3 Shoot Basics

The idea to give a mini tutorial "flew upon my head" as my 5 year old says, when several people commented on my photography and said "if I had a big camera like you, I could take good pictures!"
This always makes me laugh because while it's true that my SLR is a very nice camera, it is also quite capable of taking crappy pictures (don't ask me how I know) and by comparison, the smallest of cameras can take good pictures.
Yes, I said it... even a point and shoot can take great photos.

You don't believe me? Well, to prove this bold claim, I will only use my iphone photos in this post... and I'm not even going to bring up technical terms like "aperture," "shutter" or "ISO." Fair enough?
{Note: my iphone camera had a terrible lag as soon as I turned on the flash. Apparently, when it is set to "on" or "auto" it has a mini panic attack every time I try to take a picture- do we need the flash? Yes? No? OK *click!* So if you hate shutter lag on your iphone camera, turn the flash off. Oops, I haven't even started and I already used a technical term! Sorry, it won't happen again.} Let's begin!

3 Point & Shoot Basics:

1. Lighting: this is arguably the most important element of photography, in fact the word "Photography" literally means Light writing. Without light, you have absolutely no photo.

I'm going to focus on two important elements of lighting: quality & direction.

When we talk about the quality of light we often use terms like hard or direct light and soft or diffused light.


Hard light comes from a single source. The sun is a very good example of a hard light. The light from an in-camera flash is another good example.

(left: notice the direct light from the sun has caused sharp contrast between light and shadow).

(above: not the best example of soft lighting
but you get the picture)

Soft light is very diffused. Cloudy days are a common example of this type of light. Open shade is another example. This form of light will illuminate objects very evenly, and produce very soft subtle shadows, or sometimes no shadows at all.

Think about the quality of your lighting as you prepare to take your photo. Ask yourself if the lighting helps or hurts your photograph and change your location if you need to. Sometimes this can be as simple as turning around!

As you practice seeing the qualities of light, also notice the direction of the light. 
There are three general lighting directions:
Front Lighting, Side Lighting and Back Lighting. Each one has a distinct effect on your subject, let's look at a few examples:

Front Lighting.

Front lighting is when the front of your subject is illuminated. In-camera flash is a good example of front lighting. While this may be useful at times, it is more often a way to turn an interesting scene into a flat snapshot.

Side Lighting

This type of lighting is ideal for portraits and for emphasizing the texture of an object.

Backlighting

•  For this lighting, the sun is in front of you, which often shows off the subject in a dramatic and unusual way. This is one of the more challenging types of light to photograph, but it also can produce  some very interesting images.

2. Composition

Composition is the placement of your subject in the picture. Think about whether you want your composition to be vertical or horizontal, whether you want the subject to be centered or off to one side. Go with what the image suggests. People are vertical creatures so try to shoot them vertically unless you have a good reason not to and be careful not to chop off hands or feet, especially when it comes to full body shots. 

(don't chop off limbs- they are very important!)

Two important elements of composition are Angle and Framing: 

The angle that a photo is taken at tells a lot about the photographer’s perspective on the scene. 

Think about different scenes at different eye levels.  For instance, what does a field of flowers look like from a bird’s perspective or a crowd of people from a child’s perspective?

Shoot many different angles of each scene (low, high and eye level).

Framing is the technique of drawing attention to your subject by blocking other parts of the image. The simplest way to do this is to move close to your subject so they fill the frame.

Most photographers have a built in zoom in the form of their legs!

Before you take the photo, think about how you will frame the image.... ask yourself if you need to take a step back or a step forward to tell the whole story. 

Showing me his treasure: a Cicada shell.

3.Setting:  Think about the background before you take the picture. The setting should support and compliment the main subject. Uncluttered backgrounds are good for portraits and isolated objects. Isolating the subject can be very difficult with a point and shoot because it lacks any control over the aperture (oops! the "a" word, sorry) but you can always control the amount of clutter in the background so choose a blank wall, a shady spot or a place where the background supports the subject.

