Birds & Blooms

I went out on a walk today. 70 and sunny and low humidity, how can I resist that kind of Indiana spring?! And on a day off of the real job! I haven't gone through all the photos, but there aren't many, as I was walking with a friend and she wanted to try out the camera. Check out this stunna though! It's a tad blurry, but kinda perfect (to me) anyways. It almost looks fake because the sky was so blue, the buds were so red, and the bird was so yellow! I swear it's not fake and that there is no change to contrast! Just a tad bit of sharpening to try to make the bird look better. :)

Banana chocolate chip cookies

I got asked for the recipe for the cookies, and, of course, I'm happy to share! Just as long as you let me know how it turns out for you and I get pictures of the results - promise? Pinky swear? OKAY!


Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. baking soda
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
1 c. mashed bananas (usually about 2 bananas - the old kind :D)
2 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets (although I never do and they turn out fine!). Mix flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a bowl. In separate bowl, cream butter with sugar, then beat in eggs and vanilla (I do this in my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer!). Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon onto pans at desired size (they don't get much bigger than what they are as a ball of dough, they just widen a bit and get airy).

Bake for 12-15 minutes. (This is what the recipe says, but I usually bake mine for more like 8 minutes. Use your discretion. You know how your oven works better than the recipe people. :D)

Enjoy! They're good warm and I also like to bag 'em up and put them in the fridge or freezer because they're just as amazing cold and that's how we always ate them at Grandma Marge's house growing up! She'd always have some cooked up and stored in the freezer! Delicious!

And remember, I want to see pictures of your results and hear how they were for you! :) Ready! Set! Bake!

Jenna's April Photo Challenge

So I love the ideas that Jenna comes up with for her photo challenges. I wish I'd have thought of the idea first, but I'm not exactly a popular blogger like she is. :)

In any case, she had three challenges for April: favorite free thing, favorite food, and favorite photo. I'm not gonna lie, favorite photo is an insane challenge, because I have a LOT of favorites. :) But I entered myself in favorite food and favorite photo and now you can see my choices!

FAVORITE FOOD
I was going to enter a photo of a caprese pasta salad I created, but I can't seem to find the pictures I took last summer of it, and I only make it when I have fresh basil growing in my garden in the summer. So I chose my other favorite thing: banana chocolate chip cookies!!! Seriously, this is a creation straight from heaven above. I have friends that HATE bananas but LOVE this cookie. And I got asked by teachers in high school to bring them in because they were so beloved. :) Check. Them. Out.

Delicious? YES! If you want the recipe, I am willing to share. They are amazing. And use old bananas like banana bread. They turn out fluffy and moist and cake-like. I make them a lot. Way more than any person should. And I'm okay with that. :)

FAVORITE PHOTO
This is hard, so I'm picking my three favorites at the moment. Can't do that? PSH! Sure I can! :) Plus, it means you get to see more pictures! Good, right?
Person-
C, is GORGEOUS. It's seriously hard, nay, impossible!, to get a bad picture of her! Lucky me! This is one of my favorite photos EVER. PERIOD. The framing. The bright colors. Those eyes! And this is SOOC with just a little bit of contrast. Her eyes are truly that blue. It's INSANE! I'm truly jealous.


Artsy-
I know, I know. I posted this on the last post. But I want to take this image and make it a huge poster. Or a wrapped canvas. I love the angles SOOO much! The art degree in me cannot get enough of this image. :)


Landscape-
These three images cannot be picked between. They were all taken last summer in Montana. I fell so in love with Montana. We were in Gardiner where my brother guides rafts on the Yellowstone River for the summers. This was taken as we drove out of Yellowstone and the rainbows are what were behind us. Two of them. Brighter than I have ever seen a rainbow be. We could see the ends of both rainbows and the sky behind them was pitch black and raining. The clouds are what was ahead of us. Where the sun was coming through the clouds and the world was just glowing. It was a completely awestruck and inspiring moment. My whole family got out of the car and just stood there staring. No one knew what to say, so we just stood in silence admiring, but I knew I had to capture it on camera. Lucky me, again, eh?







So what do you think? What are your favorite foods? Photos? And if you give me your favorite foods, I want recipes! I love trying new foods!

Hello blog world!

I've been busy trying to finish up the website this week, and it's nearing completion! I promise I'll post the link here when it is up and running!

Until then, I'm also writing a post so you can see the updates I made to the photos I gave to the magazine. Because, of course, I'm uber-critical of myself and was sure my photos weren't good enough. :)

I'm also going to be taking several pictures soon! A couple senior sessions coming up...part B of Cara, who I've posted before, and a new one, Jenni! Both girls are great, and I'm excited! Friday is supposed to be gorgeously sunny and almost 70 here in Indiana, so Cara and I are planning on using that day to its full potential! I've also got a family shoot coming up, which is a new one for me, but it is a friend and her family and they are so great and I love them and I'm CRAZY excited about getting to spend the day with them having a good time and catching it on film! And I just got asked to shoot a 1 year old birthday party for one of the most adorable and happy baby boys I've ever had be in my life, my roomie's nephew, Patrick. He's a giggly little chunker and it should be fun, but I have to wait until June for that!

Then there is, of course, the two weddings I'm coordinator of in the end of May and beginning of June. While I'm not the official photographer...just running the show instead :)...I will, of course, have my camera on me, so I'm sure some goodies will turn up from those two events!

And since you're here to see pictures, here's a favorite from a recent walk with my camera...