Voice of the Enterprise dies

I wonder if they will blast her remains into outerspace so she can join her husband?

Good Deals!

Bargain Shopping. This is a skill I have to develop as I become a parent. Here is one of my first attempts! These were all over 60% off at the Mervyn's going-out-of-business sale. I thought I scored pretty good!


(p.s. - Kristin, you have one of the little red vest outfits coming your way!)

Happy Veteran's Day

A big thank you goes out today to the men and women who have fought to keep our country safe and free - a place where we can worship as we choose, and enjoy freedom and liberty. Especially thank you to all my Grandpas (including Grandpas-in-law) who have served. I love these men!

Aloha!

We're back! We spent a fabulous 6 days 5 nights on the Island of Kauai, Hawaii. This was our treat to ourselves that we have been planning since our honeymoon. It ended up being a "babymoon" trip.

Here is a teaser of what's to come. It may take me a while to get our whole trip documented. For now, I'm going to bed. We landed at 5:00 am, and I've only had a short nap since then.

Island of Kauai

The view from our hotel room...

Yes on Proposition 8

You may be somewhat familiar with California politics. We strongly support Proposition 8 - to make only marriage between a man and a woman legal and valid in California. Here are a few pics of what we've been up to:

There was a sign waving event on Saturday.

This is a big group of us on the Pacific Coast Highway, aka the 1 or the PCH. See more of us across the street?

And this was our view when we turned around! Ahhh

It was actually a pretty fun event. We spent an hour waving signs for the oncoming traffic. For the most part we got lots of waves, smiles, and honks. There were some who gave thumbs down or yelled profanities :(. It felt good to be out in support of something we believe in.

I also spent about 3 hours doing phone calls on Sunday night reminding people to get out and vote.

We voted early submitting our ballots on Saturday. Boy did it feel good!

For more info, visit:
http://www.preservingmarriage.org/

http://www.protectmarriage.com/

Taxes...

I'm bordering on the edge of political exposition here--bear with me.

Robin Hood is alive and well in America:

About 12% of tax payers provide 75% of all the taxes.

Oh sure, but they're rich, right? To many of us 6-digit salaries may seem like a ton of money. But someone who earned $100,000 30 years ago would have to earn over $300,000 now to have the same purchase power. Where do we draw the line that defines a "wealthy" person?

In my estimation, about the only group that is "pulling their own weight" is the $50-100,000 group. Perhaps those people who are just getting established in their careers, trying to save for a first time home purchase, young families... Props to that group!

Interesting things to consider as we hear about tax plans this election season.

Girls Weekend in New York City

My husband's family has an awesome tradition of the girls taking a weekend trip to New York City every year. Grandma started it, and the trip has been very popular! I got to go this year--hurray!

We saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway - incredible!!


Me and my adorable sister-in-law at Times Square

We all took a carriage ride through Central Park. We had to take 2 carriages for the whole group.

Michelle and I went to see The Little Mermaid the next night. A very cute, very fun show!

Would it be a girls trip without some diamonds?

Plenty of street vendor shopping.

And adorable Michelle again. At first she was a little overwhelmed by the big city, but by the end of the trip, she fit right in!

In fact, we weren't sure we would get her home!

Thanks Grandma for a very fun weekend!

Visiting Family

There's nothing quite like visiting family! A couple weeks ago we were able to spend one very quick day with my family, and it was awesome! Visit my parent's blog for more of the details.

My sister Sara and nephew Lee

Meeting my niece Annalisa for the first time. So cute!

Adorable Axton. I hope he's buds with our boy - they'll be almost exactly 1 year apart.

Pregnant at Work

I've always wondered, and worried just a bit, about what it would be like to be pregnant and working. Turns out, I'm not alone at my company! Below are five of us that are currently pregnant. The three of us in the middle are all due within 5 days of each other. Not pictured are one who recently left on her maternity leave, and one who just had her baby a week or two ago. I have had plenty of friends and colleagues to commiserate with!

We're having a boy!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and it went great! Everything looked perfect: arms, legs, hands, feet, head, lips, spine and internal organs. His heartbeat was 155 bpm. He's just under a pound and about 8 or 9 inches from head to toe. He's a good looking baby! We will post a photo later.

A new calling...

