I’ve been working on a magazine submission for one of our bride’s this week. Her wedding has a very good chance of being featured in a well respected wedding magazine (we’re keeping our fingers crossed), and we wanted to send the editor images of her invitations, programs, address labels, etc.

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to shoot still life? I totally prefer taking photos of people over still life because people have all the emotion to work with, but wow, when it’s still life…my respect for food photographers goes way up! The food in Cooking Light gets much yummier looking for sure!

In our Getting Published 101 Kit, I write a lot about what magazine editors are looking for when you submit individual stock images or full weddings for publication. I have found that one of the key components that makes or breaks a wedding being featured is the amount of detail images. You can have the most beautiful bride and groom photos, but if you don’t have detail images too your chances of getting published just went way down.

Why? Editors know that brides buy wedding magazines to look for new and creative detail ideas for their own upcoming weddings. Whether it’s the untraditional veil

or making your programs look like actual Playbills

or the gifts for all the dinner guests

and the heirloom pearls and favorite teacup

brides love details! I did when I was a bride. And I still do!

As I’ve been working on these wedding images, I’ve noticed that the 85mm (fixed/prime) lens works best. The below shots are all the way down to a 1.4 F-stop/aperture. This means super blur every where expect the point I’m focused on (the focus point was the pearls on the invite). I feel like the low f stop helps add emotion and dimension.

When shooting details think low aperture/f stop. If you’re a wedding photographer, consider buying a macro lens for your details. (I used the macro lens on the above teacup/pearls image.) There are maybe 10 images I shoot with the macro in the whole 12 hour wedding day, but those 10 macro images may be the very thing that gets the wedding published in a magazine. And that publicity is definitely worth the cost of the macro lens.

For more tips on getting your images published, check out our Getting Published 101 Kit. We’ve had great feedback from photographers who have purchased it!

Also, the Early Bird Special for the Chicago Workshop ($799 instead of $999) ends tonight at midnight PST! If your planning on coming, make sure you don’t miss out on this 20% savings!!! You can register here!

Can’t wait to meet all of you in Chicago!! And yes, the forum is still in progress so hopefully all of you Chicago ladies will be able to chat there sooner than later. (again, fingers crossed)

We head back to Seattle today after a wonderful week in San Diego. But first, I have to give a huge shout out to Dana, our fearless San Diego Workshop hostess!

Dana, you went above and beyond the call of duty for being the hostess!! Thank you so much for all your help!

On Monday we had our Add On Day that covered Business and Marketing. It was held at Dana’s house. We covered everything we could in our time from pricing, structuring your business, when to outsource and what to outsource, marketing strategies and much more. It was an amazing time together (and thank you Dana for letting us use your living room!).

But we have to thank Dana for one more thing! She had the BEST idea for building a portfolio that I’ve ever heard!!

For those of you who want to build a portfolio but are not comfortable with charging people just yet, Dana did something you could do too! She told her friends that to take their pictures takes the same amount of time to make dinner. So if they wanted to compensate her, they could make her a dinner. Last year, she ended up getting handfuls of gift certificates to all different restaurants with credits ranging in $50-$150! Her family loved it! The kids are already asking her to take pictures again this year! Don’t you love that!

What a great idea to give your friends so you’re not “giving” your time away. Your time is precious, valuable, even if you’re in the “building” stage of your business. Plus, it’s a great way for friends to show their thanks to you!

Dana, you are the Queen Bee!! Love you and so thankful for you and ALL your fabulous ideas!!!

(thanks for the photos too!)

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If yesterday was about climbing, today is all about JUMPING!

Last night we got to have dinner at Carey’s house, and it was a blast!

Carey has a big ol’ trampoline in her backyard. Let’s just say a few of us went crazy on it. Can you imagine who that would be?

Notice Blaze crying in the background with Brian. Do you know why Blaze is crying? Because Brian was bouncing to hard and flipped Blaze.

But this shot is my favorite one!

We were using Carey’s new Alien B1600 light. These lights range in price and you can find them at Alienbees.com. I think her light was around $360. But without the light, this is what the pictures would have looked like.

So now for the recipe!

We did these shots at 7pm. We still had plenty of light outside, so we had to be in Manuel Mode to trick the camera for this type of dramatic lighting. We wanted the camera to think we didn’t have any light outside and that’s why we needed the off-camera lighting.

