photography tips

 

I have a list of 40 things to do before I’m 40. You know all about it already right? Come on, of course you do, have you been paying no attention?

On my list is to learn to take a decent photo. I’ve felt for a long time that my photography is the thing that lets down my blog. I can string a sentence together, sure, but so many other blogs I look at have decent sentences and ace photos too. Proper photos, on white backgrounds – collections of beautiful objects, flowers casually placed in jam jars, or breakfasts that look actually like works of art rather than badly lit piles of sick on a plate.

I know how important the visual side of things is online, and I’d just love to know how to do it properly. I bought a half decent camera a couple of years ago – an entry level DSLR, a Nikon D3100 – but I’ve never learnt how to use it properly, and so always end up taking photos on my phone.

To give you a flavour of just how much help I need, here are some examples of my Instagram photography over the years. Bear in mind that these are the photos I have felt are good enough to put on Instagram: View Post

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Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions?

I’m not going to be doing anything dull like loosing weight or giving up TV – I prefer my resolutions to be a bit more positive, and about trying new things rather than depriving myself of existing ones. My resolution this year is to crack the hell on with my list of 40 things to do before I’m 40.

When I made the list on my 35th birthday, it felt like I had all the time in the world, and yet here I am, turning 38 in a few months, and I have only so far completed 13. In my defence, some of them were big ones, like visiting every county in the UK and drinking a milkshake in an American diner, (actually in America), but I’m still going to have to put some effort in to catch up with myself a bit.

drinking a milkshake in an American diner - 40 things before 40

What’s more pressing though, and what I really need your help with, is finishing the list – at the moment I only have 32 of the 40 items. This was deliberate at first, because I knew that extra ideas would come to me as I went along, but I feel that nearly three years in, I really should have finished compiling the list at least.

So, I’m after some ideas. 

I have some pretty big things left on the list still, so what I’d really like are some smaller, cheaper, more unusual tasks, more along the lines of making my own lemon curd or sending a message in a bottle. I’m thinking new skills, unusual but UK based places to visit, fun challenges – basically things that would make a nice day out, and nothing scary or tough, as it’s meant to be a fun challenge.

Do you have any suggestions?

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“A satisfying nibble that offers a little of what you fancy.”

No not that, don’t be rude, I’m talking about cheese.

It’s how The Laughing Cow describe their new Mini Cravings – little cubes of cheese with only 14 calories each. They’re tasty too, coming in a variety of strong flavours including garlic and herb, three cheese, (because one cheese is never enough), and ham and herb. They come in packs of 24, so even if you eat all them at once, (which isn’t really the idea), you can probably still pass it off as a light lunch.

mini cravings laughing cow

 

Looking at the picture I had a little flashback to soft cheese I used to eat as a child that came in a pack with different flavours – possible triangles in a wheel. Do you remember those, or did I dream them?

Anyway, I was thinking about the whole idea of cravings, (cue seamless link into something else), and that whole idea of ‘a little bit of what you fancy’, and it reinforced for me how important it is to have things in your life that you do for yourself, cravings that you indulge. It could be a cube of ham and herb cheese, or it could be something bigger, like taking a few days away from everything once a year to reflect on your goals, ambitions and achievements.  View Post

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easy lemon curd recipe

In lieu of not being in a position to jet off to Iceland right now, I thought I should crack on with one of the more affordable options on my 40 things before I’m 40 list, so this weekend I decided to have a go at an easy lemon curd recipe.

I have always loved lemon curd, but had imagined it to be one of those things that would involve large pans and thermometers and possibly a frilly apron. It turns out though that making lemon curd is really easy! View Post

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