Top secret Mexican layer dip recipe

We went to our friends Joe and Sarah's house for the husker game.  Can't believe it's Husker season already...  Best part of football season is definitely the food.  Here's Kevin's "famous" Mexican dip.  I think he might have actually stolen the recipe from his sister Melissa and claimed it as his own. 

Here's the top secret recipe.  Simply layer the ingredients: 

1 can of refried black beans
Mix of 1/2 to 3/4 container of sour cream and about half a taco seasoning pack
Shredded cheese
Shredded fresh lettuce
Sliced fresh tomatoes
Red onion
Green onion

I've been learning more about exposure lately.  So while watching the game I thought I'd practice some of what I've been reading on our friend's dog Gizmo.  Here is the image straight out of the camera shot in aperture priority at 2.8, ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/200.  Exposure compensation was left at 0.

Here's a quote about exposure compensation from the following link that I found helpful, "The contrast or difference in brightness between the subject and the background can fool an exposure system, particularly if the subject occupies a relatively small part of the scene compared to the background. The brightness of the background is so predominant that the automatic exposure system adjusts the exposure to render the overall brightness as a middle gray. If the main subject is lighter than the background, it will be overexposed and too light. If it's darker than the background, it will be underexposed and too dark."

So because the camera was tricked by the black dog, and underexposed the image, I needed to compensate by adjusting the exposure compensation up by 2 stops.  This decreased the shutter speed to 1/40th of a second.  This is what I got.  Favorite picture of the day: 

Baby Caleb

Kevin's cousin Nicole and her husband Pete were nice enough to have us over at their house for dinner tonight.  Um, how freakin adorable is their little boy Caleb? 

Caleb: 5 months old



A pool party

So before I stepped on glass at The Max last weekend, I did have a really nice day at the pool.  My parents invited Kevin's family over for the day to swim.  We are super lucky that both of our families get along so well.  My mom and Kevin's sister Kris actually probably see each other more than we do.  They live really close to each other, and my 3 year old brother Jonah and Kevin's 3 year old nephew play together all the time. 

About half these pictures were taken by my dad, the real photographer in the family, and half were taken by me.  He was letting me play around was some of his fancy lenses and giving me a lesson or two.  Thanks dad!  Here's a link to the Picasa web album where you can download the pictures.

By dad



By me



By dad

By me

By dad

By dad

By dad

By me

By me

Dad was showing me how to manually adjust the exposure on the camera, so I overexposed the picture below by one stop.  I actually really like the softening effect it had.  Probably my favorite picture I've taken this month.  And it doesn't hurt that Journey is so freaking cute. 

My dad had a fancy name for a picture that is purposely overexposed.  Can't remember what he called it.  For more examples of pictures purposely overexposed check out this link at the Digital Photography School.  I actually just found this blog and it has a lot of helpful photography info on it for free.

By me

The rest of the weekend was pretty chill.  Kevin made Italian BBQ pork chops on Sunday night while I tended to my wounded foot :)  The sauce on the pork chops was great... balsamic vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper.  Here's the link to the recipe.

Only 2 more days until another weekend...