I am snuggled up in sweats and fuzzy socks and as I sit binge watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and watching it snow outside my window, I am wondering just how much hot chocolate my bladder and blood sugar can handle. I may end up in a diabetic coma and weeing myself when I slip in the ice covered steps while taking the dogs out. My brain is turning to mush as I cry with Kyle over Kim's demise and recent arrests. Okay, it could be from 2 seasons ago and not really recent. But, a more important question is, When is Lisa Renna going to STOP with the botox?! One more treatment and those lips will blow up enough to float her like a balloon to the next girls night out! 

So, why is this snow day so sucky? Well, I would love to be out taking beautiful snow day pics of the dogs and lovely scenery. But, No, It's still sleeting, snowing, and spitting from the sky! Who's taking their camera out in that? Not this girl!  So instead, I will snuggle with my dogs, munch on bad for me snacks and wait on the hubs to come home. 

I could be out running errands, but No. North Carolina CLOSES, SHUTS DOWN, and literally FREEZES when it snows. Very few businesses will be open. If ya ain't got your milk and bread, too bad. There's none to be had in North Carolina. So I am sitting here in my comfy warm clothes, settled in my huge recliner, warm and toasty, facebook stalking some of my favorite photogs, THERE WILL BE A POST ON THAT! 

​Plus to top it all off Hubs came home early! He brought me cool ranch Doritos too!

What do you Hate about Snow days?

I don't understand it. I look in the mirror and my hair is long and straight, hanging with little style. There are these funny little things under my eyes that look a faintly like moon shaped marshmallows, and not the kind small enough to fit in a bowl of lucky charms! These bad boys are just right for a campfire 'n smores kinda night. And they come with there own little wings out to side. Little hanger ons like barnacles on a old fishing boat. I'm talking about those shhh....don't say it...crows feet? Oh my god! When did I become my mother, aunts, and grandmother all rolled up in one?

If you are too young to remember Madonna before she was a mother and still singing to her papa not to preach, You are too young to know what I am talking about! Jennifer and Jack were just getting together, Now he's dead and she looks way older than me! Bo and Hope were a couple for the FIRST time, Steve was still called Patch.Then we watched the Original  BH 90210, Team Dillon, all the way. 

We wore skinny jeans so tight we could barely get our feet through them. In fact, I had a couple of pairs that were so tight at the ankles they had to have zippers in them. Shoulder pads were in every shirt, sweater, dress, and jacket I had. I even had some that I could put in things that didn't already come with them. 

A night out meant 2 hours of primping. An hour of that was spent on using 3 sets of curlers, 2 curling irons, and half a can of Aqua Net. I killed more than my fair share of Ozone, believe me. Blue eyeshadow AND blue eyeliner. Neon Pink Lipstick, WET 'N WILD, baby!
Now a night out is, me asking the hubby "Do I HAVE to put on Makeup?"  I'm more impressed about how EARLY I got to bed, instead of how LATE I was out! My friends and I have decided we are much better at "bar sitting" than "bar hopping." But, good grief, we're in by 10!

When did this happen? Yesterday, I was not this old! 

Funny, It takes me just as long to get long, straight, and with very little style as it did to get BIG hair.............. 

The shutter speed on your camera can do several different things. It can affect the quality of the focus in your image. It can allow more or less light into your image. It can show motion and action. Or it can freeze a moment in time. Learning to adjust your shutter speed to affect the Exposure of your image can be tricky for beginners, but I am going to share some important ways shutter speed work for your image. If you are interested in Exposure and how the different pieces of the Exposure triad work, you can read more in my post Exposure: A Basic Explanation for Beginners. I give a basic tutorial of aperture in Aperture: A Basic Explanation for Beginners.

Exposure is determined three things:  

1. The amount of light allowed in to the camera. (APERTURE)
2. The length of time that light is allowed into the camera. (SHUTTER SPEED)
3. The sensitivity of your camera to that light. (ISO)

Shutter speed determines how long light is allowed to enter the camera. It is expressed most commonly in fractions of seconds. 1/60 shutter speed means the shutter is open a longer amount of time than 1/125. This means that if I have a darker situation, I might use a slower shutter speed, 1/60, to allow more light in to the camera. If I have a very bright situation such as full sun, I may use a faster shutter speed, 1/250 or even 1/640. 

In the examples below you will see a difference in the vibrancy of color and depth of color, just by speeding the shutter speed from 1/250 to 1/640. This was a bright clear afternoon. Even with a shutter speed of 1/250 on the left, the image appears washed out and less vibrant. By speeding my shutter speed to 1/640, I achieved more vibrant and deeper color. 

Fair question. It's easy to understand that if you have something moving fast and you want to "FREEZE" that motion, You will speed up your shutter speed to freeze the motion. If you want to show motion and have a motion blur, you will slow your shutter speed. 