As I played around with my iphone camera, I became familiar with it's strengths and weaknesses. 
One of it's greatest strengths is landscape photography! Why? Because of that very same aperture issue. When I take a landscape, I actually want everything in focus from the foreground to the background (deep depth of field)... I'm happy to see the sky, mist, clouds and trees! 

So to summarize: Lighting, Composition & Setting are all key ingredients for a good photo, but if you really want to make art, and you're tired of landscapes, buy an SLR :)

Tasty Tuesday

Remember this photo? Last week I used it to (kinda sorta) show you a beautiful strawberry salad. Now, as promised, I'm giving you the recipe for this delicious salmon sandwich from

Marcia Kiesel for Food & Wine Magazine.

 Grilled Glazed Salmon

Total: 20 min.

4 Servings

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1/4 cup prepared horseradish, drained

2 tablespoons honey

Four 6 oz skinless salmon fillets

Vegetable oil, for rubbing

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Light a grill. In a small bowl, mix the mustard, horseradish and honey. Rub the salmon with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the salmon over moderate heat, skinned side down, until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Turn and grill for 3 minutes longer, until the salmon is almost cooked through. Turn the salmon again and spread each fillet with 1 tablespoon of the horseradish glaze. Turn and grill until glazed, about 30 seconds. Serve remaining glaze on the side.

For the sandwich:

4 kaiser rolls- split, toasted and buttered

4 red lettuce leaves

8 thick bacon slices, cooked until crisp

1/2 Granny Smith apple, cut into 12 thin slices

Spread the remaining horseradish glaze from the grilled Glazed Salmon on the rolls. Place a lettuce leaf, 2 crispy bacon strips and 3 slices of Granny Smith apple on each roll and set a salmon fillet on top. 

Close the sandwich and serve.

Scavenger Hunt

Hey y'all, it's time!

I must say, the items on Ashley Sisk's list are always a good challenge, but this week was particularly fun.

 I hope you were inspired too!

1. Seeing Double

2. Whatever

Flat tire, in the city, at 5 AM, in the rain. I took this photo from inside my car while I waited for my husband to come rescue me. He came with a smile, and changed my tire as the sun rose above him. Whatever happens, he always takes care of me!

3. Sweet

Oh, yes. It was sweet, and chocolate... and now it is gone. 

4. Space

...where a kid can be a kid!

5. Bright

I'm struck by the way the sun is shining in the pouring rain.

Thanks for visiting!
For more entries, click here:

Spider Web and Psalm 90

"...We spend our years as a tale that is told."
The Vulgate translation has: "Our years pass away like those of a spider." Our life is as frail as the thread of a spider's web. -C.H. Spurgeon

^{Psalm 90
1}Lord, you have been our dwelling place
   in all generations.
²Before the mountains were brought forth,
   or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
   from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
 ³You return man to dust
   and say, "Return, O children of man!"
⁴For a thousand years in your sight
   are but as yesterday when it is past,
   or as a watch in the night.
 ⁵You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
   like grass that is renewed in the morning:
⁶in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
   in the evening it fades and withers.
 ⁷For we are brought to an end by your anger;
   by your wrath we are dismayed.
⁸You have set our iniquities before you,
   our secret sins in the light of your presence.
 ⁹For all our days pass away under your wrath;
   we bring our years to an end like a tale that is told.
¹⁰The years of our life are seventy,
   or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
   they are soon gone, and we fly away.
¹¹Who considers the power of your anger,
   and your wrath according to the fear of you?
 ¹² So teach us to number our days
   that we may get a heart of wisdom.
¹³ Return, O LORD! How long?
   Have pity on your servants!
¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
   that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
¹⁵Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
   and for as many years as we have seen evil.
¹⁶Let your work be shown to your servants,
   and your glorious power to their children.
¹⁷Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
   and establish the work of our hands upon us;
   yes, establish the work of our hands!

Something Smelled Fishy

Something had to be done. 

The longer I ignored the problem, the worse it became.

And I couldn't turn a blind eye any longer...

So I rolled up my sleeves, put the littlest little one down for his nap and 

cleaned the fish tank. 