I got a new calling in our ward at Church a week or two ago.

Ward Choir Director

Yikes! I made the mistake of agreeing to sub one Sunday for our Choir director who was unexpectedly out of town on the day we were supposed to perform. I lead the choir during the performance. Whoops! I'm sure I was immediately pegged.

Oh boy. I've been in a few choirs over the years, some in school, some in church. I took a conducting course as part of my music minor. But I'm not sure any of this experience will prepare me for the phenomonon known as Ward Choir. It's a whole different animal. Begging people to come sing so it's not just a handful of people. Teaching music fundamentals to the new musician while tactfully absorbing the unsolicited advice of the old musician ;) and praying your guts out that the whole thing comes off during the performance. It will be a blast.

If ANY of you have ANY advice, resources or tips on leading a ward choir, I welcome them!

Wish me luck!

You're Fired

I got an email today at work that was too funny not to share. It came as an auto response when I sent an email to a person who is apparently no longer at that company. I've changed the names to protect the innocent:

To whom it may concern:

I regret to inform you that John Doe no longer works at Acme Corporation.

Your email has been forwarded to Bob, who will then deal with your enquiry or pass your information to a member of staff who will be best suited to help.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause but can assure you that this decision will benefit our service to you in the long run.

Please feel free to call me at any time just to discuss the new arrangements and put your mind at rest. Thank you for your continued support.

Signed,
The Managing Director

I'm glad I don't work for that guy!

New Furniture

It's amazing how different a room can seem with new furniture. We found these couches for a great deal on Craig's List and were happy to make them part of our home. They're pretty comfy and work for us!

Happy Labor Day!

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend as much as we did! We spent Saturday doing our usual errands and cleaning (all the boring stuff) but it felt so much more relaxed knowing not everything had to be crammed into one day. Sunday was a calm day of worship, and we made some killer fajitas for dinner.

Then on Monday, we got up at a decent hour, gave Doug a haircut, ate french toast (yes I made GF bread just for that!), then dug into cleaning out our clothes closet. Doug and I both put away a big stack of clothes that we don't wear, separated a bunch for donation, and did some reorganizing. We only got 80% of the way through, though, before our time ran out. We had already made plans to go to the dollar ($1.50 really) theater to watch Iron Man. What a great movie, and what a great time we had! It was wonderful to just walk away from the messy bedroom and go have fun with my spouse! After the movie, we came back and busily started preparations for a Labor Day feast. We grilled baby back ribs with a super tasty apple cider mop. Doug was in charge of grilling and did an awesome job. I made some potatoes, and our friends brought over a cool summer cucumber salad, corn on the cob and homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. Could not have been tastier! After fat-dogging for a few minutes after the meal, we played cards and ate ice cream until it was unfortunately time for bed. Sad that it's still a work night even on a holiday. But yeay for the holiday!!

He was born a carnivore!

We actually made it through 2 1/2 of these racks (between the 4 of us).

Protect Marriage

As you may be aware, on election day, California voters will be voting on a proposition to amend the state constitution with the words: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California." Proposition 22 was passed in California in 2000 that stated this, but the state supreme court overturned the voters' decision. Now California must amend the state contitution in order to make this law in CA.

President Monson and the First Presidency of the Church have come out strongly in favor of this proposition, and have asked California residents to support this proposition with their time and means. In our Stake, they have organized the support effort into a 3 stage campaign. First is a door-to-door poll of opinions and leaving information for those who are unfamiliar with the proposition. Second is a telephone campaign to houses that weren't reached in the door-to-door effort. Third is a media blitz close to election day.

Members of our ward have been asked to volunteer for the door-to-door effort, and Doug and I volunteered last weekend. We spent about 3 hours walking through a neighborhood. What an interesting experience! We found quite a range of responses. Most people weren't home (or didn't answer the door). Many declined to participate in the poll, and some flat out refused to give their answer. Of those who responded, many were unfamiliar with the proposition, although knew the issue once we clarified what the proposition would do. Disappointingly, most of the people we talked to were opposed to the amendment, or in other words, do not want marriage defined as between a man and a woman in our state constitution. We did find some supporters, but of those a surprising number seemed apologetic for their opinion. Only a handful came out in strong support and said - Yes, marriage is definitely between a man and a woman! We found it interesting that this issue did not seem to fall along party lines, indicating to us that it is largely a religious question, and not so much a political one.

