your standard 1600 ISO on most slr cameras. (I honestly don't know if you get 8 times the light tho.).

Down side to that is that it's got a lot of noise at 12800, however, if you invested in noiseware software, that would take care of a lot of it.

ISO 3200 is standard on the dial, without going into the custom function feature and it's low in the noise dept. Lower than my 30d at 1600. I'm very happy with that. I can put a 50mm f1.8 lens on the camera and walk around a dark reception taking photos that are virtually all sharp. That's super awesome!

The next feature I was interested in, was the 15.1 megapixel resolution. I feel a lot better making a 16 x 20 image now.

And lastly, I really wanted that larger LCD screen. 3", it's almost a mini tv!

Over the weekend, we shot a wedding at Tiffany Greens in KC. I took the 50D most of the time, Gene took the 30D (once in a while we traded off) and I could really tell a difference in the photos.

It helped that the bride, groom, bridesmaids, food, venue, cake, rings, blah blah blah were all beautiful, but the photos were so awesome. I will share very soon!

My end goal is to slowly upgrade and eventually, I'll be the proud owner of a Canon 5D MarkII. Which shoots video even!! *I want* I have seen nothing but beautiful photos come out of that camera.

In the meantime, I have an XT for sale. It's 2 years old now, and I've probably taken around 15,000-20,000 photos on it. Never had a problem a day in my life. Comes with the box, all the paperwork, a memory card, battery charger, etc. I believe I even have a book that I bought just for this camera if I can find it, I'll throw that in too! $300, if you want an 18-55 mm lens to go with it, $350, which is cheaper than ebay! email me if you're interested!

And no, I don't take money orders from Nigeria. sorry :p

Cuh-RAzYiNeSs.

Our crazy world, at a glance

• Gene and I are both a huge mess. He's just getting over some sort of cold/bronchitis thing, only for me to pick it up. I'm fighting it tooth and nail. I'm hoping to get over it asap.
  
• Speaking of illness and malformities. Not only do I still have a tender ankle (btw, I'm out of my walking boot now), Yesterday, Gene was installing a windshield on an old semi, slipped and fell about 4-5 feet in a gravel parking lot, landed on his back/elbow/wrist. He can't move his wrist at the moment. We went to the ER and they said no breaks, but we'll have that double checked on Monday. Either way, he probably won't be able to work at least a couple weeks!! Lord help me.
  The chick at the emergency room remembered us. We were a little more light hearted this time than last time. I think she enjoyed giving Gene a shot in the butt just a *little* too much.

• I'm slowly matching all my shoes back together. Rights here, lefts EVERYWHERE. Sometimes there's a shoe "emergency" that calls for drastic action tho. Just sayin.
  
• Had the most awesome engagement shoot this week, such a CUTE couple. I won't be able to shoot their wedding as I already had that date booked, but sooooo flattered they wanted me to shoot their engagements for them anyway.
  
• Have a wedding tonight in Kansas City. I'm excited (and kinda glad it's a shorter gig too since we're both gimpy now). That hasn't stopped him from wanting to hit the antique stores on the way home. He has issues.
  
• As you can see from the past few days, all I've done is edit photos. I am in prime wedding season for me, and I reallllly feel like I need help but I don't know what it would be that I could delegate. Yes, I have control issues when it comes to stuff. Ironically, it's the editing that I'm considering farming out.
  
• Bridal fair coming soon!! October 18th at the community center in Maryville, from 2-4 p.m. Please be sure to attend!
  

Tree update!

It's been a while, since I updated you on the status of my 3 royal empress trees. I started out with 2 trees, one tree was left out when it was too cold and it died, so I received a replacement tree and then on earth day, I got a tiny free one when I purchased a maple tree.

All of the trees went into pots for a while as I was worried about having them in the yard and they'd get mowed over.

Two trees went into the yard in mid July, the third didn't make it in until early september!! (oops).

You can DEFINITELY see the difference.

One of the first 2 trees is around 18" tall, which is not bad, about double what it was when I put it in the ground.

The second one is 45" tall! The above photos were taken on August 31 and it was 24". So, in a little over 3 weeks, it's grown 21 inches! Almost one inch *a day* I'm very impressed.

They do however, look a lot like a sunflower with no sunflower. They are supposed to bloom out and get wide quickly so we'll see in the spring! (they have been known to grow up to 20 feet in one year).

The third tree is only about 9" tall, and it was a huge mistake leaving it in the pot so long. It also did not get a fertilzer spike, as I was nervous doing that so late in the season.

So, my advice? Plant sooner than you think (I should have went early June) and fertilize well.