Project 365 - Our Pumpkin Patch Photo Shoot

Photos have been lacking hear since I became pregnant. Luckily, my energy seems to be coming back a little more each day.

Last month we did have a chance to get out and snap some photos of the kids in the pumpkin patch. I'm not ready to post the actually pics we will be using for our holiday cards or gifts, but my son was busy enjoying the camera so I will give you a tiny peak at that.

The pumpkins haven't lasted the wet weather around here, but I was glad to get in a few pics while we could. It actually seemed like a fabulous year for the pumpkins. They were big, beautiful and stayed dry enough to not begin rotting before Halloween. The kids love our annual trip down to the pumpkin patch. This time we didn't bring home any squash, we just stopped in for some pictures and were back with friends to actually select our yearly decorations.

I had the T-shirts made for each of the kids by The Pecking Order by Zoe's Attic on Etsy. Completely open for customization  I was able to request the tractor be orange (since my FIL has a thing about the green John Deere style!) and they even fit on my nephew's entire name without a problem. They did such a great job on the prints. Be sure to check out their Christmas shirt designs, as well.

The group shots turned out adorable and I can't wait to show them off.

Do you do family photos every year? I am glad that my husband has the patience to wrangle the kids every year.  At least this time around it wasn't my kids that were crying. Next year should be interesting as we will have another tiny one to incorporate into our tradition.

Project 365 - Sunday Morning Waffles

This Sunday morning required strawberries... lots and lots of them.

The kids helped. My 4-year old washed and removed the stems.

My 2-year old did the mixing...

...and I handled the slicing and mashing.

It was a great Sunday morning around here. Hope you and yours had a great one.

Project 365 - Diversity is Beautiful

I love the differences in the eggs I collect every morning. My hens all lay unique eggs, all beautiful and all perfect in their own way. White, brown, cream or speckled there is beauty in the differences.

From My Perspective - Food Photography by Sony Midterm #Cbias

Food photography should be beautiful, engaging and make your mouth water...

In order to transform my blog photos from simple to sensational I finally invested in a Canon camera and enrolled in the Food Photography by Sony course being offered by SoFab U. I briefly went over why I was interested in this course in my first of 3 posts.

Now that I am midway through this course, it is time to start showing off what I have been working on. After introductions and the first blog post, we jumped right into lighting and background for week 2.

The most flattering light, we learned, is natural and hits around mid day. This is one tip I had picked up on another blog prior to this course. I have faithfully been staging my photos near our front picture window. The course took things further though, by also asking us to reflect the light and choose a solid and simple background. I took both of the apple photos using a pop fill with black fabric draped behind.

Last week's assignment focused on props, styling and photo editing. I wanted the color from this plate of meatballs to really stand out, so I chose white props. Both the background, cloth underneath and bowl are white. I used the color from the marinara sauce and the boxwood basil to go with the green and golden brown of the meatballs.

Then using Pixlr I experimented with the levels, dodging, burning and unsharp mask tools to achieve the colors, clarity and contrast I was looking for.

I also submitted this mushroom photo and had a lot of fun styling this one.

I am currently in my 4th week and can't wait for my final blog post to show you the improvements I have made. This week is by far the most intimidating and exciting for me since we are learning the more technical side of our cameras. I still haven't decided what to use as my subject, but it will be yummy, I'm sure!

Food styling is such a fun process. I do pick up random dishes and linens when I can already, never knowing how exactly I'll use them. I am starting to have a good stash of various items. Food photos speak volumes about a blog and the personality and space a blogger is trying to create. I do love technical photos, but here I am trying to achieve the best possible presentation for practical food. What you see here on my blog is what we eat. I hate to waste anything. But, even the best tasting meals sometimes need a stylist's touch. I hope you find my photos increasingly beautiful and enticing.

I would love to hear your opinions. I am in no way a professional and have a lot of room to grow, but I do hope to bring my skill back here to the blog and all the photos I take and share daily with you.

Wish me luck in my last few weeks. The next update you read will be part of my final project. A big thank you to #Cbias for making the SoFab U courses possible.

From My Eye to your Screen - Improving my Food Photography

You might have noticed a few photos around here...

These are some of the photos I am more proud of. I just wish I consistently could get great shots. I actually put a lot of time and effort into plating, linens, etc. These shots were all taken at around 10 am on a sunny day, across from a large window on my kids' wooden table.

Fine, except I rarely have a chance to snap shots of food at the perfect time, in the perfect place. As a blogger and Mother I need to be more flexible with my schedule. As a result my photos usually come out looking a bit more like this:

Dark, slightly blurry and really doesn't do these delicious and gooey treats justice.

But the brownies are much better than they would have been with my old point and shoot camera. Those photos were really difficult.

Not as appetizing as I had hoped for. I was so happy to receive my Canon EOS Rebel T2i a few months ago. The only problem is I haven't figured out how to use it to it's full potential. Currently I only use a few settings and still don't understand all the features. 

So last month I started searching through amazon for 'How To' books on food photography. I was hoping to glean some information from any source I could find. I mean, a great photo opens doors in the blogging world.

Luckily, Social Fabric advertised a food photography course through their SoFab U.

So, yay! I'm a student again.

I hope to bring you some great food photos through this course and give you, dear reader, more reasons to pin, stumble and drool over your computer screen. I also hope to do more photo documenting of the things we grow and enjoy from the farm. The rich colors and textures are just begging for me to share with you.

Wish me luck! I have quizzes, assignments and work... er, I mean cooking to do!