Weekly Photo Challenge: A Day in the Life
Again, another great Photo Challenge from the WordPress folks to get me inspired to publish a new post. The theme of this “challenge” is to create and share a photo album of what a typical day looks like in the world of the blogger. For me, any given day consists of:
- coffee brewing and drinking
- computer
- contemplating and coordinating my air travel
- cooking
- cockers
- chillin’ with family
- Christian practices
- capturing the moments
I’m married (25 years) and have a daughter (17 years). We love coffee. We discuss life’s most significant challenges over coffee. We have modeled our home around the feel of the coffee house motif because we have never felt uncomfortable in any coffee house wherever we have been.
I spend my working days solving real business problems enabling my customers to get products to market faster, erasing costs of duplicating efforts across departments by finding and producing critical business information. Many of the golden hours of the day involve working on my computer developing proposals, customer interactions and preparing for travel. I love to cook and doing so enables me to release the stress of the day. We are at the complete mercy of a soon-to-be 11-year old Cocker Spaniel named Sadie May, although she usually goes by “Sadie, NO!” We spend our family moments relaxing, monkeying around, traveling, attending concerts, and Iowa Hawkeye football games. We are faithful churchgoers and try to positively impact the lives of others through our faith.
Middle age has also inspired me to see the world differently – to appreciate all of God’s amazing creation, to appreciate the details of the vast world that surrounds us. Enjoy the photos in the gallery that I’ve taken to describe a day in our life.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Tense
I like the theme of this week’s WordPress.com photo challenge. The theme is “future tense” and that resonates with me as I fully anticipate the coming Spring season. Wait, it’s supposedly not coming – it’s here. Although in my home state of Iowa, it feels anything but Spring. In fact, we received another winter blast yesterday with a couple of inches of fresh snow. Thankfully, it won’t stay around long. Anyway, with that said, the photo below captures everything ‘future’ to me right now.
While this photograph was shot in the past tense (last summer in my backyard), I think it represents everything future tense. Who knows how many worms this critter will eat this summer? Who knows how many eggs it will help hatch? Who knows how many Blue Jays will invade it’s nest this spring?
Zoo Photography Tips: Look for the Right Background
In a recent post, I described the quality of the St. Louis Zoo being very good. Mostly, that is because the zoo is large, free, and has a wide array of animals. Not only that, but the animals always seem healthy and active. All of those qualities make the St. Louis Zoo a great place to visit, and certainly a must-do if you travel to St. Louis. Undoubtedly, if you go, you’ll want to bring your camera. What I hope to do in the next few posts are provide some tips I have discovered that will help you get more out of your photographs and your post-zoo experience.
The first tip I’ll provide is all about the photograph backdrop. That is, look for a spot to shoot that allows you to focus on the animal, but also gives you a background that doesn’t have “zoo” written all over it. You know, like a fence, especially a chain link or mesh fence. Or signs, or huts. One of the great characteristics of the St. Louis Zoo is the aesthetic qualities of the zoo exhibits themselves. Here are some examples of what I mean. Of course, they are all clickable to a full screen view.
In this shot, I looked for a view to make the animal stand out in more dramatic fashion. The sunlight was really good for shooting on this day. It was not a direct sunlight, casting unwanted shadows, but more a thin cloud layer that provided highlighting. I was able to position myself low to capture the ground as it rolled to the animal, and enabled me to eliminate the top of the fake wall, so that it looked like this animal was really grazing in a sort of a canyon in the African safari.
This is a babirusa. But, that’s not the point. The point is I took a few extra steps and moments to wait until the animal went behind the hollowed out stump so that I could get some scenic drama to the shot and compliment the otherwise ugly critter! A good zoom lens and a little cropping in the editing software can take away the undesirable aesthetics of the exhibit.
You know you’ve been to the zoo and experienced the feeling of seeming like all the animal wants to do is hide in its den? In this shot of the cougar, I used its den opening as the backdrop to get contrast and depth to make the subject pop. The bonus was capturing the tongue wag for extra color and action. Does it look like a zoo shot?
