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| Day 8 - Low Angle |
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| Day 9 - Shadow (I LOVE this picture, proud of myself!) |
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| Day 10 - Flower |
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| Day 11 - Sunflare |
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| Day 12 - Long Exposure |
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| Day 13 - Fruit |
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| Day 14 - Low Light |
Thursday, August 22, 2013
MTS Week 2...
Here are my week 2 pictures from my Mastering The Shot 30 Day Challenge. While in Florida for vacation I found lots of inspiration from the beach and my parents house.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Mastering The Shot...
A week and a half ago I headed to Pennsylvania to take a DSLR photography class, which I have been wanting to take for 6 months. My girlfriend Amanda took the class a year ago and when I started seeing her pictures is when I decided I wanted a DSLR camera. I got my camera in December, an early Christmas present from my Bonded sisters and my husband. I loved it, but needed help learning how to use it. Amanda helped me get started, but when talking to her about the class I knew it would be even more helpful. For the last 7 months I have been playing around with the camera in manual mode trying to learn and awaiting an opportunity to take the Mastering The Shot class. Finally on August 4th I was able to take the class with 7 other girls including my sister-in-law Christy and good friend Michele.
Heather Blair was our teacher. She actually received her first DSLR camera 4 years ago and pretty much taught herself how to use it. She now takes pictures as a profession. She offers the Mastering The Shot class every couple of months, which is always around 8 people and completely hands on. It was on a Sunday from 10-4 at a local park and I walked away with a greater understanding of how all the components on my camera work and how to use manual mode. I won't ever go back to automatic.
Heather also provides a 30 Day Challenge for each of us after our class together. She gives us a theme for each day that we have to take a picture of. I have spent a lot of time taking pictures, but it is giving me some good experience and making me think about what I learned in the class. We all post our pictures to a Flickr website and Heather gives us feedback on the picture and our settings. She lets us know if there is something we should have changed on our settings or done differently in our setup. I appreciate this so much and the fact that she is always encouraging us. She really wants us to succeed in learning how to use our cameras.
Here is my first week of pictures...
Heather Blair was our teacher. She actually received her first DSLR camera 4 years ago and pretty much taught herself how to use it. She now takes pictures as a profession. She offers the Mastering The Shot class every couple of months, which is always around 8 people and completely hands on. It was on a Sunday from 10-4 at a local park and I walked away with a greater understanding of how all the components on my camera work and how to use manual mode. I won't ever go back to automatic.
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| Adrienne, Christy, Lynne, Michele, Heather, me, Gina, Andrea and Missy. |
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| Christy, Michele and me. t was great taking the class with friends. |
Heather also provides a 30 Day Challenge for each of us after our class together. She gives us a theme for each day that we have to take a picture of. I have spent a lot of time taking pictures, but it is giving me some good experience and making me think about what I learned in the class. We all post our pictures to a Flickr website and Heather gives us feedback on the picture and our settings. She lets us know if there is something we should have changed on our settings or done differently in our setup. I appreciate this so much and the fact that she is always encouraging us. She really wants us to succeed in learning how to use our cameras.
Here is my first week of pictures...
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| Day 1 - Something Blue |
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| Day 2 - Dessert |
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| Day3 - Bokeh |
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| Day 4 - Negative Space |
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| Day 5 - Clouds |
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| Day 6 - Someone You Love |
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| Day 7 - High Angle |
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Sarah & North Carolina...
Sarah arrived back home on Saturday, July 27th from a week's long mission trip to North Carolina with our Children's Pastors and 8 other 4th, 5th and 6th graders.
On Saturday, July 20th our team drove from New Jersey to Clemmons, North Carolina to team with Agape Faith Church in a week long missions event. Each of the kids stayed in host homes during the week with families who attend Agape Faith Church. Sarah and her friend Noelle were teamed up together at the home of one of the kids team leaders.
It was a growing experience for all our kids as they stayed with other families.
Sunday morning was Soak'n Sunday at church. This was a kids church service outside where they had worship, a message and tons of water games. Everyone got soaked, or at least everyone who wanted to.
Starting on Monday morning through Friday morning the teams helped with a kids camp called Wonder Kids for 1-2 hours. There were only 9 kids in attendance, but they are kids who are needing some special attention as they have all already received a record and been in the court system. These are 4th and 5th grade boys and girls. At first it was tough for the teams to get to know the kids, but the "Wonder Kids" began to open up to not only the camp workers but our kids. By the end of the week everyone was great friends.
Throughout the week they had games, mini messages, skits and music. One of the mornings they also had a salvation message for the kids to receive Jesus as their Saviour and the following day were prayed for to receive the Holy Spirit.
Agape Faith Church has a ministry called "Agape Care & Share" where they provide clothes and food to those in need. Our teams were introduced to the program and all it provides and were able to help unloaded food and put it on shelves. On the very last day of the Wonder Kids Camp each of the "Wonder Kids" were able to go in and pick out 3 outfits for themselves.
For a special treat one morning they took a break and headed to a Krispy Kreme. A favorite!
On two afternoons the teams went to a local nursing home to spend time with the residence. They sang, played a balloon game, did a craft, put on skits and give a short message. This was Sarah's favorite thing she did on the trip. She said she couldn't keep a smile off of her face, because it was so fun to see them smiling and happy.
