FREE Sight Word Worksheets!!

Hey!  Remember me?  I've to get real here for a minute.  I have been so busy with life that the blog sort of fell by the wayside.  It wasn't until about a month or so that I noticed that my preschool pin had been repinned over 50 THOUSAND times!  I was in shock.  I knew something must be wrong with that, so I checked the blog and sure enough, there were over 78 thousand views!  The majority of those are for my preschool post.  The blog will hit over 100 thousand views in the next day or two and so I thought it was only fitting that I add another preschool help!

My daughter is starting to learn to read and I wanted to give her some worksheets to work on.  She loves the "finding games", so I thought she'd like something like this.  Each time she circles a word, I have her repeat the word, to help her be able to recognize the word later.  We also work on that word when we read books together.
 I believe it's so important that we have all the help we can get when we're trying to educate our children, so I wanted to share these with you!  Enjoy!

**NOTE: When you print, choose landscape so that it fills the whole page.

Beginning Sight Words

Gardening on the cheap for the not-so-green thumbed!

 I know.  I know.  It has been AGES since I have written.  Between getting my photography/videography business up and going, and it being winter, I haven't actually done much craft/food/creative-wise.  So sad!


A new sort of energy has overcome me in the last couple weeks.  You know what it is?  SPRING!  I wasn't aware of how tired I was of winter until the weather started to warm up.  And now I've got projects on my mind!!!  Most of these projects belong outdoors, but that will likely change when the heat of summer drives me back inside with the air conditioner.  But for now, I hope you're ready for some gardening projects!

I was going to wait to post about this after I had begun and things were (hopefully) coming along nicely.  Then I realized this post really wouldn't be good for anyone until next year.  So hopefully you guys are prepared to follow along to get your gardens going this year!

We've tried gardens in the past, only to not have much success.  This is going to be the year of change.  I am determined to have a good garden.  It's a bit pathetic that I can't seem to grow a garden and here's why....Please don't judge.  I graduated college in landscape management...and I spent 3 1/2 years working in a greenhouse growing plants...and I even worked in the greenhouses at Disneyworld.   Sad, huh.  In my defense, there is a huge difference in growing plants in a greenhouse where you can control the environment and many of the pest.  Not to mention...little to no weeds. 

I've always blamed our soil or my lack of time and money.  There's a little truth to that, but let's be honest...I've been lazy.  It's too hot to weed...It's too hot to go out and water. (Lame one, right?  I mean, I've got cold water. In the hose.  Right in my hand...)

Not only do I have a tendency to be lazy about it, but starting a garden can also get expensive.  And of course money is always tight.  So this year I'm doing things as cheap as possible.  Here's my game plan...

FIRST:
I built a raised garden bed for FREE (except the dirt and plants that go in it).  Our fence blew down in a super heavy rain/snowstorm a few weeks ago.  Silver Lining!! I could use those slats and screws and some leftover 2X4 blocks we had and build myself a new, albeit somewhat trashy looking, raised bed. 

Now, if you didn't have the great luck of having your fence blown over, don't worry.  You can still build a raised bed for super cheap using fence slats from your local home improvement store.  There's a tutorial here if you need an idea to get you started. 

SECOND:
From here on out these are things I plan to do to get my garden going.  I'll update as I go along.

• Put cardboard as the base of my garden bed.  This will help keep weeds out and will eventually decompose
• Start gathering compost (whether from my own pile, though it's looking pretty shabby) to mix with my own soil.  Note: It's important that you don't only use potting soil or compost.  These are things to amend the soil, not be  the soil.  You need to have predominately real soil to have success.  
• Gather material from around the house to start seeds
• I've been collecting cardboard egg cartons, toiletpaper rolls (empty, of course), yogurt containers (my daughter eats an individual yogurt every day, so I'm hoping they'll make good seed starters).  Basically anything I can find that I think might be good for either starting seed or transplanting seedlings.
• I've also been collecting our tin cans from dinner.  My daughter wants to have a garden of her own, so I'm going to let her paint the cans and then plant flowers or something in them.
• Start gathering scraps for our compost pile.  I know it's too late for our spring compost, but I'm hoping our left over scraps of fruits and veggies (banana peels, eggshells, etc.) will help with our fall compost 

Hopefully this helps you get ideas to get started with your own garden on the cheap this year!!

Cake Smash Video

So this is my favorite video so far.  My friend hired me to photograph her daughter's cake smash and I thought it would be a great time to practice videography for the wedding I had the next week.  I'm so glad I did.  I thought it turned out pretty cute and my friend LOVES it.  She told me she watched it 20 times the first day.  (That's the best compliment I could have gotten!!)  I basically used my 50mm for the whole thing.  I didn't use a tripod, I just stabilized A LOT in Premiere Pro.  (I highly, HIGHLY recommend Premiere Pro.)  Anyway, here it is!

