Baked Caramel Apple Goodness

On Friday night, I had my little sister and two pseudo-sisters over for wine, dessert, hot tub action, and a movie. It was a perfect girls night to lay low and enjoy each other's company. Because the biggest loser competition is still in full effect at work, I wanted to make something tasty that wouldn't blow the calorie scale...and I found the PERFECT treat! Baked Caramel Apple Goodness!

Try this one, folks. You'll LOVE it!

The ingredients include: a couple glasses of Opolo Rousanne (at least that's what I started with), four large green apples, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal, 2 tablespoons caramel dip, and 2 tablespoons softened butter.Begin by slicing the butts off your apples so they all sit flatly in your greased baking dish;

Core the apple;

In a mixing bowl, mix cinnamon and nutmeg. For giggles, I used fresh nutmeg from Jamaica!

Add the oatmeal;

Soften the butter (hello Moo Cow!);

Then add it to the dry ingredients;

Being sure to mix it all together and form a paste-like substance. Then fill the apples, place in the baking dish and cover with foil. Bake for 40 minutes on 400. Remove, add a glop (yes, that's a technical term) of caramel and bake for another 5 minutes.

Remove from dish and serve with tongs...the apple will be very soft and squishy, so the tongs will be the best thing to serve with;

Then have your guests slice those bad boys open;

They will ooh and ahhh;

And eat every last bite!

Eat up and enjoy this one, friends!!!

Also, visit Tasty Tuesday for other fantastic recipes this week!

A Great Day for Snappin and Shootin

Yesterday was a great day for snappin and shootin. I met up with Kara-Noel (from Eli's Lids - the cutest kiddo hats in the whole world) in the morning AND my friends the Fitzgeralds for family photos in the evening.

It was a HOT day, but it's worth it when you get to see loving families running around enjoying one another!

It's also well worth it when you get to have snuggles and giggles with one of these...Followed by a couple of these after the kiddo goes to bed!

Thanks to the Fitzgeralds and the DeCaros for an awesome night! I laughed more than I have in a long time! XOXO!

Announcement: Jen Johnson Photography is Open for Business

Sorry for the lack of communication this week, dear readers! Yes, I've been lame. Work has been quite busy, but productive, and in my down time (if there was such a thing), I've been focusing quite a bit on my photography, too.

And speaking of photography...

I've got a little secret! A while back, when I decided to pursue a side career in photography, I began a photoblog. But I didn't really tell anyone about it because I wasn't quite ready to display my portfolio, etc. I wanted to get a few more shoots under my belt so you wouldn't have to look at the same five pictures over and over again. And you know what? Several of you found me out in spite of all my secretiveness. : ) See, about a month ago, that little button up there on the top that says "Snappin & Shootin" was relinked to my photoblog. Some of you are super sleuth's and figured it out.

In order to be transparent and let you in to my life even more, I'd love to share www.jenjohnsonphotography.com with you. If you're based in Southern CA and are looking for a fun photographer, I'd love for you to look around my site a little and consider using me! I promise it will be a fun experience!!!

And to show you just a taste of what's on the photoblog, here's a snap from last week's wedding that I assisted on. I give you Liz and Brock:

Tool Talk Tuesday: Remodeling This Life with Skill Saws and Jigsaws

My friend Emily over at Remodeling This Life has graciously allowed me to feature her this week for Tool Talk Tuesday. She and her hubby, and two doll babies, live in Florida and have been turning their house into their dream home. She's the queen of spending wisely and I love how she's so transparent in her blog about being fiscally conservative. I wish I could bring her here to So Cal and be my angel over my shoulder whenever I have a big money decision to make! Regardless, let's take a look at their latest project...a bathroom remodel using skill saws and jigsaws!!!

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Tool Fools 101

For the last 10 days, my husband and I have taken on the task of remodeling our tiny bathroom. We don't have a huge, fancy arsenal of tools, but we have tools that get the job done. Here is a breakdown of what was used as we worked on this project.

Skill Saw with diamond blade - this was used for rough cuts on tile under baseboard and some exposed straight edges (at the threshold into the room)

Some tips for using a skill saw to cut tile:

• spring for a tile cutter


• if you don't want to spring for a tile cutter, practice. Be careful. Cut straight. Don't cut your fingers off.

