Sunday, August 30, 2015

John Shaw's Guide to Digital Nature Photography



We made reservations to stay at Old Faithful Inn over a year ago. We spent two weeks this summer in and near Yellowstone.

In preparation for the trip, I spent most of the summer slowly reading through John Shaw's Guide to Digital Nature Photography.



How do you take great photographs of the big natural world? Many of us love to take photos today and one of our favorite subjects is nature.

Often, however, our photos are disappointing. What are we doing wrong? How can we take better pictures?

John Shaw's Guide to Digital Nature Photography is a complete guide to taking great digital pictures of nature. It covers thoroughly all the ways to manipulate your digital camera in order to take great digital pictures of nature. It also covers thoroughly all the ways to take manipulate nature in order to take great digital pictures of nature.


This book is an excellent place to start. About half of the book tells about ways to better ways to use the equipment and better ways to compose photos. In the section on equipment, I learned about filters and flashes and metering and tripods and lenses and exposures. 

I’m a new photographer, so much of the information about ways to use the equipment was new to me, and some of it was over my head. But if you have more experience as a photographer, it will probably be perfect for you. For me, my favorite part of the book was about ways to better compose the photos. In this section, I learned about lighting, framing, close-ups, and learning to see “photo-graphically.”

So the proof is in the pudding, right? Here are some of the photos I took using ideas from this book:













I know I still have lots more to learn, but I think the book helped.




What are you reading today?!




What is the Sunday SalonImagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week.  It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.









Wednesday, August 26, 2015

What to Wear to Go Hiking in Yellowstone Park






For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy ReadsTo participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Books That Would Be on My Syllabus if I Taught Happiness 101


Books That Would Be on My Syllabus 

if I Taught Happiness 101



Flow


The How of Happiness



Happiness: Lessons from a New Science



The Myths of Happiness



Be Happy. 



The Happiness Project


The 100 Secrets of Happy People



Exuberance: The Passion for Life



Thanks!



How to Train a Wild Elephant



Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

What I Read and What I'm Reading Now



A very quick look at the books I read and acquired last week....


What I Read Last Week

Strange Pilgrims? A Latin Haruki Murakami.
Mrs. Mike? A romance and an adventure.
The Oregon Trail? Two brothers in 2011 take the Oregon Trail. Complete with wagon and mules.
The Running Man? Silkworms, a mysterious Vietnam vet, and a scary running man.


What Arrived in the Mail


 

A Walk in the Woods, 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived,
Rising Strong, Fab Four Friends, and A Window Opens


What I'm Reading Now


A Window Opens
                 


What are you reading today?!




What is the Sunday SalonImagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week.  It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Hunting for Fossil Fish, Outside Kemmerer, Wyoming














For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy ReadsTo participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.


Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Auto-Buy Authors



Laura Hillenbrand 
She's only written two books, but both Seabiscuit and Unbroken are amazing.



Maira Kalman
Kalman writes and illustrates. I hope you have read her.
If you haven't, try her book, The Principles of Uncertainty.


Anne Lamott
Auto-buy. Auto-visit.
This photo is from her visit to Houston a few years ago.
Wish she'd stop by again.



Haruki Murakami
The quirkiest author in the world.


Richard Powers
The Gold Bug Variations wowed me long ago,
and I've read everything else he's written since.


Erik Larson
Such a wonderful nonfiction writer.


Tony Horwitz
Horwitz always makes me laugh.
I hope he's busy on a new book.
I've been waiting too long.


Adam Gopnik
It doesn't matter what he writes about...so clever and wise.


Katherine Center
A new-ish Houston writer that I like a lot.
This photo is from last year's library conference.


Marilynne Robinson
Gilead and everything else.




Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.