It is scary to see what a thick web of deception Satan has spun. The attack on the family and on marriage is real, and a battle is being waged. I don't know how things are going to turn out for California, but we are doing everything we can to support the Protect Marriage effort.

100% Band Geek

I am a band geek. I can admit it with pride. I still sleep in my marching band t-shirts from college. I decided not to go to the alumni football party because the band wasn't going to be there. I love the feel of those polyester marching pants, suspenders and sharp jacket all buttoned tightly around me. I love the anticipation of standing on the sidelines during the last few seconds of the first half, then marching under the flood lights in front of a stadium full of screaming fans. I love sitting in the stadium huddled next to my fellow piccolo players bundled under as many blankets as we could carry with our instruments tucked up our sleeves to keep them warm. I conversely love unbuttoning my uniform jacket and feeling the breeze against my sweat soaked t-shirt after a long parade. Yes, I am a band geek. Go PICCOLOS!!

I come from a proud heritage of band geeks--my father, my grand father, my uncles and cousins--we're from the same mold.

Here is a slide show my cousin put together of his little brother's high school band camp. I think he did such a good job of capturing the emotions of band camp -- those are some of my favorite memories. Nice work, Carl! You can see more of my cousins' and uncle's work at:

Blog Archiving Option

Any one interested in archiving their blog may want to check out this website: http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook. Blurb.com has software you can download that will then link with your blog, pull down the text, images and comments and allow you to format into an actual book. They print the books and ship them to you.

It looks like it could be a pretty neat deal. Books start at $13 for the smallest soft cover style and go up from there, but for a nice archive of your family/personal history, it might be worth checking into.

If anyone tries it, or has already tried it, let me know how it turns out!

Awesomely Tasty GF Cheese Bread

I made my yummiest gluten-free bread yet this weekend. Most of the gluten-free bread I've made has turned out dry and crumbly, but I was very pleased with this one. And Doug went back for more, then a bit more, and then just one more chunk. Yeay! Thanks Bette Hagman, for your gluten-free recipes!

From: The Gluten-Free Gourmet; Revised Edition

Cheesy Bread Sticks

1/3 cup Garfava flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
2/3 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup dry milk powder
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dry yeast (I used one envelope)
1/2 cup warm water (110 deg)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup hot water
2 egg whites
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a cookie sheet. Cut an opening 1 inch across the corner of a strong plastic storage bag.

Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and sprinkle in the yeast. Let this foam.

In bowl of mixer, place flours, cornstarch, milk powder, xanthan gum and salt. Blend on low.

Put butter to melt in the hot water (I put both in a bowl and microwaved for 30 seconds).

Add butter-water mixture to dry ingredients and blend. Add the egg whites and blend. Pour in yeast mixture and beat on high for 4 minutes. *At this point, my dough was like a glob of paste (thanks xanthan!) so I added about 2 tablespoons of water a teaspoon at a time until it looked less globual* Stir in the cheese. The dough should be thick but still thin enough to easily press through the opening of the plastic bag. If too thick, thin with warm water adding 1 teaspoon at a time.

Put the dough in the plastic bag with the corner cut out and press out long strips across the cookie sheet. *My strips were pretty thick so I only got 3 long mini-loafs rather than actual breadsticks.*

Let rise 20 minutes and then bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove to a rack to cool.

Oh baby were they good! The cheese was oozing out the top and side and was toasted. Inside the moist, soft bread had little pockets of buttery cheese. Oh so bad for me but so tasty! We agreed that this is one of those things best eaten fresh and hot out of the oven, but the small morsel we had left over was pretty good zapped in the micro. Sorry gluten-eaters--you'll have to find your own way of making this tasty treat!

Movie Review: Cloverfield

Whoa scary! Doug and I watched "Cloverfield" on Saturday. It seriously freaked me out. It's rated PG-13, but could have been a stronger rating we thought. Watcher beware. It's a serious monster movie all filmed in the first person (is that how you'd describe it?). The film is like a home movie of "attack of Godzilla" filmed by the characters in the plot. If you are prone to motion sickness, watch this on a small screen, or not at all -- the camera shake was kind of difficult to handle at times.

