Evan's 1st Year - Preview

Remember this beautiful pregnant mama?



Who took this awesome maternity jump shot?
 

And then had this adorable baby?
 

Well guess what? That adorable baby boy just turned 1! I can't believe he's been with us a whole year! And in honor of his first birthday I paid this adorable little family a visit and grabbed some shots. Here's just a quick preview, more to come soon!

 This may be my favorite picture ever :)

Can't wait to share more from this session!

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Chopped Greek Salad - A La Jaymi

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite chopped salads!

A traditional Greek salad is pretty much cucumber, green pepper, tomato, olives, and feta. Well I'm not a huge fan of green pepper or raw tomato, so I replace it with red and yellow bell pepper which to me gives the salad a much better crunch and better color. I also add chunks of avocado because to me, avocado makes everything better!

Greek Salad
-3 Cucumbers
-1 Red Bell Pepper
-1 Yellow Bell Pepper
-1 Large Avocado
-Seedless Kalamata Olives
-Red Onion
-Crumbled Feta Cheese
-Olive Oil
-Balsamic Vinegar
-Greek Seasoning

 If you can't find Greek Seasoning in your local store, you can make it with this Greek Seasoning Recipe very easily!

Directions: Mix about 1 tablespoon of Greek Seasoning in about a 1/4 cup of olive oil.  Whisk to combine and let sit while you make the rest of your salad.

Peel the cucumbers, cut the ends off, then cut them in half lengthwise.  Use a spoon or mellon baller to scrape the seeds out.  While cucumber seeds are perfectly edible and just as delicious, removing them helps keep this salad crunchy.  After seeds are removed, slice into pieces and throw into a bowl.  Chop and add red and yellow bell pepper. Sprinkle in crumbled feta to taste.  Roughly chop olives and add in to taste.  Cut half of the red onion into very thin slices and add.  Mix your salad ingredients together.  Whisk your olive oil and seasoning together again and pour over salad.  You may not need the whole amount, I add in just enough to lightly coat everything.  Add a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar.  Mix salad together again. Chop avocado into 1-inch pieces and add to your salad and give it one final toss.  I always add the avocado last because if you mix your salad too much with it in, it can get mushy.



I just love the crunch and flavor of this salad. The greek seasoning really makes it, so definitely don't skip that part!

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Springtime in Santa Monica

We've been getting some beautiful spring weather here in Southern California, and I'm very excited about beach season rolling around!  I was also really excited that the theme for the Nurture Photography Challenge this week is turquoise/splash, because I have some fun beach pictures to share with you!

One of my favorite places to go...



I love how the colors of the ferris wheel stand out in this pic.
 

Experimenting with negative space...that water had to have been freezing!
 

I used my awesome Polarizer on this (and on the first shot) which helped keep the sky a deep blue instead of blowing out and also helped the clouds really stand out.
 

On another note, I know a lot of us are sad about Google Reader ending.  I know a lot of people are using Bloglovin' instead, but I just wanted to suggest Feedly as an option as well.  Personally I like the interface better than Bloglovin' and other sites I've tried.  I recommend giving it a shot.  Plus it has a way to connect your google account to instantly transfer all your feeds over.  If anyone has found a site even better than these to replace Google Reader, please let me know in the comments!

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Oil and Water

Oh man, I can't believe how long its been since I've posted.

For those of you that have followed for a while, you know I switched jobs back in September.  I work in TV, and I don't like to advertise where on the blogosphere, but those who follow me on facebook have probably figured it out! And you can just imagine what kind of time this show takes up!  It's been really hard to keep up with photography, and that has been hard and made me really sad! I really miss it.

So I love excuses to get inspired! Kristi from Live and Love out Loud recently posted awesome oil and water shots.  I remembered trying this when I first started photography and it was a total fail.  But now it's been a few years and I have my awesome Nikon 85mm Macro Lens so I thought I'd try it again!

I was much happier with my shots this time!




You can see the reflection of my kitchen window in some the bubbles!
 

This next one is my favorite.
 

The method is really simple. I filled a glass bowl with water and set it next to my kitchen window where I got the most light. I've seen some people put colored paper or fabric under the glass bowl to get the different colors, but I just used a couple drops of food coloring to color the water. Then I poured in some regular old vegetable oil, stirred it around a bit, and shot away!

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