Sometimes you may want to show the animal in relationship to its surroundings, especially if the surroundings were aesthetically pleasing. Here, at the zoo’s “Jungle of the Apes” exhibit, I decided the chimpanzee was still enough to try a longer exposure which enabled me to capture more colors in the exhibit and gain the dramatic effects of the waterfall. I managed to capture all that and still catch the silly facial expressions the chimps routinely make.
So, again, if you want better shots of animals you’re only likely to see at the zoo, think about how you’re going to compose that shot so that it doesn’t just look like you went to the zoo. Think about the backdrop and how you want the animal to look in its final form in your family vacation scrapbook. More tips to come! Leave a comment if you have other tips on this subject.
Weekly Photo Challenge (Lunchtime): Bongo Java Nashville
OK, this is my first post aimed at the Daily Photo Challenge. We just returned home from a week around Nashville, TN. One of our favorite joints there is a place called Bongo Java. It is a totally hipster coffee house just steps from Music Row and Belmont University. Last Tuesday, we decided we needed some midday caffeine intake and I needed some solid food to accompany it. So, I had the edible arrangement pictured above. Of course, you have your everything bagel with egg, cheddar, and smoked ham. The plate of goodness at the top left is the “Big Bad Hashbrown”. Let me tell you, there was nothing bad about them whatsoever. Amazing. Best hashbrown plate I have ever had. Hashbrowns, cooked perfectly topped with grilled tomatoes, cheddar cheese and red onions. They are topped with some kind of seasoning that I simply can’t put my finger on, but the flavor is simply amazing. Finally, chased with the dreamy silky smooth cappuccino also pictured.
Yes, I ATE IT ALL.
Bongo Java Nashville….ya gotta go.
I also snapped this pic at the Bongo Java. I had a single moment of perfect natural light peering thru a window hitting the drinks just right.
Spring Break at the St. Louis Zoo
Care to give this shot a caption?
We just returned home from our family Spring Break. We spent most of our break in Nashville, as our daughter is strongly considering attending Belmont University as a student in 2014 and we took an official visit on one of our days there. It seems we’ve been to Nashville about twice per year for the last few years. St. Louis is about our half way point from a driving perspective, so we typically spend a day there and see some sights. Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful late winter day, so we did what seemed like half of the city also did: visited the St. Louis Zoo at Forest Park. If you have never visited the St. Louis Zoo, you need to include it on your bucket list. There are so many fine qualities of this zoo, not the least of which there is no admission fee (although it does cost $15 to use one of their 2 parking lots, but there is ample street parking available free). The zoo is huge and it is hard to take it all in in a single day. It has a well deserved reputation for being one of the top 5 zoos in the US.
I took a ton of pictures. I will share more throughout the coming days along with some tips I have from gathered from my own lessons learned to enable you to get some good shots that don’t look like they simply came from a day at the zoo.
Until then, here are some shots that will hopefully whet your appetite for the zoo this summer. Don’t forget to take your camera.
Sparty as a peacock. (Sorry Michigan State fans).
Does this lipstick color look good with my skin tone?
They say the secret to a good “whinnie” is a steady diet of, um, feathers.
I’m just a kangaroo chillin’ in the mid afternoon 70 degree day.
This is definitely my better side.
You will see more of me in an upcoming post from this photographer guy.
C’mon mom and dad! The water is great!
I really like the wrinkled textures and the colors hidden within the elephant’s skin in this view.
Yes, I bite. And, yes, you’d know it.
Who are you calling homely?
Winter Stream Scenes
We live near the Sac & Fox Trail in Cedar Rapids, IA. In the previous post, I captured and posted some shots I took of deer while hiking the trail last weekend. I hiked until sunset, hoping to catch some good sunset colors bouncing off of the snowy landscape. The sky was kind of hazy, so not much for the sunset light to reflect off of to provide much color. What I wasn’t expecting so much was the full moonrise. Enjoy the winter scenery.
