I've been having too much fun with my camera, thanks Dad! He sent me a 50mm 1.8 lens. When I read my friend Laini's blog post in which she calls this puppy the "Plastic Fantastic" I was amazed that I owned the exact lens she spoke of. Thanks Laini for showing me how it works without making me have to read the manual!! Especially with cute pictures of her baby daughter to woo me into photography excitement.
Personally the most fantastic aspect to using the "Plastic Fantastic" is the fact it gets me to turn the camera off the AUTO setting. Yep, I am guilty of using AUTO on my D80 far too often. *gasp* But with this 50mm 1.8 lens I set it to Aperture priority and crank the F-Stop down to 1.8... then the magic starts... check out these shots I took at the beach, the top shot is the 50mm 1.8lens, the bottom shot it the 18-135mm lens that I normally use. My goodness - the difference!!!
The 50mm 1.8lens is great for portraits and those ever-so desirable product shots where everything in the background is sorta fuzzy and sparkles with light. Let me not lead you to believe I am bashing my 18-135mm lens... because its awesome. For one thing, the above shots, the top one (with the 50mm lens) is just that, no cropping - the bottom shot has been cropped considerably, the lens took so much more picture than just me and Tim (it just didn't happen to take a very good shot of me and Tim!) with so much more focus on the background. It was such an incredible day, the weather was gorgeous and this picture captured the beautiful sky. Check it out in original form:
Okay - so product photography with the 50mm 1.8lens will follow in another blog post when I have better pictures to prove its worth... but seriously - the portraits, its just amazing. Check out this one I took of Oleo the cat - this lens is notorious for taking good portraits indoors with crappy lighting and no flash = better portraits ?!? with the 50mm 1.8 this is possible, check it out:
heres a link to my friend Laini's blog post that inspired me and taught me whats up!
http://growwings.blogspot.com/2010/02/one-thing-ive-learned-about-photography.html
I am busy making things today... and running errands... this is my last Sunday free for the rest of the year -!- the Portland Saturday Market opens next weekend. Wow.
I have been fusing like nuts. Turning scrap pieces into little gems. I was just washing a drying all these little bits... looks like candy on my kitchen table. All these pieces are becoming little crafty mobile making kits... so you too can play with them too!
The I Heart Art party at PNCA was fun! It was great to see so many artists all in one place! Big Thanks to Etsy and PNCA throwing this party for us! 
There were Etsy people there from NY (Hi Vanessa!) and crafting tables where you could Gocco print your own IHeartArt postcard (dates of upcoming professional development classes were on the back of the cards)
I took home some of the extra printed cards so if anyone needs one, I've got some :) I thought I'd put some at the glass studio and in my booth at the Portland Saturday Market
There was also a button making table - you could make your own IHeartArt button. I love button machines. Someday I would like to own a button maker. 
The food was good - we got enough to last the evening (Judi and and were the "food committee" and it was important there was enough food to last as long as the beer lasted, Oregon State liquor laws n' all)
big Thanks to Isaac and Leah B. for pulling this all off.
The 50mm 1.8lens is great for portraits and those ever-so desirable product shots where everything in the background is sorta fuzzy and sparkles with light. Let me not lead you to believe I am bashing my 18-135mm lens... because its awesome. For one thing, the above shots, the top one (with the 50mm lens) is just that, no cropping - the bottom shot has been cropped considerably, the lens took so much more picture than just me and Tim (it just didn't happen to take a very good shot of me and Tim!) with so much more focus on the background. It was such an incredible day, the weather was gorgeous and this picture captured the beautiful sky. Check it out in original form:
Okay - so product photography with the 50mm 1.8lens will follow in another blog post when I have better pictures to prove its worth... but seriously - the portraits, its just amazing. Check out this one I took of Oleo the cat - this lens is notorious for taking good portraits indoors with crappy lighting and no flash = better portraits ?!? with the 50mm 1.8 this is possible, check it out:
heres a link to my friend Laini's blog post that inspired me and taught me whats up!
"Sun Salutation"
Earrings
Yoga Card Sets
