amateur photographer

I am absolutely in love with photography! The only thing is... I dont know anything about it :P I take LOTS of photos ( Mostly of my girls ) and some of them turn out good, but mostly they look like average photos. In high school I took a photography class, but it focused mostly on developing film in a drak room. I have read a few books, but I just can't seem to understand how to work a camera and get the best lighting. I have played around with my camera and fiddled with the settings and tried my best. Here are some samples of some of my work so far.

Aurora

Aurora

Satina

Satina

Aurora and Satina

My three girls

These photos were taken of my girls in the back garden one hot summer afternoon. They had all stripped off to keep cool and I found them sitting and chatting in the grass :)

New baby sister

This photo was taken after our youngest was born. We had them set up to take a nice photo of the three of them and my two eldest daughters spontaneously kissed their baby sister at the same time

Kiarra

Kiarra

This is our youngest daughter

Christmas 2010

I was trying to get a good shot of the three girls to send out in our Christmas cards. Our youngest daughter was getting fussy and making it hard to get a good photo and then she fell asleep in the arms of her older sisters.

Me and Louis

Me and my youngest

Aurora at the park

This is our oldest daughter. I took this shot at a local playground on one of those things that spin around really really fast :P

Kiarra in the bath

Kiarra up close

Satina



The girls on Christmas day

So there are some of my photos I have taken of my family. I would love to hear some feedback on how I'm doing or any pointers on how to capture a good shot. I'll keep you posted on my progress as I get better at using my camera.

Oven Dried Tomatoes



Stormy-Kym's Oven Dried Tomatoes

Here is a recipe that we LOVE! We had been growing tomatoes in our veggie patch in the back yard one summer and the tomato plants just TOOK OFF! After giving away bags of tomatoes to friends and family we were still left with dozens of tomatoes. We didn't want to waste any of our home grown beauties so we decided to try and make our own oven dried tomatoes. I did some research on how its done and put together my own recipe. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't work out, but when they came out of the oven they looked great. When they were cooled we gave them a try and were blown away by the flavour!! They were FANTASTIC!

Dried tomatoes are great in salads, on pizza, in sandwiches, in spaghetti sauce, rolled up in puff pastry with cheese, in pasta salad, in stir-fry, on bread or crackers or even just on thier own! Just use your imagination!

So this is what I did...

I cut the tomatoes into wedges. I didn't remove the seeds because there weren't many in our tomatoes, but if you seem to have a lot of seeds and liquid then you might want to remove the seeds and let them drain.
Next I tossed the wedges in some olive oil, salt, garlic and oregano (but you can use whatever seasonings you like). I placed the wedges skin side down on a tray and baked them at 100 c (200 F) for several hours (6 to 12 hours, depending on the size and moisture content of the tomato).
The tomatoes should be flexible, leathery-dry and not wet when they're done drying. They'll be supple but won't feel "squishy" to the touch. Tomatoes shrink in size and get darker as they dry, much like the way grapes do when they become raisins; the pulp will feel firm but flexible when they're done.
You should be able to store the dried tomatoes in a sealed container or ziplock bag in the fridge for several months.

Tomato wedges going into the oven

My delicious oven dried tomatoes