Flag Cake Awesomeness

Dude.  Where’d the week-end go?  Holy cow.

I say “dude” way more than anyone of my age and education level should.

Dude. Have you seen that Flag Cake floating around on Pinterest? 

Yeah, I made it.

And I watermarked that photo.  I don’t want anyone stealing my stuff.

It started out pretty decent.

Pretty!

We’re killing this flag cake thing.  Boo-yah.

Uh oh. Should have greased that blue cake pan a little better.

God bless America.

Where’d we go wrong?  We didn’t level the cake layers enough and the frosting was too runny. And we were trying to cook a delicious supper and didn’t give this cake our undivided attention.  It’s obviously a needy one. You win some.  You lose some.  Luckily the in-laws are good sports and laughed at us with us.

Part of the inside was pretty though!

If you would like to attempt to make your own disaster, you can find some decent instructions at Glorious Treats.

Are you whipping up anything good for the ol’ 4th of July?  Any other great cakes I should attempt next?

How to Photograph Fireworks

Who’s ready for fireworks?  They are saying that our local fireworks are supposed to be bigger and better than ever this year.  Don’t they always say that?  I’m holding them to it.  Well, if I can stay up that late. I do have to work at 8am on the 4th.  Rough, right?  Maybe I’ll just have Nate photograph the fireworks for me. Hmmm…

Here are some tips for capturing awesome fireworks memories:

• Use a tripod as capturing fireworks requires a long exposure. 
• Set the focus to manual.
• Change the adjustment ring to infinity (the sideways 8). 
• Switch the camera mode to manual (M on Nikon).  Select “Bulb”mode (for Nikon it will say TIME on the screen for the exposure time) and then set the aperture to something between f8 and f16 (I used f16 for all our shots last year).
  • Bulb mode lets you set the amount of time the shutter is open.  Use one press to open the shutter and then another press to close it.  This allows you to leave the shutter open as long as you need to capture the fireworks.
  • If you do not have a remote  then do not use Bulb mode.
  • Use a remote shutter release for best results.
    • Pressing the button on the camera will create shake in the camera and the picture will not be as sharp. 
    • If you do not have a remote shutter release, set the shutter speed to at least 2 seconds (most of my shots were somewhere around 10 seconds) and use the self timer at 2 seconds to avoid shake.
    • These photos were shot in RAW and I did some minimum processing in Photoshop Elements Camera Raw (changed white balance, made the color pop a little bit through the camera profile settings) but shooting in JPEG would work as well.

Check out more fireworks photos here and here!

Check out more photography tips on our photography page!

Are you pumped for fireworks?  Anyone else going to have trouble staying up that late?  Any other poor saps have to work on the 4th?

Chicago in Black & White

Nate and I set out early the morning we left Chicago.  The morning was gloomy and damp from the rain the night before.  The city was quiet. 

The photos Nate took that morning lent themselves to being edited in black and white. Black and white photos always speak to me.  Very moody.  Very city.  Very I want to move to downtown Chicago.  Yesterday.

Nate and I keep day dreaming about a studio downtown as a vacation home.  We talk like it could happen.  You know, after we both get second jobs or win the lotto.  Doable, right?

Guess we’ll keep day dreaming…

I’m not sure why this city has sucked me in.  But it has. Big time. We’re already pondering our next trip!

Anyone else dreaming of a vacation home?  If so, where?  Any black and white photo fans out there or do you prefer the color photos?