Photography: White Balance

One of the most basic concepts in photography is also one of the easiest to understand. Today we're going to talk about white balance and how it affects your pictures. Understanding white balance will help your picture taking whether you've got a point and shoot or a DSLR. White balance is so easy to figure out, that you don't even need a camera to see examples in action.

Lets start without your camera. Find something in the room you're sitting that is either white or a neutral grey color. Now think about the color of light that is reflecting off of that object from the available light source in the room. Do you have normal, everyday tungsten light bulbs in a light fixture giving off light? Or do you have fluorescent tubes above you in an office building? Each source of light gives off a different color of light. You may not think about it normally, but once you start searching for it, you'll notice the differences are quite striking. The color of light from your light source is important to see because it actually affects the color your camera THINKS the object is. Your brain knows that your MacBook Pro is grey even when a red light is shining on it but a camera doesn't know what a MacBook Pro is and doesn't have a brain to interpret the object.

Digital cameras allow you to tell the camera what lighting conditions you are shooting in. Most will have settings for cloudy days, shade, sunlight, tungsten light and fluorescent light. In addition they'll also let you set a custom white balance. In the photo above, the boat was sitting in the shade which meant a lot of bluish light was falling on it. The camera didn't see white but instead saw blue. The photo that was produced turned out too blue. I corrected this later in post-processing but what I should have done was read the light my subject was in and adjusted my cameras settings before taking the picture.

Luckily, if you never want to deal with this, you don't have to! There is almost always an "Auto" setting which tells the camera to figure out the lighting conditions by itself. Usually, auto will be just fine to provide the correct white balance to a shot but sometimes it can get tricked. If you aren't comfortable playing with your white balance settings, leave it on "Auto." If you encounter a situation where "Auto" gets it wrong, I hope this quick lesson helps you take advantage of the other white balance settings to get the photograph you want.

Anxiety: I Have It

Since Thomas has been so open about the emotions and struggle he felt while unemployed, I thought it was time for me to be open about something I have secretly struggled with for years; Anxiety. It was after leaving a therapy session (yes, I am in therapy and no, I'm not ashamed of it) that I realized I am embarrassed about my anxiety and that leads me to never speak of it, even to Thomas. You can see how unhealthy that is for both my mind and our relationship. So in an attempt at full disclosure, and since everyone has been so supportive about our other struggles, I decided to force myself to open up about this.

I have probably always lived with anxiety, but it wasn't until a few months after Thomas and I were married that it started to have devastating effects on my life. Thomas was on a business trip in London for 8 days and I started to feel like I was going to have a heart attack. I silently suffered with these symptoms, unable to sleep, hold normal conversations or even think about anything other than the possibility of a heart attack. I didn't say a word about this to anyone for months, until one day at work, the symptoms got worse. I called Thomas to tell him I was going to the urgent care because I thought something was wrong with my heart. He immediately left work and met me there, where the doctors checked my heart and came to the conclusion that my heart was fine, but my mind was reeling from anxiety.

Thomas was, of course, upset that I had not opened up to him about this earlier, but looking back, I don't even know how I could. I knew the words "I think I'm having a heart attack" were ridiculous. I knew that if months earlier (when these feelings had started) I DID in fact have a heart attack, the feelings would not have lasted this long, and I most likely would have been dead from lack of treatment. But sadly, logic failed me at this time and instead, I just said nothing. Logic often fails me when it comes to my anxiety, which I feel is an even greater reason for me to be vocal about it, so that someone else can give me the logic my brain is failing to come up with.

It has been two years since the onset of my anxiety symptoms, and I have gone through various treatments for it. Some have worked, some have not. I hope that in sharing these stories here, I can get feedback from those who have been in my same shoes, and get some new ideas on how to handle my anxiety. It is a daily struggle but I am trying to not make it a life sentence.

Have you dealt with anxiety? What are your best tricks for handling it?

LEGO Project: Black Seas Barracuda

Set number 6285 released in 1989 is one of the most revered and popular sets ever sold by LEGO. The Black Seas Barracuda is a large, 865 piece set and it captured my imagination as a child. Whenever my LEGO collection comes up in conversation with a family member or old friend, they will almost always ask, "hey didn't you have a big pirate ship when you were little?" The Black Seas Barracuda has a dominating presence both in size and in nostalgic impact.

With 865 pieces it was by far the largest and most complex set I owned as a kid. The direction booklet is thick and spreads out to show the entire boat. The directions were made back in the days where the builder had to carefully scan the picture to see what had changed since the previous step. It was a hard way of building and I have to admit that even as an adult, I had trouble. For two days I sat on our floor assembling the pieces into what you see above. Pictured above, its sitting on a kitchen table and believe me its quite big. It stands about a foot and a half tall from hull to mast tip. Its also about two and a half feet long. Carrying it around to set up the photograph, I couldn't help but wonder how I managed to get the ship around as a kid.


One of my favorite parts of this ship is the top deck and captain's quarters below. The rear of the ship is really intricate and can be opened with hinged bricks. The pirates mortal enemy, the British navy inspired soldiers, had their own ship, but it was nothing like this. The captain of that ship did not have a lavish below deck room or nice shuttered windows. The Black Seas Barracuda was far more interesting to look at and way more complicated to build.


