Last week's assignment was to take photos of tabletop items such as Fruits & Veggies. Here are a few of my faves..

Madison loves strawberries and while I was taking photos she sat there so patiently waiting for one. hehe Don't worry, I gave her one to eat.

 

Hola -- I've been so MIA lately because I've been busy with everything! Taking a summer class for MBA, working FT, commuting 3hrs+ a day (yes, 1.5 hrs each way), and dum dum dum... taking a Photography Class!!

My hubby bought me a fancy DSLR 3 years ago but I never really knew how to use it. I would just take photos and play around with the settings not really knowing why or how they worked together. So, imagine my delight when I saw an ad in the local paper for photography class.  I checked the address and it was meant to be. The studio is on the street behind my house. It's about 4 houses away! I signed up the 2 weeks later, started my classes.

Anyway, there's a laundry list of things I still need to do for the garden, house, etc..but I'm hoping once the first part of my summer classes is over, I can have a mini break and catch up on things.

In the meantime -- i leave you with some photos I took on Manual setting, that means adjusting all the settings on my own. No auto stuff here! and no photoshopping!

The Basil & Oregano were taken at my house. The rest was taken in my Aunt's gorgeous 7acre property.

I think i fixed the photo problem...but just in cas, here is the link http://www.pbase.com/dliao/shooting_manual
 
 
 


  

Gardening has been very --- interesting. Fun and frustrating at the same time. Mostly it's because I'm new to this and tend to get over ambitious with ideas and also because I did not touch a garden shovel growing up-- EVER. So, add over ambitiousness, no experience in gardening, and BHG and their fancy garden ideas and you get a very frustrated me.

I had to look up everything. Before this spring, I didn't know what deadheading, garden edging, difference between mulch and compost, perrenial vs. annual, and no idea what flowers bloomed when. Thank God for Google!!

Anyway, after reading all the how-to's, I finally planted my flowers and made a "garden plan." Although a little late, I'm happy that I took the time out to do this because already I can see that some plants will probably need to be moved. I should of thought more about the full growth size before planting..

From here, i will make notes for myself about when to fertilize, prune back, etc... I think I did okay in selecting plants that used relatively same amount of water/sunlight, but who knows!

Here is my garden plan, I only drew in the Perrenials. The Annuals are all planted around "7" so that it's easy to get to next spring when it's time to plant new ones.



I will upload photos soon. The one's I took today came out blurry. And you'll see when I post the photos my Peonies are not growing at all :(   But I still saved a spot in case my mom decides to donate hers to me. *cross fingers*