Camera Play: Things Around The House

Testing 1, 2, 3

I told you guys I was taking the Blogging Your Way ecourse  with Holly Becker of Decor8, right?

Well, it's going pretty well so far. There is a ton of information to get through and I even had 'homework' to do. This week has included lessons from her husband Thorsten on photography and cameras. On top of what I'm learning as a Blogging Your Way student, I also subscribe to Carla Loves Photography, a blog by professional travel/editorial/portrait photographer Carla Coulson and she is doing a series on photography/camera basics.  Yay! Thank you Thorsten and Carla!

I can use all the help I can get. I've been relying on 'auto' far to long and far to 'often'. So I've been reading what Thorsten Becker, Carla Coulson and my camera manual have to say. I'm playing around a bit and doing some test runs to 'get to know my camera better' and hopefully in the end, take better pictures.  I have a long way to go, but I know I will love having more control of what my photos look like when I get the hang of things.

Since I'm in my home office, I just took a few shots around the place to give the lessons and settings a little test run. So, in no particular order, Things Around The House:


Lucan is sleeping behind me. (It might have something to do with the fact that he's right next to the wood stove which is cranking.)

Did I tell you we successfully grew winter squash? We ended up with about 4 small acorn squash and 7 decent butternuts.  Not a huge take, but delicious none the less.

The geraniums are in for winter.  If you've never brought your geraniums in, might I suggest you do. They seem to acclimate pretty well and bloom all winter. I am no green thumb and they do awesome for me.  I just put mine on my windowsill (away from the wood stove). Some are already in pots on my stoop out back while others I have to transplant to pots from my window boxes. It's worth a little extra work to have pretty flowers blooming all winter. Agreed?

I found this old bottle in the woods across the way on a recent walk with the hound. It was really stuck down in the dirt and had been there a good while.  I've searched on the internet to see if I can come up with 'what was in it', but haven't had any luck yet. It says 'the one and only' around the top and it's measurements are metric. I did find that Newcastle Ale used this tag line, but this doesn't really look like a beer bottle and I couldn't find any pics that showed any of Newcastle's bottles being clear. Still a mystery.

 

It is way beyond time for me to clean out the tote bags that hang behind our front door. They hold things like the dog leash, my pruners and garden gloves, binoculars. However, looking at the state of them, I'd say they're holding a lot of things that don't need to be in there. I better get on that......or at least put it 'on the list'.

 

 

Funny thing, these pinecones.  I've been collecting on way back from walks with the dog.  They're small and they were all really closed and tight. I thought they might be neat for Christmas crafts. Well, poof........they opened overnight. Just like that. Who knew?

 

If you're like me and are trying to improve your camera and photography knowledge, might I suggest you check out Carla's blog?  She has a wealth of information and making photography a career for those interested in that, as well as improving your skills for people like me.  If you want to follow along with her current lessons, you'll find Lesson #1/M is for Manual here.

Hope your Tuesday is going well. It was a wintry mix this morning, but it's gone now and just left cold air in it's wake. Hence, the wood stove cranking.

Make it a great day, it's a great day to have.

Ciao for now,