What a Week!

So much to blog about, so little time! Last Tuesday I went downtown with buddies Sarah and Debbie to shoot the Jazzercise demo classes they held on the corner of Trade of Tryon. It was really fun for me! With the shoulder thing, I wasn't able to carry a bunch of stuff or set up anything, so I basically wandered around and played with my camera all morning. They did two 30-minute classes (without weights) on the street corner. The idea was to promote Jazzercise, the Charlotte Checkers hockey team, and the special Ronald McDonald House fund raising they did at their game on Saturday, Oct. 20.

The classes were a big hit, garner attention of the downtown lunch crowd. Some folks stopped to watch, others just steamed on full ahead with their lunch plans.

After that was all over, the three of us hit lunch at Baxter's Liu Liu's, a chinese restaurant that has a very nice outdoor covered patio. And a decent wine list. I had an Italian Pinot Grigio I wasn't that crazy about, but it was okay.

That afternoon I hit the last home meet for our high school's cross country team. As I rolled up and was prepping my equipment, the newspaper's staff photographer appeared at my elbow. Neither of us knew the other was coming, of course. Since I am the reporter for the team, I've been shooting them whenever I can, but I hadn't told my editor I was going to be at that one. She sent Aaron up. I was so pleased with my jazz photos from the morning, that I decided to stay and practice shooting some more. Aaron graciously hung by me and we talked photography, me peppering him with questions, and he offering me some sage advice. Since another county high school was in the meet, I felt fairly certain that the editor would be willing to use a photo or two of mine for our team and then use Aaron's photos for the other. I'll find out on Wednesday when the paper comes out. Anyway, here is a photo I shot of what I consider to be the most inspirational runner on our team:

I took this photo in early October. Got a lot of great photos at that meet, but my exposure was terrible. The photos came out dark and grainy. Since then I've learned a lot about the metering my camera does and how to use that information. I went back last week to see if I could get this shot again with a better exposure. With Aaron's help, I was able to improve the exposure and reduce the noise, but then they had a slight blur! My panning really needs some serious work.

On Wednesday I shot a flower and some shoes. I wrote about the shoes and posted one photo. But I really feel the need to share this one:

Did I mention she has 113 pair? But go check out her blog.