Good Wintry Wednesday Morning.

 Good Morning everyone I just love waking up to a gentle snow falling down. Nothing major just a pretty little dusting.
   Today is Bill's birthday and while we had the dinner party Sunday I still need to figure out exactly how to make this day even more special. He reads the blogs so what ever I do you will hear about later.
   Monday I spent my day in the kitchen cooking up a storm. By the time I was done I had enough meals  cooked for the next 3 dinners. Monday night chili with more then enough left over for a lunch and to freeze some. Tuesday night Stuffed cabbage and mashed potatoes, and tonight will be spaghetti sauce over pasta. I felt so old school in the kitchen on Monday my mind kept traveling back to when women actually did that,you know 1 day was for cooking,one for laundry, and another for cleaning the house, and in between all of that the gardens were tended, as well a hundred other things that we don't even think about anymore because a machine and the push a of a button does it for us. Any way it was fun and as you may have noticed all the recipes involve tomatoes. I haven't finished photographing them yet I will do that today I hope.
   Speaking of photos yesterday has to have been one of the most frustrating photography days ever for me. Pictures that I thought we good even better then good have been getting negative feed back like  Low lighting, underexposed, composition to tight. Technical issues that have me scratching my head and doing research. Then the research has me scratching my head, well the composition one anyway. I saved a few articles to read later but wow. I don't mind the feed back at all in fact I welcome it but trying to understand and fix my short comings with the camera is where the frustrations lay. I want on the spot improvement with something that will take time and practice apparently a lot of practice. Yesterday had me questioning myself if I even had an eye for photography. In the light of day I know I still gotta try. The histogram seems to be helping a little because the feed back went from the lighting to composition. Here are few random shots I did yesterday, I didn't worry about focus or composition I only concentrated on the lighting. I tried different settings taking the same picture over and over again with different setting and light setting on my LED light each time.

This with auto focus and no LED light

Manual with the light

   I wasn't picky about my subjects just as long as they weren't food and I could take a few in my favorite food spot. Good or not my favorite picture of the day  was not in my favorite food spot but in fact taken from my front door. Bill calls it the OK Corral I call it Snowman Massacre. With the melt of the snow my snow people couldn't stand up and the actual snowman left only his hate and scarf behind.

Snowman Massacre

   We all know how much I love my dishes so I am sure it will come as no surprise that they became my models yesterday as well.

 The next 2 are where a few questions are popping up for me. Look at the shadow in the first on it ruins the picture. In the 2nd photo I shortened the shadow but the lighting seems to bright. I am not worried about the focus as I say I was working on understanding me, my camera, and lighting. How do you remove shadows without over lighting?

  Bill has said I can take a class and believe you me I will be taking him up on that offer. A better understanding of what I am doing will go a long long way in helping me achieve my goal.
  " What Was Dinner "? Last night was the stuffed cabbage but I haven't taken its picture yet so I am going to show you what we are having for dinner tonight well part of it any way. I plan on dressing dinner up a whole lot. Tonight we are having spaghetti sauce over pasta. Rich popped in last night and when I showed him the fridge he was like you make such good sauce cause you make it from scratch. I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't my recipe, but one I wanted to give a face. It is homemade like mine but that is where the similarities end, there is way more meat then I would use in 1 sauce, but we like a meaty sauce so it won't be wasted that is for sure. The balsamic vinegar was a little scary so I cut the amount I used in half  and as it turns out the flavor is very good. There are a lot of peppers and mushrooms in the sauce that will make Bill very happy and add extra flavor to the sauce making it rich and hearty and perfect for a chilly winter night.
Bobbie's Spaghetti Sauce

 So here's hoping for a dinner as tasty as I think it will be.
   Happy Wednesday everyone! Thanks for stopping by.