Jigsaw with diamond tile blade - used for cutting some radius pieces in the shower drain. This system was so bad, we ended up using the skill saw in the end to complete this task.

Jigsaw with a wood blade - used to cut beaded board

Tips for cutting beaded board with a jigsaw:

• measure twice, cut once

We're not complicated people, can you tell? It's amazing with this kind of tool advice to offer, that hubby has been able to rebuild our house from the ground up at all. But he's made it work!

Other tools used for the bathroom project include a 10" miter saw and 10" table saw for bead board and trim, one of the most important things - the level set! I gave hubby his current 3 piece level set several years ago as a Christmas gift. I must have foreseen a crooked house in our future. Several hand tools like a hammer, wood chisel and caulk gun were also used to make this bathroom beautiful. Oh and let's not forget the paint brush.

Check out my blog later this week to see the end results. We are almost done!

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Thanks Em, for stopping by and giving us a sneak preview of the bathroom remodel! I CAN'T WAIT to see the big reveal!!! XOXO!

Learning to Brine Like My Celebrity Chef Boyfriend

I have a Celebrity Chef Boyfriend...just like I have a Movie Star Boyfriend (George Clooney)...and boy can he cook. This week, he taught me to brine chicken and it was divine!!!

Who is my Celebrity Chef Boyfriend, you ask? Why none other than Tyler Florence. I just love how boyishly charming he is...and please, a man who can cook is HEAVEN.

I saw Tyler on The Today Show awhile back talking about recipes for the 4th of July and he mentioned brining chicken. I didn't even know what a brine was (even tweeted that!), and yet, I was convinced that I needed to do it...because my Celebrity Chef Boyfriend told me to.

I invited some friends over on Saturday night in order to try out Tyler's brine...and we weren't disappointed! The chicken was tasty and juicy and the flavor really permeated the meat. I can't imagine grilling chicken ever again without using this recipe!!! And you should use it, too!!!

Because the chicken needed to be soaked in the brine for 2-3 hours, I started with THIS important ingredient...hey, it was a super humid day...and we don't DO humidity in So Cal.

The other ingredients include: 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons sea salt, 2 quarts of water, 2 cloves of garlic, and four sprigs of fresh thyme. You'll also need two freezer size zip lock bags.

Begin by mixing your salt and thyme together.

Add the brown sugar.

Add the garlic. YUM. Then mix your dry ingredients with the water.

Place your chicken breasts into a plastic bag, mix with your brine liquid, and soak in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

When your guests arrive for your bbq, they'll be so well fed that they'll indulge your desire to play Catch Phrase.

Even when they're cranky because their baby is due in two days and their back hurts.

Or, they'll fall asleep because you're boring.

Regardless, your friends and family will love this brine and your chicken will be the most flavorable delight you've ever experienced!

Wedding Sneak Peekaboo

Sooooo, if you follow me on Twitter, you heard that I assisted at a wedding today. I was nervous, yes, but SO excited to get out there and build my confidence! In 3 hours, I LITERALLY shot 650 images. Is that crazy, or what?! I found that it was good to shoot so many, because I'm still learning exposure, etc. Regardless, here's a little sneak for those of you who really wanted to know how today went!

There are a MILLION more where these came from, so I'm sure I'll be sharing them down the road. Thanks for all the encouragement...see ya soon!

PhotoFANatic Friday featuring Love Me Do!

Today, I'm really excited to bring to you Love Me Do Photography as our PhotoFANatic Friday feature! Love Me Do is the brainchild of Nadine and Carina, two exceptional photographers based out of Philidelphia. I found these two amazing photographers on Joanna Goddard's blog, A Cup of Jo, and she featured a tattoo'd wedding. The pics were earthy, raw, and really beautiful, so you know what this blog stalker HAD to do...hop on over and see everything else they've got going on. What I learned is that Love Me Do Photography is a killer team with amazing vision and storytelling abilities!

