Chester County Hot Air Balloon Festival 2014

So yesterday I went to the Chester County Hot Air Balloon Festival.  It was cancelled Friday night due to rain.  And things didn't go as planned yesterday either.  It was a gorgeous day, but just a little too breezy.  There was supposed to be a mass launch late in the afternoon/early evening of all the balloons, but that was eventually cancelled due to the winds.  The wind was supposed to die down at sunset, so the nighttime glow was still scheduled.  All the balloons were supposed to be inflated and tethered and light up at dusk.  Well that didn't go as planned either.  Still too windy.  One small balloon did go up, but was having problems because of the wind, so most of the other balloonists started packing up.  I patiently waited it out and eventually 3 more balloons did go up.  It was definitely cool to watch, but disappointing that I paid money and sat around for 6 hours (by myself) and only got to see 4 balloons.  But I guess it was better than none!!  Here are some of the pictures I took during the event yesterday.  Maybe next year will be better weather!!

It was a gorgeous day and the landscape views of the country were breathtaking.

Check out the kite in the middle.  If it's a good day to fly a kite, then it's not a good day to fly a balloon.

Testing the propane on one of the baskets.

Finally the small balloon decided to give it a go.  They were definitely have trouble keeping the balloon upright.

Finally another larger balloon decided to give it a go as well.  Winds finally had died down at dusk.

These balloons weren't that far apart, and look how at the difference in size!!

So pretty lit up at dusk!!

Finally after the sun had set, the special shapes decided to give it a go.  Most of the other balloonists had already given up and were packing up and leaving.

The other special shape that decided to give it a go.

Absolutely love my new 35mm 1.8g lens!!  Takes awesome handheld photographs in low light situations!!

So glad I stuck around until the end!!  

How cool are these guys!!

Even though the day didn't go as planned, I'm still glad I stuck around to the bitter end to see a few of the balloons.  All the pictures of the balloons were actually taken right by where I had parked my car.  Turns out I got there at the right time and had a close spot on the end right by the field where the balloons were.  Lucky me!!  Hope you enjoyed these photographs.  I'm really happy with the quality of hand held photos that my new lens takes!!  I guess it was worth the money!!

Until next time.

Sampling of My Handmade Cards

Here is a sampling of some of the cards I've made that are available in my Etsy Shop.  I just started making cards around Christmas, so this is all new to me.  I'm gradually adding to my supply of craft items needed to make different cards, including stamps, punches, embossing folders, dies,...  Please visit my Etsy Shop to purchase anything you see on here that you're interested in.  Or let me know if you're interested in something custom.

"Happy I Do Day" wedding card.

Flower bouquet Mother's Day card

Baby girl card for baby shower/new baby

"Just Because" bird punch card

Flower bouquet in mason jar card

"Thank You" bird punch card

Another flower bouquet card

"Hi There" owl punch card

Owl punch nurse Get Well Soon card

"Easter Blessings" bird punch card

Colorful flower card

"Guess Who Loves You" owl punch card

Birdhouse bird punch card

Leprechaun card made from bird punch

I hope you enjoyed these cards.  Stay tuned for more in the future.  Again please visit my Etsy Shop to purchase these cards and more.  Have a great weekend!!

Until next time...

Taming the Tech Stuff Workshop

So a couple of years ago I took 2 photography classes from Dazzle Photography that were advertised on Groupon.  I took these classes about 9 months after I bought my DSLR camera.  I learned a lot from them and was able to start manually setting my own camera settings and stop using the pre-programmed settings.  I attended an anniversary party for Dazzle Photography's new studio earlier this spring.  At this party he advertised some new classes he was offering and gave the attendees an awesome discount for these classes.  So I decided to take a leap of faith and sign up for a couple of the classes.  The first one was yesterday.  It is his Part 3 class which was called Taming the Tech Stuff.  It took place at Rockwood Mansion and Park in Wilmington, DE.  The first 2 classes were in a classroom, but this was an on location class with an awesome model we were able to shoot.  I went into this class a little nervous about whether everyone else would have better cameras and lenses and know more than I did, but soon realized that we were all on the same page!!  Dan helped us apply all the tech stuff we learned in the previous classes to real life shooting situations.  So now that we have "Tamed the Tech Stuff" we can just have fun being creative with compositions, lighting,…  I'm so glad that I went and had an awesome time!!  Here are a few of the photographs I shot yesterday at the workshop.

Not quite as in focus as I would like, but still an awesome photograph.

Again not quite in focus, but I still like it.

Nailed it!!!!!!!

Learned how to take silhouette photographs.

AWESOME!!

So I'm signed up for 1 more class coming up in a few weeks.  I'm really excited for what else I can learn!!  Can't wait to post some (hopefully) awesome pictures from that workshop.  So stayed tuned!! 

Until next time...