Intro to Multimedia Class

Its always been a struggle for me to balance teaching and operating the studio at the same time. Until Bridget started working at the studio on April 28th (little over three months ago) it was hard for me to get any real work done on the days that I taught. For the past four years until this past Spring I taught only one class.  Then at the end of last year I was informed that I was being given the privilege of teaching not one but two classes at the Lone Star College North Harris campus; Digital Video (which I've taught since Fall of 2004) and Intro to Multimedia.

The Intro to Multimedia class allows me to share with all my students my true love of all the different types of media... photography, graphic design, video, web site and DVD creation. In this class all the students get hands on practice and learn practical knowledge of how to use the variety of multimedia software that Adobe has on the market (Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere, Encore and After Effects). The students are also introduced to the superior Apple Macintosh. Yes, I said superior (PC's and Microsoft are of the devil), not because I have only ever used the Mac, but because the Mac is truly the world's most user friendly and most stable operating system. But, we'll leave that for another discussion. Those of you who have taken my class you know how I feel about the Mac.

This summer was only the second semester that I taught the Intro class. After teaching it last Spring I knew that something had to be changed. Last Spring I had several students who were simply bored with the repetitive book reading, writing papers and only working with the Adobe software for about half of the contact hours. I had to create a more functional way to teach them all how fun it could be to use all the software packages together to create a user friendly multimedia experience. I'm happy to say it was a success. Normally on any given semester the turn over rate for students staying through the semester versus those who drop the class (for whatever reason) is generally 1/2. If 20 students enroll, likely 10 will drop. This summer, every student stayed to the end. I am so grateful that you all stuck through it. I know the class can be tough, learning the software can be daunting, working with the Mac for the first time is a challenge, but you all did it; I am so proud of you all. Not only did they all stay for the duration of the class, few were ever absent and you all demonstrated a drive to learn all that you could.

Thank you all for allowing me to make a difference. Thank you for not just being my students but my friends. I will miss the eight hours a week that we spent together. I look forward to seeing you all go on to do great things. I will always be here as a mentor and friend if you ever need help with your careers or simply just want to talk about life. Remember who to come to for your photography when you go to get married. I hope you all took something away from the class that allows you to go on to not only help yourselves through life but also those around you. Thanks again Barbara for my new box camera. It will be displayed prominently with my growing antique camera display. Don't be strangers guys.

PHOTOS AND VIDEO COMING SOON! COME BACK!

The storm is coming

Bridget and I took a trip to Wal-Mart this afternoon (Monday the 4th) and we were in for a surprise. Having only heard about the storm Sunday night I'm not sure what we really expected. What we found is an unGodly number of people at Wal-Mart on a Monday afternoon. Our thoughts were, "doesn't anybody work?" But then again we were there, right? :) With the scare of tropical storm Edouard coming our way people have exhausted the stock of water in just about every grocery store, Wal-Mart and Target in our area.  What gets me is that this storm is not yet even classified as a hurricane and everybody is going wild trying to stock up on bottled water and dry goods. I'm just like the next guy, wanting to be prepared for whatever may happen, but for the water to have already been sold out is amazing to me.

Now, the wait is on to see if Lone Star College will be open or closed tomorrow. I teach the morning Intro to Multimedia class at North Harris. We'll see if the class meets. If the storms get too bad our studio will be closed.

Babies, Babies, and more Babies...

I guess whenever you reach a certain age you always seem to know someone that is pregnant or just had a baby. It seems like for the last two years I have on a continual basis known someone that is pregnant.

When I left my job at Baker Hughes three months ago there were to ladies in my department that were pregnant and one that was on maternity leave. Currently, I know about 5 pregnant woman. My step-mom is pregnant. I am super excited about that. I can't wait for my little sister to get here. I know having a sister that is going to be 27 years younger than me seems weird but I am truly excited and happy for her and my Dad. One of my friends from my old job is also pregnant at this time. I know her and her husband are super excited. They've been together a very long time, although, they've only been married since March of this year. The most recent pregnancy we found out about is Kris and mine's sister-in-law. Her and Kris' brother, Nik already have two young children. I know they are excited as they had been wanting a third child for some time now.

Not only have family and close friends been having kids lately so have quite a few of our clients. Krystle and Chad had a baby girl as did Brandon and Ann. Jessica and Blake also welcomed a baby girl into their household. Celeste and Jeremy had a baby girl as well this past December. Man girls must be in season as my step mom is having a girl as well. I know that we have at least two other clients that are expecting a child in the next couple of months. I guess that is to be expected when we are in the business of weddings. Babies are the natural progression.

I am very excited for every one on the birth of their children. While Kris and I love kids we had set out originally to wait a couple of years to start a family. We've been married a little of a year now. I'd say by next year we might be ready to start for kids of our own. Maybe we'll have a little girl so she can play with and grow up with my little sister.

Congratulations to everyone on their pregnancies or on the recent births of their babies!

Bridget

Two Years Ago Today...

I have to say I don't find anything sexier than a man wearing his wedding band. Especially, when its my husband. For me it shows love and commitment and that he is not ashamed to show that in public.

Today is the two year anniversary of the day that Kris proposed to me. I cannot believe it has been that long. Okay a LOT has happened in the last two years so when I think back to that singular event it does seem like a long time ago. Its so funny because leading up to our engagement I decided that we should document that time via a video journal. Well we finally got around to watching it today. I know it's been two years, but you get busy and when your life's work is documenting other peoples memories you don't always have time to go back and look at the ones you captured for yourself. It was so much fun to watch that journal. I think it covered about a two week period leading up to the day of the proposal. It shows me about to loose my mind waiting for Kris to pop the question and it shows Kris talking about buying the ring and planning the proposal. I really could not have asked for a more perfect proposal and I am happy that Kris thought out how he was going to do it rather than rush into it. He knew us having a special story was important to the both of us.

      THEN            AND         NOW

I am so happy that Kris and I celebrated our One Year Wedding Anniversary this past March. I look forward to many many more years together.

Today is also Nik, Kris' brothers, birthday. Happy Birthday Nik!!