Our ISO was 100 so the color of the sky would be as blue as possible. The Shutter Speed was 1/250. When using strobe lights like this, you’ll want your Shutter Speed at 1/250. Now the Aperture was a little tricky because we don’t want it dialed down low like I usually like. Remember, the lower the aperture gives more blur in the background. These shots don’t have any thing to do with getting blur in the background. These shots are all about dramatic lighting with strobe lights.

Since these shots are about dramatic lighting, we want our aperture to be really high–maybe F11 or F16. We want the little hole that the light come through to be super tiny. This means if we took the photo without the off camera lighting, the image would be really dark because the aperture is so small. But that’s okay because we want the off camera light to be our main source of light. Does this make sense? If you’re feeling confused give yourself some breathing room because it is a bit tricky when you’re not familiar with it. But don’t let the confusion keep you from thinking it over and mulling it around because playing with light can be so fun!

We had one light for the images above. But Carey got together a couple months ago with an awesome photographer named Rob Benson. He is a master at off-camera lighting and for the shot below used three lights. Wow! Take a look at what drama he is able to capture! Is that the coolest soccer kid picture in the world!! And to see how Rob is setting up these shots, check out Carey’s wonderful blog post. And be sure to check out his website (it’s hyperlinked to his name)! It is SO COOL!!

For more help with lighting, shutter speed, aperture and all that good stuff, check out our crazy fun DVDs!

Enjoy! We are off to Legoland!

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We had sunshine this weekend, and wow, I felt so ALIVE!! It’s amazing how much a little sun can do for you!

Pascaline also had her first tap dance recital. It was so sweet! Tap is the first dance class she’s expressed interest in and since I used to dream of dancing with Fred Astaire I was all for it!

For the last seven weeks, she’s been tap-tap-tapping away, all through the house. And even though there are times when I feel like I’m going to lose my mind with all her sweet little tapings, wow, I was so proud of her this weekend! She was so brave with all those people watching!

I volunteered to help backstage with her class thinking ‘ooohh! I’m going to get such great shots of all the “behind the scenes” stuff–this is the perfect photo opportunity!” Yeah right! It was me and 16 seven year olds to look after, and I swear they all were on speed! These girls were so wired about performing–running around like crazy, crawling in between my legs, stealing my shoes and playing hot potato with them…let’s just say I never even looked at my camera bag until it was over and we were standing in the parking lot.

These are the things memories are made of…:)
I also wanted to revisit aperture.

When we were at the Sonoma workshop one of the women asked if I could take a photo with a high f-stop and then the same photo with a low f-stop so she could visually see the difference aperture can make.

But before I say any thing else, let’s gather our bearings. When you hear aperture, f-stops and depth of field being talked about, it’s pretty much all the same thing. As we teach in the DVD series, the question all three of those things are asking is essentially “how blurry do you want your background?”

The lower you go in your f-stops (3.5 down to 2.8 down to 2.0 down to 1.6, etc) is the lower depth of field (lots of stuff out of focus behind and in front of your subject). Your making a decision about your aperture. The degree in blur you choose can become incredibly creative. In fact, during my first two years of shooting I was always on Aperture Priority (A or AV for Canon) mode. This mode means you get to decide how much blur you want and the camera will decide how fast your shutter speed should open and close.

So back to the Sonoma request. Taking the same picture with different apertures to drive home the point was a fantastic idea. If you already have Beyond the Green Box revisit the chapter on Aperture and try the exercise out.

A couple days ago Blaze asked me to do a photo shoot of his Lego’s. The perfect opportunity! He was very serious about the whole thing.

This first shot of Lego Men on Horses was taken at a 6.3 f-stop. Or some would say my aperture was a 6.3.

The next shot is almost the same shot but at a lower f-stop of 3.5. Or you could word it by saying, I shot this with an aperture at 3.5. (People express what their aperture was in different terms, but it all means the same thing. Does that make sense?)

See the difference below in how much more blur I gained? You know Blaze is right there, but you can’t see any detail in his face. Totally blurred.

