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My ride home today took a while; Sarah was ready to scream each time I pulled over to get a shot.  Oh the hazards of having a mom with a camera.

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Thank you for your prayers; they meant a lot.  God brought us through this terrifying day and I’m finding that God really wants good for us and not evil.  That seems so simple; like I should have it down by now – ingrained somewhere deep within, but I don’t yet.   I am a bit cynical from living a very difficult life and seem to always be looking for the boogieman behind every corner. 

I’m sure this all sounds like mumbo jumbo right now, but when I can share more, you will understand.  For now I have peace and that is all I really ever needed.  It’s not over yet and I don’t know if it will ever be, but I have my eyes set in the right place.

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Out of the 100 images I took of her in this tutu, I managed to salvage a few.  As it turns out, the girl of many faces found a few new expressions to show me and I assure you, they were not keepers.

Tomorrow morning our lives will hang in the balance, but I’m sure glad that God’s hand in the one holding them. 

I haven’t had a chance to get caught up with the weeks events, but tomorrow is a big scary day and your prayers are really needed.   Days like today, I really miss my mommy.

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Bella and I went hunting to find treasures for our treasure jar.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her the green tomatoes would rot if we keep them.

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Sarah snapped this photo at the reservoir.  She was practicing with manual focus.  Not bad eh?

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I’m home after a really fun weekend, which I really needed.  I’m going to try to summarize, so bear with my rambling.

The trip was really wonderful and I met some new friends.  We had a really good time in-between classes and on Friday night, took the Hotel shuttle into downtown Stamford to have dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.  As it turned out, not one of us wanted to $17.00 for a quesadilla from the hotel.  And I can’t imagine why?

Stamford is just a short ride on the train into Manhattan, but we were all too tired to make the trip, so we decided to stay in town.   However, I have made a mental note to myself to stay in Stamford next time I wanted to go into the city.   Aside from the room service and any other amenity you may need, the Stamford Hilton’s rooms were quite reasonable.  Just don’t get hungry or thirsty while you are there.

Dinner out was a lot of fun and there was a lot a laughing, which did my spirit good.  Laughter lightens the soul and mine sure needed some lightening after the past week.

Classes were also good, but there was a lot of review for me.  I knew that the conference was geared more towards the beginning photographer; however, there is always more to learn and I was right.

The best classes were taught by Candace Stringham,  Matt Adcock, from Del Sol Photography, (with his beautiful wife assisting, Sol Tamargo) and Cheryl Muhr, who by the way, is a total trip and full of energy.

I knew the trip was a success by what I learned.  I had a lot of technique questions answered, especially in Candace’s class on Writing with Light.

There were a few things I about the weekend that would have changed.  Except for Candace’s class, there was NO opportunity to use our cameras during class.  I would have liked the workshop to be more like a workshop and not a bunch of lectures.  People see by doing and it would have been really cool to have fewer photographers there, with longer time periods to go outside and practice what we learned with some guidance.  Some of the classes seemed more about the photographer and their portfolio, than about technique.

I also would have changed the fact that I had my windshield cracked on the way to the event by a rock that a dump truck kicked up, but I was blessed that it is a very small crack and it didn’t cause more damage, or an accident.  I also would change the fact that every one of my photos from the weekend were erased accidentally.  I have no idea how, but they are gone.  The photos I posted for Thursday and Friday were all taken on my way out of the hotel,  wearing a frown because my photos were gone.

All things aside, I had fun and relaxation.  I was blessed by the whole trip and would definitely do it again, if given the chance.

The photos of the front desk area below, didn’t really come out to good, but I’m posting the shots anyway.  The lights would constantly change color and it was really cool to look at.  Sort of a had to be there moment.

My weekend photo buddies:  Louise, JoAnne, Maureen and Deenie.