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!”

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

One of the most requested photography concept explanations deals with the topic of ISO. Which is actually really funny to me because ISO is one of the few more advanced photo settings that we used to deal with back in the age of film cameras.

Don’t tell me you don’t remember going to the store and looking at rows and rows of Kodak or Fujifilm. You might have called your mom on your brand new cell phone and asked “Should I …

I’m really excited about this post because adjusting white balance is something that all but the most ancient digital cameras can do. Adjusting white balance is kind of like doing in-camera editing. By changing the settings you can make drastic improvements to your photos without needing expensive or complicated programs like Photoshop.

Since you were all good little readers who got your manuals out after this post, you should be able to open up to page ___ and read how to …

My wedding is long gone but I’m still helping plan my sister’s wedding which is coming up in less than a month so I’m still a bit in the “wedding mode”. To be honest, I don’t think I will ever stop looking at wedding photos and pulling inspiration from them. As a part-time wedding photographer, it should be part of my job to know what is on trend with wedding photography and what not but seriously even if …

Today I’m addressing the many questions I received about why I bought the camera I did, and how to go about choosing a dSLR. If you would like to learn how dSLRs work, you can read it in very technical terms on the Wikipedia page. If you want a really easy to understand (dummy guide, if you will) explanation, go here.

I think the first question is, What kind (level, not brand) of dSLR should I buy when I am ready …