After the Rain…

Last night we went for a short bike ride following some afternoon storms. We headed out as a family, but the beautiful light and the amount of wildlife activity was amazing, so I had to turn around and grab my camera. 

The little guy above was right outside of our garage door. He was SUPER DUPER tiny. Not too fond of the paparazzi either. :) Most of the animals were a little camera shy last night. 

I will try to post more images from my bike safari soon…

Yummy!

My son and I made these deeee-licous Raspberry Swirl cupcakes today. Here's the link to the recipe at Eating Well.

Obviously, they take longer than cupcakes out of a box. I like to think of them as the "healthy" alternative to box cupcakes - even though there isn't such a thing as a healthy cupcake. The part that got me was making the raspberry puree. Pushing smashed raspberries through a strainer to get rid of the seeds is a bit more time consuming than I had hoped for. But I think the end result was worth the extra pain and effort. Sounds like childbirth instead of cooking. :)

The homemade frosting is to die for. I think everyone should just make the frosting, put it in a ziploc bag, cut the corner off and squeeze it in their mouth. Dinner is served! :) Hee. Hee.

Hope you enjoy the recipe at some point.

Swirlicious

Don't you just love the swirly swirl? I couldn't not take a photograph of it. Once her hair gets long we won't see it anymore. Just one of those adorable newborn traits that I love to capture.

This little girl did NOT want to sleep even though she had been up quite a bit the night before according to her mom. Mom was so ready to take a nap, but you wouldn't know it. She looks great!

There was a lot of this going on, but not a lot of what you see below. I think I must give off some kind of wake up vibe because most of my newborns never sleep during their session. Weird.

♥ Sweet dreams little one. ♥

Macro Lens on a Budget

If you haven't tried macro photography before and are leery of the investment required to purchase a true macro lens, there's a more affordable way to get your feet wet. Instead of buying an all out macro lens, you can buy what's called a "reverse mount adapter" for your camera lens that gives you the same effect. I  bought my reverse mount from a company called Fotodiox through Amazon. I used my reverse mount on my fixed 50mm f1.4 lens. Here's a link to a site that has an article to help you get started. As promised, here are some more images from the day at Selby. Enjoy! ♥ Note: Not all of the images below are macro. Some I shot with my 50mm without the reverse mount.

I call this one, "Dragonfly Carrying Leopard-Angel-Mermaid" See what I mean?

My absolute fav♥rite image from the day.

A Macro World

On Easter Sunday I got the chance to try my hand at macro photography at Selby Gardens. I ♥ macro photography! It's all about the little details. I'll post more images in a couple of days as well as how you can make a "poor man's macro lens" out of your regular DSLR lens.

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

Not exactly the title you'd expect on a photography blog. :) Needless to say I made a mess out of the Easter eggs last year - more cracked than not - so I decided to do a little web search and see if there wasn't a way to get those perfect eggs.  Sure enough, there was. Here's the link and the text for how to boil those eggs so they are in pristine shape for dyeing - or tie-dyeing as was our case. Hope this helps!
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_perfect_hard_boiled_eggs/

How to Make Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

METHOD

1 First make sure that you are using eggs that are several days old. If this is Easter time, and everyone is buying their eggs at the last minute, buy your eggs 5 days in advance of boiling. (See the reference to using old eggs in Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking). Hard boiling farm fresh eggs will invariably lead to eggs that are difficult to peel. If you have boiled a batch that are difficult to peel, try putting them in the refrigerator for a few days; they should be easier to peel then.

2 Put the eggs in a single layer in a saucepan, covered by at least an inch or two of cold water. Starting with cold water and gently bringing the eggs to a boil will help keep them from cracking. Adding a tablespoon of vinegar to the water will help keep the egg whites from running out of any eggs that happen to crack while cooking, but some people find that the vinegar affects the taste. I don't have a problem with it and I usually add a little vinegar. Adding a half teaspoon of salt is thought to help both with the preventing of cracking and making the eggs easier to peel. Put the burner on high and bring the eggs to a boil. As soon as the water starts to boil, remove the pan from the heat for a few seconds.

3 Reduce the heat to low, return the pan to the burner. Let simmer for one minute. (Note I usually skip this step because I don't notice the eggs boiling until they've been boiling for at least a minute! Also, if you are using an electric stove with a coil element, you can just turn off the heat. There is enough residual heat in the coil to keep the eggs simmering for a minute.)

4 After a minute, remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let sit for 12 minutes. If you are doing a large batch of eggs, after 10 minutes you can check for doneness by sacrificing one egg, removing it with a slotted spoon, running it under cold water, and cutting it open. If it isn't done, cook the other eggs a minute or two longer. The eggs should be done perfectly at 10 minutes, but sometimes, depending on the shape of the pan, the size of the eggs, the number of eggs compared to the amount of water, and how cooked you like them, it can take a few minutes more. When you find the right time that works for you given your pan, the size of eggs you usually buy, the type of stove top you have, stick with it.

I also find that it is very hard to overcook eggs using this method. I can let the eggs sit, covered, for up to 15-20 minutes without the eggs getting overcooked.

5 Either remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and place them into a bowl of ice water (this is if you have a lot of eggs) OR strain out the water from the pan, fill the pan with cold water, strain again, fill again, until the eggs cool down a bit. Once cooled, strain the water from the eggs. Store the eggs in a covered container (eggs can release odors) in the refrigerator. They should be eaten within 5 days.

Lest you think I didn't document the occasion...

Happy Easter!

Issues

I have received word that my website is having issues with Paypal. So, if you try to place an order, don't be surprised if it doesn't work. I wish I could fix it, but I have no clue when it comes to that kind of technical stuff. I have sent an e-mail to my website hosting company and hope to have the issue resolved soon. Wish me luck! ;)