However, the director did an excellent job of capturing the terror that the characters experienced. I was completely sucked into the film and the action. It was really violent and high stress and a major adrenaline rush. I think the thing that wigged me out the most was the characters were regular people who just happened to have a camcorder running when they get swept away by a catastrophic event--I found myself wondering how I would have reacted in the situations they found themselves in and if I could handle this or that. That personalization made the movie sink even deeper under my skin.

Recommendation: If you aren't easily spooked or live for the adrenaline rush of a scary movie, and appreciate non-traditional filming techniques, you'll love this movie. If you like being able to eat popcorn while you watch, pick out something else for this weekend.

Earthquake!

I just experienced my first California earthquake. Yikes! A 5.8 magnitude, the epicenter was about 30 miles northeast of our offices, and about 40 miles from our home. So far, I'm not aware of any damage or injury in our area - we are ok. They are reporting this as a moderate quake. It will be interesting to see if there are any aftershocks.

It sure felt wild. I was sitting at my desk and felt my chair move a little up and back twice a few seconds apart. It felt a bit like someone had grabbed the back of my chair and pulled.

CNN has the story up already.

I can now add earthquake to the list of natural disasters I've experienced!

We're Having a Baby!!

We are happy to announce that we are expecting a baby!

The baby is due February 1, 2009 so I just passed the 3 month mark (12 weeks). Everything is going very well. The baby measured about 2.5 inches this last week so we're right on track. I have enjoyed relatively good health and high energy through the first trimester and consider myself VERY lucky.

We had an ultrasound on Wednesday and were able to see the baby for the first time. It was incredible! Below is a picture of the baby kicking (notice the little foot at the top of the image). I thought it was adorable to watch, though I may change my mind in 5 or 6 months ;).

We are excited to find out if our baby is a boy or a girl, but we'll have to wait a few more months for that.

I have been keeping an online pregnancy journal (blog) since we learned we were pregnant. It is a private blog, but please leave me a comment or email me at baby.espen@gmail.com if you would like an invitation. I will post a lot more information there than I will here, since I know that not everyone is interested in all the hiccups and twinges of a first-time mom.

Thanks to everyone for their love and support as we embark on this new and exciting journey. We are thrilled! Wahooo!!

Book Tag

My lil' sis tagged me. I was supposed to grab the closest book, find pg. 123, and find the 5th sentence:

The book - Jane Austin's, Mansfield Park: "'I should not have thought it the sort of play to be so easily filled up with us,' replied Edmund, turning away to the fire where sat his mother, aunt, and Fanny, and seating himself with a look of great vexation."

Mine didn't work really great, but I'm sure some of them are very funny. I was glad the line wasn't a spoiler since I've only read to page 68. Those first 68 pages have been tortuous! Poor unloved, under-appreciated Fanny!

Adorable Husband

Sunday morning as we were waking up, Doug must have been having a very vivid dream because his feet started twitching like crazy and he was making sleepy mumbling sounds (posted with his permission, fyi). He's usually a pretty calm sleeper, so this activity was really cracking me up. I rubbed his back a little to see if he'd calm down, but I didn't really want to wake him up. After a minute or two he rolled over and I asked him if he'd been dreaming. In his sleepy stuper he replied, yeah, I was in a boxing match. I told him his feet had been moving really fast. His reply: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." I'm the sports illiterate, so I really started laughing at this and asked where that phrase came from. Still half asleep he mumbled Muhammad Ali. I'm sure in his dream, Doug could have given Muhammad Ali a real run for his money ;).

Haircut

Yeah! A new summer hairdo. Thanks Katie Hoffman!



And a nice glamor shot of our Christmas present to each other (camera).

It's AAALIVEE!

For my birthday last year my mom gave me a Meyer Lemon tree. I was SO excited. Below are pictures the day it arrived in the mail. We named her Limonita, and I lovingly planted it.

But I couldn't leave her alone and let her grow in peace. I kept tinkering and repotting, trying to find the perfect pot and perfect soil blend. She started losing leaves. *Snifff* Every leaf that dropped stabbed to my heart. Those adorable lemons never grew bigger than the diameter of a nickle. Finally she was down to about 20 leaves and I made a very hard decision. I aborted the last few small green lemons in an attempt to save the tree. WaaaAAaa, I don't even want to think about it. *snniffsniff*

I did not dispair. I brought her in the house for the winter, loved her and, yes, even prayed for her. We got down to only 4 leaves, and I thought she was done for.

