Mama dog...

http://findmamadogahome.blogspot.com/2009/10/mama-dog.html

Here is what we have been up to lately....

Photography sessions

I have been taking private photography sessions for several months now. Mark Metternich is the man who is teaching me. http://www.towardsthelightphotography.com/ Mark is an extremely talented landscape photographer. He has done every type of photography in his life and it is a thrill getting to learn one on one with him.

I wanted to document a few of the things he has been teaching me. This of course is going to be just a simple over view, there is just no way I could tell everything here.

To start: The canon 40D which is the camera I own, is a great camera but I really need to upgrade my camera if I want to do more professional work. Here is why: The canon 40D was designed to get people into the pro camera category who couldn't or other wise wouldn't invest in one of the higher priced cameras. To do this they scaled down the sensor. So my camera is not a full sensor camera. What does this mean? Ugg, lets see if I can explain with out drawing a picture (since I don't know how to draw a picture on the computer.)Inside my camera is a sensor, this is where the image is captured. Well sensors are extremely expensive to make and thats why pro cameras are so expensive. Picture a square that is one inch by one inch (not the actual dimension)and lets say this is the full screen sensor. Well in my camera they cropped that one inch square down and now its maybe half the size. So no matter how great my picture is it will never be able to be blown up to make great big beautiful prints. My size sensor is only good for maybe an eight by ten at best with out effecting the quality. They call this the 1.6 crop factor. This also effects my lenses. SO if I have a lens that is 50MM lens it is in fact not really functioning as a 50 mm lens but rather smaller. Ugg, I barely understand all this, so its weird trying to explain it on here. But hopefully you sort of get what I am saying...need pro camera, in order to print off pro pictures.

Ah, here is a link to a site the better describes this: http://digital-photography-school.com/crop-factor-explained

Here is the other thing I learned first hand after printing off a picture we worked for hours on. My 40D which is a rather expensive camera has 12 mega pixels. Well 12 sounded good at first. But once you start learning to use photo shop and learn how to work in the digital dark room, you start to see that 12 mp is not high enough.

I took this adorable picture of Thomas and when we started working with it in photo shop, we decided to crop the picture. We zoomed in on Thomas and lost a bit of the back ground. I had no idea that as you zoom in you start losing mega pixels. So now my picture went from 12 MP's to 2 MP's. It still looked great on the computer as we worked on the white balance and saturation, but once it was printed off and blown up to a 16x20 you can see all the little squares that make up the mega pixels. Looks not so hot now. This is really what made me decide I need a professional camera. The camera that I want is the Canon 5D Mark II this is a full frame camera and has 21 MP. The cost is higher but if I want to get to the point were I am able to sell my images they are going to need to be able to be blown up and not show mega pixels. Most brides, teens who are having senior portraits made and family's who are having pictures made are going to want bigger pictures printed out.

I also purchased a new lens called a prime lens. This lens is not telescopic it is a fixed lens. This lens allows you to go very low on the F stop, which in turn blurs out the background. That is how F stops work. Low numbers mean the back ground is blurry, and the image you are focused on is the only thing sharp. High numbers on the F stop mean that everything will be in focus, the whole picture will appear clear. So if you want to photograph landscapes then you would want to shoot with the highest F stop on your camera, you will also need a tri pod for this because it will take your camera several minutes to take one shot. If how ever you are taken a portrait then you would want to choose the lowest F stop,the camera will shoot the picture VERY fast and the face will be sharp and the back ground blurry. F stops in between the high and low numbers can be played with in order to reach some middle ground. But if you aren't shooting in a high number or low number just keep your cameras F stop feature set to manual and it will give you the middle ground, with out any work from you. Make sense, or did I just really confuse you?

Also a fun trick with F stops would be to set it to the highest number, put your camera on a tripod and set it near a busy street at night. This is how they make pictures where all you see are streams of light, rather then cars. Pretty cool!

The other BIG thing if you are thinking of going professional is that you MUST start shooting your pictures in RAW. I had never even heard of RAW before I started my private sessions. But RAW is your negative in the digital camera. Think back to old school 35 mm cameras. When you get your pictures developed they take the images from your negatives. If you have ever been in a dark room then you know there is a ton of work you can do to an image off the negative. You can work on the white balance, the saturation and so on. In other words, you have total control to make sure the image turns out just the way you saw it in the real world. Well if you aren't shooting digitally in RAW then you are stuck with your cameras interpretation of what all that should look like. Sure you can toy around with it in Photo Shop but you will never be able to fully work the picture the way you should be able to.

There are two aspects to Photo Shop, one is just plain old photo shop and the other is what is called the digital dark room. This is what separates the good photographers from the professional photographers. So it is imperative that you change the settings on your camera from JPEG mode to RAW or at least RAW/JPEG. I have mine set to RAW/JPEG since I like to email my pictures and currently don't own Photo Shop. But like Mark explained to me, once you shoot a picture if it isn't shot in RAW you can never switch it back. So its good for me to have it set to both.

