Photoshop Fun

  

A little bit of Andy Warhol influence I picked up in photoshop class last night.  I tried.

Graduating From Country Girl to Farm Girl

Well, we’ve been living out here in the country for some time now… I guess it’s time to take it up a notch!

We’ve got the Rhode Island Red Layer chicks, now we need to find a good dairy goat breed.  We’ve heard that the Nubian’s milk tastes mighty fine, any additional opinions out there?

Chinese Dumplings, Fried Rice, and Egg Rolls

Chinese Dumplings, Fried Rice, and Egg Rolls

Last night we feasted on home-made Chinese food.  I borrowed this Chinese Dumpling recipe from the Marvelous Mamapua.  She’s got some delicious recipes up her sleeve, and she’s always so generous to share them.  I had some left over dumpling filling (I doubled the recipe) so I stuffed it into some egg roll wraps and fried them up, then I threw together some fried rice and called it dinner.  Delish! 

Chinese Dumplings
1/4 lb. ground pork
1/4 lb. shrimp - peeled, deveined, and chopped
1 egg white
1 small can chopped water chestnuts
3 or 4 chopped green onion
2 T cornstarch
2 t. soy sauce
1 t. sugar
1 t. minced garlic
1 t. oyster sauce
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. sesame oil
1 package dumpling skins

1. In a med. bowl, mix together all the ingredients except for the dumpling skins.
2. Place about a teaspoon of this filling onto the center of the dumpling. Fold as directed on the package.
3. Steam over a pan of boiling water for 25-30 min, or do like I did and boil them for 8-10 minutes. 

Vegetable Fried Rice
2 beaten eggs
2-3 green onions
½ cup chopped carrots
½ cup chopped celery
½ cup frozen baby peas
1 cup chopped cabbage
4 cups cooked and cooled rice
6 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoon sesame oil
1-2 Tablespoons Cooking oil

Scramble eggs in skillet.  Set aside.  Saute vegetables in cooking oil for about 4 minutes or until crisp-tender.  Stir in soy sauce and sesame oil.  Add rice.  Cook and stir a few minutes or until heated through.  Stir in scrambled eggs.

 

Smiles are Contagious, You Know

This one’s for Jenny who mentioned how she admires bovine creatures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I met up with this complacent little heffer the other day.  All I wanted to do was photograph her good side, but she just wouldn’t have it!  Determined to draw out the sweetness that I knew was in there, I decided to present her with my biggest, warmest smile and just look what she flashed back at me… 

 

Ahhh….Sweet Innocence!

A Recent Conversation With My Nephew

My nephew J: “Aunt Shell, I love to watch the chicks!”

Me:  “Yah, they are pretty fascinating, aren’t they?”

a few seconds go by…

Me:  “How old are you now J?”

J:  “Seven and a quarter… or maybe it’s a nickel?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’ll be fun to show him this picture in another ten years and ninety-five cents… and something tells me, the chicks he’ll be noticing then won’t have beaks and feathers.

Chirp! Chirp!

We have chicks - fourteen of them, to be exact!  These little girls arrived yesterday and they’re so darn cute, just like newborn babies.  All they do is eat and sleep, let out a few baby chirps, and then snuggle, sleep, and eat some more.  Well, they do some other business that requires their grass pellets to be changed occasionally, but for the most part, they’re pretty pleasant to have around.  We’ll really be thinking so when we’re cracking open fresh eggs for our omelets one day! 

We took them from their nice warm box out onto the porch for about three minutes today.  They shivered and squawked and begged us to bring them back in and put them under their heat lamp, so we did.  

 

We’ve been back from our vacation for about three weeks now.  Tomorrow our temperatures are supposed to reach the mid 50’s - we shiver and squawk, where’s our heat lamp?

More Newborn Photos With Baby Paige

I could have photographed this sweet little baby all day!

What do you think of these photos?

For those out there who are nervous to switch their camera out of it’s auto setting, this could be just the motivation you were looking for - throw caution to the wind and starting playing around with those dials!  Why, just look at what I discovered in doing just that -  By changing the aperture setting alone, I completely transformed the feel of a photograph.  For this first photo, my camera’s aperture setting was f/4.0, the shutter speed was 1/60 sec., and the ISO was 200. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, for a completely different look, and to keep my flash from firing, I set my aperture to 2.2, my ISO became 900, and the shutter speed remained at 1/60 sec.  This next picture was taken about 5 seconds after the previous one, just look at the difference I got when I prevented my flash from firing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both of these pictures were taken around 8pm. and the light was definitely fading.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple more - in the first shot the flash fired, and in the second shot the flash did not fire.

I’m still deciding so I thought I’d ask you...Which look do you think is more pleasing, The Firing Flash or No Flash?  I’m real curious and would love to know what you think. Thank you!

Cute Little Family Photo Shoot

I photographed these guys in the park last month.  These photogenic little kids were super fun to shoot… we had lots of laughs (especially when there was jumping involved! - unfortunately, they made me get rid of those shots.) 

Old Barn IX