(the rest of the recipe for both shots: ISO 400 because I was indoors and didn’t have enough light to go any lower. Shutter Speed was 1/60 or 60th of a second. Normally this would be pretty slow and could risk motion blur from hand holding at a 60th of a second. But Sony’s got this great feature in their new DSLRs that has an Image Stabilizer inside the camera body so I can get as low as 1/30 or 30th of a second and still have a clear, sharp image. Pretty crazy, huh.)

If you’re wanting to go Beyond the Green Box, get out of auto mode and try some new settings, start with Aperture Priority mode. (Aperture Priority mode is usually right under the green box that says Auto. You should see little P, A, S, M icons. You want the A or AV mode.) And FYI, if you shoot photos with your camera on the Portrait setting (where it often has an icon of a woman’s head next to the mountain icon for landscapes), essentially this setting is Aperture Priority mode because it’s giving you a lower aperture so you get lots of blur behind your person.

I hope this is helpful. Check out the instructional DVDs we produced if you want to learn more! I especially like the Nutty Prof. Townsend’s explanation of aperture!

And here’s two more fun shots for Blaze and your little ones who peak over your shoulder.

“Storm Trooper Escapes”

(recipe: ISO 100 (see below for reason on this), Aperture was 4.5 (my aperture is not so low on this shot and see how you can see more detail on the Lego plane in front and behind in comparison to the image below?) and Shutter Speed was 1/60th.

“Crazy, Flying Lego Man”

(recipe: ISO 100 (sun came out for a minute and gave us more light in the room), Aperture was super low 1.4 (notice how the Lego’s are blurred in front of the Lego Man and every thing behind the Lego Man is blurred), and Shutter Speed was 1/320 or 320th of a second.

We have all types of women who come to our photography workshops. Some women don’t own any thing more than a Point and Shoot camera and borrow our cameras for the weekend. Some women have paying clients and want to feel more confident about the mechanics of photography. Some women are just feeding their spirits and doing something for themselves with no intention to ever have a business.

Michelle was the women who had photographed several hundreds of families. She was coming to one of our Seattle workshops for a dose of confidence building and after the workshop this is what she said;

“The workshop was a huge catalyst for my business. The day I got back from the workshop I switched to digital completely…The workshop was great for the technical side of my pictures, but it was dinner with YOU that was even more important. Your encouraging words ( or “marching orders” as we joked that night) were exactly what I needed to take my business to the next level. I raised my prices, updated my business model and changed my branding. I was completely terrified that it would alienate my clients but the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I am already booking clients into November and December. Now I just wonder why I didn’t do it sooner!”

Michelle’s story gets me so excited! She was super gracious to let me give her “marching orders” at dinner that night. I had reviewed her website and could now see how great of a person she was, she had to raise her prices and take her business to the next level because she was so worth every penny. You should see the new beautiful branding materials and stationary she’s now sending to clients! She mailed Brian and I copies of every thing a couple months back, and I knew I had to introduce you to this wonderful lady. Her “getting started” story is so down to earth. And her answers below are packed with tips that you will love!

So grab a cup of coffee, sit back, relax and listen to one woman’s story of how she’s following her dream!

(Michelle and her beautiful family! Could those girls be any cuter!!)

1. When did you start your business and what was the turning point of taking it from a hobby to a business of charging people and putting up a website?

Michelle’s Answer: I started taking pictures professionally (getting paid for it!) about seven years ago. I read a quick book about photography (by quick I mean I read it while standing in a coffee shop and I was 8 months pregnant with my second daughter. I wasn’t standing very long for ANYTHING at that point!). It was by Nick Kelsh called How to Photograph Your Baby. He gave simple ideas for framing pictures. For the first few months I didn’t even cover my costs but my husband quickly put an end to that. I did not get a website for at least four years because I didn’t really think it was necessary. How silly was that?!?

2. What inspires your photography?

Michelle’s Answer: I just love taking pictures of kids!

I love the challenge of getting natural smiles and capturing the sparkle in their eyes. In fact, I won’t take pictures of big people unless they bring little people with them. (I get asked to do adult head shots all the time but I’ll only do them at the end of a family shoot.) I also really enjoy reading the blogs and websites of other photographers and seeing the types of photographs they take. That’s where I’m drawing a lot of inspiration these days. And I love having “photography” play dates with Mom’s who are photographers. (Mind you, there are no kids there. Just moms having the play dates!)

