Beautiful Girl

This girl amazes me with her ability to pose for the camera. She somehow knows exactly what to do and when I take her out to 29 Palms Inn for her annual photo session the session is always in her hands. I let Haley do her thing and I just simply push the shutter button. Every single one of her poses is her idea. Of course I'll direct her into the right lighting, or suggest she grab a buttercup, or twirl in the sunshine, etc.

The other two photos of Haley and her friend are kind of sentimental to me. When I was a kid I had a friend named Mirna and we would pick buttercups every spring and laugh at the way the pollen turned our noses yellow if we sniffed them. I have always told Haley stories about my friendships as a kid and how close I was to my best friends and although she loves hearing the stories she was always a little sad afterwards because she's never had that kind of friendship. But now she's got a very good friend and the two of them can laugh about buttercup pollen together.

Oh My Goodness! I Can Bake!

I made that! I even invented the recipe...sort of, I thought of the flavor pairings. But look at it!!! It doesn't look like a 5 year old put it together. Unfortunately after my last fiasco I didn't bother making the cake from scratch, it is from a box. But the frosting was homemade and I put a nice layer of apricot preserves in between the two layers so I feel like it isn't entirely a box cake. The cake is Duncan Hines French Vanilla and the buttercream recipe came from here, but the idea to put apricot preserves was my idea entirely. After it was photographed from every angle possible we all ate a slice and although it was delicious the entire family decided buttercream frosting just isn't really our thing, it's a little too rich.

Eat This

I am currently eating one of the most delectable things I have made. It's creamy white chili and it's amazing. I was a little freaked out by the amount of cheese (an 8oz block) and the heavy cream so I added everything up and figured out that it's about 466 calories per serving, however with all the cream and cheese it's not low in fat so beware. But if calories are what you pay attention to then this isn't too bad, especially since it's very filling, we didn't even need a side dish.

Here is the link: Creamy White Chili

Now I did a few things differently for it to be 466 calories. We omitted the oil by grilling the chicken, I used reduced fat broth and sour cream as well and I didn't garnish it with anything, it really didn't need it. It did turn out a little more soupy than I thought chili should be but it was delicious regardless.

Oh, and just because a post should have photos here is one of Alice and me taken yesterday:

In Case You Need More Proof...

That I suck at baking and photographing food. Here is what it is supposed to look like. Isn't it pretty, with those delicate little lime slices? Doesn't it look perfectly moist and doesn't the glaze look wonderfully crisp?

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Doesn't it look like a 5 year old did it? For as long as I can remember I have been really bad at baking. In fact it wasn't until last year that I could finally make a cake from a box mix, and even then it didn't look pretty. I can however make some pretty delicious cheesecake but that's about as good as I get when it comes to baking. In case you are wondering how this happened I will explain. I had recently purchased a silicone bundt pan and was under the impression that silicone baking tools were magical, after all they resemble plastic yet they can withstand extremely high temperatures. That just screamed magical to me. I was also under the impression that cooling racks were for cooling things off on. It just makes sense right? Well since silicone was magical in my eyes I figured it did not need non stick spray, so that was my first mistake, I did not prep the pan at all. Secondly, as soon as it came out of the oven I flipped it upside down so it could cool on the cooling rack. Only half of it came out of the pan, the rest was stuck to the bottom. Now, the good thing here is that it tasted ok. It wasn't really my ideal flavor, maybe it was a little too lemony, but it wasn't bad either so although my baking looks awful it doesn't taste awful.

So there you have it, my latest baking fiasco.

Retro Day

Today is retro day at Haley's school and can you believe on the little flyer they sent home they included the 90's as a retro decade!? Some of the students at the school were born in the 90's! Anyway, it was really fun talking to Haley about the style we had in the 80's and 90's. Haley decided to go with the 80's and everything she's wearing she pulled from her own closet and wears regularly with the exception of the black tutu thing. Here she is wearing her get up:

50D Review

The 50d is such a great camera. It's super easy to use and Canon does a great job of making it easy to transition to from one canon to the next. On the dial you have your basic camera modes in auto and manual but Canon has added three new dials, CA, C1, and C2. I haven't dabbled yet in CA but C1 and C2 allow you to save custom settings. So if I know that when I shoot in studio I need my camera set a certain way I can just save those settings on C1 and turn my dial to C1 every time I have a studio session. Aside from the obvious boost in image quality from my rebel the 50d just feels like a better camera. My rebel could be described as dinky and puny in comparison. The 50d is noticeably larger, more powerful, and it makes a really beautiful shutter sound. I seriously love that sound.

As far as image quality goes, click on the photo above and view it large to see how grain looks. My xti has noticeable grain if viewed large and the light is not evenly distributed, it's a darker photo all around. You can also see a noticeable difference in white balance. Overall, I am so so so glad I upgraded. Oh, and in case your wondering (Mom and Dad) SOOC means straight out of camera, no editing or enhancements.

Camera

I recently purchased a new camera, a canon 50d. Back in 2006 when I began pursuing my dream of taking my photography skills from a hobby to a professional business venture I bought the Canon Rebel XTI, a good beginners camera. Nick and I talked about it and we agreed to upgrade once things really started taking off. At the time I felt like that would never happen but now things are different. I'm confident in my work, I have a steady stream of clientele, repeat customers, and I things are very routine now. I have a system and that system works really well. So, I decided it was time for an upgrade and guess what I found? A canon 1d mark II camera used for about $3,000 less than the cost of a new one. This is the Mark II:





Yeah, it's big. It's a monster. It dwarfs the lens. It would look fabulous in my hands. So I ordered it. But there was something about it that concerned me, it's only 8.2 mega pixels and my rebel is 10 or so. But it was just so pretty, and big, and normally expensive, I HAD to have it. I needed to have it. I ordered it on Easter weekend and spent the entire weekend looking at photos taken with it on flickr.com and my concern over the mega pixels grew. First of all I could not find many portraits taken with it. Second of all, the portraits I did find seemed slightly out of focus and amateurish. So I did some research which you're probably thinking should have been done in advance, yeah I know but b&h photo video is an excellent company and they're really nice about returns and exchanges. Anyway, it turns out this camera is best for action shots. So if you're a wildlife photographer it's fantastic, if you shoot sports, it's amazing, if you take portraits, it's lackluster...but it looks fabulous in your hands. So I sulked for a few minutes, then I exchanged it for a 50d which is a really nice camera, and much more suitable for my needs. It's 15 mega pixel, handles high ISO extremely well. You can go up to 3200 ISO without noticeable grain, and the camera is capable of 12,800 ISO, but you probably suffer substantial image quality reduction, but it's there if you need it. Here it is:

It's nice. It won't amaze people when they see it, they won't look at me and think "oh, now there is a photographer" but it's nice, and it will take amazing photos. Plus it has a digic IV processor. That is the best part. A digic IV processor allows finer detail and better color reproduction. It's also capable of taking 6.3 frames per second which means if I do find myself in a situation where I need to take photos of wildlife in motion I can do that easily. So there you have it, my new camera. It might come this afternoon and if it does I will compare it to my rebel by taking identical photos with the same lenses on both cameras, then comparing the photos side by side. I will post those tomorrow possibly.