This blog is poppin! I was ready the older posts and really wish I had done my post about ice cream...

Take Better Pictures! Part B

Let’s talk about light.  Bay-Bee!

Light is photography. Photography is light.  Did you know that the greek word “Phos” means light?  Hence, photo.  Graphy is to write.  Writing with light eh?  Yup. 

So.  We’re going to talk about light today.  The right kind of light is the difference between an average photo and a spectacular one.  And really, I could write about 10 pages talking about lighting, the effects, different kinds, where, when how, why, whooza, whatsit…etc.  But today let’s focus on the different lighting situations you will most likely be faced with on a day to day basis.

Check it. (The following pictures are Straight-Out-Of-Camera {Sooc} to give you a better reference)

3 pm.  Half shade.  Half sunlight.

My niece.  Cute girl.  HORRIBLE lighting.  It’s coming in from all the wrong angles.  It casts unattractive, uneven shadows across her face.  It’s just….blah.

Let’s spin her around.

5:30 pm February. Backlit.

Better right?  It was later in the day.  She is back-lit, meaning the light is shining right on her back, illuminating her hair.  Parts of it are over-exposed but I don’t mind it.  I feel it’s an ethereal quality.  And with the right edit, you can really make this picture pop.  Like so:

Voila!  It’s amazing what post-editing can do, BUT the right kind of lighting is absolutely key.  If you have crappy lighting, no amount of editing can make it better.  Trust me.

Windows.  They are the best.  When the sun is not shining directly through them they are the ultimate source of natural, diffused, soft light.  Indirect light. 

My bedroom.  9 am.  Sooc.

 

5 pm.  Slight post editing. Window light.

 

This picture is one of my favorites ever, of my girls.  And I took it when I just starting to learn about photography.  Light was the last thing on my mind.  I just thought it looked cool.  Now, I can pick it apart technically, there are some things I would do differently but… I still love it.  They are backlit.  The window light is coming from behind them, toward me, instead of the other way around.

 

6 pm early May.  Backlit.  Light coming from back left corner.

 

Same time and day as above picture but she is under a shade cover, thus creating smooth, even light.  Sooc.

 

 Yup.  You guess it.  Backlit again. Can you tell I like it??

 

Indirect window light.  2 pm.

 

 

Natural light is your best friend. Know it.  Study it.  Watch how it falls on people during different times of the day.  Take a picture and then spin your subject around and around and around until you know exactly which position gives you the best possible light, or until your subject pukes.  Whichever comes first. 

A tip?  Look for catchlights in the eyes.  It will make your subject appear livelier, brighter and fresh.  Those are best created when your subject is looking toward a light source like…ahem…windows.  Or, if it’s bright sunlight in the middle of the day and you’re outside, have them in shade looking out and up toward the light. Example:

  This was taken in the middle of the day.  Overhead sunlight does not bode well for pictures.  I had her duck under shade created by a nearby building but she was looking out from under the shade, toward the sun.  Sooc.

And that is all I have time for on this subject.  Until next time!

Milk Chocolate Banana Bread

Time for some more food, right?

Ahh, banana bread.  Classic, tasty and always seasonal.  

I love banana bread and I've tried lots of different recipes.  Some healthy with whole wheat flour, some not so healthy and loaded with chocolate chips.  I've found quite a few that I like, but I always come back to the one I'm sharing with you today.  It was probably the first banana bread recipe I ever made.  My mom found it in a newspaper article, I think.  I wish I could site the source correctly, but we've used it for so long, that it's now just one of those standards in my family's household.

I think my sister might have come up with the name--Milk Chocolate Banana Bread.  Doesn't that just sound delish?  This is definitely not one of those "healthy" banana bread recipes.  But, come on, isn't all banana bread at least a little healthy?  That's what I tell myself when I eat half a loaf for breakfast.  

Milk Chocolate Banana Bread

3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 ripe, mashed bananas
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Whisk eggs, oil, sugars, salt and bananas.  Combine flour and baking powder with fork in separate bowl.  Add flour mixture to egg mixture, along with chocolate chips.  Don't overmix.  Bake in an 8 x 4 loaf pan at 350 degrees for about an hour.  It should be a deep golden brown and a toothpick should come out clean.  My loaves usually take a little longer than an hour. 

Paint Chip Projects

You know how every time you walk by the paint section at Home Depot or Lowes and you see that glorious giant wall of paint chips and that little nagging voice in the back of your head says you could do something awesome with all those paint chips?  Oh, that never happens to you?  Oh.  Well, it happens to me.  Something about all those pretty colors lined up so nicely sparks the crafting side of my brain.  Alright, lets be honest, it doesn't take much to spark that side.  


