Photography Class in NYC

Michelle and I took a photography class in NYC last weekend. We had bought a groupon/living social voucher for the class months ago and waited for a good date and the spring to roll around to take the class. We couldn't have asked for a nicer spring day to go into the city for the class, it was absolutely beautiful and the perfect day to walk around the city!

In terms of the actual class, the more I think about it, and now that I've just uploaded the pictures on the computer, the more disappointed I am about it. Not that it was awful don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it or find it to be a complete waste of time or money, it just wasn't what I had hoped for. In comparison to the class I took last summer in central park through NY Photo Safari, that class was much better than this one through Digital Photo Academy. I felt like this class the instructor (while extremely knowledgeable) tried to make it into more of an basics class (something like I took in a 3 part series at the camera store) rather than shooting on site at Grand Central. He covered so many different areas and features of the camera that I felt like he went in too many directions. Although to Michelle, since she had never taken any classes before I think she enjoyed it a bit more. I feel like I don't have one decent picture from the class that I'd consider worthy of posting, I may put one up anyway but it's certainly not a quality picture. In the other class I had taken the instructor worked with you and gave you an actual assignment of what you should focus in on to take a picture of this, this guy literally said ok go off and shot for ten-fifteen minutes, twice, and didn't help us at all or show us what settings we could try or how to make the picture better.

Like I said I'm not sorry I took the class, I had a wonderful day in the city on a beautiful spring day but I would not recommend this particular photography class again. That said, my favorite part of the day had to be our lunch afterwards. I convinced Michelle to go to Shake Shack for lunch. Stephanie and I tried to go last summer but the line had to easily have been well over an hour. We were in luck the line was only 10 minutes long and moved really fast. We decided to split a cheeseburger and fries, Michelle got a chocolate shake as well. I'm happy to say it was delicious. While it was a really good burger and fries, and we highly enjoyed it, I don't think I could bring myself to wait over an hour for one but if there's ever not a line I def recommend giving it a try, you won't regret it!

Orchids, Orchids, Orchids

A few years ago my Mom and I decided to check out the Orchid Show at the NY Botanical Gardens and we absolutely loved it. We were dying to go back and see the show again. It's held every year around Easter, so this year we decided to finally go back. Along with our dear family friend, Barbra, we all packed into the car and headed to the Bronx. As we walked through the exhibit at first we were noticing the lack of orchids in there, at the end we found out that apparently only the last two 'houses' are changed for each of the exhibits, which explained our confusion over the beginning part having no orchids. The two rooms that were filled with orchids were beautiful, however we seemed to recall there being even more orchids the first time we went, but maybe we weren't remembering correctly. In either case the orchids that were here were absolutely beautiful.

I tried to experiment with my camera on manual and take some pictures, unfortunately though I couldn't quite get them right, the lighting/color seemed to be off. Even though I took over 150 pictures at the gardens I didn't love a lot of them, my picture taking needs a bit of work, but these were some of the pictures I liked the best, still shows how beautiful the orchids are!

Learning Photography

I've taken a copy introductory photography classes now and have def been learning a lot of new things. When I saw a butterfly outside this afternoon it looked like the perfect subject to try out some of my new photography lessons on. I was surprised at how close I was able to get. Here's a couple of the shots I took today, all on manual I might add. Still a work in progress but I'm learning a lot more!

Central Park Photo Safari

This past Saturday I had a chance to take a photography class in Central Park. I had purchased the class for half price as part of a living social deal, when I saw it, it sounded too good to pass up for a 2 1/2 hour photography class in Central Park. I had picked a Saturday afternoon in the July to attend the class, assuming I'd have a nice afternoon in the city for the class, who knew when the day came it'd be the heatwave of the century. 

The day finally came, and I headed into the city on NJ Transit to go in and take my class. After I waited for the subway for what felt like a good 20 minutes and I finally made it uptown, I was already late to my class. I was running (and sweating from the heat) through Central Park to get to the location, let me just say that is one big park and way too easy to get lost in there. I finally made it to my photo safari which started at Belvedere Castle in the park, which I had never even seen before or knew that it existed. We started out there and got some cool tricks about how to take a picture of "our best friend" in front of a landmark, apparently the trick involved getting REALLY close to the person and further away from the landmark. 

Then we moved onto some landscape pictures of the fences and getting the perspective of the curving fence. It was cool because the class was so small, I was only one of 3 others in the group. The instructor would walk around and look at our shots and tell us how we could improve them and then I'd end up getting a much better shot. I really enjoyed the instant personal feedback on my pictures. 

I learned some other cool things about horizon lines. I like these two shots since they were taken in the exact same spot but look completely different. In the first shot the horizon line is at the bottom and there is only a little bit of the road and a lot of the trees. While in the second shot the horizon line is much higher and there a lot more emphasis on the road. I think it's cool how the same location can have two totally different perspectives depending on where the horizon line is. 

I had a great time taking the flower pictures and I'm really happy with the way that they turned out. The instructor had given me a tube which let me get in really close on the flowers. I love these shots!

And finally we got to take a picture of the skyline and another on the perspective of the fence. I really enjoyed the two and half hours I spent in the class even in the ridiculous heat in the park, it was a great learning experience. I can't wait to take my next photography class!

A Sunday in the City

I love a beautiful spring day in the city. My Mom and I got in the car and hopped on the LIE as we headed west into Manhattan. We were going to catch an afternoon matinee showing of the Broadway show Rock of ages and meet up with my 'little' brother. 

The show was different from your traditional Broadway production. It was certainly the smallest broadway theater we've ever been in, I don't think there was a bad seat in the house as a result and no one was that far from the stage. Also interesting was when we walked into the theater they were selling beers and shots to patrons in the audience, any type of food or beverage is strictly prohibited in all other broadway theaters but this one was encouraging the audience to drink. The show was a love story of two  young kids trying to make it in LA as they try to shut down a historic bar that they work in. Of course it was no Wicked with any powerhouse stars like Idina or Kristen but it was cute and enjoyable.  

After the show we met up with Matthew and went for a quick bite. Matthew was able to walk there from his apartment, he loves living in the city. We went to a little Greek restaurant on 9th and 51st that Matthew had been to before. It was good and then before you know it we were headed back to the burbs, back to Long Island and then back to Jersey for me, it is nice that Manhattan is so close by that we can spend a nice afternoon in the city. 

Some random shots - The one of Grand Central I took from the car as we drove by

Spring is Coming

I couldn't resist these beautiful tulips when I saw them in Whole Foods yesterday. I loved the beautiful yellow and orangey/red coloring to them. It's also a sign that spring is coming. I wanted to take them outside on the deck to take pictures of them. It was a perfect excuse to play around with my camera and practice shooting in manual. I also thought the beautiful colors of the flowers would be a great contrast against all the dead trees and snow outside.