Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Weekly Header Challenge -- Big Bird

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Big Bird

Chosen by Tom.


These are my latest bird images; I took them just before Thomas was baptized last August, in the DuPage River.  Mallard are surprisingly large, and typically very used to humans.  After flying in, they swam right over to the shore to pose for this picture, which is my header image:


They seemed to have no qualms about us invading their space that day, though when our little crowd showed up, they swam or flew off.


I caught one of the females coming in for a landing, below; I love the crispness of the image.



They even stood there, preening away while I crept ever closer with my 24-105mm lens--no macro or telephoto lens, this was!  They didn't mind having their pictures taken at all.


Those are my big birds for the week!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Weekly Header Challenge -- I Didn't Expect to See THAT Here!

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ I Didn't Expect to See That Here!

Chosen by Kathy.


It was tough to find images that fit this theme.  Halfway through my images, I realized I was searching for Now What's That Doing Here?  Then I realized it's slightly different.  I expect to, say, walk into a room and have it look like it always does.  So, these pictures reflect things or scenarios I didn't expect to be there.

For my header, I chose this image:


I fully expected to see college books lying around my house, and even on my kitchen counter.  I didn't expect to see that molecular model sitting there, though.  I guess that's a toy for a biochemistry major (required for his Quantitative Chemical Analysis course--I can barely type that, let alone try to say or describe it!).

Here are some more unexpected scenarios...

Walking into my family room, I fully expected to see Jacob in his spot on the couch, on his laptop.  I did not expect to see a huge Papasan chair with Thomas lounging in it, his bruised ankle (twisted in a football practice injury) hanging off the end of the chair.  That chair took up the entire family room!


While making a large batch of tomato soup which I planned on canning, I didn't expect the hot soup to shoot through the little pouring hole in my blender as I pureed it.  And, neither did I expect to look up and see the splatters of soup all over the ceiling above.  I mean, I had the lid on the blender.  Sheesh.


For last year's Labor Day parade, I expected to see parade-type things--not Jacob with a sign taped to his chest.  The sign came from my friend, the homeowner, whose son-in-law had posted it on the coffee pot in the kitchen that morning.  She figured the sign would get put to good use on Jacob.


One day last October, I heard a loud CRACK as I sat at the computer.  I thought the lawn mowing service for the church property behind us had kicked up a rock which hit our window.  I checked all the first floor windows on the west side, but nothing.  I shrugged and went back to my day.

Later that evening, after Danny had come home from school, I heard a, "Hey, Mom?  What happened to my [bedroom] window??"  I knew before I even saw it.  The industrial lanwmower had kicked up a rock to the second-story window, which shot through both the screen and the outside pane of the double-pane window!  I took several pictures, while dreading calling the company to see if they'd replace the window.

Before I could even finish my story to the owner of Prime Cut Landscaping, he told me to get the window and screen fixed and send him the bill.  I was impressed and amazed at their integrity--and thankful we didn't have to pay for repairs!


The below is the Christmas tree in Daley Plaza downtown Chicago; it's a familiar landmark of this city, along with the Christkindl market at Christmastime (you can see the booths of the market around the tree).  Danny performed in the UIC University Choir's Christmas concert that night, and honestly, we found the building, walked in, and enjoyed the concert, never bothering to look at our surroundings.  When we exited the building, there it was!  I expected a street full of skyscrapers, and lots of people since it was a Saturday night.

While Fernando and Danny walked to the parking garage to pick up the car, we had about 15 minutes to enjoy the tree and our surroundings.  I even had several people lined up at one point, handing me their smart phones to take their pictures in front of the tree, lol!  How did that happen??  I guess they saw the Canon around my neck and figured I knew what I was doing.  It was a ton of fun.


Thanks for visiting!  I expect to see some great, interesting, and fun photos on your blogs, too!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Lessons from Food Photography

I thought I'd share just a little about the food pictures I've taken, and several of which I just featured in my weekly Header Challenge post.  I've left them in this post exactly as they were in the Weekly Header Challenge post, including links to their recipes.  Just in case you get hungry.  ;)

When I first bought my 100mm macro lens--which is the go-to lens for most my food photography--I was fascinated with how it could capture the amazing details that our eyes just glance over.  We can see God's incredible creation through new eyes, so to speak!

I consistently focus on a few things when shooting food, and here they are...

Aperture.  Although f/2.8 on my macro lens makes for amazing shots sometimes, with close-up photography, the aperture needs to be more closed down to capture the detail you'll want to see.  Bokeh is great, but too much of it and I'm left wondering what kind of food is that--or, I really don't want to see a few crumbs of muffin in sharp detail.  My eye strains for more in focus.  So that's how I shoot.  I typically start with f/6.3 and close down from there, which brings me to...

Multiple images.  With my aperture at f/6.3, I take a picture.  I may also take one at f/8, f/11, and f/16.  Sometimes, the more closed the aperture the better the food shot.  You'll still get some bokeh, due to the extreme close-up nature of the macro lens.  So experimenting is always good.  Typically, though, I shoot at around f/6.3.

Low ISO setting.  The lower the setting, the less noise in the image.  Nice for food.

