What all does the class involve?

We will be explaining, in plain language (I promise!), the basics of photography:

Aperture
Shutter Speed
ISO
How to shoot in Manual Mode
Composition
Metering
And more!

We’ll also be sharing some of our tips and tricks:

How to get in the picture
The best and most flattering angles to shoot from
Ideas on how to document events such as birthday parties or dinner parties
What to do with all of the pictures you’re taking
And more!

In addition to all of the above, we’ll be doing lots of hands-on shooting. We won’t just be explaining how to shoot in manual mode, we will be helping you shoot in manual mode. We’re going to practice, practice, practice.

We’ll be fielding questions the entire time. No question is too lame. Trust us!

For those interested, Melissa and I will also be offering head shots for anyone wanting a pretty new picture for Facebook.

We’ve also had several handmade shops donate items to giveaway as doorprizes: Gussy Sews, The Rusted Chain & Lollipops. Love those girls!

Where is the workshop going to be held?

Excellent question!

The workshop will be held in my home, which is why I haven’t advertised the exact location. Creepy internet stalkers and all. ::wink::

It’s in the central Arkansas area within a 30 minute drive of Little Rock.

A map and directions will be provided after the purchase of a ticket.

I have a point-n-shoot camera. Is this class for me?

It depends.

Neither Melissa or I shoot with a point-n-shoot camera. Melissa shoots with a Canon 5d Mark II and I shoot with a Nikon d700.

This class is designed for digital slr users. That’s what we shoot. That’s what we know.

However, if your point-n-shoot camera has the ability to shoot in manual mode, then you may benefit from the class.

If you’re unsure, shoot us an e-mail and we’ll let you know!

eclecticwhatnot (at) gmail (dot) com

or

mail (at) melissastover (dot) com

What about food? I may get hungry.

Me too!

We will be providing lunch and I can promise you it won’t be a Happy Meal.

******************

Tickets are available for purchase here.

If you have any other questions, let us know!

i hopped right out of bed this morning with zero discomfort anywhere on my person.

can i get a high-five?!

i am chomping at the bits to lace up my running shoes and hit the road.

anyway, i finished reworking my training plan, but before i dive into the nitty gritty details i want to show you the original plan. it’s hal higdon’s half-marathon novice 2 training plan.

Half Marathon Training Plan

i’m officially half way through training.

that feels awesome.

and scary.

i’m not ready yet! ::snort::

here’s the revised version:

Reworked Half Marathon Training Plan

i completely cut out a day of running from the schedule. i feel strongly that my body needs a day to recover between runs. i can’t handle running monday, tuesday and wednesday back to back.

i went ahead and bumped up the mileage on monday and wednesday. i’ll have a lower weekly mile average with the new schedule, even with the bumped up mileage, but i’m okay with that.

with the cut out running day, i’m adding in another cross training day. i’ll have one day on the bike and one day in the pool. on my bike days, i’ll also be doing lower body strength training.

exercises for my core will be scattered throughout the week.

i plan on icing, stretching and resting after each run as much as possible.

for the long run this week, i’m going back to the 8-miler.

then, i’ll build up from there. as a result, the 10K race day got cut.

that’s how my training looks for now. i may be tweaking it some more. i’m not entirely sure.

p. s. kent weakley‘s comment on the virtual run was in comment jail for some reason. i just saw it this morning. he made this awesome video while he was running. seriously?! y’all would not want me to video myself running. ::snort:: that guy is so savvy! also, how awesome are his shoes?!

And the randomly selected winner of the virtual run is . . . . Jennifer from Just Me and the Ones that I Love. You should have an e-mail from Amazon waiting in your inbox. Thank you to everyone who participated. I loved reading your recaps!

I am continuing to rest, ice and stretch.

I’ve decided I’m not going to run today. In fact, I’m not going to run until Wednesday. It will have been one week since the last time I ran {and also the longest I’ve ever gone without running since I started!}.

I’ve been busy reworking my training schedule.

And busy working on my weight loss plan.