3. What is the best and toughest part about doing this while being a mom and wife at the same time?

Michelle’s Answer: The toughest part is I usually can’t give 100% attention to something I’m so passionate about. (I’ve got two of my girls in line to talk to me as I’m typing this answer right now!) During the day it’s my girls who need my attention and at night it’s my hubby who wants to chat with me so I feel like I have a split brain. Good thing I’m an excellent multi-tasker!

The best part is I can set my own schedule so it has minimal impact on my family. I shoot on weekend mornings and some weekday mornings when everybody is in school. (This is the first time in 8 years that I have all three of my daughters in school at the same time. Yahoo! It’s only three mornings a week, but it’s the light at the end of my tunnel!) I feel so blessed that I do something that I adore and it provides all of the fun extras in our lives like vacations, new computers, fixing the car breaks. (Okay the last one isn’t that much fun.)

I also love that my kids see me achieving something great. I’m showing my girls they can follow their passions and be successful at whatever they set their mind to. My daughters all want to be photographers when they grow up too!

4. What is one piece of advice you’d give to newbies?

Michelle’s Answer: I am a big believer in the K.I.S.S. philosophy. (Keep It Simple Stupid) For the first five years I was in business I used window light exclusively to take pictures. I had a king sized black hotel blanket that I attached to my kitchen wall (using binder clips). I moved all of the furniture back and used a greenhouse window as my light source.

I had just one camera and one lens. For a minimal investment I was ready to do business. I also gave away a lot of pictures in the beginning to get my name out there. (Donations to auctions, visits to mommy groups…) Ooops! That’s two pieces of advice. Drat!! I’ve got on more too. Remember that with the kids and families there is always a ‘do-over’. It’s always given me confidence to know that if I’m having a bad day shooting pictures I could always have the family come back in. I’ve shot over 600 different families and I’ve only done two re-shoots, but it’s just nice to know I can!

Meeting Michelle in person was a total kick!! She bursts with energy! You can’t help but smile when you’re around her. And get this, Michelle actually left early the second morning of the workshop because her sister was having a baby! Of course Michelle needed to be there for picture taking! But can you believe she drove all the way back to the workshop to finish out the rest of the day! (which by the way Michelle, when we do our next Seattle workshop, you know you are more than welcome to come to the second day to get whatever you missed–one excuse to see you again! :)) All of us at the workshop even got have a peak of what she captured!

Michelle, can we ask you questions in the comments? For example, what was your first lens that you used? Where did you get your “binder clips” for your backdrop? Your idea of “photography play dates with other moms who are photographers” is so genius! What do you do when you get together? What does a typical play date look like so other women can emulate it? Michelle also mentioned Nick Kelsh’s book, How to Photograph Your Baby.

This was one of the first books I bought when I was just getting started. I had a lot of fun with it. You can find it here! Thanks for reminding me of this classic Michelle!

If your in the greater Seattle area and want a wonderful photographer to take family portraits for you, check out Michelle’s website! You can’t go wrong with this inspiring lady!

p.s. Her blog is pretty fun too!

Love you Michelle! Thanks for being such a go getter and sharing your wonderful spirit with all of us! You are a total inspiration!

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Check back tomorrow because I’m going to announce the NEXT LOCATION for our Photography Workshops for Women! Yeah!!! Brian and I are so excited!! If you haven’t voted on what city you’d like us to visit next, you still can today! Click here to vote!

You must meet Jenny Heck! She is one of two beautiful moms I’m going to spotlight this week for Mother’s Day.

Brian and I met Jenny when she attended one of our workshops in October 2007. She was a blast to be with, so easy to laugh with, and we even got her to model our Me Ra Koh Designer shirt!

And now I’m freaking out at what she’s doing with her passion for photography! She is a mom with a camera, and she is totally going for her dreams.

I asked Jenny what has happened since she came to our workshop because I thought it would totally inspired some of you. Here’s our little interview! All the images throughout this blog post are Jenny’s beautiful work! Enjoy!

Question 1: When did you start your business and what was the turning point of taking it from a hobby to a business of charging people and putting up a website?

