Photography lessons

Also known as: the blind leading the blind.

What is this - a post not revolving around Annie? My, it has been quite awhile... I kind of embarrass myself by being such a cliche - I have a baby and she's all I can talk about, apparently. On this blog at least. (That probably should be on this list of the Top 10 Blogging Cliches of 2010, which I found hilarious - but I'm guessing that dude doesn't read a lot of mommy blogs ;)

But anyway, I've been meaning to post about the photography "lessons" (and I use that term extremely loosely) that I've been doing with my coworker-friends Jen and Janelle (also featured in this post). I upgraded my camera from the Canon Digital Rebel XTi that I got in November 2007 (before this here blog even started!) to the Rebel T2i a few months ago. The only reason I could do this was because Jen expressed interest in purchasing my XTi from me. Whenever I turn someone on to something I love (like a camera, flickr, Google Reader, gmail, the iPhone, etc) I feel a VERY strong urge to help them use it in the best possible way - so I offered lessons. Janelle was also very interested in photography so she signed on as well! Along the way, she purchased the T2i as well - so we have a little Rebel photo club on our hands :)

I remembered reading the 12 Weeks to Better Photography series on La Buena Vida a few months ago, so I've been using that as a guide for what topic to discuss each week over our Thursday lunch hour - it's a great starting point because as I've found, teaching someone photography, especially when I'm CERTAINLY no expert myself, is very difficult. I also encouraged both of them to read Understanding Exposure, which was what I read when I first bought my camera - it definitely helped me make sense of everything.

One of the biggest things we've talked about is the importance of getting out there and practicing - unfortunately, here in Minnesota in January, there aren't a ton of places you can go. I have been wanting to go to Midtown Global Market for many years, so the three of us decided to meet up for lunch today to hang out and take photos - it was so fun! This is definitely a great spot to hit up if you are craving some kind of market atmosphere in the dead of winter, but don't want to bundle up to go to the farmer's market. There are several different eateries there - between all of us, we tried Manny's Tortas, Salty Tart Bakery, Pham's Deli, Holy Land, La Sirena Gorda (which is the same name of a restaurant I went to in Zihuatanejo - ahh, memories!), and Taqueria Los Ocamos - seriously EVERYTHING was delicious! I'll definitely be back.

On to the photos!!

I'll save most of the Annie posts for her weekly post, but this was one of my faves - I swear she had a good time, despite this less-than-thrilled face

Just enjoying their beverages

Self portraits!

Jen, Brynn and Annie