Holiday Baking & My Secret Weapon

I love baking around the holidays, but that directly conflicts with the goal of keeping the numbers on the scale going down instead of up.  So I have a secret weapon:  banana bread.

Growing up my family would eat bananas like nobody's business, but none of us really liked them after they became super ripe. So, we always had tons of leftover overly ripe bananas. Solution?  Banana bread. Lots and LOTS of banana bread.  By the time I was 10 I think I had the recipe memorized.  Occasionally ripe bananas would make their way into a cornbread recipe *shudder*.  Needless to say, banana bread isn't my favorite sweet bread ;)  However, we still have tons of ripe bananas, and I love the thought of homemade bread for a gift, or a surprise guest.  So there you have it, I can bake and still defeat the scale :)

Do you have any tips for surviving holiday sweets? Or maybe you even have another use for ripe bananas that doesn't involve cornbread :)

A Whispered Challenge

It was my first wedding.  I was nervous and excited to capture the magic of someone’s special day.  As I watched the lead photographer maneuver among the décor, I promise you my ears played tricks on me. “I challenge you”

Um what did you just say?

"I challenge you.  I challenge you to shoot this wedding fully on manual mode."

To say I was taken aback would be putting it mildly.  No she did NOT just challenge me.

I looked back at her, and she smiled and said it again.  I looked at her.  I looked at my camera.  I switched from automatic mode to fully manual mode.  I took a practice shot….oh dear!

It's good to remember where I've come from.  That first wedding was a loooong time ago.  It's funny to remember my face and reaction to her words.  I was browsing through my archives and I came across the following image.  It'll never be framed on anybody's wall or in an album.  But I am very proud of this image; one of the very few from that first wedding that was well lit and perfectly composed....in manual mode!

What is beautiful to you?

It was a simple moment really. I was reviewing some images I’d taken with friend and fellow photographer Rebekah when we came across an image that had some really nice elements in it, but wasn’t quite there yet.  She looked at the screen and started adjusting various things while asking the question “what is beautiful to you?” I felt like some angels started singing overhead.  Whether directly or indirectly that’s the question we as photographers are always asking.  In this scene, in this person/people, at this moment, what is beautiful?  Beauty is of course subject to the beholder so it’s visiual interpretation differs, but it’s good to be reminded of what we’re all looking for.  Although this photo isn't perfect, there is beauty in it.  Thanks Rebekah for helping me see the beauty in this image!