31 Days: Day 1 - Photography

My Creative Focus for today: Photography

1. CHALLENGE:  to take some really interesting photographs. Pay close attention to the lighting, colors, and focus (oh, yeah, that's a big one that I often have a problem with - the ol' FOCUS thing!).
2. CREATE a delicious meal using some of the vegetables we have grown in our garden.

Since today was a work day, I was really up for incorporating dinner into my creativity adventure. It was pretty easy to do that . . . because I had the perfect menu idea. And the ingredients all fit well in line with some great photos. One of the things I really wanted to do this year was improve my photography skills. You see, I am NOT a photographer. I can't even claim to do it as a hobby. Most of the good shots you might see on this blog have been taken by PG (with the exception of one or two.) But I long to BE a good photographer. I do. So, today is about stretching my wings and letting go of the inhibitions that I usually carry with me when I have the camera in my hands.

I decided today, to really FOCUS on taking pictures. Not just the focusing part ... but by paying attention to how things look through the lens. Where things are in relation to each other in my shot. Where the lighting is coming from. What is in the background. These may seem like common sense things to you - but to me, I really never paid much attention to the photos I was taking. I just held the camera up, snapped the picture, and prayed that everyone had their eyes open, or that the shot wasn't blurry.

Today, I'm spending a little more time on the creative end of it. It was eye opening, for sure. There are some blogs out there with really great photographers that I've been closely watching for inspiration recently; Betty, Lisa, and Julie. They each have such an amazing eye for what they are shooting. I hope I make them proud.

Here is, by far, my most successful shot of the night:

I love the lighting, the contrast and vivid colors, and all of the textures in this shot.

Here are a couple runner-ups:

Not bad. I still think the first photo was pretty good. Although I loved the really close up shot of the pasta dish. And the one of Ella - well, I had to throw that in because she just devoured the pasta - she opened her mouth that wide for absolutely every bite!

The best part of the dinner:

I made enough for leftovers!!! Tomorrow is a work day, too, so these will come in handy.

Another big creative part of this dinner was making this awesome meal with so many of the items from our very own garden. Tomatoes sauteed in a pan with a little EVOO and garlic, add fresh basil, toss with cooked pasta and fresh mozzarella (that spent about 10 minutes in the freezer before adding - so it doesn't melt immediately), all made this a beautiful and delicious CREATIVE dinner.

Thanks for letting me share a little bit of my creativity with you. I hope to have a few more photography focused moments throughout the next 31 Days. (Oooo - and I also created a new "creative" type of blog header - and got rid of the blog background and colors. I want to make the next 31 days a focus on the posts themselves - and not the background. I hope you like the new header!!)

(This post is part of the Words of Me Project "31 Days: write.create.be.")