Anyways, you know all those free paint chips are just waiting to be used in something super sweet, but what?  Maybe you're not going to go as far as this guy (besides, taking that many paint chips I kind of think borderlines on stealing),  but the options are endless with those little pretty pieces of paper.  


What got me thinking was spying this post over on Ohdeedoh - the children's section of the design blog Apartment Therapy.  Which led to the awesome blog Modern Parents Messy Kids.  And with Easter just around the corner, this is such a fun and simple way to add cute Easter decorations.  (Which is a big deal for me, since I am not big on decorating for holidays other than Christmas.  Maybe that will change once my child is older than a month.)  If you have kids you trust with scissors, you can force make a project out of cutting out the eggs. 



Besides that fun garland, there are lots of other ideas out there on the web of things to do with paint chips.  


I'm a little bit in love with these Valentines from Country Living.

You could easily use different colors and stamps to make cards for different occasions.

Wreaths are some of the easiest things to make, and you could easily use paint chips to make this wreath.  It would barely cost you anything and would be so fun for something like a birthday party.

But you want to know the project I'm dying to try? Recreating the artwork above this chick's head:

There is something about it that's so interesting, but it's brilliantly simple.  I think the fact that it's placed in such an elegant space helps it from looking too "child's room".  (Although it would also be cool in a child's room, now that I think about it.)  Anyways, this would be so easy with a batch of paint chips and one of those craft circle punches.  

So yeah, I have a weird affinity for paint chips.  I want to try all these projects eventually.  I like them because they are simple and easy, even for those not-so-crafty ones, but they still look fresh, modern, and not-so-cheesy.  However, accomplishing one of these projects would require me to get my 4 week old baby to Home Depot one of these days.  Wish me luck!  

Take better pictures! Part A

Before I get into Part A of the series, Take Better Pictures, let me preface by saying I am not an expert.  I am not a professional.  And I am still learning.  Every day.  So take my advice for what it’s worth.  Everything I’ve learned, I learned through my own research. 

This advice is for those who have Digital SLRS.  SLR is Single-Lens-Reflex but that’s not very important information.  Forget I even mentioned it.

So, the first step in taking a better picture is to get off automatic.  That little green box on your mode dial (on Canons) sure is easy but it severely limits your creativity.

But before we do that, we need to learn, “What is an Aperture?”

Aperture is the opening or hole through which light travels.  Plain and simple.  Aperture is represented by the F-Stop number on your camera.  Ex: 1.4, 1.8, 2.8, 3.5…etc.  And here’s the tricky part, the smaller your F-Stop number the larger your lens opening will be, thus letting in more light.  Photographers who say, “I like to shoot wide open” are saying they like to shoot as low an F-stop as their lens will allow, helping their images become sharper and the Depth-of-Field more apparent as well as creating some beautiful Bokeh. 

This picture was taken with my macro lens at an F-stop of 3.2 (my lens allows as low as 2.8).  You can see the nice blurred background giving the photo a more interesting perspective.

Here the aperture or F-stop is at 1.4 with a 50 mm lens.

On your DSLR there is a mode for Aperture control, on Canons it is the mode, Av.  On Nikons I believe it is just A. Turn it to that mode and it will let you change the lens opening by turning the dials near the shutter button; everything else will be automatic. Play around with different numbers and experiment going as low as the lens allows.  Most kit lenses only go as low as 3.5 but it’s a good starting point.  Remember, the smaller the number, the larger the lens opening thus letting in MORE light.

Too much light = an over exposed image (very very bright/blown out).  Too little light = underexposed image (very very dark, black)

So if you go as high as F11 the lens opening will be very small and will let in very LITTLE light most likely resulting in a blurry photo.  However smaller apertures are useful when working in conjunction with slow shutter speeds ex: taking pictures of flowing water or speeding cars to  achieve that feeling of motion. (But more on that in another section)

So go forth and capture!  Experiment with F-Stops!

Indoors with the Kids

Spring is upon us.  Yay!  I cannot wait to get outside with the kids everyday and be WARM again.  BUT, spring is a teaser in many parts of the country.    We have beautiful days and then we get some of the biggest snow storms of the year.  And, while I know the moisture is good for the land, and yadda yadda yadda, it's bad for me because that means more days cooped up inside with three busy kids.  In November, that's tolerable.  In April--not so much.  