But... Spring brought new hope and new life to the lemon tree! Small buds started to appear and soon she had blossoms! And it didn't stop there, she keeps on growing! We now have a bunch of new leaves and some of the flowers are turning into little fruit. We're not out of the woods yet, but I'm definitely optimistic!!

Is there something wrong with me?

Doug got home from work unexpectedly early last night. When he asked what I wanted to do, I had to tell the truth -- clean the bathroom. Clean the BATHROOM?? Who wants to spend the evening cleaning the bathroom when their hubby is home from work EARLY?! Me!? Yes it is true. I'd spent all afternoon psyching myself up for it. I was dressed in my grubbies and mentally prepared to tackle the project. If it wasn't last night, when would I be so prepared again? A week, two weeks...*shudder*. Nope, it had to be then and so it was. It only took away 1/2 hr of my precious time with my hunny and when it was done I felt so much better! Maybe I'm turning into a housewife? ...

Fantastic Father

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

I love my Dad. He's funny, loving, tender, intelligent and a blast to hang out with.


Here he is (middle) hamming it up after winning a very serious award ;)


Such a cute grandpa too (walking with my little nephew).

Thanks for being such a great example to me, Dad. I looked for someone with similar characteristics to be the father of my children (and I found one!). I'm thankful for all you have done for our family! Sorry this post is a little past Father's Day, but we were thinking of you on Sunday too. Love you!

Year of the Potato

Did you know that 2008 is the international year of the potato? Check out this website.

I love potatoes. They have always been and will always be my favorite food. Yum yum yum.

My Gluten-Free Life is nearly complete...

I had a major triumph recently in gluten-free baking. EBLESKIVERS!!! When I think about the gluten-full things I miss the most, ebleskivers and chocolate-cream filled Dunkin Donuts are the two.

Those of you unfamiliar with ebleskivers--my condolences. They are the cutest little round, puffy, light, slightly sweet and tasty pastry you may ever eat. They're similar to pancakes but cooked in a pan with half-spheres so they turn out round little pancake balls. As kids we'd poke a hole at the top and stuff them with as much butter and powdered sugar as we could before devouring them.

I've missed them so much since going gluten-free, but ebleskivers are no longer a thing of my memory! After nearly four years of gluten-free living, I decided it was time to try making a gluten-free adaption. I asked for a pan for my birthday and then on Mother's Day my sweet husband convinced me to give it a go. I'm not very proficient with gluten-free flour experimentations, so I was nervous, but I did as much research on recipes as I could, then took a leap of faith.

Awesome results!

I used our family recipe and got creative with my flour mix:

4 eggs separated
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup melted shortening
2 cups flour -- see my GF flour blend below
2 scant cups milk
1 tsp zanthan gum (if using GF flour)

GF Flour blend:
2/3 + 1/4 cups rice flour (GF flours need slightly more than a 1:1 replacement with regular flour, hence the extra 1/4 cup)
1/3 cup sweet rice flour
1/3 cup corn starch
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1/3 cup potato starch

Beat egg yolks. Add sugar. Sift together remaining dry ingredients and add alternatively with the milk. Add melted shortening, mixing well. In a separate bowl beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into batter.

Doug helped me every step of the way and got quite good at baking the ebleskivers. Now he can make these for me every Mother's day!!! ;)

First you put a small piece of butter in each divot. When it's good and bubbly, pour in the batter almost to the top of the divot. Let them cook until small bubbles appear or the edge starts to look dry and/or golden (like a regular pancake).

Flip them over. My mom has a fancy technique of pulling up the edge and letting the batter run down before doing a full on flip. We found that the GF batter didn't work so well with this method. We just did a complete flip. Our cakes were a little more flying-saucer-esque, but that was ok by us.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy!

Or, if you're like me, break them in half, rub in butter then dunk in powdered sugar.

Oohh so TASTY!!!

Tooting the Flute

I've been pretty busy the last few weeks with flute performances. I love playing the flute. I've played since I was 1o years old. I never had to be forced to practice. In fact, the more I practiced, the better I got and the more fun it was to play so I'd play more.... I know my parents invested a lot in lessons and music and instruments to get me where I am today. Thanks Mom and Dad!