Meet Nadine and Carina:

1. Your background is in fine art. How does that make your wedding photography aesthetic different than others? We didn't start out as wedding photographers. We each attained a BFA in Photography and actually started out and still currently work as commercial and fine art photographers. We use the technical experience and concepts we've learned to strengthen our wedding photography. We are very much inspired by fine art photographers and look at a lot editorial work to create unique and sophisticated compositions. Our first approach to a wedding is to look at the beautiful lighting, the compositions of the space, and the many details rather than a strict photojournailistic approach. We are also very conscious of our equipment and what lenses we use and the depth of field, to create a specific look to an image. For example, we will frequently use a tilt-shift lens to mimic the selective focus look of an old 4x5 camera. We want to take photographs that narrate a story of the entire day, while portraying our subjects as genuine as possible in a fine art sensibility.

2. Love Me Do is comprised of two teams. How does this partnership work and how do you push each other to produce better images? Each of us have spent years working on our own in photography, while sharing resources with other photographers. Since we have a common field and interest, we thought, "why not bring our businesses together, and proceed as a team?" Thus, Love Me Do was formed! Not knowing what the outcome would be like, we dove into a joint business, and we've really seen some great benefits come out of it. For starters, we inspire each other! We are able to share ideas and techniques, and are continually helping each other out when one of us comes across something new we want to try. It is also great when one of us needs extra hands on some of the more extravagant weddings or when one of us is already booked for a date, we can refer one another. It helps that we have a deep respect for one another's work, for we each represent Love Me Do Photography and have to trust each other's abilities. And lastly, we've discovered that we are able to reach more eyes and ears by spreading the workload of marketing. The more mouths we have talking about our photography, the easier it is to get heard!

3. Are there any shoots in your portfolio that have stood out as one of your favorites of all time? Nadine: Well, every new wedding is exciting, but I just did a really fun shoot at the Union League in Philadelphia for Carolyn and Chris's wedding (found on our blog). I think I had so much fun beacuse I shot their rehearsal dinner, the wedding, and the brunch the next day, so I really got to know the family. The groom was awesome, and loved having his picture taken, which doesnt happen to often. The kids wore fairy wings and the centerpieces were all different version off mystical tree stumps and flowers. There was this amazing gypsy drum band that came to play and everyone loved it. There was just a lot of genuine love with this couple and it was also very sweet how they also included their 2 year old son in the wedding. One of my favorite pitcures is the three of them walking down the isle after the cermony and the look on Carolyn's face is priceless.

Carina: Woah this is a hard one. I think that every week we do a new wedding, I find myself in love with a new picture. So naturally I love the most recent wedding we just photographed of Bess and Matt (on our blog). They are just a great fun loving couple that we worked with really well and they looked amazing! But if I were to look back on certain images... there's one shot of a bride, Kristen (also on the blog), that I took while we were waiting for the groom to round up his family for a group portrait. I noticed that I had a minute to spare, and thought, "why not take a few shots of the bride right now?" And boy am I glad I did! Everything was just right, the composition, the light, Kristen looking beautiful, and right as I was taking the shot, the wind blew ever so slightly to give some movement in her dress for the picture. I couldn't have dreamed of a better shot of that day. In one click of a shutter, I was able to remove all the busyness, chatter, and natural stress of a wedding day. You wouldn't think that there was a crowd of people right behind me waiting to get their photos taken just as I took this breath-of-fresh-air of a shot.

4. When you're shooting, what's your first priority? Lighting, emotion, natural moments, etc? With our backgrounds, we both would say lighting and composition are the must-have foundation for each photograph. If you have the technical experience down, the natural moments just come to you. We both are very big on how we pose and not-pose people. When it comes to dealing with the bride and groom's pictures, we very much want the couple to look natural, at ease, as if they were alone and being themselves together. We will make suggestion of standing and hand placements and kindly tell people to move into the beautiful light. For most people, having their picture taken this much is a new thing, and we like to do things like make them laugh and tell them to wisper something in the others ear, to just to make look at ease and relaxed. It often creates that "natural moment."

5. What was the best piece of advice you were given when you were just starting out? Nadine: Thats a tough one because I cant think of one single piece of advice I was given, other than shoot, shoot, and keep shooting. I think the single most important thing is creating your personal style. It's great to look at websites, blogs, and magazines for inspiration, but you really have to shoot A LOT to understand your own taste and aesthetic. This is really what is going to set you apart from other photographers, and people want to hire you for "your unique look." Another thing is, take a breathe. It can be extremely overwhelming starting your own business, but the thing I always remind myself is that its a process. You're going to start off small, and that's okay. Slowly you will build your amount of equipment and lenses and your clients. Like Carina says below, I also only buy what I can afford at the moment. I have found weddings are a very "word of mouth business", so its good to have great relationships with your clients and other vendors so they reccommend you. In terms of marketing, you should look like a cohesive package from your website to your stationary to your presentations. Its number one to have an easy and clean navigating website, and having a blog has been a real asset to our business as well.

