Lunch Today

I've been noticing, not by really trying, that most of my lunches are vegetarian. And I have LOVED it. Like today's lunch of roasted veges. They were amazing. So amazing that I had to take a picture and put it on here with the recipe. And I might have eaten 1/2 of a cookie sheet full.
Doesn't this just make you drool??


Here's what I did...
Cut up cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, red pepper, and onion and coated in a large bowl first in a little water. Added EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil) and tosses. Spread on foil-lined and greased cookie sheet and sprinkled with dried basil and a bit of dried parsley, pepper and natural salt. Roasted uncovered 375 for 45 minutes, stirring a bit 1/2 way through. When done sprinkle with parmesan cheese and put back in the oven for a minute or two. HHHHHHOOllllyyyy moley. You'll ♥ it.

YAY!- and LESSON TWO

Okay, I'm really glad everyone liked that lesson one-- minus you, Mom. I had a feeling you wouldn't get the picture (*snicker...snort) (okay, we all know I'm a dork)
I'm going to clarify a couple things in lesson two about cameras, what a DSLR is and what makes it better and what you should look for and....whatever else I throw in there.
Here we GO!
A DSLR is different than a typical point and shoot camera because you have different lenses that you attach to the body. (btw, the "D" in DSLR simply means "digital" instead of "film") Here's an example of a "body".