Jenny’s Answer: After taking your Beginners Workshop in October 2007, I had the opportunity to do a portrait session for a close friend from church. She had some of the portraits printed, framed and hung on her wall. She started getting lots of comments about them and questions about who the photographer was. Up to that point, I had never considered myself a photographer. Photography was just something I did. Fast forward a couple of months and my MOPS group was holding a small business fair and the ladies at my table asked if I was going to have a table set up for my photography. After initially thinking, “no way. I don’t have a business to represent”, I decided to go for it. I had the chance to talk to the MOPS group about my passion for photography, displayed some of my work, and that day I had 11 moms sign up for portrait sessions. It was right then and there that I realized I had reached the point of no return and I had a “business” whether I liked it or not. That was in early February 2008. I quickly started a blog and with the booking of my first portrait client, got my Web site up and running so I could offer on line proofing and ordering. (Me Ra here, are you totally inspired or what?! Jenny pretty much jumped in and went for it. She didn’t have all the answers figured out. Jenny were you nervous, scared? How did you figure out what to charge?)

Question 2: What inspired your photography?

Jenny’s Answer: Photography is my creative outlet. What I enjoy most is the idea of capturing authentic and original moments in people’s lives that, when looked back upon, remind them of everything that they were thinking, feeling and experiencing at that particular moment in time. A moment they will never experience again but can remember and enjoy through their photographs.

The origin of this inspiration was my own selfish desire to capture all of the precious moments in the lives of our three children and our family. A visual history that doesn’t try to artificially create some artificial perfection but instead is honest in it’s representation.

Question 3: What is the best and toughest part about pursuing this dream while being a mom and wife at the same time?

Jenny’s Answer: The best part is I can own my schedule and “work” as much as I want or as little as I want. My greatest reward continues to be the satisfaction and nice comments about how pleased my clients are with their portraits. The toughest part is that usually when I can accommodate client appointments, it’s when my husband is home to be with our three kids. That means that when I do work, it’s usually taking away from “family” time. The positive spin on this is it let’s my husband have his time where the kids are focused just on daddy.

Question 4: What is one piece of advice you’d give to newbies?

Jenny’s Answer: I guess the advice I would give to newbies is to believe in your abilities and the value that you are providing to your clients. One of the hardest things for me initially was to feel ok about referring to myself as a “photographer”. Also, don’t try to compare yourself to other photographers or see them as competition because each photographer has their own style. Actually, I shouldn’t take credit for that last piece of advice. That’s what you told me during the beginners workshop.

Also, do it because you love it not because you need or want to make money. One of the most liberating things for me was to realize that, even if I wasn’t getting paid, I would still be doing what I’m doing. Although, I have to be honest, getting paid to do it is pretty cool too.

Jenny, thank you so much for sharing thoughts and images with all our blog readers! You are such a star!

For those of you reading along, feel free to ask Jenny questions by posting a comment below. I’m sure she’d love to hear from you! Jenny, would you answer my questions too in Question #1 above?

Brian and I also got a great surprise when we heard Jenny’s husband had signed her up for the San Diego Workshop in May. A number of our workshop attendees have come back for a second dose, and it’s so exciting to see how their confidence, demeanor–every thing has changed since the first workshop.

Jenny, we can’t wait to see you in person again! Like I said, you are a star! You should be so proud of yourself as a mom, wife, woman, and now photographer! Happy Mother’s Day my dear!

How many of you love personality tests? In graduate school I ate them up. Kari, remember when Marshak split the room up with those kinds of personalities on that far side, and us over here. Wasn’t your husband-to-be, Dave, WAY the heck over there? What’s up with that? Is that when you started eyeing him, or was it when he did that math problem in front of the whole class with the grid and formulas?

OK, back on track.

Ever wish you could do an aspiring photographer personality test? I know, you never thought it would be possible huh! Guess what, it is.

If you liked those guys from earlier this week, you totally need to meet this guy! (get some Kleenex, his video gets me every time especially when he’s tossing his little girl up in the air–the music gets louder and you see them through fountain–oh man–don’t say I didn’t warn you!)

Dane came over last summer and told Brian and I about this book idea he had for aspiring photographers. Brian and I were entranced! The outline he was forming was AWESOME!! We were like “Dane, you have to write this! It’s going to be gold to people who want to be photographers! The content is AWESOME!”

And then I felt myself take a step back.

Why?

I’ll tell you why.