Why, you ask, have I put off this job for so long? Well, I have three good little helpers but in this case I can't think of a good job for them and I don't want everything to get out of control. My husband has suggested that I'm a control freak- I don't know why he would say such a thing ;) And now that I think about it they would probably do just fine.

We bought the aquarium a few years ago for our oldest son's second birthday. Since then we've had many fun little fishes, several snails, and a couple aquatic frogs -we bought one little frog because my daughter was certain it was pink. She didn't believe me when I told her that the bright pink rocks were reflecting onto the white-ish frog (she was a bit disappointed when we brought "Pinky" home to our blue rock bed). Anyway, now we are down to three tough little Zebra Danios who,

I understand, are very popular with the scientific research crowd. 

Hmm, ours must be living the good life compared to the Danio rerio in the lab!

But still, the tank was so filthy that I'm convinced our little survivors were on the brink of a heart attack, 

or a revolt. 

I think we all know which possibility was most likely.

Granted, this was nothing compared to the scare of 2008 when my big guy was only two and in classic two year old fashion he FILLED the fish tank with toys while I greeted my mom at the door. 

When questioned, he answered quite simply:

"Fishes wanna swim wiff twucks and cars!"

Surprisingly enough, none of the fish were injured in this incident.

And that kid is so darn cute, how could I be upset?

Ok, back to the issue of what to do when you discover that your fish have pulled a "finding Nemo maneuver" and the tank is completely filthy. 

To be honest, any good Aquarist knows that it's not ideal to do a 100% water change in an aquarium. 

Regular, partial water changes (10-15%) are much more efficient and they don't disrupt the good bacteria, which create part of the biological filter.

 But the main reason to avoid a complete overhaul is that the fish totally freak out.

As distressing as a filthy tank may be, it's nothing compared to the shock of moving to a little glass bowl. 

The first time I moved the fishes out, one of them jumped right out of the temporary bowl! I found him behind the shelf and- you'll never believe this- he was fine!

You can imagine how I felt.

Upon reflection, these particular fish don't seem to mind the little bowl... for the first time in their life,
they look big.

Never mind, he looks pretty grumpy.

When they plunged back into their warm, bubbly home, they darted back and forth and explored every inch. They even schooled together as if in the ocean. My kids wanted to know why they were in such a hurry!

My husband can always tell when the tank has been thoroughly cleaned because the water is very cloudy, which puzzles me because I scrubbed the crap out of it -literally! No worries, it clears up over night and once again, I resolve to maintain the aquarium consistently so we won't have to go through that ordeal ever again. It's entirely possible that you will see a similar post next month...

Or maybe my little helpers will keep me on track with a new aquarium cleaning routine :)

Love in Layers

Hey! This is my first time linking up with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesdays.

This is also my first time to try a texture that I really like!

It's Kim Klassen's Love in layers :)

(I also used Katie Lloyd's Vintage Polaroid.)

I would love feedback!

Tasty Tuesday

Strawberry Salad

Great for summer and goes with anything: chicken, steak...

I might even try it with ice cream ;)

My friend brought over this salad in December and as soon as I tasted it I had to have the recipe- I've made it many times since then and I have discovered that everyone who tastes it asks for the recipe.

{I know this photo is not really about the salad- my apologies. Tune in next time for the Salmon Sandwich recipe!}

This is a very flexible salad- add more or less fruit or lettuce, depending on your taste. 

The original recipe used spinach but I love spring mix- use whatever you like! Make it your own!

My sister-in-law also adds candied Almonds which gives it a nice crunch.

1 box of fresh strawberries, sliced 
2 kiwis, sliced 
1 box of spring mix lettuce. 

Salad Dressing: mix together 1/3 cup sugar. 1/4 cup canola oil. 1/4 cup Raspberry or red wine vinegar. 

Just before serving, add dressing to the strawberry salad and toss it all together. 

P.S. If my strawberries are too tart, I slice them up ahead of time, sprinkle a little sugar on them and let them sit in the fridge for a couple hours. Not only does this make the strawberries sweeter, it adds a nice juice to the salad.

bon appetit!