Twilight ...

"Lord of the far horizons,
give us the eyes to see
over the verge of sundown
the beauty that is to be"

William Bliss Carman



Project 366 #61

The making of ... Bread Pudding

This is entry #8 of my Project 366. In case you're wondering, this was not just another snapshot, oh no!


Date: 08/01/2012 15:59
Model: Canon EOS D40
ISO: 200
Exposure time: 1/4 sec
Aperture: 11
Exposure Bias: - 0.00 EV
Focal Length: 44.0 mm
Metering Mode: center weight
Flash Used: no
Exposure: manual
Exposure mode: manual
White balance: auto

I baked bread pudding this morning. When it came out of the oven, I knew I wanted to use it to make my photo of the day. I tried a couple of compositions, but none of it seemed to really work. So I ate a piece for breakfast, then noticed it had become a lot more interesting with the missing piece, so I got to work again. I took about twenty photos of it (handheld, using manual settings and auto focus) and showed them to my husband, who advised me to use a piece of white cardboard to reflect the light and eliminate the shadows.

This photo shows how it was made.
Then we took it one step further, by using the tripod. I changed the settings, changed the composition over and over again ...


To make a long story short, I took about 90 photos before I was satisfied with what I got!

Project 366 # 4

As of today I'm trying to get back on track with my Weight Watcher's program. One very important rule is that you need to drink eight large glasses of water each day. I really need to constantly remind myself to do that, so while I was looking around trying to find something interesting to photograph I had this glass of water in front of me.
I ended up making a series of photos of it from different angles while playing with the manual settings of my camera. Now the weather has been terrible all day (we had rain and storm) so the light in my kitchen was not so great which explains the gloominess of this picture.
This is the original version, it's the best I could do, not terrible, is it?

I decided it needed a little something to make it more interesting, so I played with it some more while editing it. I converted it to black and white, bumped up the contrast and the sharpness, cropped and framed it and voilà! My new Project 366 picture!

Date: 03/01/2012 11:01
Model: Canon EOS D40
ISO: 400
Exposure time: 1/20 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure Bias: - 0.00 EV
Focal Length: 59.0 mm
Metering Mode: center weight
Flash Used: no
Exposure: Manual
White balance: auto

Weekly Winners, Antwerp Central Station

I needed some pictures for my photo class exam, so we took off with the camera and the tripod and spent some time in Antwerp central station. Lots and lots of photo opportunities there ...

Weekly Winners, Antwerp by night

Antwerp by night, an attempt at night photography ...



I wanted to make more and better shots so I returned two days later, just after sunset.
We took the elevator to the roof of the building above and took the next couple of panoramic night views of Antwerp.




From inside the building ...






Weekly Winners is hosted by Lotus at I am Lotus.

Weekly Winners, Pastis and Flowers ...

Weekly Winners is hosted by Lotus, AKA Sarcastic Mom. It's all about posting your favorite photos of the week that has past. Well, I took many, even if I didn't leave the house this week!

aperitif time

juicy

piece of cake

bubbly

after the rain

fuzzy

reds and greens

sunshine

Visit I am Lotus to see more Weekly Winners participants or - even better - join in on the fun!

Friday's Favorite Five, It's Good to be Back!

Friday again, time to reflect on the week that has passed and post about five favorite things from your week. Friday's Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, if you're looking for the rules, they're here.
Now, all I need to do is look at the pictures I've taken throughout the week to discover my favorite five things, so here we go!




1. We got back from France almost two weeks ago now, and I needed some time to get the laundry and some household chores done. We had a wonderful time in France and I came back well rested and full of energy.
I get up two hours earlier than I used to, just to be able to get some extra blogging time. I love the early hours when the house is quiet and my head is clear! The weather was lousy last Sunday so I took the time to post some pictures of my holiday in France. I was stunned and overwhelmed by all the lovely comments from all of you welcoming me back, telling me you missed me. I really had no idea how much this blog means to all of you and I want to THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for your friendship and kind words. I promise I will continue to make time and try to be a better blogger in the future!

2. While we were away, we had the plumber over to do some work on my patio. Now that that's over and done with, I could finally rearrange the flower pots and decorate my patio again.

3. We bought some new hanging baskets and flowering plants

4. and two lovely coral red bistro chairs to go with the small table on my patio.

5. I had a lovely day out with my friend Nana last week. It was her birthday three weeks earlier and she bought me lunch. We had a lovely time catching up on the latest things in our lives. After lunch we made a little photo walk and photographed wild flowers. A day out with her is always such a treat, I'm already looking forward to the next time we meet!



6. Speaking of treats, I made Devil's Fire Shrimp ( Scampi Diavolo Fuoco in Italian, doesn't it sound better in Italian?) and my husband licked his plate with his fingers. Need I say more?

Sunday Selections, Because I Love Spring So Much

Kim, over at Frogpondrock hosts this new meme called Sunday Selections and I decided to play along this week.
This is what she says:

"I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selection” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy."

The first signs of Spring always make me want to grab my camera and shoot a lot of pictures. Suddenly my patio is an interesting playground again!
I haven't been blogging as much as I used to before and these photos could easily get lost in my archives. I don't want to let this happen, that's why I'm playing along this week.
I hope you enjoy this Sunday Selection.

Friday's Fave Five, Almost Spring.

It's the first Friday of March already. Spring is just around the corner. Time to join this meme hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the story. Time to look back and share some of the highlights of this past week ...



1. Usually I meet up with my friend Nana at least once a month but this past week has been special because we we saw each other twice! We went shopping at Ikea last Friday and we spent a day as tourists in our own town on Wednesday.

2. We're both real coffee lovers and this one was a special treat. We ordered a "surprise coffee" and we got our coffee with four chocolates and a small glass of Elixir d'Anvers liqueur. Elixir d'Anvers is an old fashioned Antwerp liqueur still made today with the same ingredients from the original recipe from 1863.


3. Spring is just around the corner and nature is coming back to life again. These little pink dots are the female flowers of my Hazel shrub. They are so easily overlooked because we tend to only notice the catkins. I had never noticed them up until now!


4. The herbs in my herb garden are starting to grow again too. This is tarragon. It won't be long now before I can make a delicious Béarnaise sauce with it!

5. We've had a lovely week with lots of sunshine. Sunshine always makes me grab my camera, trying to capture that beautiful golden light. I think I managed quite well in this picture, didn't I?

Midweek Blues, Laundry Day

 

 

Only one picture today, but it’s a favorite of mine. I love the colors and the light, and I love how it came out looking like a painting from an old Master.
I took it at Bokrijk Museum park last time we were there.

 

Play along with Midweek Blues!
Colors, moods, music, poetry...be as creative as you like!
Midweek Blues is hosted by Rebecca at the Dusty Cellar.

Visit my other blog, Heavenin365 for a photo a day with the Canon D40.

Midweek Blues, From Different Angles

 

This Midweek Blues meme, hosted by Rebecca at the Dusty Cellar makes me look for something blue to photograph each Wednesday. It’s probably one of the smallest memes in the blogosphere but I think it’s fun to do. Today, a six pack of water bottles in my kitchen inspired me to do a photo shoot. I had way too much fun photographing it from as many different angles I could think of.

 

 

 

Play along with Midweek Blues!
Colors, moods, music, poetry...be as creative as you like!
Midweek Blues is hosted by Rebecca at the Dusty Cellar.

Visit my other blog, Heavenin365 for a photo a day with the Canon D40.