Family Photos

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Meagan & Dave | HappilyEverExpat.com

When I was back in Dallas I found a Groupon for a 4 hour photography class by Beaux Arts Photography for only $50. I decided to give it a try.

The class was broken up into 4- 1 hour segments.

The Art of Photography – covered basics of photography as an art form and photo composition
Camera & Lighting Essentials – Aperture/Shutter Speed/ISO, JPG vs. RAW
Practice – We were given assignments and were sent out to take photos
Adobe Lightroom 101 – How to backup, store, organize and edit your photos

The class is designed for true beginners. The instructor, Sam, explaned things in very simple ways and made things that are a bit complex a lot easier to understand. He was very patient and was willing to answer every question. I thought he was a great teacher.

The most valuable part of the class, for me, was the last hour on Lightroom 4. This is a program that I was already using, but not well. Sam taught me several new tricks that I wasn’t aware of that have really improved my photo editing skills.

I decided to take what I learned and put it into practice by taking some family photos for my brother and his family. This was my very first portrait photo shoot and I am really happy with the results!

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The Happiest Place in Hong Kong

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Meagan & Dave | HappilyEverExpat.com

After spending most of the afternoon hanging out with Big Buddha, we decided to go to Disneyland. We took the subway to the end of the line and waited for the Disney train to come. It was covered in Mickey heads!

I was really excited about going to Disneyland because I have never been to a Disney park back in the States.

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Who’s the most popular man in Hong Kong?

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Meagan & Dave | HappilyEverExpat.com

Big Buddha, of course!

One of the most famous sites in Hong Kong is a Big Buddha statue that is nestled so far up in the mountains that it takes a 25 minute cable car ride to get there! I was really apprehensive about going because I am scared of heights and cable cars really freak me out. I decided to suck it up because I don’t know if I’ll ever be back in Hong Kong.

If I could give one piece of advice for someone that wants to take the cable car to Big Buddha, it would definitely be to buy your tickets online in advance! When we went, the site was down so we couldn’t, but I really wish we could have. Because it was during the week of Chinese New Year, the line was many HOURS long (I’d guess at least 3-4)!

When we were in line, a woman asked us if we would like to buy a year pass and skip the line. Don’t even ask me how much that cost, but Dave said he’d rather do that than wait in line, so we did.

We could feel people staring us down as we were escorted straight up to the ticket counter. We just had to fill out a bit of paperwork, buy our passes and then wait in a much shorter line. I think the whole process took us about an hour.

The views from the cable car were truly amazing! And it was very sturdy so I handled the trip pretty well.

Once at the top, we had to walk past loads of shops and restaurants. We saw this cute little kitty.

And we also got to see another Lion Dance. This one was really impressive when you think about the fact that each lion only contains 2 guys and they have to be perfectly synched!