Mmmmm......

  A few weeks ago I made some cheesecakes for a banquet dinner. There were three plain cheesecakes and two chocolate cheesecakes. They were both very good and I had a hard time figuring out which one was my favorite. Actually, I never really did come to a decision. Who knows? We might need to have a redo.

   I still have not figured out why cheesecake has such a reputation for being hard to make. It really isn't. It may crack on the top, but you can usually hide that {or cover it with cherries}. They are really quite easy and anyone who loves to bake should try it at some point. Of course, I'm not a connoisseur so maybe it is hard and I just haven't figured it out yet. Either way, nobody has ever complained.

Best Buds

Photo-shoot

   I know I've been away a while, but I'm back now. I haven't quite caught on to this whole blogging thing. It's hard!
 
   The trip to Arizona was great. We really appreciated my great Aunt and Uncle opening their home and letting us stay with them. Not only that, but they carted us all over Arizona and showed us all the cool things there were to see. We all had a lot of fun, but I've got to admit: I was really happy to get on that plane coming home!

 
   On a very different note, I finally mustered up the courage to ask someone to let me take their picture. The amazing part is that he said yes! Even more amazing is the fact that I didn't chicken out at the last minute{although I really, really wanted to}.

   Chris and I met before class and took a few pictures. He was a very good model and thankfully didn't tell me something along the lines of "don't quit your day job". Especially since I don't have one to quit. He really was a great model and seemed totally natural in front of the camera.

   Thanks Chris. You did great!

Shallow Depth-of Field

   For about the past week, The Pioneer Woman has been posting lessons about shutter speed, aperture, and depth of field. After her last discussion on aperture, she challenged her {massive amount of} readers with an assignment. The assignment is to use the knowledge about aperture to create photos displaying shallow depth-of field and submit them to her Flickr group. She frequently has assignments and contests and always has good prizes for the winners.

   Inspired, I went out today to take some shallow depth of field pictures of my own. Pictures with shallow depth of field are one of my favorite kinds to take. I actually have to make myself change the aperture off of wide open. Here's a look at some of the things I came up with.

 

  

  

  

  

   The contest goes until February 15th so go take some of your own and enter the contest. You just might win! To see all submissions and enter go to: www.flickr.com/groups/pwphotoassignments/
   Leave a comment and tell me which of these photos you like best. If you don't really like any of them you can say that, too. It's okay, critical criticism can be a good thing.

My Favorite Lens

   Some time last fall, a photographer friend of mine was telling me about how he started using this lens. He had been having it for a long time and never used it. It's the same lens I've seen many photographers use: The 50mm prime. He told me how wonderful the lens was, and how he was learning so much by using it. Strangely enough, these were the same things many other photographers were saying. Personally, I thought they were crazy. Who could possibly enjoy using a lens that didn't zoom? I told myself there was no way I would ever use a lens that didn't zoom. Ever.

   Previous to this, I had asked another photographer friend about different lenses and which ones he liked. He said he had a lens he wasn't using at the time and that I could use it if I wanted. It was the 50mm prime. I tried it a few times, but always went back to my old lens. It zoomed and I liked it. So I put the 50mm in my camera bag and kept it there quite a while.

   Then one day, for some strange reason I decided to try it again. I don't remember what it was I photographed, but I remember thinking that couldn't possibly have been the same lens I had tried before. This lens took good pictures! I started using it more and more, and the more I used it, the more I loved the pictures I was getting. Not that all my pictures were great. They most definitely were not. But they were getting better.

   After Christmas last year, I was able to get my own. I got on Amazon.com and ordered a Canon EF 50mm 1.4. Today may be the first time it has come off my camera since. Next to my camera, this is my favorite purchase technology wise.

  

   Now I'm one of those crazy people who uses a lens that doesn't zoom and loves every minute of it.

Arts 115

  
  Recently, in college, I was able to take a digital photography class. It was really fun and my photography skills were constantly challenged by the many projects we had to accomplish.  We would go on field trips and focus on a certain aspect or type of photography. The focus of one field trip was depth of field, one was abstract, and one was motion. The hardest project for me was our abstract assignment.

   The top picture is the best abstract of all the ones I attempted. Somehow it just came out right. Although trying to see things as abstract was very difficult, the way it stretched us to look at normal things in a different way was worth the effort.