Today is one of those days. I’m not particularly motivated to tackle my to do list. Nor am I ready to tackle the 2 hour lesson I need to finish before tomorrow morning. I’ve spent the morning thinking of the friends I have been blessed with, thinking of Hurricane Ida landing on the coast, and capturing the small details of this beautiful day.

My sweet Jesse, waiting out the morning with me.

A clothesline filled with baby clothing.

A self portrait.

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Is it just me or does it seem like this year is flying by at record speed? How can it be November already? And more importantly, how can it be pitch black by 5:30 pm these days?

I’ve always been a Mid-western girl and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Although you might hear me gripe and complain from approximately November through April (because that is truly how long a bitter Wisconsin winter lasts up here), I would never trade the full four seasons we get for anything. Sure, I’m sure it’s absolutely fabulous to live in a climate that is temperate all year round with sun shining and warm weather. I’m supremely jealous of you if this is your climate but then again, I love the fact that we get the variety of Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall up here. Yes, certain seasons are a little more intense than others but no place is perfect, right? No matter what, I try to make a conscious effort to enjoy the seasons in all of their glory, breathing fresh air and remembering to stop and look around at nature every now and then. It’s pretty amazing sometimes, isn’t it?

The fact that fall is upon us and Christmas season is rapidly approaching made me think about how I’ve owned my d-SLR camera for nearly a whole year now. Which means I’ve diligently taken photos of every season in all of it’s glory. I thought it would be fun to summarize each season into three photos, which epitomize the feeling of the four seasons. So here we go:

WINTER:

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Since I started writing my photography tip & tutorial posts I’ve started receiving emails and Facebook asking

“I want to buy a dSLR. Where do I go from here?”
or
“I have a dSLR but I want to get a different lens, what should I buy?”

My answer is always the same, that I think it’s best to buy down in body and up in lens. If this is going over your head already just remember that dSLR’s have two separate parts, the camera part, called a body, and the lens, and those are interchangeable. In my opinion it’s best to buy the nicest lens you can afford and plan on upgrading the body as needed, rather than buying the nicest body and upgrading the lens as needed. Sometimes though, I think people ignore my advice (which is fine, do what you want with your money and your photos) and get caught up in the megapixels and the nicer LCD screen, causing them to ignore the glass.

I knew that the best way to drive this point home was to demonstrate what a better lens can do for your photos, and I’m lucky enough to own the three lenses, low, medium, and high quality which I knew would be necessary to use in order to show you what I mean. Keep in mind throughout this post that each person needs to buy the lens that fits their needs, and for some people a prime/fixed lens is not going to work. My intent is just to demonstrate that unless you absolutely have to have it for whatever reason you dream up, the kit lens that comes with your camera is absolute crap.

Lens 1, Zoom Lens or “Kit Lens”, Low Quality
Focal Length: 28-135mm
Aperture: 3.5-5.6
Price: $374.95

Lens 2, Prime Lens or Fixed Lens, Medium-High Quality
Focal Length: 50mm
Aperture: 1.4
Price: $399.95

Lens 3, Prime Lens or Fixed Lens, High Quality, L Series
Focal Length: 50 mm
Aperture: 1.2
Price: $1349.95

From left to right, Lens 1, Lens 2, and Lens 3.

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We’re gaining a new addition to our home come April 2010!

While planning my wedding I learned about all of these creative and innovative projects people embarked on during the engagement period. So it figures that now that I’m in the pre-natal period I would be dreaming up projects that apply to baby. Nursery decor projects? Those are off limits for single income couples like us that plan on moving 5 months after the baby is born to go to business school. So I had to be a bit more creative with my thinking. What if, instead of working on something tangible, I focused on creating something… bloggable!

Unlike the lovely Julia, I do not have a sexy tight belly with a cute little bump. I have a belly gained through hours spent in front of the computer editing photos and years of bad food choices. But that’s not going to prevent me from embarking on the belly bump slideshow project I’ve been dreaming of for months now.

For this project to happen I need tripod, camera, good light, neutral background, the same outfit for every photo, the same pose for every photo, and all of this happening in as close to the same spot as possible each week.

I chose to wear white because it’s the most revealing color (usually the reason why I avoid it!) as I wanted all of the changes in my body to be seen. I chose to take the photos on Sunday, a day I end up doing my hair and wearing makeup, something that doesn’t usually happen the rest of the week. I picked a spot on our office with good light and a blank wall and set up my tripod across from it. I put duct tape on the floor under each of the legs of the tripod, and also where my feet needed to go.

After I had the settings on my camera where I wanted them I began running back and forth, setting the timer, and then getting back into position. I decided my favorite pose was the typical “hands resting on the small of the back” pregnancy pose, and did a shot of my front with shirt down, side with shirt down, front with shirt up, and side with shirt up. Each week I’ll take a shot as close to this setup as I possibly can, and then at the end of my pregnancy (and definitely as I go as well) I’ll assemble it into a little video where each shot is shown side-by-side so the growth and changes can be seen.

I’ll update you when I feel like I’ve “popped” so you can see the progress!

As I’ve lamented before on EADL, Evs and I have quite the blank space looming large right above one of our living room sofas. Finding a piece that’s affordable, fills the space, and is aesthetically pleasing to the both of us has been quite the challenge.

