Class.

I’m soon off for the second lecture of the photography course I’m taking. It’s an evening class, which it good because it gives me a great excuse to bust out from work at a reasonable hour. The course is being held by the local photographers club and the lecturer is a professional photographer. That of course is a plus since a gardener probably wouldn’t have been an ideal photography lecturer.

Now, I’m not so sure about this guy either. He seems nervous, even though he has held the same class numerous times before. He also ends every other sentence with a chuckle, something that might turn into The Annoyance of the Day^TM. We’ll see. I have no doubt that he knows his stuff, though, and I’m sure I can learn a lot from him.

The lecturer sends out a lot of e-mails and the last one was so long I stopped reading half way through. Probably not the actions of a good student, but that’s the way it happened. So it wasn’t until last night when I read the rest of the e-mail that I realized we were supposed to hand in a photo for today’s class. Whops.

Since we’re on the subject of photography, Apple just released a Aperture 2 and cut the price by $100. If I wait until Aperture 3, maybe it’ll be another $100 cheaper.

Smile!

So, what’s happening? Not much, not much. A little bit of work, a little bit of EVE, a little bit of exercise. Right now it’s not even a little bit of exercise, really, since I’m stuck with support. Come to think of it, Gine has her spinning bike in the bedroom, so I could theoretically take that for a spin (pun very much intended). Maybe tomorrow, it’s too late in the evening now.

Next Wednesday I’m doing something I should have done a long time ago; I’m taking a basic photography class. I’ve owned and used a camera for as long as I can remember, but I just know the really basic stuff and I’m sure I can take much better pictures with more knowledge; Photography II.

Ginger.

Since Easter last year I’ve tried to avoid food and candy with large amounts of sugar. I’ve done reasonably well, moving from regular to diet soda and not eating too much candy. Yes, I admit I’ve had the occasional chocolate bar just to cheer my up when I’ve started my twelfth hour at work and see no light at the end of the tunnel.

I also make a few exceptions, like Christmas. If you’ve had a look at the calendar lately, you’ve probably noticed that Christmas is coming fast - yes, dates in the calendar are closer than they appear. Because of work I’m not celebrating Christmas with my family this year, but me and Gine will enjoy ourselves in our apartment in Oslo.

We’ve just started the preparations for what could turn out to be the food and sweets orgy of the year by making two large gingerbread doughs. Tomorrow we’re making a gingerbread house and more gingerbread men, women and pigs than you thought were possible without a license. Gingerbread men are sweet enough, but of course they’ll have to be decorated with even sweeter candy. A few friends are coming over to help us out. Too bad the apartment isn’t more spacious.

Hopefully tomorrow’s escapade will not result in me getting back on to the junkie train to candy land.

And now for something completely different: Out of the 150+ photos I took in Australia and Canada, I’ve put one online in the gallery. Enjoy.

Football.

On our Sunday walk today me and Gine came across what we first was an American football practice. There is a sports field not far away from my apartment and someone had put up the yard markers and a few large guys were staggering around on the field in their Goliath gear. It turned out they were preparing for a match, not just a practice session. I’d brought the Sigma 70-300mm lens with me and took a few pictures of the players while the warmed up.

Pictures are available in the Gallery, 46 through 51.

Nord-Statland 2007.

I’ve posted a few Easter photos in the Gallery, photos 41 through 45. Not the kind of pictures you’d expect of a Norwegian Easter, but I’m not much of a skier.

For the first time I’ve processed one of the images with Photoshop. The foreground was too dark compared to the background so I had to increase the brightness a bit. Adobe is kind enough to let you try their USD 650 piece of software for free for 30 days, so I downloaded and installed CS3 from their site. It sure is a powerful program and it will take a lot more than 30 days to master it, but it’s fun playing around. Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom would probably be more than sufficient to cover my amateur photography needs, though, and it’s available for USD 400 less than CS3. That said, a powerful design tool might come in handy, especially since it’s been a while since the last site redesign.

Well, enough about that, enjoy the photos. Your comments are always appreciated, both praise and criticism.