Tripod.  This is the essential tool, given the small aperture and low ISO.  Depending on light, shutter speed can be extremely slow!  I use a remote shutter release, but if I'm lazy and don't want to pull it out, I use the two-second timer on my camera.  It's perfect enough for me to press the shutter and have no camera shake when the shutter releases.

Flash when necessary.  Although none of the images in this post were taken with flash, I've used it to great effect to shoot some cookies for a client last year, and will probably experiment with it more this year.  I bounce the hot-shoe-mounted flash off a wall or the ceiling, depending on where I set up.  I also try to be extra careful I'm not creating shadows--having part of the photo shadowed from my body, or a curtain blocking the light, is not so good.  With natural light, I tend to shoot in my kitchen (remember the blue countertop?) with light coming in from the southwest windows.

That's pretty much it!  I don't do a lot of staging, since I'm usually pretty close to the food.  I have been known to pull out a white board for background, but I usually just use my own dishes, my own tables, silverware, etc.  You can see the blue/gray speckled countertop in most of these images!  To make images look more professional, I may start to use white for my backdrop--unless I'm using white dishes.  Basically, keep it as simple as possible.

Let's get on to the photos!  Underneath each one is the camera information--ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed.


ISO 160
f/8
2.5 seconds


ISO 200
f/13
2 seconds


ISO 125
f/8
3.2 seconds


ISO 125
f/7.1
1.3 seconds

Blueberry Pie with Crisp Topping

ISO 200
f/8
2.5 seconds


ISO 200
f/6.3
0.6 seconds


Homemade Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs on top of Brussels Sprouts

ISO 250
f/10
2.5 seconds



ISO 200
f/7.1
1 second


Shredded Chicken Tacos

ISO 200
f/7.1
1 second

One of my Winter Salads

ISO 160
f/11
1/5 second


Broccoli, Barley, Cheddar Cheese, and Salsa

ISO 160
f/7.1
1/15 second

Breakfast Puffs

ISO 160
f/7.1
1/6 second


This post took longer than I expected it to!  I've blogged a lot of recipes, with a lot more to go.  And now I'm in the mood to bake and blog some more!  I hope I've warmed you up a bit today!!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Weekly Header Challenge - Winter

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Winter

Chosen by Lew.


Winter is a perfect theme for this week, obviously (thanks, Lew!).  But, since I haven't been out in the recent snow, preferring to attempt hunkering down and staying warm inside, I thought I'd go through last January's pictures to see what I shot.  Turns out, I did go out a few times then, and so I chose a black and white header that fits the theme perfectly.  Here's the full image:


Then, as I browsed through the rest of those images, I realized--I did stay in a lot then, too.  What did I do, you may ask?  The answer is seen in the rest of these pictures.  Want to stay warm in January?  Go hang out in the kitchen, turn on the stove, and cook something.  Here are the rest of my January winter images--surprise!

The ones I've blogged the recipes for will have links.  Clicking on the link will take you to my family blog.  Just so you know.  Stay warm!!





Blueberry Pie with Crisp Topping


Homemade Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs on top of Brussels Sprouts


Shredded Chicken Tacos

One of my Winter Salads

Broccoli, Barley, Cheddar Cheese, and Salsa

Breakfast Puffs

This post took longer than I expected it to!  I've blogged a lot of recipes, with a lot more to go.  And now I'm in the mood to bake and blog some more!  I hope I've warmed you up a bit today!!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Weekly Header Challenge -- Something New

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants
Imac 
Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.
Click on the other participants' blogs to see
what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Something New

Chosen by Moi.  That's me.  :)


For this week's theme, I decided to show off my new Christmas tree ornaments.  I collect snowflake ornaments, and this year's new finds were special.  I made my first snowflake discovery in August!  I was up at the Lake as a surprise for my mom's 75th birthday, and she and I spent one day touring the Thousand Islands and Boldt Castle.  At one of the shops in Alexandria Bay, I found four tin snowflake ornaments, heavily discounted because--well, it was August.  I think my mom paid for them, too!  They're all brown and white on tin, with different patterns.  Here's the one in my header:



The next ornament I found I literally almost walked into.  After Thanksgiving, my parents, brother, Jacob, and I went to The Growing Place to pick out Christmas trees for our respective homes.  In their gift shop, I walked in and right up to a display featuring snowflake ornaments hand-crafted by a local artisan.  That went in my shopping bag!  It ended up being the only purchase that day, because when I went up to the counter to pay for my tree, the cashier told me my dad had already paid for it.  I love my family.


My final two new snowflake ornaments (I usually acquire only one per year!!) were given to me by my younger brother, Jeff, who was with us on the Christmas tree excursion.  He had heard me exclaim my love for snowflake ornaments, and how I collect them for my tree, and when he picked my name in the family grab bag gift exchange, he found a few gems to give to me.



I had wanted this post to feature something more profound, seeing that things are finally turning around for the better in our family, with employment, financial issues, etc. now starting to be resolved one by one.  However, these snowflakes remind me that family--and people, and experiences--are so much more important than things.  And when I decorate our family Christmas tree next year, I'll be able to cherish the memories of people and experiences surrounding these new gifts for my tree!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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