Deer Scenes
Sunday, I decided I had enough of the winter blues. I decided it was time to get outside and take some pictures. We have had plenty of snowfall over the past few days and I thought it might be a good opportunity to get some snowy landscape shots with some colorful sunsets across the fresh blanket of snow. Even with the snow, Sunday was a nice day with sunny skies and temperatures into the 30′s. I decided to hit the Sac & Fox trail in Cedar Rapids primarily because I thought I could get some variety in scenery with the Indian Creek hugging so closely to the trail. I also knew I would see plenty of deer.
Here are several shots of the deer I saw while on my 3 mile round-trip hike.
This deer was very interested in watching my movements…
…then quickly lost interest…
…and then she showed me a few moves of her own.
I am happy with the detail and color I was able to capture in the eyes of this deer.
I will show a few of the landscape scenes of the creek in an upcoming post.
Sadie’s Snow Day
As most of the US knows, we were expecting a major snowstorm in the midwest yesterday. We received one, but it wasn’t as bad as most anticipated in our area.
Sadie is our Cocker Spaniel. She is going to be 11 in May. Sadie loves to go out into the snow. However, she doesn’t always give you the look as though she is enjoying it. You be the judge.
Tasty Snack Time: Soft Pretzels
Here is the finished pretzel product from the recipe below. You will love these. If you can’t make them today, at least click on the picture for a full screen view to whet your appetite.
OK, seriously. Have you ever met anyone who does not like freshly baked soft pretzels? Me either. Or, better yet. Have you tried the frozen ones in the grocery frozen foods section and baked them at home only to realize they don’t taste like what you buy in the shopping mall? Or, better still. Do you wish you had your own receipe that tastes JUST AS GOOD as the original Swiss Pretzel store soft pretzel? From me to you: Here it is. We mixed ‘em, baked ‘em, ate ‘em, photographed ‘em, loved ‘em, and blogged ‘em.
Here is the recipe:
- 1-1/2 Tbs yeast
- 1-1/4 cups warm water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup heaping brown sugar
- 4 cups flour
- additional 1/2 cup water
- 1 Tbs baking soda
- course Sea Salt
- melted butter
Here are the formed pre-baked pretzels
The Process:
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in a large mixing bowl
- Add the regular salt and brown sugar to the yeast mixture and stir to dissolve.
- Mix in the flour and incorporate into a dough
- With dough in bowl, cover the bowl with a towel and let dough rise until doubled in size, about 90 mins
You can bake about 8 pretzels on a sheet. While these are baking, and for the rest of the day, your home will smell wonderful.
Then,
- working in batches, roll out a ball of dough on a clean, floured surface to about 1/2 inch thick and about 8 x 12 inch rectangle.
- With a pizza cutter, cut strips about an inch wide in 12″ lengths so you get about 8 strips
- You can either leave the strips flat, or roll them so they are tubular, then form into the pretzel shape
- In a small bowl, combine the additional water and baking soda and mix. Don’t worry, it won’t dissolve no matter how much you try
- Dunk and wash each pretzel in the water/baking soda mixture and transfer to a plate, one at a time
- Sprinkle with sea salt
- Transfer each pretzel to a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray
- Lightly spray each pretzel with cooking spray
- Bake at 425 degrees
- Set timer for 8 minutes and check. Do not bake more than 9 minutes
- Remove from oven and dunk each pretzel in a bowl with melted butter
- Eat while warm!
Yield: 20-24 hand-sized pretzels
Serve fresh. Compliment with pizza sauce, parmesan cheese, melted cheese, or just plain with the butter and salt! We’ll probably make these again the next time we make some homemade chicken noodle or beer cheese soup.
Our Home in a Snow Globe
I have never tried this shot before, but just read about this technique last night. The technique is how to put your house in a snow globe. First, you have to have a house, then you have to have snow. Then, the snow has to be falling at night. Having those conditions synchronous with the Christmas season, and then you just have to have a camera, a tripod, and some dry, warm clothing. If all that adds up, you can have a house in a snow globe kinda like we do tonight. I still have some learning to do.
Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!
Community
