Mothers

Mothers are more than just the women we are born to.

Mothers are also women that come into our lives; women who love and support us.  They inspire us to pursue our dreams and provide an outstretched hand to help us when we fall.

My Mother, Kathy

I have had the privilege of having three absolutely wonderful women in my life.  Women who have loved me.  Women who have stood by me and been there for the ups and the downs.  Women who have supported me through marriage, through divorce, through trials and tribulations.  Women who have shared my sorrows as well as my joys.

 Women who have loved me deeply, and who have been deeply loved in return.

My Mother, Arlene

So I wish to take a moment to say how much I appreciate them.  How grateful I am for the Lord bringing such wondrous and kind angels into my life.


Women who have molded me, who have shown me what it means to be compassionate.  Mothers who have given me a model after which to pattern my own life.

My Mother, Patsy

 Words cannot say enough just how much these women mean to me, but, until greater words are created, I love you will simply have to do.

You Live and You Learn

Saturday afternoon.  Provo High School Gymnasium.  Crowds filled the bleachers and the floor of the court was filled with teams warming up.

Camera? 
.... check

Tripod?
.... check

Everything was all set up and ready to go for the dance competition.  I snapped random shots of different performances, checking them on my tiny viewscreen and everything looked to be perfect.  Our group's number was called and the music cued up.  I began snapping away, trying to capture spins and twirls and, most of all, the sweet little dancer I was rooting for most.  The number came to a close and the troupe walked to the wings while another group took to the floor.

We stayed for a few performances more and then headed for home, my camera and tripod safely packed away and all waiting to see what images I had captured.

Imagine my horror this morning when I downloaded the images from my camera only to find many of the shots were hopelessly blurry.  With a sinking heart I reached for my camera, already knowing what I would find.

I had left the setting on Automatic, instead of changing it to Sports.  The camera wasn't operating at a high enough speed to capture constant motion, so arms and legs became meaningless streaks and blurs, instead of the graceful lines and movements that had taken place before me.

Since I had never used my camera with the tripod before, I spent too much time making sure it was set up properly and securely, and then trying to set up my remote control (never before used, and not figured out in time for the competition) that I completely overlooked my camera setting.  I was certain I had already changed it and foolishly did not double check before the competition began.

Thankfully the group will probably perform the same number again at next weekend's dedication to the new Springville Town Hall building, so that is where you will find me, valiantly try try trying again.

The most embarrassing part will be explaining this to my friend and her daughter.  Just a few weeks before I had offered to take photos of another daughter and her friends the next time they went to a formal dance, and have also been asked this fall to take this other daughter's senior photos and then I massively screw this up.  Not only is it a blow to the ego, but I feel so stupid about making such an obviously rookie mistake. 

I guess I should seriously spend more time learning the ins and outs of photography... and always double and triple check my settings as I go. 
 
Luckily I was able to salvage some of the shots...

We're only human, right?  Has anyone else made this same, stupid mistake when shooting an event?

Shawna's Summer Movie Review - The Avengers

Okay, first of all, if you liked any of the following movies: Iron Man 1 or 2, Thor or Captain America.... go see this film. If you are a Joss Whedon fan.... go see this film. If you like action and superheroes.... well, you get the drift.

This movie is amazing. For a gal who has never read any of the comics it was still surprisingly easy to follow along and understand what was happening. And while the plot is a bit sparse (Loki, still ticked off at Thor and how he's no longer King of Asgard decides to take over Earth to rule here) the humor and verbal sparring found in Joss Whedon's works certainly makes up for it, as well as a lot of action to keep you entertained for the movie's long length (2 hours and 22 minutes). A funny moment between Thor and Hulk had me in stitches, but don't worry, you'll know it when you see it.

We jump right into the heart of things at the start of the film with the arrival of Loki and the introduction of each Avenger in turn. Look for some nice cameos by our heroes' ancillary characters, Pepper Potts from Iron Man, Stellan Skarsgard's Selvig from Thor plays an important part, and Agent Phil Coulson is finally given a large role (hooray!) rather than the mostly cameos we've seen up until now.

If nothing else gals, the movie is full of eye candy... and every one of them is pretty much packing more abs and pecs than seems physically possible. And guys, there is plenty of Scarlet Johansson in tight leather to keep your eyes on the screen. I honestly did not expect to like her as Black Widow, since I didn't care for her in Iron Man 2, but she is a surprisingly likable character here.  Mark Ruffalo's take on mild-mannered Bruce Banner is understated, but really good (listen for an uncredited cameo of Lou Ferrigno as the voice of the hulk).  The only superhero that is fairly new to us is Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner, who had a brief cameo in Thor, working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and wielding his amazing trademark bow and arrows... fleshed out now as a real character, you can see how he does fit in with our more "super" heroes.

I don't want to give things away, but the movie is about how these individual characters go from outright animosity towards one another to pull together as a cohesive and working team. Stay through the end credits... at the start there is an segment that introduces us to the next Avenger bad guy (who I didn't recognize but Richard says is Thanos, who in the comic book world is a seriously nasty piece of work). I was personally hoping that we'd get Red Skull (from Captain America) as I would love to see more Hugo Weaving, and he obviously wasn't killed at the end of that film (the tesseract just translated him somewhere else) but I guess he just isn't tough enough for the writers to consider.

Stick around through the rest of the credits though,  as there is a moment where we get to see the unknown side of the superhero world... what do weary superheroes do after saving the day? Well, now you'll know.

The best part of the film is, of course, our bad guy, Loki, played wonderfully by Tom Hiddleston. He steals every scene of the film that he is in, and while I admit I have a bit of a crush on the guy (sorry Richard, guess I have a thing for demigod supervillans!) he really does the character justice... not many guys can pull off a character with horns that big attached to their costume! You believe that he really could take on all of our heroes all on his own. Too many films lose it with a wimpy bad guy, so its nice to see one that can stand on his own two feet.

Can we say hello handsome? 

The only recommendation I have is see it in standard 2D... we went to a late showing last night in 3D and we both left with a headache. There is just too much going on in the end action sequence and the 3D gets a bit muddled. I promised Richard we will go see it again and this time in just the standard format.