Fall Morning in Ohio

Fall Morning in Ohio

This morning as I waved Noah and Katie off to their respective destinations, I noticed what a pretty morning it was outside. Having just read Miss Mustard Seed’s latest post about camera settings, I decided to grab my camera and head outside and see what I could do.

Yellow Flowers in Ohio

I played with the settings as Marian suggested, but quite frankly, since it was still early, I couldn’t remember which setting did what. Turns out for this shot the first setting was the best one.

Next, I looked for a spider web. I found one. In a weed.

Spider web in weed

I adjusted the f/stop and the aperture but I really couldn’t tell the difference between some of the settings. I liked how the light caught the web in this one.

Next, it was on to more weeds, albeit a pretty one. Since I have been mostly focused on the kitchen this summer, my garden has suffered. I’m sure my neighbor with the gorgeous flowers is appalled.

Early Morning Weed

Next up was my chickens. I haven’t really showed you much about my girls. I will do a post just about them soon.

Here is how they looked this morning. I love how some of the girls are very still and others are in motion. With the light low, I shot with a low aperture and slow speed. I used a tripod and I really like how this shot came out.

The Girls - Fall 2013 Chickens

The girls in focus are FiFi on the left. She is a Silver Lace Wyandot. Franny is the white chicken in the back, center. She is a Delaware chicken and one of our favorites. She is loud and frantic, hence her name. Gladys is the black and white chicken on the right. She is either a Barred Rock or a Dominique. We have both and we can’t tell the difference between the two. Maybelline in the black chicken in the front. She is a black Sex-Link chicken.

The out of focus girls are Henrietta, the brown Sex-Link chicken on the back, left of the picture. Belle is an Aracuna or Easter Egger chicken to the right of Franny. In front of FiFi is Buffy, a Buff Orpington chicken.

I went inside the coop to see if any of the girls were in their boxes. They usually lay eggs in the morning. Buffy had hopped up in the box and was doing her thing. She stayed very still as I played with my settings, but while I was shooting her, Gladys came in to check things out.

If you ever watched the show, Bewitched, you may remember the character Gladys Kravitz who was always spying on the Stevens’ family. My most curious chicken always earns the name of Gladys.

I love this shot. I captured Gladys’ movements and Buffy’s stillness. It was quite by accident, I assure you, but go me.

Ghost Chicken

After I grabbed this shot, I moved out into the yard. The girls love it when I feed them meal worms, so I thought I’d give them some and see if I could get a good shot from it. Chickens are seriously hard to photograph in low light.

I caught Gladys and the Dominiques. It sounds like a rock group. Again, I like the stillness of some and the movement of the others. Franny is sprinting away to check something out. If you’ve never seen a chicken run, you are missing a very entertaining sight.

Gladys and the Dominiques

Finally, as I was heading back to the house I saw Brutus, aka Fur Child. He was hanging out on the back porch. This porch is about to fall down and Hubs had set some empty root beer bottles up there.

IMG_8147

Brutus looks like he tied one on last night and is a little worse for the wear. He clearly is well fed.

At any rate, that was my morning. Just to see if I actually learned anything, I went into my kitchen to snap a couple of shots of what I have been working on. Obviously, it’s a lot easier to take pictures outside. My inside shots still need work. I have to use a wide angle attachment to get these shots, which is why they seem a bit distorted. One day, I will get better at this.

Okay, all disclaimers aside, here’s what I’ve been doing this past month.

Kitchen Cupboard Update 090413

On some of the hottest days this year, I decided to fill in the space above my cupboards. This required 9,000+ trips up and down a ladder, out to the saw, back up the ladder and most of the time it was without anything more than a fan in the next room blowing hot air around. To say I sweat buckets is an understatement.

I’m putting planks on the ceiling, so I need to get those in place before I finish the crown molding. I really love having this space filled it. I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy. But it sure beats trying to patch walls and fill and trim and paint all in the 5″ above the cupboards and the ceiling. The space simply wasn’t bit enough to put anything on display and with the space filled in, we now have the illusion of higher ceilings.

I also started working on the open display shelf on the end of my pantry cupboard.

Kitchen Pantry Cupboard and Shelf Update 090413

There will be a shelf in front of the seam where the two cupboards meet. I will also do a sliver of the board and batten between the shelf and the doorway just to balance things out on both sides of the doorway. It’s coming together. Slowly.

I’m hoping to finish all the woodwork this week, including planking the ceiling, so I can start painting next week. You can see a few of the boards we put up in the pantry picture above. Just that section showed me it’s a two-person job, but I’m determined to figure out a way to do it by myself. Waiting around for my menfolk to have time in their schedules to help me is no bueno.

On a funny side note, Noah keeps talking about how much wood we now have in the kitchen. He’s going to be surprised when everything gets painted. I finally have figured out my colors and can’t wait to get cracking on it.

Have you ever played around with your camera settings and shot in manual mode? Any tricks I can apply to a kitchen that is both too light and too dark at the same time? Anyone? Bueller? Help a sister out. If you have a tip for me, let me know. I clearly need all the help I can get.