October 12th

30 Day Challenge, Day 8: A bad habit. I am constantly fighting a losing battle against clutter. I tend to let things pile up on every available surface. This is our kitchen counter. It usually looks worse than this.

October 10th

30 Day Challenge, Day 6: From a low angle. Kitty paws. Normally I don't like shooting in direct sunlight, but I like the shadows in this photo.

What I learned: Grilled Chicken Salad

Still trying to improve my indoor food photography skills. This time, I tried using back lighting to enhance the salad. I bounced the light off the wall behind the shot. This gave the elements in the salad more depth than light bounced from above. Here's a comparison.

Overhead light


Back light


Settings: ISO 400 | f/9.0 | 38mm | 1/60 | speedlite

October 5th

I'm joining a group of people who are doing a 30 day photography challenge. I need some motivation to take pictures every day, so I hope this will help.


Here is Day 1: self portrait. Please pardon my horrible grip on the camera. Want to join? Link up here.

September 25th

More playtime with Dad.

September 24th

I think my son is at his cutest when he is imitating his father.


Maybe it's because they look so much alike.

September 9th

Everyone looks so cozy. My son has started carrying various stuffed animals around with him.

September 7th

Trying to get the hang of the speedlite, especially since evening daylight is quickly disappearing. I'm learning to angle the light to the side, and just a little bit up. Using a reflector on the opposite side helps even out the picture, but still keep a few shadows.

August 23rd

Teeth brushing is becoming quite a chore around here. Someone would rather play with the toothbrushes instead of using them for their intended purpose.

August 17th

Spent all day at an in-service. Most people tuned out during one particularly boring session. If you look carefully, you can see that just about everyone in the above picture is on a mobile device. Others spent the time sleeping.

August 10th

The newly organized pantry! Working very hard to keep it that way.

August 8th

Trying to clean and organize the closets. First up: the pantry.

August 5th

Dress rehearsal for the summer music camp that I work with. Two weeks with 30 kids!

July 27th

I'm currently reading Helen Dujardin's From Plate To Pixel. It's all about food photography and food styling. I tried using a white styrofoam board to bounce light onto the subject. Here is the bowl of shallots (top) with no bounce, (1) with the board about 12 inches away, and (2) about 4 inches away. The light source is from the right. Notice the reduction of the shadow on the left.

1.

2.

July 19th

Still trying to get the correct white balance for my house. This setting is way too purple.

July 16th

Went to the Central Florida Blogger Conference. Only got there for the afternoon sessions, including this Q & A by an esteemed panel: Josh, Julie, Ricky, Lee, and Rori.

July 11th

My husband finally retrieved the "spider" that's been attached to one of our recessed lights. It had been the bane of his handyman existence for quite some time.

July 7th

I really like the body positions of my two men, but I'm having trouble figuring out the correct white balance for my living room.

June 6th

I got a new lens! It's a Tamron 17-50mm. I love the wide angle. This is the first time I've been able to fit most of my living room into a photo.

June 2nd

The tyke playing around in our music room. We have to supervise him very carefully when he is in here, because he could do some serious damage to our instruments.