I'm not going to bore you with the details of how the camera body actually works, just know it involves a mirror (you see in there), a prism, and a sensor. Once a picture is taken you can see it on the back LCD just like your point and shoot (from here referred to ps, not to be confused with P.O.S) to see if you got a good picture.
The lenses attach to the front there simply by aligning the red or white dots on the body there with the red or white one on the lens, depending on which lens you use, and twisting until it clicks in place. No sweat.
You want to protect this opening as much as you can- either always have a lens on or the cover. Change lenses as quickly as you can and preferably indoors to prevent dust and crud from settling on the inside and on your sensor, which can show up on your pics sometimes. Luckily, most DSLRs now come with "sensor cleaning", which means that when you turn the camera off, the sensor shakes a bit (you can't feel/hear it) and attempts to shake off any dust that could have settled. My better camera (Canon 5D) is an older model and doesn't have this and therefore, I have to clean it every once-in-a-while, which totally scares the crud out of me every time. So sensor cleaning is a good thing to have, although not completely necessary.
Now there's always a strange snootiness that goes on with Canon and Nikon users- each usually thinks that whatever they have is the best and is willing to defend their decision with violence, if necessary. Lemme explain about this...Canon and Nikon are neck-and-neck when it comes to cameras.
Like Honda and Toyota when it comes to cars.
Like Breyer's and Dreyer's when it comes to ice cream.
Like McDonald's and Taco Bell when it comes to nastiness.
Like Paris Hilton and Robert Pattinson when it comes to over-ratedness.
Get the idea? Each just has different settings and features but they both do the same thing. In my opinion, I wish I could combine the two. Canon usually has better color. Nikon usually has more frames/second. Canon has an awesome array of lenses. Nikon has a better focusing system. Nikons are a bit more expensive.
So which to get? Do your research and see which you think you'd like better. Or go to a camera store and hold them (think Fry's) and have them show you the ropes. Or if you know someone who is nice enough to let you come over and try it, great! For a beginner I recommend the Canon Rebel model XSi or up. There are a bunch of Rebel models and I think they progress like this: Rebel XS, Rebel XTi, Rebel XSi, and the newest Rebel T1i. Each jumps up in megapixels and the bodies also change. The Rebel XSi is a great little camera, user friendly, large and bright LCD screen, has lots of automatic settings if you are too wussy to use the manual ones, and is 12.2 megapixels. Basically that translates to larger files, which means you may want to think about an external hard drive to store pics on if you shoot in the largest file size (you can choose smaller files if you want so they don't take up so much room). But the good thing is that if you want to make larger prints they come out nice and crisp. I have NO idea what the Nikon equivalent is to this camera and don't really care because I got this one and loved it. I'm sure the Nikon is lovely.
Unless you get a "professional" camera, your DSLR will be a "crop" camera, which means that the sensor is smaller and therefore results in a bit of a "crop" or smaller picture for a particular lens than you would get if you strapped that same lens on a "full frame" camera (which is considered "professional". The only reason this would be an asset is if you are using a long zoomy lens (think wildlife pics) then you can actually see further with that lens than if it were on a full-frame camera. But unless you want to go pro, a crop camera is just grand and you'll never feel deprived. Now that I have a full-frame camera, thinking of going back to a crop camera makes me squirm. But if you don't know any better, you won't be disappointed :)
So you need to figure out what exactly you want to use your camera for when you go looking for one...if you want it for shooting sports pics, birds in flight, wildlife on the move...you may want to look for a camera with more fps, or frames per second. When you get your first DSLR, 3 may seem like way more than you'll need, but if you want to get great action shots 5-8 may be more like it. Some Nikons can get 8fps with a battery grip, which is a battery pack that attaches to the camera and holds 2 batteries at once (btw, 8 fps is CRAZY fast and you can hardly push the button without taking 2 at a time. Way too fast for me) The Canon 50D gets 5, i believe. Don't quote me.
In the way of nicer Canon cameras it starts with the 10D and works its way up as follows...20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, 5d, 7D, 5DMark II and then all these 1D cameras that I don't know much about. The 7D is new and I haven't used it. Its a crop sensor and therefore not considered "professional" but it has more megapixels (18) than the 5d, which is a full-frame camera and it shoots 8fps. I have the 5D and love, love, love it. The 5D Mark II is am amazing camera which also includes high-definition video. The 7D and the Rebel T1i also have video, but honestly, i don't know much about that. I just stick to the photography side.
So there are a few things you a going to need along with your camera...a bag, memory cards (SD or CF depending on your camera) and UV filter that fits your lens to protect the glass. Don't forget to take these things into account when adding up how much you can spend on the camera.
People ask me what I would recommend to a beginner and here's what I have decided I would have gotten back then, knowing what I know now. For someone who just wants good pictures of their kids and wants to use a DSLR, I would look for a Rebel Xsi body WITHOUT the lenses that normally come with it in a "kit". Kit lenses are usually not very good. One lens you will love as a good portrait lens and a GREAT indoor lens (wide-open aperture!) is the 50mm f/1.8 lens. Its about $100, which is SERIOUSLY cheap for a lens. I have the better 50mm lens which opens up (smaller number, wider opening, remember?) to f/1.4 but I've heard a lot of good stuff about the 50mm f/1.8
The Rebel Xsi body will cost you about $485 on Amazon.com. (If you wanted the lens that comes with that camera (18-55 f/3.5-5.6) you could just find it on craigslist or something because everyone wants to sell it because it's not very good.) If the investment makes you cringe, I TOTALLY know what you are feeling. It's HARD to dish out that much money for a camera (and even harder to get your hubby on board). If you learn to use it and use it often, you will love it and be happy you made the investment.
WHEW! We made it through lesson 2. And just because I loved this picture, here's my little guy eating Ramen Noodles.

Taken with 50mm lens. Camera settings ISO 1000, f/1.4, 1/640

Me on a Soapbox and...LESSON ONE.

*disclaimer- this is LOOOONNNGG. I'm sorry. Read until you fall asleep and pick it back up after your afternoon Diet Coke.

First and foremost...I think every mom should have and know how to use a good camera (a DSLR...keep reading).
I think we deserve to catch the moments we want in the ways we want. Seriously, it's our WORK.
We work hard.
I work hard.
And I want to document it.
I invest a butt-load of time on my kids. I take my pictures for ME.
It's a short ride with these darling little pipsqueaks and I don't want to look back at my pictures in 20 years and think "EEHHH!" and have the best pictures I have of my kids be of them in some stiff studio pose with their hand perfectly under their chin and head tilted just right. I'm not going to be saying at that time, "Oh, I love how my little girl always laid just like that on her tummy with her head cocked to the side and her feet crossed behind her. That was just like her."
It will be a cute picture with almost zilch personality. Basically, this is what your face looked like when you were 4, honey.
This is what drove me to photography. I wanted to escape that stinking HOT JCPenny studio with my 20 minutes of allotted time with some teenager rolling her tongue obnoxiously (think the highest pitch "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!" you can) and trying to make my kid smile by tickling his nose with a pink feather duster. ECHHHH. And then she'd miss the smile EVERY TIME. I wanted to go, "JUST GIVE ME THE DANG CAMERA AND GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
Seriously.
Can you get more torturous? No wonder I was a stressed-out, sweaty, disgusting mess by the time we left. No wonder the baby hated it and cried and had a red face for every picture.