I have learned so much that I could go on and on but I will stop for now, before my little brain pops! PS. If you are reading this and know more then me (which is probably a lot of you) feel free to correct me if I have mis spoken.

Summery: Shoot in RAW, learn Photo Shop / Digital Dark Room and look for a used (if you cant afford new) full frame sensor like the Canon 5D Mark II

Photography (a look back)

A few months ago I finally got serious in my quest to better understand my camera and photography in general. Turns out there is so much to learn. I have loved taking pictures my whole life. When I think back to my childhood I can picture (no pun intended)what was probably my first camera. It was a black camera with a chunky orange buton. There was nothing more exciting then getting pictures back from the developer (aka: the grocery store.)

Then came high school and I was so excited to take photography as a class. When I close my eyes I can still smell the solutions we used to develop our film, what a sour smell indeed! Sadly I didn't do so well in that class. The teacher was a jolly old soul and never cared one way or the other how foolish we acted in the dark room, he was certainly a laid back old guy. I loved the hands on nature of photography but when we had to buckle down and get into the book learning I am sure I was the first in class to drop my head to the table for a little after noon nap.

A few years later I bought my first digital camera. I paid a couple hundred bucks for this monstrous creation, and was so baffled by it that I soon sold it to some young guy with a little extra cash in his pocket. I guess at that time I didn't get the whole "digital" thing. I wanted to get my pictures developed and hold them in my hands. I don't even think I had a computer at that time, so I wouldn't have had a place to store them.

After selling that digital camera I went straight to the store and bought my first single lens reflex camera. It was a canon rebel and was not digital. I had more fun with that camera. I traveled all over Europe snapping pictures of unsuspecting people and a few boring old land marks along the way. As a side note: maybe I should think of becoming a paparizi...lol! Being able to manually focus my lens and be able to zoom in and out was such a liberating feeling, after using a basic (10 dollar) 35 mm camera my whole life. I held onto that camera for about eight years. I actually just sold her at a garage sale not that long ago. During the time of owning her I also have owned a handful of pocket size digital cameras.

A few months ago Pat got sick of hearing me complain about the inabilities of our little digital cameras and told me he would like to buy me a nice camera, and that he would research it for me. "Ahh, NO" I very politely said. I knew I wanted a canon. I knew I wanted something like my rebel but even better. After a bit of a search we decided on the Canon D40, Pat got on line and ordered me my digital SLR camera.

I have had such a blast documenting every little thing with this camera. If its in or near my house I have a picture of it. Pat is always laughing at me. Blah blah blah, long story. I started this post with the intention of telling what all I have been learning in my private photography sessions. I guess I needed to spew out the history before I delve into all this other info.

UPDATE: Clay cooker

I received an email back from Michel at BIA Cordon Bleu and she has been emailing around the world on my behalf. She was able to hunt down the company in Portugal who manufactured the clay cooker. The company in Portugal told her that their glazes are lead free and that as a rule Portuguese glazes that are used on cook ware all always lead free. Yippie! Happy clay cooking ahead!!!

Christmas gifts 2009

I really feel on top of things this year for Christmas. It is early Oct and Thomas' Christmas gifts have just arrived. I ordered these adorable and awesome handcrafted toys from: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6228019 The quality of work is outstanding and the prices are unbelievable. Pat and I are still scratching our heads at how affordable these were. You can also check out videos on you tube of this work here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebtoys I really hope we can keep these a secret for the next two and half months. Mike B also sells airplanes, huge train sets and battle ships. He was so kind to throw in two free sets of mini construction vehicles. Look at how cute they are. Thomas is going to have such a great time playing with these. I love that they are hand made here in the US and are made from untreated wood. I hope you consider having a hand made Christmas this year!

Clay cooker

Thomas and I were out and about yesterday so I decided to walk through a thrift store and see if there were any new treasures that needed my attention. I always find pretty good books for Thomas and usually he finds a couple for himself (typically nothing I would have picked). I always concede seeing how the books are only a few cents each, and since he is always really good about letting mommy look around, I figure why not.

Well, I came out yesterday with a pile of books and one item that at the time I was pretty stoked about. It is a (drum roll please) ... clay cooker. Looks like it has never been used and is sort of uniquely pretty. I have never actually cooked out of a clay cooker before and didn't/don't know much about the process.

After we got home I started google-ing (aah, my favorite invention of all times!) clay cookers. There are quit a few sites out there that explained how to use these cookers and how to take care of them. Apparently this form of cooking is a very old method. Not surprised by that, seeing how non-stick is nasty little creation from my life time (or there about.) Basically these cookers are used for cooking one pot meals. They are the right size to put a full chicken or small hen in and several veggies. Oh, and one thing I discovered that I was really excited about is the fact that you can cook bread in these cookers, just imagine how pretty that would look!

