Quick On Her Feet

Don't let this gorgeous little blue-eyed girl fool you. She does not sit still and pose this perfectly. She's quick. Fast on her feet. And shooting her was a bit of a challenge. I came home from this shoot and was more than content to sit on the couch for a bit. She wore me out, but in such a good way.

She was constantly in motion. And her being on the go meant I too had to be quick on my feet. In addition, my mind was racing as she raced in and out of tall, shady trees. I had to think quick on my feet because my light meter was jumping all over the place. I shoot exclusively in manual mode right now, so every time she moved my camera metered differently. I don't think I kept the same settings for more than a minute.



This shoot took me back to the first little boy I photographed. He was a quick one too. His shoot was on a cloudier day, so thankfully the light was much more consistent. I remember getting home from that shoot and thinking the next time I photographed a kid there were a few things I would tweak to give me clearer, crisper images. So that's what I did. And because I did, I was able to get this fast-moving little girl to look like she was sitting still for a moment or two.



I am not complaining though. We had wonderfully unseasonable weather this weekend. This shoot was a fantastic excuse to run around in the sun for a few hours. I honestly can't think of a better way to have spent my morning. Mike and I have had our windows open most of the weekend, and both days I walked around without a coat. I suggested this shoot for this weekend because I don't know how many more days I'll be able to shoot outdoors. It will most likely snow next weekend.

Maybe It's Time to Invest in Lighting

As with any new life adventure, I'm finding this photo thing has it's ups and its downs. And sometimes they happen all within the span of 12 hours.

I heard from friend earlier today, the one who's shoot started it all. We chatted for a bit, and in that short amount of time she gave me a business idea and relayed info that a friend of hers wants to use me for a series of photos of her newborn. Awesome. That is a cloud nine conversation.

However, I talked to my mom tonight. We were discussing Thanksgiving plans, and she mentioned she wants to have family portraits taken that weekend. At Sears. I know I can't take these photos. I don't have a studio and I need to be in the photos, but a part of me was a little miffed by this conversation. I'm perturbed because she thinks some part-time, minimum wage Sears employee could take a photo of her and my dad that would compare to anything I could do. For the record, they cannot.

I'm going to bed soon. I have another shoot tomorrow morning that I could not be more excited about. Yet as excited as I am, at the same time I know thoughts of the Sears family photo shoot will be on the forefront of my mind as I drift to sleep.

Side note to my mom: Mom, I'm not mad. This post is just me getting my thoughts out of my head. I love you and will sit for any photos you want me to sit for.

Spicing It Up

It's my turn for breakfast club tomorrow at work. Breakfast club means every Friday someone in the voluntary club is in charge of bringing breakfast in for the rest of the club. It's more commonplace to see Dunkin Donuts than it is homemade goods, but I don't like to be commonplace.

I decided on two recipes a week ago: my mom's Apple Spice Cake and Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins. I got the rest of my ingredients last night and spent tonight baking my goodies. Well three and half hours later the stove finally off and my baked goods are cooling. And you know what else? I'm exhausted. I honestly didn't think baking a cake and some muffins would be so tiring, but hoo boy they were a lot of work - more so the muffins than the cake. And the kicker with the muffins is most of them came out of the oven burnt on the bottom. I took off the paper liners, but as a result some are more like pumpkin cream cheese muffin tops. They are still edible. And people better eat them. And tell me how good they are. Because they sure were a lot more work than I had planned.

Lesson here is that sometimes the effort is worth it, and sometimes people can just enjoy Dunkin Donuts and be happy they didn't have to buy their own breakfast. I'm still hoping the effort was worth it however I won't know until tomorrow.

Hasta Luego Manchego

I'm sitting in my kitchen right now waiting for dinner to finish cooking. I went all out tonight and made Mike's favorite meal. It's an Indian dish his mom first made for us a little over a year ago. She was kind enough to share the recipe with me, and now I make it as well. But it's a several step, several pot meal. After more than an hour of cooking, it's almost done. But as I sit here waiting to call Mike to come and get it, I'm debating how much of it I'll actually eat.

It's not that I don't like it. In fact, I like this dish very much. It's the knowledge of the ingredients in this dish that are giving me pause. It's called butter chicken so naturally the recipe calls for an entire stick of butter, not to mention a full cup of heavy whipping cream. That's what makes it so delicious, but that's also why I can't really enjoy eating it. You see over the past few months, I've come to the realization that I'm lactose intolerant. And it's a cruel, cruel condition.

I gradually have started cutting dairy products from my diet. And the positive changes I noticed when I switched from two percent milk to soy milk was enough to convince me that I should attempt to severely limit my intake of dairy products.

Easier said than done.

Cutting out milk hasn't been too much of an ordeal. I don't mind soy in my cereal. I do miss having my daily yogurt snack, but I've found other snacks to replace it. And even though ice cream is my favorite dessert, I also don't mind substituting it for sorbet if I feel I absolutely need an ice cream fix. I do worry about the unknowns. Lactose is sneaky. Did you know that packaged hot chocolate, pancake mix and lunch meats all contain lactose? I did not until I started researching lactose intolerance.

By far though, the thing that's killing me is my inability to consume cheese. I love cheese. Oh cheese. Cheese of any and all kinds. A firm manchego with some wheat crackers is one of my top five favorite things to eat. Cheese is a staple of so many good dishes. Try finding any sort of Mexican food that doesn't layer on the cheese (or sour cream). Same goes for Italian. And hamburgers just don't taste the same without a good slice of cheddar. Mike picked up some Jimmy John's for us yesterday. I got my favorite sub - the veggie. I took one bite of it and frowned realizing that the provolone is my favorite part of that sandwich. I will no longer be ordering it because it's just not any good without cheese.

Lessening my lactose consumption hasn't been all bad. The lack of diary in my system has had a direct impact on my girth. Mike made a comment last night about my midsection looking leaner these days. I haven't been to the gym in more than two weeks so I can't attribute that physical change to any sort of physical activity.

It hasn't been easy to distance myself from my moldy love. I'm weeping internally knowing that there's so much tasty cheese in our fridge right now. I do get tempted to eat cheese and crackers from time to time, but then I think back to a calzone I made for myself a few months ago. I ate it and 20 minutes later looked like I was progressing nicely trough my second trimester.

As for the dinner I'm about to eat, I can't back away from it. I'll eat it. But I will probably make the rice to creamy chicken mixture ratio a little higher than I want to. The rice isn't the standout of this dish. They don't call it butter chicken for nothing.