Day 257 - The Pasta Experience

So if you remember back to mid December, I took a cooking class and made this to-die-for ravioli dish. I had the recipe so we were on a mission to duplicate it at home. Challenge number one - finding pre-made pasta for the ravioli. I was told by the chef at the class that you could find it at any grocery store freezer section - after calling nearly every possible grocery and speciality store in Southeastern Wisconsin with no luck, I decided to try these small flat lasagna noodles that come in a box like regular store bought pasta. I figured all I needed to do was boil them and presto - we'd have the wrappers for our ravioli. Well friends, that simply did not work - when we tried to fill them they just tore open. At this point it was probably 9pm - and our only option was to make the pasta dough ourselves. Now I have never done this before - so we were heading into uncharted territory. Turned out I had JUST enough flour to make a batch. It took FOREVER to roll the dough thin enough to make the ravioli and it turns out, even what we ended up with was much too thick. We ate very late and it was not overly great - but it was an experience!

Exposure: 1/500 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 800

Day 256 - Glass and Beads

More of the Christmas themed photos. This is a pic of a "tree" made of small mirrors and beads. This is against the orange wall of my dining room.

Exposure: 1/25 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 800

Day 255 - Frosted Forest

We had a good snow storm today which subsequently buried the pile of chopped up tree that now sits in front of my garage. Not an overly exciting picture so I did a little "antique-ing" to it!

Exposure: 1/40 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 800

Day 254 - Carvings

Looks like I missed another day, so this one if from our trip out to Arizona for Christmas. When we were hiking at Christmas Tree Pass there was an area of rock that had carvings all over. They were black on some areas which made them even more interesting!

Exposure: 1/50 sec

Aperture: f/14

Focal Length: 24mm

ISO Speed: 250

Day 253 - Stripes and Bokeh

As I've been doing this project I have found that as the seasons change, so does my focus on objects to photograph. The holidays are clearly upon us! This is one of my favorite ornaments - a group of friends and I used to do an ornament exchange every year and this is one I gave as gifts one year. I always bought myself one of the ones I gave away too! I love the bokeh from the lights on the tree as well!

Exposure: 1/30 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 800

Day 252 - Peace

This house near me does this every holiday season. It looks really cool when there is a full snow cover over it as the lights get a little muffled by the snow, but still show through. Because of the lack of snow on this particular day the pic was not that fantastic, so I played with some presets to give it a little more excitement!

Exposure: 1/40 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 251 - Wish

A festive photo of my fireplace mantle during the holidays!

Exposure: 1/10 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 250 - Lemon PEZ

You all thought I gave up on my project, didn't you??!! Well I didn't, it just fell VERY VERY behind in posting to my blog. So here is to catching up! This pic was actually from the day before as I must have been bad again! More playing around with my new lens!

Exposure: 1/50 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 249 - Into the Wild Blue Yonder

I was playing around with my macro lens that I got for Christmas and thought crayons would a fun subject! I just love all the names they give the colors.

Exposure: 1/15 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 248 - It's a Bird... It's a Plane...

Oh wait, it's not Superman, it's Batman! Happy New Year's Eve all! We had a great night with friends playing Wii and over indulging! Here's to a fantastic 2010!

(Played with some blur filters on this shot!)

Exposure: 1/8 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 40mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 247 - Desert Hike

I seem to have some issues getting pictures taken when I'm off work. Missed another day, so this is a shot from our last day in Arizona while we were hiking. This area has some neat hieroglyphics on the rocks.

Exposure: 1/1250 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 35mm

ISO Speed: 250

Day 246 - Big Kids

A day out sledding with the kids - some bigger than others! Fun was had by all and much hot chocolate enjoyed afterwards!

Exposure: 1/250 sec

Aperture: f/10

Focal Length: 84mm

ISO Speed: 200

Day 245 - Woody

Late night and last minute photo. At least Woody was willing to pose for me! I played around with color saturation (or desaturation as the case my be) on this image.

Exposure: .6 sec

Aperture: f/10

Focal Length: 73mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 244 - Life

So it appears that I do not have a picture for today. This shot is from our trip out to Arizona/Nevada for Christmas at Red Rock Canyon. Love how you can have all the stone and then a tree growing seemingly out of no where.

Exposure: 1/800

Aperture: f/4.5

Focal Length: 90mm

ISO Speed: 160

Day 243 - Jagged Horizon

Out last day in Arizona for our Christmas trip. We had a red eye flight later that night so we spent the day at my mom's. We decided to go for a hike at Christmas Tree Pass and of course I took my camera! It was a great day - a little chilly and a little overcast but so beautiful in the desert. This is one of my favorite shots of our hike. I love how the clouds look around the sun and the textures of the earth below.

Exposure: 1/640 sec

Aperture: f/16

Focal Length: 32mm

ISO Speed: 250