On Thursday they took some time off to visit Grandfather Mountain which is a North Carolina state park.
What was your favorite part of the trip?
Besides the going to the nursing home my favorite part was when we were pulling weeds out at the volleyball court at Agape Faith's Statesville campus. Obviously pulling weeds is not fun, but instead of groaning and whining, I and my friends Natalie and Cayla prayed that we would have a good attitude, which made it all better! You never know, a person could be saved playing volleyball and they wouldn't be playing if we hadn't cleaned things up.
What was your least favorite part of the trip?
I honestly did not have a least favorite part. I loved the whole trip and it definitely is going to make an impact on my life.
What impacted you the most?
The thing that impacted me the most was on Sunday after the Soak'n Sunday when our two teams had prayer and worship time. We talked about breaking down walls and how if we don't conquer our own walls, how are we going to be able to minister to other people. It was just really powerful and emotional at the same time.
Sarah said the food was amazing throughout the week. Miss Caroline cooked for them special dinners for the team each night. Sarah said she even ate her vegetables, which is saying a lot. Unfortunately they didn't get a picture of Miss Caroline, but they did get a couple of pics of them chowing down and a special dessert she made.
Friends, fun and silly pictures from the trip.
On Saturday, July 20th our team drove from New Jersey to Clemmons, North Carolina to team with Agape Faith Church in a week long missions event. Each of the kids stayed in host homes during the week with families who attend Agape Faith Church. Sarah and her friend Noelle were teamed up together at the home of one of the kids team leaders.
Sunday morning was Soak'n Sunday at church. This was a kids church service outside where they had worship, a message and tons of water games. Everyone got soaked, or at least everyone who wanted to.
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| The team singing "Big God O" |
Starting on Monday morning through Friday morning the teams helped with a kids camp called Wonder Kids for 1-2 hours. There were only 9 kids in attendance, but they are kids who are needing some special attention as they have all already received a record and been in the court system. These are 4th and 5th grade boys and girls. At first it was tough for the teams to get to know the kids, but the "Wonder Kids" began to open up to not only the camp workers but our kids. By the end of the week everyone was great friends.
Throughout the week they had games, mini messages, skits and music. One of the mornings they also had a salvation message for the kids to receive Jesus as their Saviour and the following day were prayed for to receive the Holy Spirit.
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| Lamisha, Shantana, Dakya - Wonder Kids |
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| Label Man skit |
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| Wonder Kids |
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| Sarah and Aldaberto |
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| All the Wonder Kids Camp workers |
Agape Faith Church has a ministry called "Agape Care & Share" where they provide clothes and food to those in need. Our teams were introduced to the program and all it provides and were able to help unloaded food and put it on shelves. On the very last day of the Wonder Kids Camp each of the "Wonder Kids" were able to go in and pick out 3 outfits for themselves.
For a special treat one morning they took a break and headed to a Krispy Kreme. A favorite!
On two afternoons the teams went to a local nursing home to spend time with the residence. They sang, played a balloon game, did a craft, put on skits and give a short message. This was Sarah's favorite thing she did on the trip. She said she couldn't keep a smile off of her face, because it was so fun to see them smiling and happy.
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| Performing the "Doctor's Office" skit. |
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| They sang "You Are So Beautiful" to the residents. |
On Thursday they took some time off to visit Grandfather Mountain which is a North Carolina state park.
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| This is the mile high swinging bridge. |
What was your favorite part of the trip?
Besides the going to the nursing home my favorite part was when we were pulling weeds out at the volleyball court at Agape Faith's Statesville campus. Obviously pulling weeds is not fun, but instead of groaning and whining, I and my friends Natalie and Cayla prayed that we would have a good attitude, which made it all better! You never know, a person could be saved playing volleyball and they wouldn't be playing if we hadn't cleaned things up.
What was your least favorite part of the trip?
I honestly did not have a least favorite part. I loved the whole trip and it definitely is going to make an impact on my life.
What impacted you the most?
The thing that impacted me the most was on Sunday after the Soak'n Sunday when our two teams had prayer and worship time. We talked about breaking down walls and how if we don't conquer our own walls, how are we going to be able to minister to other people. It was just really powerful and emotional at the same time.
Sarah said the food was amazing throughout the week. Miss Caroline cooked for them special dinners for the team each night. Sarah said she even ate her vegetables, which is saying a lot. Unfortunately they didn't get a picture of Miss Caroline, but they did get a couple of pics of them chowing down and a special dessert she made.
Friends, fun and silly pictures from the trip.
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| Gianna, Trinity, Cayla & Sara |
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| Cayla & Sarah |
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| Sarah & Zoe Grace |
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| Sarah & Maddie-They formed a special bond. Maddie was on the missions trip last year with Sarah. |
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| Sarah & Natalie - Natalie is a 8th grader and has become a special friend to Sarah and someone she looks up to. |
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| E-Man. Sarah has known him since they were in the baby nursery. He hates Twizzlers so they gave him a few while he was sleeping. |
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| Daniel and E-man - The Bro's |
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| Fabulous! |
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| Sarah and Miss Belinda |
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| McKenna, a little nervous |
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| Daniel acting like one of the girls |
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