Using a DSLR really doesn't take that long to get used to and you'll love the pictures you get. I'm going to do my best to convince you to get one (and I don't even work for a camera company!)
I ***HATED*** the crappy pictures I would get from my p&s. It drove me to get my first DSLR. It's a great investment.

*note- from here on in the post is all about using a DSLR. If you have NO interest in this, even after reading my soapbox section, stop here :)

Alright- the responses for photography 101 were kind of pitiful. But nevertheless, here I go...
The first thing you need to know about using a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera is that its kind of like playing a game. The goal of the game is to have a good picture. What makes a good picture? One that isn't too dark or light (and then the creative elements, which we'll get to later). This was the weirdest thing for me to get used to- that I had to manipulate my camera to get a good "exposure". I would want to catch a moment and quickly pick up my camera a shoot away then look at the pictures in the play-back and they were all pitch black.
All little point and shoot (ps) cameras do the calculating for you. They take into account all the light coming through the lens and calculate what settings it needs to use to get a good exposure. Most SLR cameras have both automatic settings (like sports, portrait, macro...) and manual settings, where you manipulate the settings to get the exposure you want. There are three of these "settings". They are:
1) shutter speed
2) aperture
3) ISO
If you want to learn photography, learn these things and learn them well. Understanding what they do and how they affect how your photo will come out is crucial. (for a great book check out "understanding exposure".)
So first we will tackle...hmm...I guess we'll go with shutter speed.
All three of these things make up the formula for a properly exposed photo. If you change one you are going to have to change another. Shutter speed is how long your shutter opens to let the light fall on the sensor. It is expressed in fractions of seconds like 1/125th of a second. Or 1/8000 of a second (or anywhere in between). Or it can be opened for 1-30 seconds. When it's open longer, like 1/125 rather than 1/250, it lets in more light. If its open too long you'll get a "blown out" or over-exposed picture. Sometimes it's just completely white. Not a good picture. If its open too short you get a dark or black picture. Yuck. And then your moment is lost. And no one likes that. BUT you can also use shutter speed to convey motion. Opening the shutter longer results in blur if something is in motion. Opening it a very short amount of time (as in 1/500) freezes motion. Here are two examples, properly exposed but using different shutter speeds.
Here the shutter is open longer, resulting in blur as I moved the camera along with the movement of her swing (called "panning"). This was taken at 1/60 of a second.

Here she was still moving but the shutter froze the motion and I didn't move the camera while shooting. This was taken at 1/500 of a second.

Get the difference?
K, let's move along to aperture. You've probably noticed the pictures you take with your p&s don't have that beautiful background blur which sets DSLRs apart. The aperture refers to the size of the hole letting the light hit the censor. Depending on the lens you use, your aperture can either open way UP (a SMALL number, like 1.4), letting in LOTS of light, or narrow way down (a large number, like 22), letting in a little bit of CONCENTRATED light . Think of it like your eyes when you squint cuz you aren't wearing your glasses. The more you squint, the more the light is concentrated on your "censor" and you can see clearer from you to wherever you are looking. If I was going to take a picture of the beautiful mountains with the orange groves in front and wanted it all in focus, I would choose a small aperture (written as an f-stop like f/22) to get everything in focus. This is what most p&s cameras do. Then don't have wide apertures. There are several things that can affect the amount of blur, but usually if you want MORE blurred background you LOWER your aperture (or OPEN it). Here are examples:
This was taken at f/2.8, the widest this particular lens will go. LOADS of blur before and after the focus point. (btw-sorry about the sucky pics. But they get the point across)


This one was taken at f/5.0 (not as blurred before and after focus point)


And this a 9.0. (clearest front to back)