One of the eight mini-figs to come with the set was a female pirate. Unfortunately I've lost her very rare head complete with hair and lipstick stamping. I do have the torso as you can see but for now I've got a male head attached. Kind of weird but oh well. The pirate ship also came with four canons on the main deck. If you notice the one with the all grey canon body, you'll see that its different from the black and grey canons. When I got this pirate ship, LEGO had removed the canons that were spring loaded and could fire canon balls from US versions. A neighborhood friend of mine had been lucky enough to get the ship early, before those canons were discontinued, and traded a non-firing canon with me for a working one. I guess I can understand why LEGO had to cave to pressure but it is a shame such a cool feature had to be discontinued.

If you haven't noticed by now, I'm also missing the two bottom sails. This is really sad for me as they would have completed the ship. There were a few other small, non-essential pieces that were missing from the parts list, but the lost sails hurt the most. Hopefully, with resources like iBrickShop I can start getting back some of my missing pieces.

Despite all that, it was fun to rebuild this icon of my childhood. I think one of the most interesting things about building these LEGO sets as an adult, is that I get to directly connect with something I held so dear to my heart as a little boy. Its not often a person is able to literally reach out and touch something that shaped their youth. With LEGO bricks and pieces I get to physically walk back in time and connect with cherished memories and feelings.

I know at least one of you also had the Black Seas Barracuda. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this set. Post up below!

How To Make Homemade Pasta

One of the most surprising discoveries I made in Italy was finding out just how great pasta can be when its fresh. The boxed pasta we have at home is perfectly fine and is totally easy to cook but it lacks that extra level of greatness that good homemade pasta has. Luckily, some friends of ours have started making their own pasta and they showed us how its done.

I'm going to apologize up front for any pictures that may be missing of the important steps, or blurriness in the pictures I do post. The wine was flowing, and we were having a great time so the pictures suffered. However, the insight and tips on pasta making from our friends Jerry and Julie are top notch and we're only too happy to share it with all of you.

Sarah and I have thought about making our own pasta in the past but we had no idea where to start. It turns out that one of the greatest kitchen appliances ever created is perfectly suited for the job. A stand mixer and a few attachments are all you'll need to get going.

The Dough
For this batch of pasta, wheat flour was used mostly because its a healthier option, and because finding Semolina can be difficult at times. With the right mix of eggs, water and wheat flour, the stand mixer went to work, first with the paddle attachment, and then with the pasta hook. This action helps activate the dough. After the mixing was done, the dough was separated into 8 equal sections and kneaded until it was soft and pliable.

Sheets Of Pasta
Once the dough was ready, the pasta sheet attachment on the stand mixer is used and the dough is fed through. Each pass makes the dough thinner and longer. It was really cool to see how a blob of dough could slowly be formed into a uniform sheet of pasta ready to be turned into spaghetti or ravioli.

Spaghetti and Ravioli
Once the sheets were ready, a few were fed through the spaghetti attachment and long, beautiful strands of spaghetti were the result. The wheat flour gave them a great earthly color and the smell was superb.

Ravioli takes a lot more hands-on work as no attachment would be able to add the meat and cheese. The meat and cheese filling consisted of great quality top sirloin which was ground with the meat grinder attachment on the stand mixer. Some spices and ricotta cheese were added and then placed in blobs on the a sheet of pasta. Another sheet of pasta was placed on top and then the raviolis were cut out. It looked quite simple but I know from my experience making wontons that making any sort of dumpling takes patience and practice. Jerry did a great job though and they looked fabulous.

Cooking

The spaghetti and ravioli were boiled in their own pots. Overcooking can ruin all the hard work put into making the pasta so its best to take care at this step. Jerry used a great method that he learned from the Sopranos and Gordon Ramsey on his show Master Chef. After boiling, he did a thorough rinse of the pasta over the sink to stop the cooking process. He then sauteed the pasta in a little olive oil and a bit of the sauce. I had never seen this technique before but the result was incredible.

Tips
A couple tips from the chef.

1. This is not a quick process so make a full evening out of it. Snack and drink some wine while you're prepping the pasta because you may not eat until late in the night. Its worth it!
2. Use more water than the recipe calls for to get the dough workable much quicker. Flour can be added through the rest of the process to soak up the moisture. Adhering directly the recipe makes the process even longer as it takes a while for the dough to be manageable.
3. Don't overcook!
4. Saute the pasta for a unique flavor

We love learning new recipes and cooking techniques. We had a blast watching our friends make this dinner for us and saw how much a good stand mixer and attachments can help. While this may be one of the more labor intensive meals, it is by no means the hardest. The end result is an amazing meal that capture the true potential of a well made pasta.

A big hearty thank you goes out to Jerry and Julie for hosting us as well as volunteering their home and food for this Second Snack blog post.

Any questions? Post up below!

Stop Motion LEGO Film By 12-Year Old

The 12 year old son of my Mom's friend built and filmed this stop motion animation of a Ferrari Formula 1 pit stop. Its totally awesome and very well done.

Meme Monday: Lonely Passenger

Meme Monday brings you a weekly Internet Meme that we have found. Internet Memes are described as something that catches on like wildfire with Internet communities with no outside source of promotion. They exist purely for enjoyment and laughs.