Carina: My first photo teacher said to me, "Don't ever buy your own photography equipment... have other people buy it for you." When asked by other students what he meant by this. He elaborated on how we should look for jobs in photography, get paid to do a good job, then use the money we just made to buy better equipment. So far this has worked really well for me because I started searching for anything and anyone that would hire me as a photographer. I just put myself out there and started getting jobs in which I had no experience in, such as movie set photography, head-shots, architecture, and events. I learned so much from these experiences having to figure things out as each new opportunity came my way, creating a pretty good background for myself. If I never tried to do something new, I would have never succeeded in creating a name for myself. Plus I never put myself in debt by buying extremely expensive equipment. Hello to no credit card payments!

I LOVED this interview and feel like Nadine and Carina really gave us amazing insight into their business and art. Thanks SO MUCH to you both for opening up and sharing!!! I love your work and am so excited to show it off!!!

All gorgeous images property of Love Me Do Photography.

My Gardening Secret

My gardening secret...is that I forgot I had one.

Let me back up. During the big remodel the deck project, I decided to get a bunch of potted plants and flowers in order to bring color and femininity to my outdoor living space. I had my wine club girls over for the big reveal and a bbq and then I didn't really go out there much for a while. And guess what?! I TOTALLY forgot I had any living items out there. It's so bad that I don't even recognize what kind of plants and flowers were in those pots!

Yep, I'm lame.

How do YOU remember your garden/potted plants? Have any ideas on how to keep plants blooming in the summer heat? I'm BEGGING you here...PLEASE help me out! I promise not to do this again and will heed all your advice!

I'm adding this post to Hooked on Fridays, because let's face it, if I could garden, I'd be hooked on it. But alas, I've got a problem. I'm hoping that the Hooked on Fridays bloggers might be able to help a sister out with some fab advice!!!

Mad Men Yourself!

Have you Mad Men'd yourself, yet? I'm not sure this really looks like me, but I like to think that if I were living in the 60s, I'd be dressed to the 9s at all times and would naturally never leave the house without a martini in my hand! Check it out!

By the way, does anyone watch the show? I haven't seen it yet, but I think John Slattery is a SILVER FOX, so maybe I should start watching!!!

High School Memories

I'm joining in Kara Noel's (@ElisLids) high school link carnival today, because a) she's a pal o' mine from childhood; 2) this subject is just too funny; and III) I know you're all dying to see pics of me as a blond.

When I hear people say that they'd redo high school all over again in a heart beat, I start to get hives. I would NEVER go back again to all the drama, raging emotions, and stress. Having said that, I do have a ton of fun memories interspersed throughout those four years at Bayside High - of Mr. Belding, my best pals AC, Zack, Kelly, and Lisa, and all the hijinks that ensued. PSYCH.

I graduated from El Dorado High School in 1995 - yes, that makes me 32 (how the heck did THAT happen???). I drove a red truck, then a convertible white Celica, which was my DREAM car!!! I was involved in my church youth group, spent my summers waterskiing, shuttling my little brother and little sister around, but the bulk of my time was devoted to DANCE DANCE and more DANCE!

I was co-captain of the dance team at good ole EDHS and my teammates and I spent about every waking minute together...which is probably why those years were filled with angst. We competed frequently, won many awards, and didn't have to worry about our figures due to all the practice! A wild night out for us was toilet papering someone's house!

In the early 90s, I was a huge fan of Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Wilson Phillips, and Sir Mixalot. Yes, I just said Sir Mixalot. I'll have you know that I can still sing every word of Buttermilk Biscuits. Sad, but true.

I was over at my mom and dad's house today to find some pics and my mother (the keeper of ALL things) even had my accounting text book. Ya, I took accounting in HS for one semester. Not sure if I ever really learned how to balance my checkbook.

