I Heart Faces Submission- Innocent Wonder

When I saw this weeks challenge I immediately thought of this picture. This is Owen- my little sister is his nanny and he's just full of wonder about Everything.

 

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Best Face of 2010- I Heart Faces Submission

My little sister while trying on wedding dresses. The salesperson put this veil on her and she wasn't pleased...thus the look. 























Make sure to go to Iheartfaces.com to see more great faces!

Kaity and Daniel

Christmas Day my little sister got engaged. So happy that she found somebody wonderful to spend her life with. I was super busy making dinner so I only got a few shots that are ready to post now. Thought I'd share them...

 

 The happy couple just prior to a toast with the entire family.

 The Ring...pretty and classic- just like Kaity. Daniel did an awesome job. 

I'll try to post more as I have time to edit. 

How To: Roast Coffee at Home

I recently learned to roast my own coffee so I thought I'd share it with you all. I know it's kind of light on actual photos and will be adding more when I find them :-)

 

 

My first stop was at Mr. Green Beans (check them out Here) another great resource for Green Beans is Sweet Maria's. The couple at Mr. Green Beans was super helpful and totally love what they do (plus it's literally a Mom and Pop shop- gotta love supporting local business)...I left feeling like I too could roast my own!

On to the tutorial...

Step One- Assemble your hardware:

 You'll need:

An Air Popper- My favorite is the Poppery II by West End (Mine may possibly be as old as I am!) You'll want to make sure you get a popper with a reservoir that is vented on the sides and not one with mesh on the bottom- the latter doesn't work (blows so hard beans end up EVERYWHERE and it doesn't vortex so the beans are unevenly roasted...total disaster).

A Long Handled Spoon (to stir the beans if they look uneven)

A Colander (or 2...even better)

1/2 Cup Measuring Cup

Either a Paper Bag Cut to fit the chute of the popper or a large bowl of water (to catch the chaff). My favorite is the bowl... it seems to be less mess.

Step 2:

Measure out 1/2 Cup Green Beans and pour them into the Popper (with the popper off :-))

Step 3:
Set a timer for the desired time (I started at 5 minutes)

Step 4: 

Plug in the popper and start the timer. You'll want to keep an eye on it because it's roasting at a very high temp and there's a risk of fire (I've never had it happen yet). 

Step 5: 

Turn off the popper (mine has no on/off switch so I just unplug it) and put on oven mitts.

Step 6:

Pour the beans into a metal colander and shake to cool ( I also place it in the freezer for 5 minutes to cool it really quickly).

Step 7:

After the beans have cooled you can brew your first pot but it's best to let them rest for at least 12 hours place them in a container that is not airtight (they will release CO2 over the next few hours).

Step 8:

Place the roasted beans into an airtight container (after the 12 hours has passed).

Enjoy!!

I Heart Faces Submission- Pet Faces

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is Pet Faces. I was super excited for this week because I take tons of pet photos. The hardest part was figuring out which one to use...so I decided on this one...

Equipment: Nikon D60, 18-55 VR Zoom Lens and  Wide Angle Macro Lens Adapter (love it so much I wanted to share it)


Details: 
Lens at 18mm plus 0.45x Wide angle adapter= 8mm
ISO 100
f 5.6
1/200


I took this on a rare sunny day last weekend. Bear (my sisters 1 year old puppy) was roughhousing with the other dogs and only stood still for a second (and that was because I had a treat in my hand). 

Make sure you stop by iheartfaces.com to see more great pet faces!!

Mt Hood From Lost Lake

Dasies with Orton Action

In an effort to get back into the swing of posting regularly I thought that I'd post a series of shots both as SOOC (straight out of the camera) and using some of my favorite actions. Basically, an action is an add-on to Photoshop that will automatically run various edits to achieve a specific effect.

My first is from one of my favorite sources of actions Coffee Tea Photography

The action is called Orton

The following pic is from a garden at Portland State University. I think the flowers are Black Eyed Susans. I loved the color but wanted to mix it up.

Before(Taken with my Canon PowerShot SD980 IS, 1/1250; ISO 80; Focal Length: 4.3mm):


And After (the only change is that I ran the Orton Action):