So, what to do on those bad weather days?  When I'm being a good mom with loads of energy (wait, when do I EVER have loads of energy?), there are a few fun activities we do inside.  Thought I'd share them!

(Just as a warning--some of these are messy.  Very messy.  So, there's kind of a love/hate relationship there.  But the kids really think they're fun.)

 Oobleck

Don't know where the name came from. Basically, you mix some cornstarch and water together, maybe some food coloring, and MAGIC happens.  Seriously, the stuff is weird and fun.  I myself find it entertaining.  It's like a liquid that's a solid that's a liquid.  Lots of fun. Lots of mess, as you can tell from my little boy.  Oh, and it's not supposed to be edible.  Don't ask me why he's got stuff on his face.  

Slime

This one isn't quite as messy but it's still a lot of fun.   I made it with my son's co-op preschool class for Halloween and it was a hit.  Amazing what some household products can turn into!

 Edible Playdough

Another one that I love.  First, there's the peanut butter kind.  My favorite recipe so far is here.  Entertaining and yummy.  

Then, there's cake mix playdough.  Dangerous.  Very dangerous.  This stuff tastes way too good.  One of my boys pretty much just stuffed his face with it.  And then I stuffed my face with the leftovers over the next few days.  But it's fun because they can make "food" with it and then actually eat it.  Sometimes, I let them use chocolate chips for decorating. 

 Paper Helicopters

I got this cool book from my son's book order a while ago:

The Usborne Big Book of Science Things to Make and Do

Some of the activities are more crafty than science-y, but what I really like about them is most of them use things I already have around the house and they don't take much time to do.  One of the boys' favorites was the spinning paper helicopter.

Boy, that kid really needed a haircut. 

I was going to write all the instructions for you...but then I got lazy and found a video that will work. This video has you use a template.  Our book didn't say to do that, but a template is an easier way to explain it.  It's really, really easy to make.  And my boys had a great time with them.

Indoor Hopscotch

I like ideas that will get my kids' energy out.  'Cause otherwise, they go into hyper-crazy-silly mood which drives me totally crazy.  So indoor hopscotch is a good one.  You get some masking tape and make hopscotch squares on your carpet. You can add numbers or not.  And then play.  Easy and fun.

Another thing you can do with masking tape:  make "roads" for them to push their cars on.  My boys definitely liked that one. 

And of course, there's always balloons and dance parties and cookie-baking and crafts galore.  So if your kid is like mine and asks you several times a day, "What can I do??", you've got options!

Nutty

I have a new obsession: making almond butter.

I really dislike the taste of store bought almond butter. But I’ve made several batches in the past few days, added different ingredients and it’s DEElicious. Better than peanut butter.  (Never thought I’d say that)

Today’s batch?  Dark chocolate cinnamon.  Oh.my.gosh.  It’s straight-out-of-the-bottle-with-a-spoon delicious. 

You’ll need:

-2-3 cups Raw almonds

-Food processor.  I attempted almond butter in my (Amazing, Awesome, Spectacular) Blendtec and while it can handle peanuts just fine, almonds are a lot more difficult to process so it overheated.  Boo.  So I said, “Hey mom, wanna buy a food processor?”  And enticed her with the idea of fresh almond butter every week.  (yes, it lives at her house but I visit almost daily.)

-1 1/2 c. melted 60% cacao chocolate chips.

-1 tsp. salt

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-1-2 tsp grapeseed oil (or coconut if you don’t mind that hint of coconut flavor)

-2-3 tsp cinnamon.  I LOVE the taste of cinnamon so I probably put about 4 tsp. in my batch today (and still not as strong as I wanted)

-2-3 Tbs. turbinado sugar.

-Patience.  Yep, just when you think your almond butter is finished.  It’s not.  Keep going.

First step, spread your almonds onto a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 10 minutes at 325* F. Let cool for 10 more minutes.

 

 

Throw your cooled almonds into the processor and press start.

 

After about one minute it should look like this.

 

After two minutes.

 

Three and a half minutes.  Not done yet.

 

Six minutes.  Don’t stop!

 

Ten minutes.  Ahhh….beautiful creaminess.

 

Now, melt those chocolate chips and grapseed oil in a glass bowl over a saucepan with almost boiling water. Remove when chocolate chips are almost fully melted.

And try to keep sneaky fingers away.

Dump chocolate into your almond butter along with all other ingredients.

Voila!

And while you’re so engrossed in watching this concoction come together you’ll turn around and see this:

Oh my.  She’s like the chocolate Joker.   Note to self: Never leave melted chocolate bowl in the vicinity of an almost three year-old. 

 

Enjoy!