Welcome!

Thanks for popping by to view my photos. I’m still pretty new to photography, having only started June ‘09, but I’m having a lot of fun with it and with this blog. Hope you enjoy some of my favourite pics of whatever. And if you have a moment, feel free to drop me a line. All photos taken with a Panasonic LZ2 point & shoot 5 meg digital camera.

Please respect my copyright notice, thanks. CLICK PHOTOS FOR FULL SIZE

Low-Fat Blueberry Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Muffins

I got bored this afternoon and took some time to whip up some nice healthy muffins, as you can see above. Typically I freeze them and then enjoy them microwaved daily over the course of a couple of weeks. I haven’t made this in a while. They are indeed tasty treats. They usually turn out moist enough that you won’t need butter. They don’t really have the consistency of store bought muffins, as they are a little moister than that. I guess you could hold back a 1/4 cup of the apple sauce if you like your muffins drier. Here’s the recipe:

DRY INGREDIENTS

1  cup rolled oats

1  cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1  teaspoon baking soda

1  teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup chopped walnuts

WET INGREDIENTS

1 ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

1 egg (lightly beaten)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 cup frozen cranberries

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Grease muffin cups or use paper muffin liners.
3. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients. In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients, except the berries.
4. Mix wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.
5. Chop the frozen cranberries into smaller pieces.
6. Fold in the cranberries and whole blueberries into batter.
7. Scoop into muffin cups.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 18 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly tapped. To test for doneness, insert toothpick and if it comes out clean the muffins are ready.

Haunted House Revisited

I’ve been playing with this photo more than usual. I first posted a colour version, although mildly desaturated. Then, on Mauro’s suggestion, I switched it up for a black & white version, which I like better (see a couple of posts below). And now here’s a sepia tone version with a zoom blur added and a vignette effect. Let me know what you think.

Big Pointy Building

I took this photo on the upper deck at Toronto City (Silly) Hall. The building is just behind City Hall on Bay Street. I was attracted by the sharp angles but didn’t think the photo would amount to much. But now that I see it on the computer screen I am very pleased with it.

Yum, Meatloaf

Last weekend I made a yummy meatloaf and just couldn’t resist snapping a photo of it. No lightbox, I just took it on the counter top in my kitchen. In case you’re wondering, it’s sitting on parchment paper. I always line my meatloaf pan with parchment paper so post cooking cleanup is a breeze. The recipe’s below, if you’re interested. I make another version that uses Heinze 57 sauce. It’s very tasty.

Meatloaf Recipe

SERVES 6 (unless you’re really REALLY hungry)

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup seasoned dry bread crumb (I use Italian)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped fresh Cremini mushrooms
• 4 slices bacon
• 1 can Tomato Soup
• 1 tblespoon Worchester sauce
• ½ teaspoon dried sage
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

1. Thoroughly combine all of the above ingredients.
2. Shape into a loaf in shallow baking pan.
3. Drape bacon over top of meatloaf.
4. Bake at 350 for one hour (I bake it only for 45 minutes). 160 F.
5. Allow to stand 5 minutes before slicing.

Elevators

This photo comes from the roof deck of a six story parking garage in Yorkville. The roof deck of parking garages make a great vantage point for city photography.

Haunted House

Mauro and I came upon this house near the end of the day a couple of weeks back. I snapped off a handful of photos but wasn’t sure I was capturing it well. I really wasn’t sure what sort of shot I was trying for. But I think this one came out quite nice. I did a bit of post processing to it to give it a “haunted house” look, whatever that’s suppose to mean. Anyway, hope you like it.

Back alley at dusk

Here’s another photo of a back alley. Seems to be a pretty popular subject for me. It’s a little grainy. I had the camera on auto and imagine the ISO was increased to catch more light. Typically, for low light shots I like to lock the ISO at 80 or 100 and shoot with a longer shutter. This keep the noise to a minimum. If I had that new Canon T2i I bet the image quality would have been a bit sharper.

Introducing the new Canon EOS Rebel T2i / 550D

I heard about this camera a month back and have been looking forward to see how Canon would improve on their T1i (500D) DSLR. I came very close to buying this camera back in the summer, but just couldn’t make up my mind. The new T2i has an 18 megapixel sensor, up from the 15 megapixels on the last year’s T1i. It also has a larger, higher resolution display. There are plenty of other neat features, which you can preview over at dpreview.com. My gut tells me this will be a major seller for Canon.

Features at a glance:

• 18 Megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
• DIGIC 4 processor with ISO 100-6400 (Expansion to 12800)
• Continuous shooting at 3.7fps
• Full HD movie recording with manual control and selectable frame rates
• 7.7cm (3.0”) 3:2 Clear View LCD with 1,040k dots
• iFCL metering System with 63-zone Dual-layer Metering Sensor
• Quick Control screen to change shooting settings
• Exposure compensation +/-5 stops.
• Select maximum value for Auto ISO
• External Microphone socket
• Movie crop function
• Eye-Fi connected functions compatibility

All in all, it sounds like it’ll be an excellent camera at a very affordable price-point. Last year’s Canon T1i was said to be not so great at low light performance, compared to the 12 megapixel Nikon D90. Maybe Canon has improved in this area. Nikon will be making a major announcement this month so it will be interesting to see what they up have their sleeve. I’ve heard rumours of a new Nikon D95 to replace the D90.

Here’s a short video introduction to the camera that covers most of the key features.

Yellow Guard Rail

This photo was taken in the parking lot where we parked on our downtown walkabout a couple of weeks back. We started by climbing to the top of that parking garage to take some shots from a high up perspective. The photo was taken around dusk when we got back to the car after a long day of shooting.

Distant Buildings

This photo was taken on at Sunnyside beach in the west end of Toronto. I zoomed in to get this shot. Not sure how much, maybe 4x zoom or something. The buildings in the background are also a part of Toronto but in the suburban sense. I was attracted to the daylight and cloud cover, and that white bridge. I think it crosses the Humber River, but I could be mistaken. The water in the foreground is Lake Ontario.

So I’m off to a buddy’s to watch the Superbowl and down a nice steak dinner. Should be fun. I don’t follow football but I do enjoy a good piece of cow.