Walker Art Center

Mother's Day weekend, I was lucky enough

to not only have my parents, who now live in Denver, CO come to visit

but to also have my grandma, who lives in Ames, IA, come!

To celebrate, My Grandma and I decided to visit the Walker Art Center

which is located right in the heart of Minneapolis. 

It not only features contemporary visual and performing arts exhibits, but 

is quite well known for it's outdoor sculpture garden.

I've always wanted to visit the sculpture garden for it's well known 

Spoon and Cherry sculpture,

so I was extremely excited to once again put my new camera to use. 

the cathedral

Figuring we haven't had much of a spring, 

I've tried to take advantage of the days where the sun is shining. 

Not too long after I had my first camera adventure did I venture out to one of the most 

beautiful landmarks in St. Paul.... The Cathedral.

Helps that it was only about a mile or so from my apartment.

This is proof that at one point, there was signs of spring!

The corner we used to live on

We found a neat little back alley that overlook downtown St. Paul

The beautiful Cathedral

Cathedral

We also passed by the James J. Hill house along the way

James J. Hill Mansion

I also managed to find this enclosed Garden, hidden along Summit Ave, reminded me of the Secret Garden

A Flower at the church across the street from us. Couldn't resist, was so excited for Spring!

Apologies for the excess of posts this week.

Trying to catch up on the last month's worth of pictures I've taken.

Stay tuned...

a walk down summit

When I first purchased my camera, I really didn't even know where to begin. 

There were so many buttons, so many different options,

and most importantly, no longer are the days of having your LCD screen show you what you

are going to shoot. 

Now it's back to the days of looking through the VIEWFINDER.

uhh, what?

and then, I discovered The Pioneer Woman.

She has a whole section on photography, with wonderful tips and tricks to get started. 

So that is where I began. 

My first experience with the camera lead me on a walk down Summit Ave,

on one of our first days of spring. 

There was a bit of overcast, but it was warm, finally.

My camera allowed me to see a side of the outdoors 

and Summit Ave that I had never seen before.

Suddenly everything was a subject, ready to be photographed. 

taking the plunge...

I love my pictures.

Ask anyone that knows me. 

I've always been THAT girl snapping pics with my point and shoot,

annoying my friends with "Let's take a picture!" "K smile!" 

at every event, or night out you can think of. 

Just to get an idea, I probably have well over 100 Facebook photo albums,

let alone thousands upon thousands of photos on my computer.

So naturally, I've always had this secret desire to take my pictures to the next level.

Of course that requires some money and savings, so last month I finally took the plunge.

After much research (thank you Jeff Snyder)...

I bought myself my very own DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera. 

A Canon Digital Rebel XS

found here

For now, I'm using the lens that came with the camera, a Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens

until someday, I can upgrade... 

and I also managed to purchase a .42x Fisheye Lens.

After about a month of trying to figure out what to do with my pictures, 

my roommate suggested an intriguing idea: start a blog.

I've dabbled in blogging in the past but have never been successful,

nor did I have anything interesting to blog about..

So here is my attempt at exploring the world of photography; 

one photograph and blog post at a time.