a walk in the park

Churchyards and rain

Before & After

Nicole asked her former students to post before-and-after shots to show what we learned... You can see other photographers who took here class in the comments section of THIS POST...

BEFORE: blurry and underexposed with wonky colors from my Powershot S3 in August 2008 (the month before I took a photography class from Nicole Hill)

AFTER: a few favorites from this month taken with my D90 (scroll down to see loads more from my shoots and travels in Europe this month)

I took a class from Nicole Hill Gerulat in September of 2008 with a DSLR I borrowed from my Dad. Until E was born I really wasn't that interested in photography, but soon after decided that I wanted to document the lives of my children without having to pay $300+ every time I wanted decent pictures. I wanted the skills to capture the beauty in every day life through photography.

Before I took Nicole's class last September I hated using the flash but didn't know how to manually change my settings, and I was continually disappointed by how dark my images were. Her class taught me how to have complete manual control. It took a lot of practice (and I still have loads of learning), but shooting in manual mode is completely life changing. You will NEVER go back once you learn. Nicole is about to launch her photography classes online- check it out! She is a wonderful teacher and gave me the skills and confidence I needed to get started. I use what she taught me every single day...

Thanks Nicole!

Heart of London

images from Royal Horseguards changing of the guard ceremony, Trafalgar Square, and Covent Garden

My husband to took picture 5 of the bus whizzing past, and my daughter took picture 6 while riding on a bus... she loves to hold it up and push the shutter. I really should pass the camera off more often to my travel buddies. As the Brits say "should do, shouldn't I?" I love being back here.

Portobello Market

A few from our stroll through the Portobello Market. E and I will definitely be going back on a Friday when it's less crowded and when I don't have to elbow people out of the way to get a look at the booths... I especially loved the food market portion. Fabulous.

Tour of our neighborhood

So if you've never been to London and you're wondering if we live in a nice area, let me give you a tour of our street and the cars parked within a block of our temporary home.

Kyle keeps saying "I had no idea you were so into cars!" but seriously, if you saw and heard Ferrari's and Maserati's and Alfa Romeo's and Lamborghini's about every 2 minutes you'd notice them too! Oh man, they sound incredible.

These are seriously within 1 block of our flat... and EVERY car is this nice. Wow.

We have tube passes and walking shoes.

Flat 19A

I find myself daydreaming about living in beautiful flats like this one about every minute and a half as I walk around our lovely neighborhood. I'll move in tomorrow, thanks.

mission: impossible

The search is over! I asked Kyle for 'the perfect shoes for summer' for mother's day. I wanted a shoe that was comfortable enough for walking miles upon miles without looking like a tourist, versatile enough for every day use, and also cute enough for church so that I'd only have to pack 1 or 2 pairs of shoes. I thought it was impossible, but nope! My man delivered, as promised...

Poor man, we had to look in SLC, Rome, and then London to find them, but find them I did! Kyle wanted to buy some in Italy so I'd have Italian shoes, but they are apparently from a company founded by a frenchman Mr. Aldo ... just via London. Red leather, darling peep toe and leather detailing, cozy stretchable back, and most importantly, a sole fit for walking.

They do exist! Comfortable, fabulous, walking shoes that you can dress up or down! Aren't they gorgeous? And trust me, these babies are oh-so comfortable. I will be wearing them every single day, thank you very much.

Animals on the London Underground

Erin sent me a link to this site and I thought that this idea was so creative. I would love to print a bunch of these and put them up in a bedroom or the hall or really anywhere that needs a little pop of bright colors. I'll definitely try and find some of these next time I'm glancing at a tube map.

"The animals, created using the tube lines, stations and junctions of the London Underground map were first spotted by Paul Middlewick in 1988. The original animal, the elephant was discovered while Paul was staring at the tube map during his daily journey home from work."

link HERE