I could have gone all the way to f/22 but that gives a leetle teeny opening for light, which means the shutter has to be open longer to let in more light and the movement of my hands would result in "camera shake" and blurry pictures (ever turn off the flash on your p&s and it gives you like a little hand that's saying you'll get camera shake? that's why! the shutter will be open longer so set it down on something or put it on a tripod for the picture)
The last thing that affects your exposure is ISO. In film cameras you'd have to change your film in dark-light situations to get a decent picture. Now it takes about 2 seconds to change on your camera. Your p&s even has an ISO setting.
I once read it explained as the amount of worker bees you have working for you to gather the information the lens is seeing. The higher the number, the faster the information is gathered. That's a good thing, right?? NOPE. With a faster gathering, each pixel doesn't have the time it needs to get all the color, so your camera kindof "guesses" what some pixels should be and you get more and more grain as you get higher ISOs. I discovered this the hard way. I took a bunch of pictures of my sister-in-law at ISO 800 and got them on the computer and was like, 'WHAT THA!!" because they were unclear. So the lower the ISO (100 is good), the better. But then you have less worker bees and therefore have to have a slower shutter speed or a wide open aperture (or both!) to let enough light in to make a good exposure. And sometimes that slower shutter speed (usually anything under 1/100 of a second) will give you camera shake. So you have to make the decision of what to do- up the ISO or open up the aperture (or add light-use flash, open a door/window...)
Making a good exposure balances all these things. The picture of my neice with on the swing with the blur was taken at a f/13 and ISO 100 because I had so much light coming in because of the longer shutter speed that I had to narrow the aperture and lower the ISO. The other picture of her had a fast shutter speed=less light=open the aperture (f/3.2) and up the ISO to 200. Each lighting situation has a different formula. But as long as you are in the same lighting (like shade or indoors or bright light) you can just shoot without changing your settings. But once you go indoors from being outside you'll have to change.
So that's it. Now you are a pro, right?? Oh, one more thing...your camera has a light meter inside of it which tells you pretty accurately when your shutter speed (ss), aperture, and ISO are making good exposures. It's not just trial and error. You can see when looking through the viewfinder (yes, old-school style) if it's going to be over or under-exposed and then you can fix it from there. So you aren't completely on your own.
Good luck. Let me know what you think. Shall we continue to lesson 2??

Yesterday's Project

I loved waking up to my finished project of yesterday.

Mmmmmm...24 pints of canned chicken. DELISH!

Just because I haven't posted....

I have the hardest time coming up with post titles. Mostly because my posts are rarely ever based on one theme and just kindof random. Which brings me to today's post....
Why am I obsessed with my peas? I think I'm just excited that I can grow stuff in the winter. (Sorry, I don't mean to keep rubbing in that we are enjoying awesome weather in the winter and everyone else is in the freezing cold.)


But they are so pretty and everything else is all dead and leaf-less.


And I have caught some wonderful bug the past several months where I'm discovering the WONDERFUL food I can make. If you haven't checked out Allrecipes.com, do so now! It's the best recipe book ever. But this wonderful Buffalo Chicken Pizza was on my friend, Shandee's blog a few months back. I tried it and we were converted. Chicken breast, Frank's Red Hot Sauce, celery, bleu cheese, jack cheese....all on a whole wheat crust. Delicious. (Only this time I put too much bleu cheese and almost yacked. A mistake I won't make again.)


And last night I made this....chicken and shrimp jambalaya...again, from Allrecipes. With brown rice. I didn't have any good sausage so I used some cheap breakfast ones. Still was amazing. (add feta cheese on top for extra awesomeness)

Also try THIS for an amazing meal.

Nolan is stepping further away from deathly afraid of the stinky reindeer. Check him out!!


Then immediately realized what he did and withdrew.


Did you know that lions sleep 20 hours a day. I know from experience. However, this time one was awake. And I think he looked at me and I realized I would not like to be face-to-face with him in the wild.


Aren't kids amazing? They just go day to day never really noticing the weather. Carter still puts on shorts like every day and every day i have to explain that it's still winter and that winter is not just one day. It's every day for a while.
Still doesn't click.
The water in the Pacific is hardly every above freezing and is only bearable in the summer when you are so hot it feels great. But did they notice that it was completely frigid? No they did not. And they played around in it until their pants were drenched.

And Carter experienced the horrible feeling of wet jeans rubbing against cold legs for the first time. Maybe he'll listen the next time I tell him not to get wet. Probably not.
Nolan had a great time until the inevitable happened and he biffed it and got completely wet.




