Home, Sweet Home – Making Our House Into a Home

A few weeks ago while I was sick with a stomach virus, my husband bought groceries for us.  This always makes me a little nervous because he usually comes home with some random items that don’t really fit together as meals.  One of those random items he brought home was a T.G.I. Friday’s frozen Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Skillet Meal.  To be honest, I was skeptical.  Frozen pasta and chicken all together doesn’t usually cook up very well.  This meal was actually very very good!  Each item was packaged separately so the pasta doesn’t get mushy.   The flavor was wonderful and the food texture was excellent.  I really felt like I had just been served a fresh pasta dish from the restaurant.  It takes about 15-20 minutes to cook and it only takes one pan.  Seriously…one pan!  The food was so good that when I went to the grocery store last night, my husband made a special request for me to buy it…and he doesn’t even like pasta!

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time then you may have realized the my blog went from having the occasional picture to exploding with images on each post.  The reason for that is that I got a brand spanking new Sony a230 DSLR camera for Christmas.  Now, it’s only an entry level DSLR and it won’t do everything that a Canon 5D or a Nikon D700 will do, but it suits me fine…for now.  Honestly, this camera will do everything I want it to and then some.  And because I’m not a professional photographer, I don’t need 21MP for each picture that I take.  That would just be wasteful of my hard drive storage at this point.

When I got the camera in December, I had no idea what each setting meant much less how to compose great shots.  But I’ve been learning.  The more I’ve learned, the more addicted I’ve become to digital photography.  And I’ve seen my images go from average to above average.  And the self critical, perfectionist in me will not let me stop until my images become excellent.

In my learning process, I have found and been referred to 2 outstanding online photography resources.  The first one is Digital Photography School.

DPS has a wealth of information from professional photographers.  They have tutorials that are targeted at the below-beginners (like I was) to the uber-professional photographers.  Posts range from camera techniques to equipment reviews to post-production techniques.  They even have posts to help you choose a camera.  And best of all DPS is 100% FREE.  I have learned so much from this site!!

The second resource that has been incredibly helpful is KelbyTraining.com.

This isn’t a free resource.  It actually costs $199 per year or $24.95 per month.  It seems a little pricey, but when you consider the cost of an individual photography course or software training seminar, this is far cheaper.  There are video tutorials on literally anything having to do with photography and photography related software from the most knowledgeable experts in the field.

Both sites are incredibly wonderful and I highly recommend you taking advantage of one or both of these.

Here’s a bright spot for your day.  Spring is on it’s way!

On Monday night, my family appeared on Nightline.  No, it wasn’t the ABC version, it was the WGGS Channel 16 version.  Niteline is a talk show, gospel music variety show combo.  We were the musical guests for the evening.  The main guest was Warren Pippenger of Brothers N Christ ministries.  Warren has an amazing testimony of how he was convicted of murder, sentenced to 100+ years of prison, and was then released on a pardon after only 9 years.  Warren has amazing evangelistic gifts and has seen 100′s and 100′s come to Christ since he was saved.

Our family (my mom, dad, brother, and myself) all appeared as the musical guests.  We sang 5 different songs and I just sang some harmony in the middle.

The host, Mrs. Joanne Thompson, was a hoot.  She couldn’t see to read the prompt signs and kept getting our names wrong.  She wore the biggest broach I had ever seen.  The producer tried to make her take it off, but she refused.  She was definitely the most interesting women I have ever met.

Here’s a mini-collage of the event.  To see more pictures of our rehearsals and the actual event, just give the picture a good ole’ click.

I have the best husband in the world.  Want to know why?

This was delivered to my office today.  Aren’t they beautiful!

A few more shots for your viewing pleasure…

I told you he is wonderful!

Well, last night I had my first experience shooting a basketball game in a gymnasium.  It was so much more difficult than I ever thought it would be.  Before I left, I did some cramming to determine the best techniques to use.  I spent a few minutes in Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Book,  Volume 3, particularly Chapter 7 “Shooting Sports Like a Pro”.  Now the brief 10 minutes I spent studying up were invaluable as I shot, but I still wasn’t prepared.  I should have been studying and practicing for several days.  Fortunately this wasn’t an official shoot; I was just shooting my nephew in his last regular season Varsity basketball game.

Throughout the whole game, I kept changing ISOs from auto to 400 and even up to 1600.  I know that 1600 is photography noise overload, but it was the only way to get enough light to keep my shots from being too dark and to keep my shots from blurring.  I even compensated my exposure to +2.  Also because of the lighting, I could only get my shutter speed up to 1/125.  Still nowhere near fast enough to freeze the motion at a basketball game.

I actually look forward to researching some more to figure out how to get better shots in such poor lighting. Until then, take a look at a few pics I thought were decent.  And don’t be too critical of me.  I’ve only been shooting since Christmas.

By the way, I love the way royal blue photographs.

And now MckMama is giving this bag away! Go to http://mckgiveaways.blogspot.com to enter!!

Kelly Moore is giving away a bag!  Go enter to win! http://kellymoorebagblog.com/

This bag is awesome.

I want it.

What I got..

What he got…

Don’t tell him, but I think I got the better deal

and I didn’t even spend as much!

Let me introduce you to my newest additions, Mac, Telly, and Angel.