All photos used the Vivid 2 action from Coffee Shop!

What spurred my desire to even begin photography? To be honest it was scrapbooking in the late 90’s after my first son was born. The photographs they used in the layouts were so amazing. I never had a nice camera. I didn’t even own a 35 mm film camera until closer to 2002. I always longed to have a nice camera!

Hubby’s sister happened to be a part time photographer out of her house. I still wasn’t all that interested in her camera as it seemed so complicated. Years went by and she eventually got her own studio. She is in Rockford, MI and her studio is Wise Photography. I learned a lot of things from her. It wasn’t until I borrowed a real nice digital camera that I found out I had an eye for photography. To date this photo is my favorite from that camera, A Sony Cybershot. May it rest in peace.

When the question came to get my own dSLR I never ever had the thought of mind to be a professional photographer with a business. I have firsthand knowlegde of the stress that comes with it and I am not built to take that on AND be a mom. I just can’t do it. I simply wanted to take amazing photos. And that remains my goal.

Upgrading to the d90 came for a few reasons. One was my other blog, I really needed more megapixels (the Nikon d50 has 6 mp, the d90 has 12) because I sometimes work with printing companies and they do large poster prints. Another was that I had to have more speed because my youngest became a toddler and with him walking, wait no..make that running, I needed that speed. I needed a faster processor. I needed more.

But what could justify the cost considering its not for a business? We are talking slapping down $1k+ for the Nikon d90 with lens, and for sure an extended warranty etc. If I were paying that much I definitely wanted to protect. Is it too much camera for someone who is not a pro? Yes and No. This camera came with an auto mode so a beginner can use it but also all the custom settings. But because I made a leap into finally getting a really good dSLR, it was time to learn how to use it. Because honestly I don’t trust a machine to pick the right settings and thats what auto does on cameras. I wanted manual control. I have it now!

What is in my future? I could go into paid gigs because my camera could definitely handle it. I think my future is going to hold stock photography. Hopefully in the food area. I love cooking and I love taking photos of food. I still have the passion for photography that I had when I was 10 years younger, but now its a hobby. Life and college take up so much time and blogging as well. But I strive to learn more and more about photography. That is my goal. To learn. And share with my readers!

I really don’t understand what happened. I was extremely confident coming out of the exam, though maybe I missed a couple things but I did horrible. Like under 70% horrible. I looked up my grade online tonight but I don’t have class until tomorrow. He will then hand back the tests and then I guess I will know what I did wrong. And I am extremely curious what I got wrong. I guess I am hoping he made a mistake in the grades he put online because it doesn’t make sense. The exam wasn’t that hard. And knowing me and my performance anxiety, I probably missed a bunch of multiple choice questions.

At any rate I am fairly certain I will have to take math in summer school. I am not doing well in biology and hoped to pull a 4.0 in photography. There is still plenty of time to bring my grade up but for today I am upset about it!

I apologize for lack of content! College was a bit crazy the last couple weeks and I just made myself busy I got a little sick. I have Spring Break this week and will be catching up on a lot of blogging both on here and on my other blog. This week I am putting up a review of the Casio Exilim point and shoot camera. I am also going to talk about some assignments I have coming that are interesting and some past photos that are good examples. I have to shoot all new stuff for class of course but I do love showing my old favorites.

I think what I would like is to hear from you, the readers, about what you would like to know more about. I am not a professional but I am a mom, or the hybrid, momtographer. I don’t have a studio. I still take decent photos. I can share with you any pointers as well as answer questions you may have about cameras. I know this blog is just starting out but I do think its got potential to be one of the hot spots for non professionals, and moms like me, to come for information that is easy to understand, so that we all can get amazing photographs

Hello everyone!

I recently came upon the coolest blog. Ok now I have to say that for college I am not allowed to alter my photographs beyond minimal lightroom adjustments. Very minimal. But for home use I can do whatever I want and I like to get creative. I found an amazing blog of a great photographer that offers many photoshop and pse brushes, actions, templates and lots of other stuff! I need to get the portrait ones working for my as soon as I can get one of my kids to sit still and take a picture but she has examples on her site anyway for your viewing pleasure. She also has instructions on how to use them, all very detailed!

And now since its been a while, here are a few photos!

I have mentioned before that I most of the time shot my Nikon d50 on Auto. I have yet to shoot my new d90 on Manual. My class requires absolute manual setting and RAW format. No cropping. The reason I never really tried manual is that I have a problem with numbers (and I have 3 semesters of math for my chosen field of study!) and the umbers get confusing. You see, when you talk about Aperture you are talking about the opening in the lens that lets in light. Sounds simple, right? But right off the bat the numbers are backwards. The lowest number indicates the biggest opening and vice versa. Then you have shutter speed. I read that they are all based on one second. But you can dial the speed on your camera from as little as 3000/1 sec all the way up to a minute on most cameras. You can go faster and slower but the confusion comes in what speed I am supposed to shoot at what aperture. And then to make you more confused, you have to pick the ISO. At this point I know where the settings are and I know what high ISO and low ISO does but I DON’T UNDERSTAND what it IS. Thank goodness I have this college class and reading to do. I am determined to really understand this stuff!

.First day of class was Thursday. It was ok in the sense that I was excited to be there but I would have loved to skip the whole rules of attendance and stuff. But in the end I realized that my prof was saying this stuff because he is pretty good at what he does. We got a lot of papers and a couple freebie magazines. We also were informed that we’ll be exclusive using Adobe Lightroom. I only have PS Elements on here so I ordered a copy of Lightroom. It should be here next week.

I’ve been keeping up with my 365 Project and here is the last few pics I have taken and posted..

cuppucoffee by SerendipityMom

anniv by SerendipityMom – My anniversay present from Hubby!

wtf by SerendipityMom

1-14-10 by SerendipityMom

1-15-10 by SerendipityMom – War of the cameras!

Welcome to my new blog, Studious Mommy! This blog is a spinoff of Serendipity Mommy. I wanted a place to showcase my photography as I learn it through my first college course involving photography. There will be at times some heavy “tech” stuff and I didn’t want to bog down my mommy blog. I will also be continuing my trend of reviews and giveaways here as well! Stay tuned and grab your camera’s, let’s learn together!