My DARLING nieces came with my brother and sister-in-law, who, for a week,, escaped the horrible nastiness of winter that everyone else is now enduring




Isn't she beautiful? She looks like a porcelain doll.


I think I love being at the beach for the sunset more than being anywhere else. The breeze, the waves, the colors...it makes you feel beautiful just being part of it. It's amazing. And I love being there with my little stinkers.

And for those of you wanting me to post about photography, what the heck do you want to learn about?

A few of my favorite things...

HI! I'm BACK! Back to blogging. It's been a while. I've been very unreliable and I don't even apologize a bit. We have been going like crazy and it's been wonderful. I don't think anyone will blame me for being in the now, right?? But I do apologize for so shamelessly rubbing in how terrific our weather is right now. Especially since it's supposed to be cold and rainy for like the next 10 days.
Anyhoo...I don't know about anyone else but sometimes I compose these really great blog posts in my head as I'm taking pictures/emptying the dishwasher/going about daily life/cleaning up messes...and 9 times out of 10 they never make it to the actual blog. And yes, believe it or not, I do get writers block and struggle for one little witty thing to say to brighten up your bleak and freezing winter days (sorry again). Tonight has been one of those nights. Couldn't come up with a darned thing to write about other than "here's what we've been up to!" (yippee, those are always a blast...)
SO, as I was scanning through the pics I wanted to put on here I came up with this title and low and behold, now I have a post! TA DA!

So first on my list of my favorite things is...
my new macro lens converter ring thing. You're probably going, "What the heck?" and I would have said the same thing a year and a half ago. But I love being a bit educational on here so here's the gist...if you take your lens off your camera and flip it around backwards it won't fit. Drrr. And it will be seriously blurry. But if you hold it in place and get within a few inches of something all the sudden you have a macro lens (for really close-up pics of tiny things). So this ring will hold your backwards lens on your camera body. It's fun to play with and something (I gave myself) I got for Christmas. So I used my first favorite thing to take a picture of another favorite thing.
Raindrops on roses. (Whoa, cheesy.... okay, maybe it's dew. i'm not sure. I only know it's pretty).



These next two were taken without the ring-thingy...
Favorite things....orange blossoms and sugar snap peas even in the winter (usually a spring thing)




Walking hand-in-hand with little boys (more specifically, MY little boys)


Rolled-up jeans and shoe-less on the beach. Heavenly!


Taking the kids places they love (here at the Wild Animal Park in SD) and letting them pet the "stinky reindeer".


Watching Nolan conquer fears. He finally pet the stinky reindeer. Took quite a bit of coaxing on Carter's part.


Seeing guys with HUGE, and I mean HUUUGGEEE cameras and lenses at the WAP. They made my camera look ridiculous. Can you see that lens?? Holy crud. That thing had to be like 2 and a half feet across. Too bad all they could see was the lion's butt and I could get as close to that as i wanted with my lens. (p.s. Did you know that lions sleep for 20 hours a day? Yeah, I've seen it)


Getting ice cream with the boys and letting them get whatever the heck they want on top. Gummy worms, marshmallows, and rainbow sprinkles......MMMMmmmmm.....


And letting it get all over their faces.


And finally, pictures of my kids playing together.


You made it! Oh, and i was gonna ask...I've had a few questions from people about photography-related things lately.
Would anyone be interested in me doing some posts on the basics??

It's January...

...and it's 75 degrees and beautiful.
So I swear I'll try blogging soon.
But right now we're busy enjoying the weather everyone else enjoyed September-November.
And I really do feel sorry for all of you suffering in the sludge/snow/ice/inversion/nastiness. I lived in IDAHO for 3 years so I can sympathize.
And winter is SO looooooooooooooong and dreary.
But I got to wear jeans and a t-shirt to the Wild Animal Park today.
And maybe I got a bit of a tan.
And my hair got a little lighter.
And I even had a list mist of dew on my forehead as I pushed the stroller under the bright blue, cloudless sky.
And I breathed the fresh ocean air and let it fill my body with delicious warmth and loveliness.
But I really don't like to brag, so I certainly won't do that.
I'm just sayin...