I turned 16 at the beginning of my sophomore year, which means, I was the driver for all events. And for my brother and sister's random activities. At times, it felt like I was a taxi, but then again, I drove my red truck over a dip on Rose going 50 miles an hour at least six times a day with all my friends...naturally, we wore no seatbelts so we could fly in the air and hit our heads on the ceiling.

And...the real confession...I may or may not have been a contestant in the Miss Orange County Pageant. Don't judge the hair helmet. I danced (shocker), wore my first suit for the dreaded interview, and pranced my little hiney around in my classy one piece swimsuit and four-inch heals.

Bubbles!!!

I'm entering the following photo in the iHeartFaces Challenge this week...because this week is all about bubbles...and because I really just love the pic!

Hope you enjoy the pic and the many others over at the challenge. May the rest of your summer be filled with the excitement this little guy is showing!

PhotoFANatic Friday featuring Betsy King

This week's feature for PhotoFANatic Friday is all about Betsy King from Fort Wayne, Indiana. She's got a ton of talent and also has a great brand combined with beautiful storytelling. I feel like seeing the images on her blog are only part of her skill...the way she opens up and let's the reader in is totally awesome! I can tell that she's going to be very successful in this business because photography is all about selling yourself and therefore your work (this I know from meeting many wonderful photographers and reading Dane Sanders awesome book Fast Track Photographer!).

Betsy's products run the gamut for families. She shoots maternity, babies, children, seniors, and families. Her work is crisp and clean and filled with emotion. She also has the same name as my cousin. ; )

Okay, enough of my thoughts...let's get down to business!

1. How long have you been shooting and what kind of training do you have? I have always loved art and photography and even though I had experience with dark room and playing with pinhole cameras growing up, I didn't have the confidence in myself to pursue it in college. As a matter of fact, I started out in an art program, but chickened out. Yep, I'm a late bloomer. BIG TIME. For years I ignored the artistic part of me and tried doing other avenues until I could no longer ignore it. (You'll read more about that below when I talk about my brand.) I picked up my first dslr camera when I was pregnant with my son in 2006 and once he was born, I photographed him every day and absorbed as much information as I could through practice, books and information on the internet. My husband taught me about ISO, aperture and shutterspeed, which he knew from just being the smarty pants he is. (God bless him for explaining it to me 85 times.) I had a good friend, Bobbi Sheridan of Bobbi + Mike Photography who was very supportive of me as I grew and would help me along the way. I never dreamed of doing it professionally, but people saw my personal blog I kept of my life with my son and the calls for portrait sessions came rolling in. (I was seriously that mom with a dslr that I'm sure totally annoyed "real photographers" like crazy.) However, the photography community (both online and locally in Fort Wayne, Indiana) has been amazingly supportive of me and kind. (For that I am eternally grateful!) I quickly threw together a business the fall of 2007 and worked insanely hard to keep up with everything that first year. I ran the first year of my business with my husband under the name "Betsy & John Photography." My husband is a composer with his own business so as my business grew, he struggled to have time for both. So I changed my business to just me, "Betsy King Photography", this past January, 2009.

I feel like I have had my own personal workshop whenever I need it as some of my closest friends are amazing photographers and I can go to them for help and inspiration. I have been very blessed to be surrounded by very giving talented people. However, I have gone to the David Jay Free to Succeed tour seminar and I did attend the Brianna Graham workshop in Michigan this past spring. My post processing has grown a lot since that workshop. (Though I spend more time on it now.)

2. What equipment do you use? Favorite lens? My camera is a Canon 5D with a battery pack, prime lenses and natural light. My favorite lens is my workhorse 50 1.4. I'm pretty barebones with my equipment, but honestly, I'm ok with that right now. I'm getting the job done. My goal is to obtain the 50 1.2 eventually. I sometimes grab my 28 when I need something wider. My 85 has been collecting dust all year. I need to rediscover that lens. If I'm in a wooded area I'll grab my reflector, and I always have it with me, but these days, I keep things simple, using natural reflectors like buildings or concrete.

3. What has been the biggest factor in taking your images to the next level? This one is really hard, because I feel like I'm still learning and growing so much. Looking back through, I think as my post processing knowledge has grown, so has the look of my work. Also, I think once I focused on the light more (and the setting less) and my connection with the person I'm photographing, my images went to the next level as well.