I had two performances last week. The first was last Sunday where I played a flute obligato along with the Stake Choir in our Stake Conference. The song was "I Know that My Redeemer Lives." It had full choir, organ and piano along with flute. The music was very pretty and flattering to the flute sound. It was so fun to play!

The second performance was on Wednesday night. The Mormon community in Orange County has assembled a community choir and orchestra. I auditioned for the orchestra and was able to join them as principal flute for the spring concert "Celebrate America." It was quite a show. We played in the beautiful Segerstrom Concert Hall -- a professional venue. The organization has a full adult choir, a teenager choir, youth, children and sunbeam choirs. The Sunbeams were my favorite. Little kids ages 4-6 singing their hearts out. Adorable! It was a fun concert -- very audience friendly. Lots of big numbers like "God Bless America." More than anything it was just great to be part of a big group making music again. I've missed that since I finished college.

Permit me a moment of reminiscence? (oh wait, it's my blog I can talk about whatever I want to ;). I remember very clearly driving in the car with my mom talking about what kind of instrument I might like to play. I had reached the point in my piano lessons that I could think about another instrument (family rule: we had to learn to play a hymn before we could take up a different instrument). Mom explained some of the features of the various instruments. When she described the flute, she said "and if you play the flute, you can play in church." That was it -- I was sold.

Since then, I've had some extremely rewarding musical experiences in my life, but none compare to those I've had when I've been able to touch someone's heart at church. I remember looking into the congregation and seeing Brother Effertz with tears streaming down his cheeks, or Bishop Martin struggling to announce the next speaker after my musical number. Nothing quite compares to the feeling I get when I know I've been able to express some of my testimony through my flute and that the spirit has touched someone who was listening. I was very grateful this week to have a few moments of that feeling again.

Memorial Day Weekend

You might think that a long weekend would provide lots of time for blogging. Not so! I was too busy having fun! So instead I've been saving up all my posts and finally had a chance to work on them tonight ;). So you get a bunch all in a row.

We were lucky enough to have Doug's parent's come visit us over the long weekend.

We had a great time. We mostly ate awesome food and sat around relaxing and visiting. We did take a trip into LA to see the La Brea Tar Pit Museum (very interesting and very stinky--the tar that is). No trip to SoCal is complete without stopping by the beach, so we did that. It was a gorgeous day!

Doug and I in front of the Lake Pit -- those bubbles are ancient gases coming from the center of the earth! (and the animals in the background aren't real)

Doug's cute parents

Fantastic view of the ocean on our way down

My brother the Rocket Scientist!! [Engineer]

My brother Matthew recently graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Utah State University. As part of his senior project his team competed in the 2007-2008 University Student Launch Initiative and they won! Their rocket worked better than lots of other people's rockets. Sorry I don't have much more of a technical explanation than that ;). You can read all about it here.

Way to go little bro! I'm so proud of you!!

You know you're driving in California if...

10. The approaching vehicle has it's high beams on
9. The lady next to you at the stoplight is plucking her eyebrows
8. 50% of the vehicles you see at any given time are luxury models
7. You signal to change lanes and the car next to you speeds up
6. The pizza delivery car is a late model BMW
5. The speed limit equals 20 over what is posted
4. The valet lot you just drove past on your way to self park had a Rolls-Royce and two [that's right TWO] Bentley convertibles
3. Someone cuts into your lane...and then signals
2. There is never more than 20 feet between you and the other cars no matter how fast you're going
1. There is a surf board poking out of the sunroof of the guy behind you

Fun with Photography - Light Tent

Doug found this neat post about how to make a light tent, so a couple weeks ago we gave it a try. It's fun! The box I used is not very big, so we can't fit much in it. I still need to tweak the lighting to get the angles and shadows I want, but it is way fun. I feel like I'm maxing out the capabilities of our little point-and-shoot, though. The two pictures of the scissors demonstrate the range of customization this camera allows. The yellow one is taken on the auto setting, and the more blue one is taken on the tungsten setting.

It's super fun to goof around with this stuff!

Fully automatic setting


Tungsten setting

Here's the set up from the outside. I need to get some better lamps and light bulbs!