Ever since I published Beauty Restored, I’ve had 9,469,352 million people tell me their ideas for a book they want to write. People hear that I’ve published a book, and now they want to tell me all about their book ideas. It was a great conversation starter the first fifty times, now when Brian wants to get even with me he tells people I’ve written a book and walks away.

But if it’s a good idea, I get all excited about it. Out of the 9,469,352 million people that have told me their book ideas a lot have been exciting, cool ideas. However, I know maybe 4 people who actually finished writing their book. Dane Sanders now makes it five. He finished his book Fast Track Photographer last week! Somebody give him a BIG AMEN b/c this is no easy feat! Not to mention that he is a daddy to FOUR children!

As a prelude to the book being released, Dane created this stellar personality test you can do. It’s called pDNA (Photographer DNA).

Quoted from Dane’s site;

Ever wonder if your photo business is any different than everyone else?

Ever wish you could know exactly what you uniquely bring to the table?

Ever dream you had a piece of paper that told you exactly what to do to flourish?

The pDNA is a kind of personality profile custom built for people who dream of being a photographer, or they are new to the business/industry. What’s cool about it is you can treat it like a litmus test or benchmark of where you’re at today and where you’re headed tomorrow.

The test has over 200 questions. You create a profile here. Put the promo code refuse in so Me Ra Koh Blog readers get a 15% discount (I believe the price is $20 before the discount). Walk through the quick questions like you’ve done with other personality tests, click the dot that best describes you, and then fifteen minutes later you have this run down on yourself as a photographer. Great idea, don’t you think! You must share your results on the blog…well actually you don’t have to but it’d be cool to hear them if you want too!

Now what are you? Sanguine, Choleric, Golden Retriever, Busy Beaver, or ENFG?

And Dane, thanks for the discount to our readers! You’re AWESOME!

I did something so stupid the other day. At the time I thought it was a GRAND and perfect plan, but it turned out to be one of my more stupid moments.

When we come home from a trip, I always book our flight to be later in the day so Brian and I can have a good morning of sleeping in, thus be ready for the kids when we get home. Well, I decided to try something different! Something cool! Why not just book a super early flight instead? We’ll get home earlier, have more time with the kids, and if we’re tired we can just sleep on the plane. Sounds great in theory, huh!

Unless you’re up till 1:30am with these bad boys, being interviewed and filmed for a new episode on their website. Goodness knows what Brian and I even said in the interview after midnight. We said stuff about these and these and then talked about how we work and why we work the way we do, but we also laughed a lot and oh boy…I hope Kurt takes his hand to doing some serious editing, otherwise, let’s just say Scary with a capital S!

So our alarm goes off the next morning at 5:30am–are you feeling me now (that’s four hours of sleep–me not so nice when I have four hours of sleep!). I try to sit up and can barely move, I’m so exhausted. But somehow we make it to the airport, only to miss the flight by ten minutes. I completely LOOSE it with the lady at the ticket counter b/c our flight isn’t leaving for another 30 minutes. AND, AND there is no one in line for security. But she smiles and says “no exceptions, sorry!”

I start to cry, curse and then stomp off and cry some more. We end up in the airport fighting, crying, fighting, Brian calling Roger for another counseling session for us (:)) and then finally falling asleep on the airport floor until the next flight comes–which is only 5 1/2 hours later. Am I doing a good job of showing this “un-glamorous” moment in our traveling?

We make it home that night and oh, the kids hugging us, they never felt so good. The next morning I wake up and feel totally depleted of all energy. I try to go to the gym and end up going back home (but if you kept up with me before, I did make it to the gym while I was in San Diego–yeah!)

I wake up with this horrible soar throat and go see my acupuncturist. She says I don’t have a cold, just plain exhausted. This is when I realize I need to give back to myself to fill up for our next trip coming up. Place of refuge? My kitchen.

In another life, I dream of being a chef of some kind and taking photos of all the things I cook. So in my efforts to fill up a bit and soak in “being at home” I make my own recipe. I loved it so much I had to share it with you!

This is what I call “My Fix for Feeling Depleted”, Homemade Salad Dressing

First mince up some fresh garlic cloves. And don’t do it with a knife, use one of these quick and easy handy things. They are only $30! I love garlic, so I mince up around 10 cloves.