4. Your brand is very unique. Tell us a little bit more about how you came up with it! As I pondered what I wanted my new new look to be, I ended up needing to go back and look at where I have come from. I was making a logo that will symbolize my photography work, but I was also branding myself as the artist of the images I create. I really wanted it to have deep meaning to me. Through out my life I have allowed myself to feel trapped by what I thought other people wanted me to be. The child in me once said, “I want to be an artist.” However, the voice I listened to was the that of the people who said, “Be a teacher.” When I realized that wasn’t the path I was meant to do, I listened to another voice that said, “Sell this stuff that you’re not passionate about.” Though that path lead me to learn many things and meet so many wonderful people, I still felt very trapped. I was stuck in a cage of what I thought I was supposed to be doing, not what my heart truly wanted to do. Then I experienced the deepest loss I have ever felt. I lost my husband to cancer. He was full of passion and talent, but as hard as he fought to live, he had to leave all of that behind. From that point on, I knew that I needed to fill the days I have left with what my heart is meant to do. The times in my life when I felt trapped is where the cage in my logo came from. It’s not a big ugly cage; because that cage, or those experiences where I felt trapped, taught me many things about the world and myself. So it’s not a bad thing at all, considering how much I learned from those experiences. The bird? Yep, I’m that bird, who is free from the cage and ready to fly.

What else does the cage and the bird mean? Well, I suppose it’s up for anyone’s translation but I also wanted it to portray the idea that my photography is outside of the box. (Too bad “thinking outside of the cage” isn’t a popular phrase…) My clients are that happy little bird and I’m photographing them, not just in front of the confinements of a backdrop, but out in the world, flying free.

I came up with the idea of the bird and the cage, but my amazzzzzing graphic designer, Ryan Hunley of Second Street Creative put it all together for me. I wanted the look to be quirky, imperfect and approachable. Like how I (hopefully) come across. I knew I liked yellow, but he put the color pallete together, my blogsite background and my marketing materials. Handing all of that over to a graphic designer was the BEST decision I have ever made.

5. What was the best piece of advice you were given when you were just starting out? I recall my friend Bobbi telling me to just shoot what I love, and I'll keep attracting that. To this day, I remind myself to focus on what I love and It's so true. For example, I truly love photographing high school seniors. I spend the majority of my energy communicating with them and I feel like my love of photography really shows when I shoot them, so they are starting to be the bulk of my business. (Yippee!!!) What can I say? I'm still 17 deep inside.

Some technical words of advice I recall getting? Don't let your shutter speed slip below 160. Don't shoot women from below. Use Lightroom to expedite the processing process and don't get too caught up in Photoshop. (Those words of advice were promptly negated when I went to the Brianna Graham workshop...)

Ok, now for advice that I learned from mistakes I made early on: A photography business can (and will!) take over your life if aren't careful. Set boundaries early for yourself and for others. Block days off in the week and during the month you won't shoot. Only shoot what you love and let the rest slide. My first year of business I photographed everything and anything that came along and gave up a lot of family time to shoot and edit. I know photographers need to do that to get their feet wet, but I think I could have handled my time better. Here's where the harsh life lesson comes in: The first holiday season I shot like an idiot. I took on EVERYBODY who needed christmas cards that year and had no cut off date. I didn't know I had the right to say no to people. When it came time for me to host my family Christmas gathering amongst all the craziness, I was in the worst mood, totally stressed out and wasn't really present for my family. Oh, and it was also my baby's first Christmas too. January came and I was obsessively shooting as much as I could and on the high of creating my business. At the end of that month, my sister succumbed to depression and took her own life. Everything fell away and I saw myself focused on everything except my own family. The last time I saw my sister was at that Christmas gathering and I wasn't even fully myself. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't change what had happened, but I could change how I lived my own life. I knew then that I would never (ok, I would try very hard) to not let my photography business stress me out or take over my life so much that I can't be present for my family. I only shoot 4-5 sessions a month and I don't shoot in December anymore. So my advice is to put your family first, if that is really important to you. If I don't have a strong family life, I can't do my job as a photographer well.

See what I mean about her opening up and sharing herself? I'm certain her clients love her all the more for it and refer her left and right!!!

Thank you Betsy, SO MUCH, for sharing with us and letting us in!!!