Aloha, all!
Today is a very special day as we're celebrating my husband's 75th Birthday. I mentioned this last week when I posted his birthday card a bit early so that I could enter it in the Stampin' Up! Only Biweekly Challenge.
But it could not be such a special birthday without some really fun and unusual gift. It all started at Christmas time when we treated ourselves to a new camera. It was really my husband who wanted a "good" camera so that he could learn how to take artistic photographs of his garden. Yes, we both could go out and take photos of palms and orchids and other tropical wonders in our garden. But he wanted to do more. So, not only did we buy the camera (a nice Nikon Digital SLR with a couple of lenses). We also bought a DVD course in Photography as well as the Nikon D3400 for Dummies book to go with our new toy.
And, except for some garden photos I took for a digital scrapbook before our last trip to visit family, nothing else has been done with the camera. And I took those photos – with an automatic setting, to boot! So I decided that now might be a good time to spring for some one-on-one photo lessons for Harry.
We're spending this weekend at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and I found some photographers who live in the town of Volcano who were available to spend this afternoon and evening with Harry to give him some photography lessons.
As the photographer who is the one who'll actually be working with Harry wanted to talk with him before hand, I couldn't keep this as a secret gift. And, boy, did that start an avalanche! All this week and last, Harry has been working with a neighbor – also a photographer, though a hobbyist, not a professional – to learn how to use all the bells and whistles on his (well, really still "ours," but not at the moment) camera. So today we'll have the professional's take on those lessons as we hike through the forest and other areas of the National Park and, finally, in the evening, photograph the lava in Halemaumau Crater after dark.
So that brings me to the final little gift I made for Harry in my Craft Room. This is a covered mini-notebook that Harry will be able to keep in his pocket and use to make notes as the afternoon and evening go on. And I'm sure there will be plenty of room for notes as he goes through his garden over the next few weeks. The scrapbook that we take to visit family this summer will be all HIS photographs, and Harry will be able to talk with our daughter – herself a professional photographer! – about how he took his photos. I can hardly wait!
The paper that I used to cover this little notebook is from the Pick a Pattern Designer Series Paper set. This particular piece of paper is the main reason that I bought this set during the Stampin' Up! demonstrator pre-order period and didn't wait until now to order it. Perfect, don't you think?! I do, for sure!
.
