Catching Up... How We Spent Spring Break

Spring Break provided an excellent opportunity for me to play with the new camera.  Avril and I decided the beautiful weather warranted a hike through Ledges with the kids. 

The Lost Lake trail is my favorite hike when I have the kids with me.  There are a lot of beautiful views and scenery.

Lucy is a lot easier to photograph than Sam for some reason.

Boys will be boys

After our hike we ventured down to the river in search of Avril's dad.  The boys had a grand time skipping rocks.

Nanbaby had an even grander time playing with the rocks

Nan and Hunter appear to be the making of life long buddies.

Finally we found Avril's dad and it was time to head home.

Senioritis

So I think it's about time for me to get back into blogging and writing.  What do you all think?

Back in March I finally bought something for myself... a brand new DSLR camera (a Canon Rebel T2i for those interested in the details).  I had only had my camera a few days when Sis asked to be my guinea pig as I tried my hand at shooting her Senior pictures. 

I finally agreed (relented?) and we decided on an evening to head out to a local park.  The photos below are a few of my favorites.  Eighty-one out of the four hundred photos I shot came out decent.  I don't think that's too bad of a ratio for a beginner that had to keep referring to the manual!

I did turn down a "job offer" the following week from a softball coach I know to photograph his players.  Perhaps when I am a little more comfortable and familiar with myself and the camera.  In the meantime I have been reading a few photography books and have now started on the assignments in said books.

Can you believe that my little baby girl is all grown and graduated now?  Where have the last eighteen years gone so fast?

New Camera

I wonder if I will ever get back into the swing of blogging again?  There is one thing that should help me out, I finally bought my dream camera in March.  For those interested in the specifics I bought a Cannon EOS Rebel T2i.  This has turned out to be the perfect beginner DSLR camera for me.

Below are a few of the images I captured during my first week of getting to know my camera. I expect my next camera related purchase will be Photoshop. Until then I am happy enough with the results I get before editing.

Sam poses so pretty when I have the camera out

I was actually standing up when I took this photo of the ball on the ground

This is the first photo I took of Nanbaby, I haven't been able to take on comparable since

This was the very moment that I started yearning for a wildlife lens.  Hopefully soon!

Pretty impressive...this ceiling fan was turned up to high speed when I decided to try my hand at photographing it.

Oh, Canon, I think you are my new best friend!

For My Fruity Friends

In my world a good life-long friend inspires and challenges you whether they intend to or not.  I had been thinking for the last several weeks that I really need to get back into blogging again.  It has been way to long since I let any of my randomness flow.  I needed that release of sharing something totally random but most of all I needed the release of writing something, anything.

And then Chris over at Photography139 gave me the little bit of inspiration I needed.  For the past few weeks he has been challenging himself to eat healthier (a very admirable goal).  Each week that he accomplishes his goal he adds a new challenge.  At Supper Club last week we were discussing his progress so far and his prospects for this week's addition.  I suggested he add a piece of fruit daily.  He admitted that he had been toying with that very idea.

I thought that was the end of the conversation and I would receive word of his progress the next time we spoke.  On Tuesday though he posted on Twitter that he was not good at picking fruit out.  I naturally assumed that he had purchased under-ripe fruit.  After offering a tip on what to do to remedy the situation I found that I was wrong and he had consumed an overly ripe pear.  Eating a piece of nearly rotten fruit would not encourage me to continue such an endeavor.  I offered to give Chris tips on how to buy fresh tasty fruit from the grocery store and he issued me a deadline to write this post.  Thus you can thank Chris for giving me the swift kick that I need to write something, anything again. (The photo below is recycled from an earlier post in an effort to get this posted by deadline).

Without further adieu here are my tips and ideas (and training for Chris) on purchasing fruit at your local grocer.
I have a family that loves fresh fruit so I try to buy enough in bulk and varying degrees of ripeness to get us through each week.  Most of these tips are based on purchasing fruit that is intended to be eaten the next day or a day or two later.

• Unless you are planning to eat this fruit within the next few hours Never buy from the bottom of the bin.  Fruit at the bottom of the bin ripens faster due to ethylene gas which is produced when fruit ripens.  The compact conditions at the bottom of the bin holds in the ethylene gas causing all the fruit around a ripening or already ripened piece to ripen even faster. ( I am guessing that this may have been part of Chris's error?)  Thins is a good tip for buying strawberries and blueberries in the plastic containers as well... always look at the bottom to check the degree of ripeness.
  
• Coloring is usually a given.  Watch for deepening shades of color.  Any green means you will have to wait for it to ripen.  Too deep of a shade could mean it's edging on being overly ripe.
  
• Size matters but not in the way you think.  Go for a piece of fruit that is medium sized and has some weight to it.  That weight is water weight.  I think that we can all agree that a good piece of fruit should be juicy.  Normally what I do is pick out several pieces of the same size and weigh each of them in my hand.  You will be surprised at the weight difference of seemingly like pieces of fruit.
  
• Quit laughing at the little old ladies that are sniffing the fruit.  They are really on to something here!  Smelling the stem of the fruit gives you an indication of how good it will be.  If you don't smell anything chances are you aren't going to taste much of anything. If it smells bitter it will probably taste bitter.  You are aiming for fruit that smells like you want it to taste here.
  
• Look over the fruit for bruises, soft spots and gashes.  These areas are going to ripen and rot faster than the rest of the fruit. Nothing annoys me more than watching people squeeze and pinch at fruit.  The rougher you handle it the faster it will rot.  Seriously, nobody wants to buy a peach that you just pierced with your fingernail.
  
• If you have a banana that is perfect but you aren't going to eat it yet, throw it in the fridge.  This slows down the ripening process for a day or two.
  
• Have a peach, pear, or apple that's not ripe enough yet?  Throw it in a brown paper bag with another piece of fruit for a day.  Or throw a banana in the bag & everything will ripen in about half the time. 

So there it is, how I select fruit from the grocery store.  Anyone else have any tips?  Maybe we together we can help Chris achieve a perfect piece of fruit yet.