I’ll be filling you in on both this week.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

in case you have zero idea what i’m talking about . . . .

here’s the post that started it

and

here’s the post explaining it (you can also print out a race bib here).

leave a comment with a link to your blog post or status update on daily mile. i’ll leave it open through sunday night and announce the randomly selected winner on monday morning. the winner will receive a $15 amazon.com gift card.

p. s. i won’t be running today. ::hangs head:: i’ve hurt myself. somehow. i took yesterday off from running and will take today, saturday and sunday off, too. i’m doing plenty of stretching, icing and resting with some cross training and strength training thrown in. i’m also revamping the rest of my training program. i’ll share more about that later. all that to say, i’m feeling depressed and discouraged. i want to live vicariously through y’all and through this virtual run. no pressure or anything. ::snort::

p. p. s. tania did her virtual run last weekend. she even had her picture taken with her race bib on. i love it! she did it in honor of a friend in seattle battling breast cancer.

p. p. p. s. have fun, y’all!

lil’ darth has been joining us for family devotions more and more frequently.

last night he sang the doxology.

perhaps he’s not too far gone into the dark side.

::snort::

also, i’m dying over the looks on his siblings faces. HI-larious!

he has been living in this suit.

no joke.

he takes the cape off to sleep and that’s it.

i’m thinking i should wash it at some point.

or not.

p. s. a while back, i saw this on pinterest and got a good snort out of it.

You can purchase your ticket here.

If you have any questions, shoot us an e-mail:

Melissa: mail (at) melissastover (dot) com
Moi: eclecticwhatnot (at) gmail (dot) com

i know. i know.

this makes like . . . three running posts in a row.

i’m sorry. i’ll post about something different tomorrow.

promise.

confession: last thursday, i skipped my strength training.

i did abs, push-ups and a bit of beginning yoga.

that was it.

normally, the man and i do an hour long weight lifting session. his schedule was different that day and by the time he got home from work i was like fuhgeddaboudit.

not happenin’.

in fact, we crossed paths.

as he was walking in from work i was walking out to have dinner with my mom.

which was quite yummy, by the way.

i told myself i would make up that day on saturday. i would swim and do strength training.

saturday came around. i swam laps.

then, i came home and looked at the weights and was like fuhgeddaboudit.

i’ll just drink a Guinness instead. so, i did.

now, that unchecked day is staring at me. we are, in fact, in a stare off. it has yet to blink.

and my children keep telling me . . .

“mom, you haven’t checked that day off yet.”

“why haven’t you checked that day off?”

“when are you going to check off that day, mom?”

it’s weighing me down.

that unchecked day is going to haunt me for the rest of my training. i just know it.

moving on.

remember saturday morning when i posted and said i didn’t have much soreness.

ha

ha

hahahahahaha

snort

the soreness hit.

it was just delayed.

i’m of the opinion that delayed muscle soreness is just plain rude.

show up when expected, dude!

that’s all i’m sayin’.

on the suggestion of a friend, i bought myself a foam roller. i love how it works out the muscles in my hamstrings. my IT band does not love it, but it will have to deal with it.

*****************************************

totally unrelated.

have you been voting in pw’s romantic comedy match-ups?

oh. my. word.

it’s like torture.

how can you possibly choose between . . .

while you were sleeping & sweet home alabama

or

pretty woman & sabrina

or

sleepless in seattle & sixteen candles

i chose.

it was hard.

i feel as if i betrayed some of my all time favorites.

this is just not right, y’all.

not right at all.

did you vote? which ones did you go with?

i’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours. ::snort::

about forty minutes before i dropped the kids off with my dad, i had a snack.

cinnamon raisin bagel thins
a couple tablespoons of peanut butter
a sliced up banana

it was quite yummy.

mentally speaking, i was scared of this run. at the beginning of the week, i had thought i might be running with three other ladies. things fell through and i ended up having to go solo.

running is such a mental battle.

i had to really switch gears. i knew i wouldn’t be able to rely on outside motivators to keep me moving.

the first half mile i felt a little stiff. my left leg took a little while to warm up, but then i felt great.

honestly.

i wound my way out of my parent’s neighborhood and headed into town.

i had a couple of cars honk at me. what does that mean? it always startles me. i think i’m about to get run over or something.

when i was about 3.5 miles out, i turned around and headed back. i passed a lady on the sidewalk and she said, “you go, girl!” and gave me a high five.

yeah. i felt like a rock star. not gonna lie. right at that exact moment, my head probably needed its own zipcode.