My Journey into Videography Continues

I had another chance to practice my videography on a wedding.  My sister-in-law was getting remarried in St. George and I was in charge of photography.  So I thought I may as well take the opportunity to do some video as well.  I'm glad I did, because I didn't love how the photos came out.  They would have been great outside, but we were in a room with beige walls and a beige floor.  That is the perfect recipe for orange pictures, and I didn't have any off camera lighting with me.  Also, the wedding went really quick.  Like less than 5 minutes quick.  So I had a lot less to work with in editing.

For this video I tried to use less movement and just focus on the people and cutting back and forth.  I used a tripod and my Monfrotto Fluid Head (which is amazing, by the way.  I have another Manfrotto that's a lot cheaper, but it doesn't really even compare to this one.  Well worth the price) for most of the shots.  I also shot some handheld, only because the space in the room was a little tight.  With those I just applied stabilization.  I shot the majority of this in 1920x1080, 30 fps.

I also edited with Premiere Pro instead of Magix and it made a HUGE difference for me in post.  I spend a whole lot less time editing, even with the learning curve.  I did the whole thing in a day.  It probably would have taken less time without interruptions from kids ;).  I would wholeheartedly recommend Premiere Pro.

I know my videography is definitely a work in progress, but I think this video is better than the first wedding I did.  It's progress, and at this point that's all I care about.

Here it is!

What I learned from my first wedding video (and I learned a lot)

This post is a little hard for me to write.  I'm not one to show off my flaws.  I am definitely an introvert in most ways and sharing my first wedding video is terrifying.  Mostly because I compare it to colleagues who have been doing this for years.  I continue to tell myself that this is my first video and it will get better from here.  So keep that in mind and please be kind.  I share this to try to help others who are also beginning the long and arduous journey into videography.  So here is the video...





So here are a few of the key things I learned while starting out (Keep in mind this may not work for everyone):

-Though many of the best wedding videos I have seen use a lot of motion, until you've gotten a lot of practice, it may be best to start out with a lot of static shots, incorporating a few tilt and pan shots here or there.  I tried to make get the majority of my shots to have some element of motion.  I got a lot of shaky shots (part of the problem for me was a monopod, but I'll get into that next) and I had to do a lot of stabilization in post.





-I know a lot of people use a monopod a lot in their ceremony filming.  For me, it just didn't work as well.  Again, part of it was the shake.  I plan to use a tripod and fluid head for the next one.  At least until I get more practice on it.

-Film a lot of B-roll.  And not only that, but make sure you get A LOT of different angles.  Get the dance from different sides and different focal lengths.  I think the contrast makes a HUGE difference.

-Post production- I used Magix Pro for this wedding.  Don't.  I think it can be a good program for some people, but I didn't feel it was extremely user-friendly and it was hard to find tutorials online that were specific to what I needed.  I have since purchased Adobe Premiere Pro CC.  I'll review that one when I've had more time to play around with it.

Hopefully this helped, at least a little!

Computer specs for video editing

It was shortly before my daughter's birthday party that I scheduled my first paid video job.  I thought the birthday party would be the perfect time to get some more practice in.  Lucky for me.  After uploading the raw video I started the editing process.  I had uploaded new software to a computer I'd never used for video editing.  This is what I discovered:  My laptop is virtually useless for what I need.  The video lag in the playback was AWFUL.  The diagnosis?  Simply, I needed a new computer.  Great.  I did a lot of research and talked to a few IT guys. My computer wasn't meeting the minimum specs for what I needed to do video editing.  I looked around at a lot of different computers.  In the end I had a friend build me a custom computer. 

 Here are the basics of what you need to look for.  Keep in mind that these are definitely not the only options you have.  This is just what I would have gone with if I hadn't had mine built.

Processor- i5 or i7  you also want the speed to be at least 2.8 GHz
RAM- 16 GB
Graphics card-  I'm a little sketchy on this one.  It was difficult to find a good graphics card in a computer on a budget.  You definitely don't want a graphics card that's integrated into the computer.  You want one that can be removed.
Hard drive-  If you're doing video you want at least 1TB hardrive. 



