What I've Been Up To

First of all, thanks for all your thoughts and kind words on my last post. It felt good to finally share what was going on with all of you and your support is amazing. Totally made my day and made me feel a lot better about the whole situation.

Now on to what I've been up to lately.

1. I've been craving fried pickles off and on since we moved to Italy. Finally I caved, looked on Pinterest and decided to make them myself. What resulted was a mind-blowing experience of fried (well actually baked) pickles and homemade ranch dressing. Here's the link: Fried Pickles.

A few notes about the pickles: One, I used the stackers pickles instead of the rounds. Two, I halved the recipe. Three, I didn't use the recipe for ranch that they did. Instead I did equal parts of mayo and buttermilk mixed with a package of Hidden Valley ranch.

2. Several weeks ago I bought Adobe Lightroom 3 to compliment my Adobe Photoshop Elements that I already had. I'm still waiting on the manual that I ordered for Lightroom 3 so I can learn how to use it, but I've already used it a few times to reduce the noise in several pictures I took last summer in Greece and it is AMAZING. So, so glad I bought it.

3. It's my Min-Pin, Boomers, birthday today. He is 4! I'm one of those people that celebrate my pets' birthdays. So yeseterday he had part of a Happy Meal as his birthday treat. Here is a picture I took of him this morning.

4. I still haven't gotten all my Denmark pictures edited. Mainly because I just took some portraits of a friend the other day and I've been editing those pictures. I'm very pleased with how her pictures turned out. Here are a few samples. On a related note, if any blog readers in the Vicenza area would like some photos done, just let me know.

5. I bought my ticket home for Christmas this year. I'm super excited about it, especially since I missed Christmas at home last year, but the only downside is that Sean isn't able to come with. With tickets coming in just under $1000 per person, it's not feasible for us both to go home. So, being the great husband that he is, Sean told me to go home. I think he's pretty pumped about being off work at that time and doing whatever he wants, although I don't have any doubts that he's going to miss me.

So...that's what I've been up to lately!

Fun With Photography: Tips and Tutorials

Now that I've discussed my camera and equipment, I thought it was time to give you guys a few tips (that you may or may not know) and some links to some great sites for photography tutorials.

Tip Number 1:
Ask lots of questions. Find a photographer who's work you love, either in real life, on a blog or on Flickr. Ask them questions about what equipment they use, what tips they have for photography in general and how they produce some of their shots. I know there are some people out there that don't like to share all their secrets, but I've found most photographers like to talk about their work and how they acheived their shots.

Tip Number 2:
Don't shoot in auto mode. Seriously, put your camera on another mode, like Program mode (P on Canon), Aperture Priority mode (Av on Canon), Shutter Priorty mode (Tv on Canon). More on these modes later.

Tip Number 3:
Don't use your flash. Just don't. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've used flash in the last year. Mostly those happen to be inside candid shots that I'm not trying to really get a fantastic picture. I hate looking at pictures that someone has used flash in. It really takes away from the picture, especially if the picture is of people. If I'm taking pictures inside I try to use my 50mm, just because it lets lots of light in and I don't need to use a flash.

Tip Number 4:
Practice. A lot. I recommend doing something like a 365 or 52 project to help you practice. That means you're either taking a picture a day or a picture a week and if you try different things with your camera, then you're going to get better. Get out there and shoot. Sometimes I take pictures of my dog, what I'm eating for dinner or myself. It's just fun and it makes for better photography.

Tip Number 5:
Educate yourself. If I had the chance, I'd take a photography class, but I haven't had that option to date. If you can't get to a photography class like myself, there are tons of online workshops from some great photographers and usually there are all different price ranges and it can help your skills. Also check out photography blogs and digital photography forums. I'm going to list some of my favorite websites below.

Digital Photography School ForumsThis site has tons of great tutorials for all kinds of photography (portrait, landscape, etc) and the forums are invaluable. I often use the forums for questions I have or to get critiques on my photography. Sometimes the feedback I get really helps.

Adventures of an American MumSeveral years ago Rachel did a series of tutorials called "Get Your Click On". She covers things like aperture, shutter speed, ect and explains it way better than I ever could. I have several of her posts bookmarked and refer often to them. She's super talented and I believe is a contributor at I Heart Faces.

The Pioneer WomanI'm sure many of you are familiar with the Pioneer Woman, but aside from cooking she also has some great tutorials on her blog. Check out the Photography Section of her blog!

MCP ActionsI used this blog for my newborn shoot because there were some great, in-depth tutorials on that subject. There are also other tutorials about other sorts of landscape and portrait subjects, as well as Photoshop and Photoshop Elements Tutorials.

The CoffeeShop Blog
Rita is a very-talented and very generous maker of actions for all Adobe editing programs. She also has great tutorials and links to other great blogs. All of her actions are FREE and I use them a ton when I edit my pictures.

These are just a handful of the photography blogs that I frequent, there are many, many others out there and they all are helpful in their own way. If you have any suggestions of other photography blogs that we should check out, feel free to leave it in the comments. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me!