Blaze likes to go a little crazy pushing the buttons. Whoever pushes the buttons, just make sure it’s finely minced.

Then pick out a fun mason type jar and fill it half way up with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Then add Balsamic Vinegar to your jar of oil. I usually add one third of the amount of oil I poured.

Add 1 big Tablespoon of Italian Seasoning (like Basil and Oregano type flavors). After this add your minced garlic.

Here’s my secret ingredient part for your eyes only! I add 2 BIG Tablespoons of honey!

This is my little honey jar. Isn’t that sweet? Blaze picked it out for me last Christmas.

Then I find a cute little lid for my jar and shake that puppy up.

It is so yummy! Give it a try and feel free to adjust the amount of ingredients in any way your palette prefers. I mix this dressing into my salad and add chopped walnuts, feta cheese, dried blueberries, red onion and fresh avocado. By the time I eat this, I’m feeling so much better and not so empty.

Now for the recipe to the images…

Every shot was taken with the Sony A300. This is the DSLR that the Mommy Bloggers received. I decided to play with mine because it has this great Live View feature on the back that I thought I would hate and actually love.

I used the 85 mm lens for every shot. For the shots I took on my cutting board of the Garlic Chopper Upper and the Olive Oil, my ISO was at 800 because my natural light isn’t ideal in that part of the kitchen. The aperture was at a 2.8 and the Shutter Speed was 1/250 of a second.

For the shots on my kitchen windowsill (i.e. the Tablespoon of seasoning, my honey holder, etc) my ISO was down at 100 for best color saturation. Since I have lots of good light I can have my ISO that low. My aperture was WIDE open at a 1.7 (f stop) to give the Tablespoon and the lid on the jar a fantastic blur effect. Remember the lower your aperture (or F stop) the better your blur. And the shutter speed for the windowsill shots were all at 1/80th of a second.

So your turn! What do you do when you are feeling depleted and need to rest up? I was given strict advice not to exercise this week and just rest. My acupuncturist advised me to take some naps, and I tried picturing that with two kids. The last time I did this Pascaline cut her hair and gave every other doll a hair cut…hmmmm…

But for the record, I thought we had the worst time getting home and after ready this story, I think Amy totally wins! You go girl!

What can I say? A backpack doesn’t get much cheaper than this!

Blaze insists on this being his backpack right now. He wears it EVERYWHERE we go. And as you can see, he’s not joking around–this is serious stuff. You may spot him in Cosco, Trader Joe’s or Ikea. He’s the soon to be 4 year old with the plastic Safeway bag hanging off his back.

The red folder inside his “backpack” is his laptop–of course.

Kids are hilarious! You can’t make this stuff up!

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Recipe…

Lens: 85mm, fixed lens (this means it’s not a zoom lens so I’ve got to move my body to get in closer :), but the fixed lens will often give me the lower Aperture)

Aperture: 1.8 (went super low to blur the background behind him and create a nice green background for contrast with the grass)

Shutter Speed: 125th of a second

ISO: as low as I can go, 100 ISO, the lower you go the more rich your colors are

To learn more about aperture, shutter speed, iso or how to frame your photos, check out our DVD series!

Have a great weekend friends, and look for the kid with the Safeway grocery bag hanging off his back. Yep, that’s my kid!

Julie Watts is a fabulous photographer and woman. Brian and I met her when she attended one of our workshops last year. She sent me this image in regards to the Darkness and Light Photo Contest, and I had to share it with you!

Isn’t this image AMAZING! The story is that she was doing some portrait work for belly dancers in her studio and WOW! Julie wasn’t trying to enter the contest but wanted to share her idea of Darkness and Light, and I couldn’t help but not share it with all of you!

Julie is so sweet! Her life is so dynamic! Can you believe she was a BMX racer?! I mean that alone makes her a “Cool Cat!” because I don’t know anyone else that has done BMX racing!

She also has two little ones and is now a full time photographer! Check out her blog and read the About Me part, it’s awesome! I totally laughed out loud!

Julie can we convince you to tell us a little about yourself?

How did you take this photo? What was the recipe behind it? How did you get the color so vibrant? And for those of us reading who are parents wanting to go full time, what’s one piece of advice you’d share? Or two pieces!