A Moment In Time

Photography has always been an interest of mine, and although I've never taken a class, read a book on it, or learned anything technical about a camera, I've managed to teach myself a thing or two about getting a half way decent shot.

While I take pictures from time to time for fun, I find the act of viewing an object in multiple ways to extract the best shot an almost laborious effort. The angles are endless; capturing texture, color, and light have to be done precisely to ensure the photo has depth and evokes a feeling from the viewer.

I'm sure with some education on the subject, I'd learn how to overcome simple, beginner photo-taking mistakes...but until I get some extra money and time, I'll play with the set settings on my little point and shoot and hope for the best.

I've learned about texture:

You can use a macro setting to capture the finest of details.

I've learned about light:

It's really tough to work with a simultaneous dark and light. 

These pictures were taken from the same spot in some underground caverns.

This photo is nothing to write home about. It's out of focus and the colors are very bland.









This photo is taken from the same spot using a different setting. While it's still not that great of a shot, there's more definition of objects, deeper shadows, and an overall spookier feel.

A little more time down in the caverns proved to buff me up on lighting

And then shooting outside:

I learned about angling:

And just recently, a little with filters!

I made this...

...into this!















While I get lucky with a good shot once in a while, there is so, so much more to learn.

The inspiration from the world around us is endless, and it's wonderful to be able to capture a moment in time from your perspective and then have that moment forever.


What do you struggle at in photography? What do you excel at? Do you have a favorite subject to photograph?

Sharing the knowledge!

This past week, I've had more than one person ask me about how to live a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle and what were some key food components to my everyday routine.

The first thing I always stress is: it's not as hard as it seems. Really! And it's delicious, too! You just have to keep an little arsenal of goods and learn to be creative.

Since I started cooking/eating this way, I've always found breakfast and dinner to be the easiest meals to make. Breakfast is almost always a green monster (specifically the smoothie I featured on Halloween) and then dinner is a hearty, filling meal that usually produces leftovers for Jon's lunch the next day.

I usually plan the week's dinners in advance so there's never really a question of what to make...we have a list of meals and set ingredients that are just begging to be made at the end of the day.

But, lunch is a fickle meal - it can't be too filling and it can't be too sparse. There has to be enough carb component to keep me moving through the afternoon, but it can't be so heavy that it feels like an anvil in my belly.

I've developed some lunch solutions this past year that are waaaay more interesting and flavorful than the typical, proto-type vegetarian salad-lunch...

1. Wraps.
They're fast to make and the possibilities are endless. They're usually composed of:
- 1 Flat Out Wrap (usually the  original light kind, but they have different flavors, too!)
- A spread (e.g., hummus, olive spread, pesto, re-fried beans, tomato paste)
- 1/4 cup of a soft bean (e.g., black beans, great northern beans, kidney beans)
- Lots of veggies (basically everything and anything you can think of here: avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, corn, cucumbers, carrots...whatever fits the "theme" of the wrap)
- Some kind of sauce/dressing for a little flavor (e.g., mustard, hot sauce, salsa)

2. Soup (with something in it). Usually composed of:
 - Well, soup! We always buy (organic) Imagine soup (e.g., red potato, sweet potato, Butternut squash, tomato)
 - 1/4 - 1/2 cup of beans or lentils to give it some substance.
 - Some spices to give it a zing (e.g., Adobo light sodium, garlic, onion, cracked pepper)

3. Grain and veggie bowl. Usually composed of:
 - One kind of hearty grain (e.g., brown rice, quinoa, bulgur, wheatberries)
 - A variety of veggies that taste good warmed up (e.g., edmame, corn, sweet peppers, peas, mushrooms, sauteed spinach)
- Maybe a chopped up bocca burger for a little something more to chew on
- A sauce/dressing of some kind (I almost always give my grain bowls a good dash of hot sauce, but I suppose you could always use salsa, vinaigrette, or tahini sauce)

These have proven to be fast, easy, filling lunch solutions and they've become trusted lunch buddies.

Do you have a favorite go-to lunch to make?

''R-E-C-Y-C-L-E: Recycle!'' A guide to the symbols.

I do think that the old Nickelodeon cartoon Rocco's Modern Life taught me how to spell 2 words as a child: 1. Recycle and 2. Conserve.




(I used to be able to sing this whole song when I was about 10 - haha.)

It's kind of funny, though, that I learned those words as a child watching TV because they are such an important part of my life as an adult. Every week, the recycling bin that was given to us by the city is brimming on pick-up day. We have more in that bin than in the garbage! 


It's so easy to recycle, all you have to do is look on the container in question, and search for the little arrows in a triangular symbol (there's most likely a number within the arrows).

Here's a little field guide on what plastics are recyclable and what the container could be in its next life:

PET or PETE 1 

HDPE 2

PVC 3 

LDPE 4

 PP 5

PS 6 

OTHER 7

So, in the future, when it seems convenient to just toss a used water bottle into the trash - think once more! It could have another life and be turned into something else - because YOU made it happen.
The little things you do in your lifetime make a huge difference for the future. As my mom and dad always told us when we were packing up our campsite, "Try to leave it cleaner than when you came to it".

You have the ability to NOT make this the future.