Well, unbeknownst to me, Bobby was already talking to the workers at the shelter and making arrangements to come see the little guy when he left work.  When Bobby walked in our house that evening he said, “There’s someone I’d like for you to meet.”  I will admit, I did not squeal with delight and excitement.  My mouth fell open and my eyes got big and I said something more like “Oh my gosh.  You got him.”  My only thought was how much work it was going to be to have another dog.  Since I work from home, the heft of that responsibility would fall on me.

However, this dog broke (and eventually stole) our hearts.  He was terrified.  Labeled as severely abused, he would not allow us to touch him or come near him.  He made our couch his “home base” and stayed there eyeing us with suspicion.  He was destructive (crate training solved that), not housebroken (lots of trips outside, treats, and steam cleaning fixed that), terrified of people and un-socialized (a puppy training class and lots of love and patience fixed that).  After a few days we changed his shelter name (Swayze) to a big boy brave man name, Major.  It wasn’t long before Major completely stole our hearts.

We knew right away he was super smart.  He wanted to please.  He graduated from puppy class with flying colors.  He learned to sit, stay, come, shake, and high five.  He slept in a doggie bed on the floor beside our oldest schnauzer, Jewel.  Often, during the night, we’d awake to the sounds of toys squeaking and flying across the room.  It was as if he was afraid the toys would disappear and he so he couldn’t sleep all night without getting up to check on the toys and playing with each one of them.

Then, in April, one Sunday morning after my husband arose early and left the bedroom to go sip coffee, Major did something I never expected him to do.  I felt the tiniest little nibble on my ring finger.  In my slumber, I couldn’t imagine what I was feeling.  I opened one eye and there curled up beside me, nibbling away at my wedding ring and finger was Major.  He had managed to quietly sneak into bed with me and curl up beside me.  It was the ultimate show of trust.

Today, Major is much more confident (still gets nervous when he meets new people).  He is the smartest and most affectionate dog we’ve ever owned, and he just completes our family.

We celebrated his birthday and his freedom ride from the shelter on March 6.  I took his official birthday portraits over the weekend.  As you can see, he is still camera shy!  Enjoy these photos of my sweet Major Man, and PLEASE consider visiting your local animal shelter or rescue group to find your best FURiend.  I promise you, he or she is there waiting for you!

I remember always having a love for reading.   Once I could read, I had several Little Gold Books that I read over and over.  The Three Little Kittens was my favorite (and still is).

In second grade my teacher read my class what I considered to be my first “real” book, A Taste of Blackberries by Doris Buchanan Smith.  In my 8 year old mind, a “real” book was a chapter book.  I remember sitting on the floor with my classmates listening to my teacher read the story of Jamie and his best friend.  There’s a moment in the book when tragedy strikes, and I remember my heart falling into my stomach there in my second grade classroom.  My mouth fell open.  I started to breathe a little faster.  I looked around at my friends who were picking at their shoe laces (or worse, their noses), whispering to their buddy next to them, or staring out of the windows that lined one side of our room.  No one seemed to be as traumatized or emotional as I was.  No one seemed to grasp what had just happened to one of the beloved characters of this book in the same way that I did.  It was at that moment, with this book that a true love for literature was born.

To this day I can get so emotionally invested in books that I will grieve for the characters once the story has ended.  I’ll think about them for days or even dream about them.  Books have taken me to places I’ll likely never visit in my lifetime.  Books have introduced me to characters that I could connect with on a personal level.  I have cried over books, been enraged over books, and laughed out loud in the middle of the night while reading a book.  I have a few books that I have had for years.  I cherish them as my favorites and will still bring them out from time to time and reread their familiar words.

I am so thankful for a mama that taught me to read the instant I said I wanted to learn.  I am thankful for all of those Little Golden Books that began my love of reading, for my children’s bible (that I still have), for Levar Burton and Reading Rainbow,  and for the countless dollars my parents gave me to spend at book fairs and on scholastic order forms (God, I still love scholastic order forms).  I still get a thrill from a good book that nothing else can give me.

I’d also like to thank a special teacher.  Way back in the day, when I sat on the floor of her classroom and she read A Taste of Blackberries to me, I called her Mrs. Peacock.  She opened my mind and heart to the love of a good story.  Today, she’s known as Mrs. Lowery.  It’s amazing how a good teacher can shape your life.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”  – Dr. Seuss

First of all, lets start with what a DSLR is.  Digital Single Lens Reflex camera means that your camera captures light that travels through the lens and uses a mirror to reflect that light through the view finder.  You can see the image that is captured on your camera’s sensor through the view finder.

I brought out “Lil Snoopy” to help demonstrate a couple of your camera’s shooting modes.  Here he is, my only cherished childhood toy:

shot at 1/1250, f 3.2, iso 320, 50mm

Your camera has a dial with various shooting modes.   I’ll review some of those shooting modes with you now.  My ultimate goal is to get you to try them all and eventually start shooting your camera manually.  For now, let’s start with basic shooting modes:

Auto – your camera sets your shutter speed, aperture, white balance, and ISO for you.  It even triggers your pop up flash if you have one.  Here’s an example of an image shot in auto.  From this point on, all images in this blog post are SOOC (straight out of the camera with no editing).

You can see that the image is a little dark (these were taken on my back deck in the later part of the afternoon) and that the toy and the deck are all in focus.  The camera automatically used these settings:  1/200, f 5.6, ISO 100   You can see how these settings do not allow for control over the low light situation and how they differ from the the first shot I took manually.

Program (P) – semi automatic setting.  The camera controls most of the settings, but you control ISO, white balance, and flash.

Aperture Priority (A or Av)-  you have control over setting the aperture which is the amount of light that comes through the lens and depth of field.

Shutter Priority (S or TV)-  you have control over shutter speed which helps to freeze subjects on the move.

Manual (M)- you have complete control over all of your camera settings and can adjust your settings according to lighting factors.  Here is a SOOC image I shot manually:

camera settings:  1/4000, f 2.2, ISO 400

and here is a side by side comparison of the image shot in AUTO and the image shot in MANUAL so that you can see what you are missing by shooting only in AUTO mode.

I’m thrilled to be writing a monthly photography article for Chapel Hill News and Views. If you haven’t LIKED their facebook page please do so by clicking HERE.

I’d love to answer any of your questions, so please email me at mandie@mandienewsom.com and I’ll try to answer them all and may use one of them for a future article.  Be sure to like my Facebook page by clicking HERE.

To celebrate my first Photography Tips blog post, everyone (local the Douglasville/metro Atlanta area) who either likes my facebook page or emails me after reading this blog post, or comments below (include your email) will will receive a HALF OFF session!

Until next month, read your camera’s manual and go have fun taking pictures!  Practice makes perfect!

She and I and another photographer (blog post coming soon) got together at the beginning of December to photograph each other.  I’d love to share a few of my favorite images from that day with you now.  Kirsten (cue The Golden Girls theme song) thank you for being a friend.  I look forward to having you in my life for a very long time!