Here's what I got at Newegg and the price I paid for each:

*FYI the Internal SSD is like a fast hard drive (at least that's how it was explained to me.)  It's supposed to make your computer go a little faster, but it's not necessary

1 x ($189.99) ASRock 990FX Extreme9 AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 8 x S

Motherboard

1 x ($169.99) AMD FX-8350 Black Edition Vishera 8-Core 4.0GHz (4

Processor

1 x ($119.99) SAPPHIRE DUAL-X 100314-4L Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-B

Graphics Card

1 x ($87.99) Mushkin Enhanced STEALTH 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DD

RAM

1 x ($84.99) Kingston SSDNow V300 Series SV300S37A/240G 2.5" 24

Internal SSD*

1 x ($47.99) Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Ca 

Hard Drive

My introduction into videography

I don't know about you guys, but I feel like photography can be a hard business to be in.  People tend to look at prices of photographers and think, "they make that much for an hour of taking photos?!"
I think many don't realize how much time it takes after the photo shoot is over.  Not only that, but it seems like every third person (in Utah, at least) is a photographer, or has someone in their family that is, or has a decent DSLR and thinks that they are.  

I decided I wanted to try something new.  One of my friends that I was shadowing does birth stories.  She does photography and videography for those births, and I love them!  To me, it's easier to have an emotional connection to watching an event unfold than seeing snapshots of those same events.  To be fair, I have seen some amazing, emotional photos.  It can be done, but I think it takes a good photographer to capture a photo with the same feeling you can get through video. 
I also had a videographer at my wedding and was so glad I did.  I love watching that video. (Mostly on anniversaries or because my daughter wants to see Mommy and Daddy on TV.) 

I'm learning as a go here.  I've picked peoples brains and researched A LOT.  I want to share my experience: the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I hope it can help those who are also getting started avoid any pitfalls I find along the way.  

I started trying things out about 4 months ago.  I currently have a Canon T2i.  I've read that it's actually a pretty decent camera for video.  I'm hoping to upgrade soon, but for now, this will do.  The first thing I learned is that it's important to have the right memory card.  I have a stash of memory cards that I've had for a while, but they were all class 4 cards.  A class 4 card will allow you to only record about 5 seconds of video at 1920 x 1080 pixels.  I get class 10 cards.  I use these 32 gb Sandisk cards.  They're only $15 at Amazon (at the time of this writing). 

Other than the memory cards I didn't purchase any other equipment for my first video.  Let me tell you, it wasn't pretty.  I did a video for my nephew when he got baptized.  It was a bit shaky and not the most crisp video.  Of course my brother an sister-in-law were still happy with it because it was their son and it didn't cost them anything.  I would post it to give examples of what not to do, but I couldn't purchase licensing for the song I put it to.  That's one thing that is VERY important.  I've heard horror stories of people posting unlicensed music and having to pay fines of $5000 or more.  DON'T POST ANY VIDEO WITH MUSIC YOU DON'T HAVE THE LICENSE FOR!!!  Just don't do it.
I'm getting a little ahead of myself.  I did the baptism video and I learned a lot from it.  That would be one of my first recommendations.  Practice on an event that isn't a professional job for money. 

After that I decided it was time to get some equipment.  Over the course of the next few months I'll go into what I've been using and what was a waste of money to purchase. 
Here's the list of what I got and how much I paid:

AmoVee Shotgun Mic $36  
Manfrotto 128LP Fluid Head $83  (you may need some 1/4" to 3/8" adaptors)
Konova 31" slider $250
Squidmic $52
Zoom H1 recorder $138
Magix Video Editing Software $49
Dolica Monopod $16
LCD Viewfinder (Loupe) $20

Shotgun mic:  I think this is important.  I think video is always better if you can hear at least a little of the background noise.  
Fluid head:  This is absolutely necessary.  You need a fluid head to get smooth shots.  Manfrotto is a good brand, and this is on the cheaper end, but still has good quality.  I think the next thing I'll get is a quick release.  It just takes too long to change the camera when you're in the middle of a wedding.
Slider:  The jury is still out on the slider.  I think it is important to get more creative shots, but if I had to do it over, I probably would have waited to buy the slider. 
Squidmic and Audio Recorder:  This is also an absolute must if you plan to do wedding ceremonies.  So far I like the Zoom H1 (you can get it without the accessory package for $100).  I like the squidmic too, but you could probably find a decent lav mic for $30 or so. 
Video Editing Software:  I haven't been able to try this software out yet.  I'll have a whole post on that later.  I'll be updating my opinions on this in a week or so.
Monopod:  I like the monopod I have, and I personally think this is must for filming weddings, but I think I may buy one with legs on the bottom to give it more support.  Maybe something like this.
Viewfinder (Loupe)-  Not necessary, but I think it's handy to have.  It magnifies the LCD screen so you can more clearly see if the subject is in focus.

I have a few other things that I had already as a photography (light stands, extra batteries, etc.) but I haven't used them much for video.

Next up, what you need to edit video.