The one thing I kept reading was that if you owned a clay cooker that has been glazed on the inside bottom to watch out. So of course I quickly got up, removed the lid from my cooker and to my dismay, there was a shiny glossy bottom glaring up at me. Bummer! The sites had pointed out that the glaze may in fact leach lead (if the glaze has lead in it) into our food.

You know me I am not a friend of heavy metals or any other toxic thing out there. But who is really? So sadly I placed my cooker on the shelf till I could find out more about this specific brand. I am of course keeping my fingers crossed that I can find proof some where that this one is indeed safe. Although I am a bit jaded at this point and may just return it to the thrift store and get my four dollars back. I could of course apply that four dollars to the purchase of a brand new clay cooker that is indeed glaze (thus: lead) free. They are relatively inexpensive brand new. Now that I have done all this research on clay cookers I must say I am dying to try it out. No pun intended!!!

So here is where I stand in closing: On the top of my clay cooker it reads, Cordon Bleu Clay Cooker. On the bottom there is a faded blue stamp that says BIA Cordon Bleu Clay Cooker, Portugal. So I have contacted some very friendly ladies at BIA and they are going to try and help me solve this mystery. They are pretty sure this is a very vintage piece, since none of them had ever seen or heard of such a piece. Hopefully after reviewing a few pictures of the cooker some one there will be able to give me a little direction. But I have this gut feeling that if I even have to question it I should probably just let it go.

Never fear gals, I am addicted to cooking gadgets and finds so I will update again on how it is cooking with a clay cooker, one way or another...

Mercury filling removal...

There is a very interesting video on youtube that any one with silver (ie MERCURY) fillings in their mouth must watch. This video is called Smoking Tooth and you will understand why it is named so after you watch this film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ylnQ-T7oiA

Pat and I have been talking about getting our mercury taken out for a long time now. Mercury in teeth is associated with Alzheimer's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and a whole range of "auto-immune" illnesses. In fact my dentists wife said her migraine headaches stopped once she had her fillings removed. Now come to think about it I haven't had the slightest headache since having mine removed.

I had talked to my LAST (and by this I mean, no more, no longer, never again!) dentist about her removing our mercury fillings. When I asked her what precautions she took in their removal she was very (well for lack of a better word) RUDE. Stating that she has done this every day for the past ten years. And gave no further details. Well after hearing that response I was ok with just leaving my fillings right where they were for the time being. I had heard one too many times if they aren't taken out properly its safer to leave them in. (P.S. there was WAY more to her no longer being my dentist then the mercury issue, but all that would be another story!)

As the stars aligned for us I found a website called the Holistic Dental Association http://www.holisticdental.org/membersearch All you do is enter your zip code and dentists in your area who are a part of the HDA will appear. There were only three in our gigantic city. Then again our city may be large but it isn't exactly known for being a healthy city. Ha! So after looking over their websites I decided on one and Patrick and I set up our appointments.

I suppose I should add that I spent forty five minutes on the phone with the wife of the dentist when I was scheduling our appointments. It was beyond fantastic to finally be speaking to someone who shared my concerns. She and I were on the same wave length with so many health points. I was thrilled for once in my life to be going to the dentist.

Patrick had his appointment first and only had one mercury filling in his mouth. He came home and assured me that everything would be great...I get so nervous about dental appointments. Then a couple days later it was my turn. From the second I got there to the second I left everything was explained to me and everything was in my hands. Usually when I go to the dentist I feel like I am being strapped into a chair and have zero control. This experience was completely the opposite.

The equipment they used and the extra precautions they took at every turn were over the top and absolutely wonderful. One of their dental assistance told me in private that if this dentist ever retired or for some reason fired him that he would stop working in the dental field all together, because he felt like there was no one else out there practicing at this level. Wow, that's enough to ease your mind!

I could type on and on about what all they did, but just to keep it short here are a few things he did specifically during my mercury removal: Fancy air filtration system right next to my chair, eye goggles, special apron to protect my body, oxygen mask to insure I was breathing clean air, a special guard in my mouth to prevent me from ingesting any mercury, the dentist and assistant also wore special gear and wore special gloves (non-latex) to prevent themselves from absorbing mercury.

After it was all said and done I bought us some special supplements, pills and powders to help detox our bodies of all heavy metals. When I got home and mixed up the first shake and popped open the pill bottles the smell was over whelming. I almost got sick. Things that smell bad are impossible for me to take, I would have gaged and been sick. So lucky Pat gets to detox alone, I wish I could have done it as well but I will just have to find another way to do that.

Well I hope I have inspired you to look into mercury removal and remember don't do it unless you are sure they are practicing safe methods. I realize I didn't post a ton of facts here. I figure there are plenty of well documented sites, and books where you can get that info, this was just the story of my mercury removal.