Then there’s my love of gallery walls.  However, The Cottage has neither a staircase nor a deep enough hallway to boast the collection of images I’ve dreamed up in my head.

Enter the “Shelf Gallery!”

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Kelli Nicole just told me about VII Photo Agency.

VII derives its name from the number of founding photo-journalists who, in September 2001, formed this collectively owned agency. Designed from the outset to be an efficient, technologically enabled distribution hub for some of the world’s finest photojournalism, VII has been responsible for creating and relaying to the world many of the images that define the turbulent opening years of the 21st century.

Alexandra Boulat, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey and John Stanmeyer were joined in 2002 by Lauren Greenfield and in 2004 by Joachim Ladefoged. Marcus Bleasdale and Franco Pagetti joined in November 2007. Together they document conflict - environmental, social and political, both violent and non-violent - to produce an unflinching record of the injustices created and experienced by people caught up in the events they describe.

On September 9th 2001, VII announced its formation. On the following night, covering for the missed return flight of a colleague, James Nachtwey arrived at his Manhattan apartment close to the World Trade Center. The next morning, he photographed some of the most haunting pictures of the collapse of the towers, at the same time eloquently conveying the destruction of a way of life.

These photo essays are incredibly inspiring. Often gut wrenching. Real.

Some of my favorites include:

The Albino Killings photo essay by Marcus Bleasdale.

BibiAna 10 and her sister Tendyebua 8 wait in the hospital compound in the hospital in Gaita, Tanzania. BibiAna was amputated at night by people who believe Albino body parts used in conjunction with other traditional medicines can help them become rich in the mining and fishing industries. The people who attacked and amputated BibiAnnas leg have been taken into custody. Over 19 Albinos have been killed in Tanzania in the past 2 years.

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Week #3 of my series on Etsy favorites was all about accessorizing your wardrobe… Week #4 is all about accessorizing your home!

Hijirik

I’ve sung the praises of Hirijik before but I’ll say it again: the “Live What You Love” letterpress post series is my favorite non-cheesy, gender-neutral art piece I’ve found!  We have the red in our living room and my computer background boasts the lime green at work!

Geninne

After seeing Geninne’s vibrant watercolor prints, I fell instantly in love.  An artist living in Mexico City, Geninne’s creations have both a vintage vibe with a bit of funk!  I’ve already determined that 4 of these little birdies are coming to roost in Dallas - I think they’ll look lovely framed in a foursome-square somewhere in our little cottage!

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I want to look back on my life through photos. I want to remember what it was like to win that hot dog eating contest, or swim with Olympians, or ride in a helicopter in Kaua’i, or cross the finish line of my first half-marathon.

But in order for that to happen I need a camera…a good one that will grow with me.

That is where you come in…

I am in the market for a new Digital SLR Camera. I am debating between purchasing a Canon or Nikon.

image c/o Canon.com

image c/o Nikon.com

I have read reviews about both cameras and both sound fabulous so which one do I choose?

I was hoping those of you who own either of these cameras could tell me your experience with it, why you chose it, and what you like about it.

Help, please?

I chose to explain aperture last because it is the last photography concept of the bunch that I came to understand. I’m not sure why it was so hard for me, but I went for months only shooting on shutter speed priority because I just couldn’t understand what aperture was or how to use it. Then one day everything kind of clicked for me! Hopefully reading this post will help you have that “A-ha!” moment as well.

What is aperture?
You’re going to have to work hard to stay with me on this one because there are several different terms I’m going to have to use to explain this concept. Just like the other concepts, aperture has to do with light (photography is all about light if you haven’t realized it by now). First I’ll show you the part of your camera that is affected when you change the aperture.

Ignore the numbers for a second, we will come back to those.

See that little circular thing? It’s called a diaphragm. The width of that opening determines your aperture. Except it all gets very confusing because a BIGGER opening means a SMALLER aperture. This is what kept me so confused for so long. I just couldn’t remember the bigger/smaller thing. If you keep reading I’ll teach you the phrase that helped me remember how it works. :)

{Short Courses}

Aperture, like everything else, is all about light. Having the opening very small lets in less light. Having it very big let’s in lots of light. Now look at the picture above again. See the numbers? Those are the measurements of the aperture, and they are called F-STOPS. If I start with f/1.4 and then change to f/2.8 I have gone up by two stops.

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Thank you for all of your comments on my photography tutorial posts so far. I consider myself an amateur at all of this, and there are still many things I don’t know, but at least I’ve been able to inspire some of you to start experimenting outside of the realms of automatic. Yay!

Now on to todays topic.

How did….

MiLK Studio capture this gorgeous photo Mrs. Blush in front of a moving subway car?

Kelly Moore isolate this bride, keeping her in focus and making the background blurry?

Anne Ruthmann capture this little boy flying through the air and keep him from looking blurry?

Jeff Newsom create these ribbons of light?

{Jeff Newsom}

The answer? All of these effects were achieved using different types of shutter speed manipulations.

What is shutter speed?

You know that little “click” sound you hear when you take a picture? That’s the shutter opening and closing. When you take a picture in a bright setting, the shutter clicks really fast. When you take a picture in a dark setting (without the flash) the shutter takes a lot longer to go make the clicking sound.

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