berlin

Fresh snow like a fresh coat of paint draped over the streets of Berlin. When the sun pokes through the clouds, the light is just 'Winter perfect' at the moment - a cool glow with the faintest warmth reminding me that Spring can't be that far away.

meat pie

I forgot to mention - but Matthias had his first meat pie on Tuesday! How anyone can live in Queensland for a year and not have even heard of a 'Meat Pie' is beyond me.

Me: We have to have a Meat Pie

M: What's a Meat Pie?

Me: Well, it's pastry with mince meat inside it.

M: Good. Let's try

Me: But you have to have it with tomato sauce

M: You mean ketchup?

Me: No, tomato sauce. Ketchup is different

M: But it says Ketchup on the bottle

Me: Well, it's really Tomato Sauce

M: (looks perplexed but dutifully squeezes healthy dollop of said sauce bottle onto pie)

sometime later...

M: You Australians are funny with your words, but this is actually quite good

Success!

Aperture Priority

Manual mode can sound a little intimidating to many new camera users.  One way to make the transition from always shooting in automatic to manual is through aperture priority and shutter priority.  There are also occasions when you might decide to shoot in these modes even if you are comfortable with manual features.  

As a quick re-cap:

Shutter speed is how quickly your shutter opens when taking a photograph

ISO is how well your camera absorbs the available light

Aperture is how wide your shutter opens when taking a photograph and controls both the light and the depth of field in a photograph.  

Shutter Priority:

In shutter priority the camera gives you control over the shutter speed, but adjusts the ISO and aperture to get a correctly exposure photograph.  One time you might use this is if you wanted to achieve a 'movement effect' in you photograph.

In this photograph I wanted to capture the movement of the sign.  By adjusting my shutter speed to be slower than the spinning sign I created movement in the photograph.  I allowed the camera to adjust the aperture and ISO to correctly expose.  Other situations where you might use this would capturing water movement (waterfalls, taps, rain etc) and to create a sense of hurried movement (the classic is on a busy street or train station).

Aperture Priority:

I use aperture priority more often than shutter priority and it is often the easiest way to step from automatic to manual.  Aperture priorty allows you to set the aperature while the camera will adjust the ISO and shutter speed to correctly expose the picture.

Here, I was interested in capturing only the details of the XXX  so I set my aperture to f/XX.  The camera adjusted my shutter speed and ISO to correctly expose my picture.

In this photograph of the landscape I wanted the opposite to happen so I set the camera to a small aperture.

Remember to pay attention to what shutter speed the camera selects.  The camera will not know if you are using a tripod or have shaky hands. If the camera has selected a shutter speed that is too slow for you, you will need to adjust your aperture or ISO.  Which one you choose will depend on the photo. Mostly I try to adjust my ISO first and then aperture.

Aperture priority is pretty great.  In fact, for a long time I wondered why you would bother with manual mode at all.  Next week I'll tell you why.

Image: Here

The Snow Storm by Edna St. Vincent Millay

No hawk hangs over in this air:
The urgent snow is everywhere.
The wing adroiter than a sail
Must lean away from such a gale,
Abandoning its straight intent,
Or else expose tough ligament
And tender flesh to what before
Meant dampened feathers, nothing more.
Forceless upon our backs there fall
Infrequent flakes hexagonal,
Devised in many a curious style
To charm our safety for a while,
Where close to earth like mice we go
Under the horizontal snow.

One of my on-going goals is to read more poetry. I love the romance and the rhythm of poems. I somehow regret not having being taught to read poetry at school as I think it often evokes a raw emotion and 'soul' that other written forms don't. So in this light I'm introducing "A poem on Thursday" as a challenge to myself. To start it off, a poem by Edna St Vincent Millay. Edna St Vincent Millay was the first women to win a Pultizer Prize for poetry in 1923. Last night as I was coming home from my German class, a snow storm blew in - the wind blew fiercely and three inches of snow fell in a few short hours. Somehow this poem seemed apt.

Image: Wiki

Wall Stickers

I've just bought these lovely wall stickers for our bathroom window. I wanted to find something that still let in the light, but gave us some extra privacy during the winter months while the Oak Tree is bare. I initially thought about curtains or giving the windows a light white-wash, but then I struck upon the idea of wall stickers (or window stickers as the case might be). A quick Etsy search and I was inundated by designs, styles and colours. It was a tough choice, but I ended up settling on the wind- swept flowers in the first photo.

The rest of the photos are just eye-candy. Happy Tuesday!

Janey Macpress

Wall Design

Janey Macpress

Wow Wall

Australia Day

Image from: Dean (Flickr)

Image from: V--ster (Flickr)

'My' Australia is a lot more like the images above, than the sterotype you see on TV of the outback and the beach. And when I think of Australia, I think of long, flat roads through the wheat-belt between Melbourne and Adelaide; summer hats, sunscreen and beaches. I think of a warm winter sun, and a vicious summer sun. I think of suburbs and cars and beers with friends. Good coffee, seafood, chilli, coriander and a fusion of tastes and smells that comes when cultures merge. I miss being able to order my Ciabatta bread with a Tandori Chicken filling and my Barramundi with a Thai-inspired chilli, ginger marrinade. And while I am proud that today Australian's celebrate Australia Day in a way that I didn't as a child, it makes me sad to think that perhaps, maybe, our flag and this day is being used to mask a xenophobic nationalism that I not only don't understand but find abhorent. But enough said.

Happy Australia Day everyone!
Hope you enjoyed your BBQs and beer,
your Lamb and Pavlova.
I hope the Cricket was on, with the sound turned down
and with tripleJs Hottest 100 turned-up.

Image: Here

tomato sauce for a lazy friday

I have long admired the recipes on Smitten Kitchen, but I've never cooked anything. Until now. You see, while the receipes are delicious and her pictures incredible, the recipes always seem a little unobtainable for a weekday meal and I tend to turn to hardcopy recipe books, not the internet, when I'm looking for a 'special' meal. But then the other day she posted about "the best" tomato sauce. No garlic, no red wine, not even any sugar - just onion, tinned tomatoes and butter. Well, on a lazy Friday night with a bottle of red wine, my knitting and a movie, I had to try it.

It is incredibly simple. And whilst not the best tomato sauce (I reserve that for my Mum's roast cherry tomato sauce with roast garlic, olive oil and basil), it comes pretty close. And believe me, it couldn't be simpler.

Ingredients:

800g whole tinned tomatoes (best you can find)

70g butter

1 medium onion, peeled and sliced into two

Directions:

Pour tinned tomatoes (including juice) into a medium saucepan. Add onion and butter. Allow to simmer for approximately 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to break down the tomatoes. When the fat floats to the top of the sauce, it's ready. Discard the onion, salt to taste and serve.

Delicious and so, so easy. Pretty sure this will become the base of all my tomato sauce recipes from now - I'm considering making some more today and freezing it. Yum!