1. Start by photographing any animals in the vicinity, because as soon as the fireworks start, they will run off to hide.

Move faster than this if you want a photo of all the birds flying away …

2. Take a few photos of your friends while it’s still light out.

If they start yelling battle cries, take video instead of photo. Otherwise, you end up with a lackluster photo and have to awkwardly explain that they were yelling “onward! To victory!”

3. Take a few photos of the aftermath.

4. Once it gets dark, try a long exposure of the sparklers because it’s fun, even if the end result doesn’t look like much.

Long exposures of cakes can also be cool, and look like the rapture has begun.

Just don’t stand in the direction the wind is blowing because you’ll end up with a picture of smoke. (Duh.)

5. Start to get the hang of the precise moment to snap a photo of the mortars as they go off, just in time for the big finale firework.

But if your finale firework misfires and every shell goes off all at once before you can even get your finger on the shutter button, settle for a photo of the smoking carcass.

The end!

Summer came early in Seattle – meaning we actually had sunshine on Memorial Day weekend. That never happens.

We dusted off our cameras and went up to Alki Beach! Here’s what that looked like. (You can click any of these pictures to see full size.)

(And here we thought the Statue of Liberty was in New York.)

Why was Joel taking a picture of the back of Phil’s head? Don’t ask me. I have no idea.

I’m talking this week about the year in review and realized this is the opportune moment to follow up on the goals I set way back in January. One of those goals was to take a photo every day.

Last Christmas, Joel gave me a copy of Understanding Exposure which I read cover to cover in about two days. It’s a great read – I learned so much about taking good photos and actually utilizing the different settings on my camera.

So today, I want to share a photo recap of the year to show the lessons learned in 2013. Some of these photos are terrible. Truly awful. But they taught me the biggest lesson: don’t get too cocky. And for every awful photo I took, the next one was a little better. (I’ll share some of my best photos in a later post.)

Like I said, my goal was to take a photo every day for the year, and I did really well at it … for about a month. I spent many January afternoons out in the park behind the office, getting the hang of what I’d picked up from my reading.

these shots are not terrible.

When we left for South Africa at the end of January, I was feeling pretty cocky about my new photography skillz. I was sure I’d come home from the trip with a collection of beautifully composed and technically impressive photos.

Of course, that’s not what actually happened. The first few days, every good photo I took was by accident or with my iPhone. Most of the pictures I took were mediocre, at best.

I now joke that on that first day in Cape Town, I forgot to change my settings from “Seattle” to “South Africa” — my white balance was still in cloudy mode. I corrected that, but my photos from the next day’s adventure at the Cape of Good Hope Reserve didn’t turn out much better – I hadn’t figured out how to use the polarizer filter on my lens.

By the time we made it to Bushman’s Kloof, I was shooting in auto mode most of the time and feeling pretty defeated about it. Every once in a while, I’d feel a little surge of confidence and fiddle around with settings in manual mode. Then I’d flip right back. These were two “a-ha!” moments:

Take 1 (auto mode)

Take 2 (manual mode, metering off the ground)

Take 3 (manual mode, metering off the sky)

Take 1 (auto mode)

Take 2 (manual mode)

You’re going to laugh when I say this, but the day we got home from South Africa, Joel and I went to the camera store to “test” the newer models (both of ours were older, discontinued models) and they happened to have a refurbished model of the cameras each of us wanted. We walked out of the store that day, new cameras in hand. And I started feeling a little cocky again. With a fancy new camera, I’d take even better photos!

Of course, that’s not what actually happened. It took a little while to hang of my new camera. When I went to Disneyland in June, I spent a day sitting in an art gallery in West Hollywood with one of the girls I traveled with, who is a professional photographer. She went over some of the camera features that weren’t making sense to me, and I got excited about taking photos again.

Art gallery self portrait.

This is the part where I interrupt my recap to point out that I’d kind of given up on my resolution to carry my camera with me and take photos daily. I took many when I traveled, obvs, and we made some day trips (like our Twin Peaks adventure) with the express purpose of taking photos.

We also made several trips up to the San Juans for wedding planning, and I took my camera along on every one of those. I was still switching around and fiddling with camera settings:

Take 1 (aperture priority mode)

Take 2 (manual mode)

The difference isn’t as dramatic as the South Africa photos; maybe I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Once we returned home from our honeymoon, I turned my attention photo editing, another skill that still needs improving.

Of course, after that, fall was upon us, and I’ve been feeling uninspired when it comes to my camera. Lately, I’ve just been taking photos for the blog. One of my ongoing projects here has been to update my recipe photos (many of which are still really bad iPhone photos.) Here’s one of my more successful recipe photos, if I may say so.

I stopped being lazy and got out my lightbox and full spectrum lights and the tripod for smaller subject matter.

I still have plenty of room for improvement, and plan to keep reading and fiddling, as time allows. I didn’t quite follow through on the part of my goal that was “take a photo every day” — but I did accomplish the part of it that was “learn more about photography,” so I’m calling that a win.

Joel and I lavish attention on our feline family members, but if they could talk, they would tell you that they’re completely starved for attention, and also, they haven’t eaten in years and you should open that can of food on the kitchen counter right MEOW. I figured it’s time to give them some attention on the blog, especially because if there’s one thing the internet loves, it’s pictures of cats.

Here are some pictures of cats.

This is a testament to how much these cats love Joel – they are almost never close enough to one another that they’re in the same frame, but they’ll do just about anything to sit with Joel on the couch.

Eggs

Stormy

Both cats are doing well – I’m pretty sure Stormy is Benjamin Buttoning, because she still has some kittenish qualities, like her surprise every time she discovers her tail has been following her around again. Eggs, like other kitties his age, is having some health problems, but he is still the sweetest and cuddliest cat I’ve known.

It’s almost Hallowe’en! We aren’t really doing anything to celebrate; the only thing we did was go pumpkin picking at the adorably autumnal Craven Farm in Snohomish, then carved Jack-o’-Lanterns.

Some pictures for you (click to see full size.)

Happy Hallowe’en!