Today was a busy day in kid world. Taking both kids shopping this morning for groceries and for supplies that needed to go to school with the older kid in the afternoon, getting things put away and the little one off to play while I took the bigger one to school and stayed in the classroom with 17 really enthusiastic 5-ish year olds. And in the middle of all of our to and fro and task completion, time to think.
There are several blog-related things on the horizon that I’m dying to put out there. But… not until I’m sure they’re ready. I’d like to avoid responses like “well, it was good up until the part where it completely imploded, Susan.” So… in time. And I’m making a conscious effort to tell you what’s going on in-between the bigger bloggy moments, because I know I really enjoy hearing what’s happening in the minds of the bloggers I follow.
While at the warehouse-club store today I grabbed a bag of limes. There’s this Rachael Ray chicken pasta dish that I learned via Adrianna, and I try to keep limes around for it. Somehow I never seem to still have them when I am actually ready to make the dish, so I decided to try freezing the juice. I’ve never done it before, but it seems that it would taste better that way than out of those little plastic squeezy deal-ies.
And while I was cutting them I thought about how beautiful they were. Which required a photo.
And that reminded me to share a photography thought from Alt. These things will just sort of ooze out over time, I guess. Mike and Alma of Ollibird did a Photoshop session on the last day of the conference. While we were talking about editing, Mike pointed something out that made so. much. sense. and I wish I’d known it sooner.
When I’m editing photos, I often feel like I’m making the same edits to every photo in the batch. Which is, I already knew, why there are programs that deal with “batch actions” for photos. It makes me feel like I must’ve missed something in the process of taking the photos. But Mike said something interesting about the way cameras work. Have you ever taken a photo that was too bright, with too much contrast? That’s a problem. There’s no data in those bright areas. They can’t really be brought back from that. (Unless you’re shooting in RAW, but I’m not ready for that party yet.) So because that’s such a problem, camera makers build in a cushion. The light meter and other bits will purposely make your photos a little flatter and a little less bright than you might want it, so that you can avoid the loss of a photo. Some insurance. So, really, every photo we take SHOULD require a boost in exposure and in contrast when we download and edit. I really wasn’t doing anything wrong when I was shooting that I had to edit eeeeverything at least a little. (Is this an a-ha for anyone other than me?) And now that I know this, 99% of the photos I see look too flat to me. My eyes were opened.
So now when I’m editing, I’ve let go of the feeling that I’m doing something wrong. Well, there’re likely other things, but that one I’ve let go of. And now I have juice and zest in a variety of random containers (like this one that originally held frozen garlic from TJ’s) for my next few rounds of that dish. Or strawberry limeade or guacamole or whatever. (Have you frozen lime juice before? It comes out just fine, right?)
Craftier stuff on the horizon…
this is totally making me want key lime pie right now.
Ha. I hear you. Have you tried this recipe?
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-key-lime-pie-i/
So easy. My fave.
Your hands and house must smell so good. I haven’t frozen lime juice and will wait for your update as to how it turns out. I also suspect it’s better than the plastic lime juice. Also, it’s kind of nice to know I’m not the only one that does almost the same edits to my pictures, if I edit them at all (call that laziness/unwillingness to stay up into the wee hours of the night to try to fix one photo on our really slow computer).
A ha! Thanks for sharing that.
Yummy, and I’m with poster #1, I want a key lime pie now too :oD
As for the photos, I’m a RAW shooter, and I also batch process my blog photos for tutorials and things, it makes life so much easier!
I think that’s on the to-do list. Somewhere.
As a professional photographer who used to hand develop both my b&w and color film and pictures, and who hesitated on going digital for quite awhile even though I was fluent in Photoshop from about version 2, I felt bad using PS to fix my digital stuff at 1st too. But then I thought about the hours in the darkroom spent over or underdeveloping film on purpose, doing the same with the prints including dodging and burning by hand, all in the dark mind you, and then it hit me. How is spending 5 minutes on my computer running one of my batch actions so much worse than hours in the pitch black having to re-tweak it over and over (no red lights allowed with color) and the expense of the wasted paper and chemicals? It’s not. Unless I’m doing it for fun.
I so hear you. I used a dark room once. ONCE! In the 8th grade. I love that I have at least a taste of it– and yes, digital processing is way, way, way easier and faster and less hazardous to general health. Yep, in that context, I’m a whiny, whiny, whiny brat. So grateful for the tools we have now!
I freeze lime juice all the time, it’s super convenient. I have noticed that after a while (a month?) the defrosted lime juice tastes a little bitter. Nothing inedible though.