I typically try to use at least 1/125 shutter speed and normally 1/250 shutter speed for portraits. It helps get a clean crisp focus with less motion blur. 

Below are some shot I took with a 1/125 shutter speed because I was shooting objects that will move quick! ANIMALS AND KIDS. I wanted to Freeze them, before they moved! All of these shots were inside with indoor lighting. So, with my aperture opened up to let in light, I was able to use a faster shutter speed to compensate for wanting a sharp focus on my moving targets! For full disclosure, I did use on camera flash for these as well. Notice that bokeh or shallow depth of field? That's because of the wide open aperture. The two of my sweet baby boy Teller, were shot with a 35mm AF-S Nikkor f1.8 lens. My handsome nephew's picture was taken with an 85mm AF-S Nikkor f1.8. I rented both of these lenses from Lensrentals.com. You can read about my experiences renting lenses on these posts HERE.

Full disclosure: The links above for my amazon affiliated link. Blogging and keeping this adventure going is time consuming and I decided if I could make a penny or two, then what the heck? Links will be for items I have used or want to use and review! Thanks for using my links! I appreciate the help!

Make the best of what God has given you. We all have crazy lives, crazy jobs, and we all have crazy families, but mine takes the cake! (If your family and reading this, it's not you I'm talking about!) Living the just peachy life is all about taking the crazy and making the best of it. Life may hand your oranges when you asked for peaches, but hey, they are both sweet, orange and edible, so it's all good.  

If you've been on facebook for more than a month, you've seen the memes, joking about how in the south we don't hide our crazy, we set it on the front porch to wave at the neighbors and have cocktail. Believe me, I've got crazy. Most I won't torture you with. But, some stories you will pass along on the my blogging journey. In case you haven't figured it out already, I am from the south, not the Georgia Peach south, but the Lance Cracker, Texas Pete, Pepsi Cola, North Carolina South. I've been known to add peanuts to my coke, but that coke better be a Pepsi. I'll throw out a Y'all for one person or forty. I can bless a heart, and push my buggy over at the Lowes Grocery. I believe biscuits and gravy are considered a meal. Pintos are better with cornbread, Cheerwine is a delicacy, and everybody needs a good hunting dog (ok, not really. I do like dogs, though). I know how to walk in heels (thanks to many trips up and down my grandmother's hall with a dictionary on my head), I can address an envelope properly, know the importance of an timely RSVP, and can set a proper brunch table (not that I do THAT very often). 

Football is almost a religion in our house. But, we're nice and support each other's teams, unless they're playing each other!  I have a pinterest board dedicated to Food for Football Sundays!  There's more good football food in on this board, What a Man Eats or Beer and Bacon. I love to cook, ride my motorcycle, or be the B on the back with my mostly prince charming. 

I just recently applied to Graduate school for nursing and am waiting to here about that. I am sure some blog posts will be related to that! My "day job" is as a nurse. Right now I am working at a large hospital in my area in the cancer center. 
Photography is one of my favorite hobbies, I am self taught and self learning. I say that because I am learning so much and want to continue to learn. I like sharing what I learn. I think that is one of the best ways to remember new things and learn even more.

If you want to share my photographic, pretend gourmet, biker chic, nurse, making the best of oranges that were supposed to be peaches lifestyle, Follow my blog! Find new recipes for cooking, experiencing and living! 

I shoot with a Nikon D7100. This is a crop sensor, DLSR, and is a great camera. I've moved up from the D60 originally, to the D3100 and now the D7100. Now you might notice a pattern, I like Nikon. Not because I dislike other brands, but because Nikon is what I have used, and gotten used to, and all my gear fits Nikon. So, for all you Canon lovers, I'm not knocking your camera! I just like mine. 

I shoot mostly portraiture and even my outdoor wildlife photography is more portraiture of the subject. I don't do a lot of wide open landscapes and sweeping views of the countryside. I typically pick a subject that I want to capture and focus on that. For the kind of photography my favorite lens is my 50mm prime. It stays on my camera most of the time and is my go to for a quick snapshot or for my client sessions.  It gives great focus, great bokeh, and the open aperture makes shooting on darker days easier. 

Now, there are more expensive 50mm lenses. They have larger apertures and may have even better focusing. But, when you can get a 1.8 aperture for as reasonably as you can, it is a great option. Especially for learning your new DLSR and experimenting with new forms of photography. It can help you turn out beautiful images. It has been a great addition to my gear. 

This lens has really upped my photography game and I love experimenting with it. 

The images below are just some examples of pictures that I have taken with my 50mm on my D7100.

Full disclosure: The above is a link to my amazon affiliate link. I can make profit from your purchase of the lens using the above link. Keeping a blog going is a time consuming venture, so I chose to become an amazon affiliate to review products that I use. Thank you for using this link if you are interested in a 50mm lens!