::snort::

starting at mile four, i chewed on one sports bean per mile and i started sipping water from my water bottle continually.

there were times throughout the run when i would question myself if i felt good, then i would doubt if i felt good. i would go back and forth. looking back, it was rather comical.

with half a mile left, i passed my parent’s house and headed down a different road.

that was hard.

that was really hard.

i was tired. i was ready to be done. both hips had started feeling sore in the middle of mile seven.

when the garmin beeped at me telling me i was done, i was so relieved.

i walked it out for a few minutes. my legs felt like heavy logs. especially as i climbed the three short steps into my parent’s kitchen. that motion just felt so foreign.

as i stepped into the house, the children came running up to me.

“congratulations on running eight miles, mommy!”

“you did it, mom!”

i’m getting a little emotional as i type it out. it was special. they’re the best cheerleaders a mom could have.

right away, i drank a tall glass of water while i had a nuun tablet dissolving in a bottle of water.

then, i drank the bottle of water.

it tasted great!

i stretched everything out for a good fifteen minutes. i kept telling my girl, “ooooh! it hurts so good.” ::snort out loud:: but, seriously . . . it did.

i ate inhaled a clif bar (my new favorite is the crunchy peanut butter), packed up the crew and headed back home.

after showering, i ate a banana and drank a few cups of coffee.

i was dragging at this point. i felt great physically. i mean . . . i was sore, but nothing horrible.

i was just so tired. i could have taken a looooong nap. i’m thinking that’s pretty normal.

now, here it is, the next morning and i feel . . . . good! the only major soreness i have is in my hamstrings and it’s not too terrible. my IT band is just ever so slightly sensitive. just enough so i know it’s there.

thanks for listening! xo

i’m just going to come out and say it . . .

sometimes my stupidity knows no bounds.

do y’all, by chance, remember those fancy new running shoes i purchased recently?

and do y’all, by chance, remember me saying i was going to slowly break them in?

a sweet friend {hello, carol!} e-mailed me last week and said something along the lines of: “please tell me you aren’t running exclusively in those new shoes. tell me you’re breaking them in nice and slow.”

i have yet to e-mail her back.

i felt like a big goober.

i’m sure y’all can tell where this is going, right?

it’s like this:

Saturday: 3-mile power walk
Monday: 3-mile run
Tuesday: 4-mile run
Wednesday: 3-mile run
Friday: 7-mile run
Saturday: 3-mile power walk

instead of slowly breaking my shoes in, i went with the opposite method.

i’m paying for it now.

honestly, i felt great until after my long run on friday. i felt slightly achey during the week, but nothing bad enough to warrant second thoughts. at least not for a genius such as myself. ::ahem::

right after my long run, i felt great. tired and hungry, but so happy. as the night went on, my body started deteriorating.

my hips hurt.

my feet hurt.

my IT band hurt.

i was fine as long as i was up and moving. the problem came after i had been sitting for awhile.

now, here comes the really genius part of all of this.

did i realize after friday that i might need to switch back to my other shoes for the next run?

nooooooo.

i proceeded to run in the new ones for 3 miles on monday . . . . and then another four miles yesterday.

it was during yesterday’s run that the clue bird landed.

finally.

finally.

it was a miserable run. my left hip and upper/outer thigh were so tight.

sigh.

for today’s run, i slipped my asics back on and tried to keep my pace slow and allow my body time to loosen up/warm up.

it wasn’t the funnest run ever.

in fact, i’m looking forward to not running tomorrow.

this afternoon i tried out a yoga class geared toward the IT band {thanks for the heads up, tamara!}. i felt like the biggest goober. i’ve never done yoga before and i have zero idea what i’m doing. my legs were shaking while i was trying to hold positions. it probably didn’t help that i had an audience with a fit of the giggles.

was it my bum in the air that was so funny?

i only made it through half of the routine. i wimped out.

is it just me or is contorting your body into odd positions hard? ::snort out loud::

honestly, this whole thing has scared me a little.

i have fallen in love with running.

i don’t want to intentionally do something that could take me away from it.

i need to be smarter.

Tickets will be available for purchase one week from today ~ Valentine’s Day ~ Tuesday, February 14.

You will need a Paypal account in order to purchase a ticket.

More details will be provided to those attending after tickets are purchased ~ such as directions, what to bring with you, if snorting is allowed in my home {wink}, etcetera etcetera etcetera.

If you have any questions between now and when tickets go on sale, fire them our way.

Melissa ~ mail {at} melissastover {dot} com

Moi ~ eclecticwhatnot {at} gmail {dot} com

Please note: This class is designed for beginners shooting with a dslr camera.