Photograph Action and Experiment with Shutter Speed

The shutter speed effects several different aspects of the photo. These photos are of my son on his bike because I wanted to demonstrate how the shutter speed is affected by movement. Let me explain.

What is Shutter Speed?
Whenever you take a photograph your camera opens its shutter, which is basically a hole, to let in the light. The length of time that this shutter is open for is the shutter speed. Short speeds are only fractions of a second while longer speeds can be up to half a minute or more. When we have our camera set to S mode we manually choose the shutter speed. On my camera this varies from 1/4000 (very short) to 30s (very long). The camera then automatically chooses an appropriate aperture (the size of the opening) in order to take in enough light for the photograph.

When we take a photograph with a short shutter speed the camera can't take in as much light. (When you move on to using M mode which is fully manual then you can widen your aperture while also setting your shutter speed to compensate for less light.)  Less light can be really helpful if you are trying to shoot on a very bright day. However if you are shooting when it's not so bright a short shutter speed just results in a dark photo:

When you are shooting something that is moving, as we were for this challenge, if you use a longer shutter speed you just get something blurry:

In fact if you use a shutter speed slower than 1/60, even if your subject is motionless, usually the result is quite blurry unless you use a tripod. The natural shake in your hands will create blur for shutter speeds slower than 1/60.

Shooting Action in S mode
If we wanted to photograph something moving and have a totally crisp image then we would need to use a very fast shutter speed (1/2000-1/200). However some blur is good sometimes. The next photograph was taken with shutter speed 1/15 which is quite slow. But I moved the camera with the movement of Boaz so he stays mostly in focus and the background blurs. This makes it clear in the photo that Boaz was moving. This took quite a few attempts to get a good shot but with practice it gets easier.

I can't answer the question 'How long should my shutter speed be for shooting action' because it will vary greatly depending on how fast your subject is moving. You will have to play around with this until you get a feel for it. So if you haven't already then go out and take some photos on S mode.

Have some fun, Zoe. x

Dished up: Chilli Beef Quesadillas

Quesadillas are a favourite in our house. For us they are a welcome alternative to pasta, rice and potatoes and are nice and easy for our children to eat as they are essentially a fancy sandwich.

I first discovered them on BBC Good Food site. They are traditionally a Mexican food so the fillings reflect that but the ones I first made were filled with sweet potato, feta and chorizo and were absolutely delicious. Often I'll use a cooked chicken, as I did in the chicken and spinach lasagne and throw it in with some onions, peppers, spicy BBQ sauce and some cheese. You really can fill them with anything. Most recently I followed a recipe for a chilli beef filling and it was one of those times that while I was eating I found myself thinking, I could do a much better recipe than this.So here is my attempt.

What you need:
8 tortilla wraps
500g beef mince
Olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1tsp paprika
1tsp cumin
1tsp chilli powder (hot if you can handle it)
200ml beef stock
250g passata
100g cooked sweetcorn
200g cheddar (coarsely grated)

Just a little note on the wraps for those of you in the UK. Tesco do some excellent value wraps. They are just as good as the normal ones but a little smaller. For this recipe they are perfect. If you buy the slightly more expensive ones you may find you only have enough beef to fill 6. If you're feeding 4 adults it will save arguments if you have 8 so make a little more!

Prep time: Give yourself an hour to make the sauce and assemble the quesadillas. This isn't all hands on time. Mince is a cheap cut so cooking it for longer always does it good. Even better, make the sauce in the morning or the night before to allow the flavour of the spices to develop.
Cooking time: 10-20 minutes depending on how big your griddle pan is.

What to do:
1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a low heat. Soften the onion so it is cooked but not coloured. About 10 minutes. Add the garlic and spices and cook for a further minute.
2. Turn up the heat and add the beef. Break it up with a spoon and turn it over until all the meat is browned.
3. Add the stock and the passata and bring the sauce to a simmer. Leave over a low heat for 40 minutes or until your sauce is quite dry.
4. Season really well and stir through the sweetcorn. Remove from the heat.
5. Lay your wraps on your work surface and divide the sauce between them, spreading it out to cover half of each wrap. Meanwhile heat up your griddle pan. (A frying pan works fine but you won't have any fun stripes on your quesadillas.)
6. Sprinkle the cheese over the meat on each wrap and fold the wrap in half giving it a good press to stick it down.
7. When your pan is really hot, dry fry the quesadillas for a minute or two on each side, fit two in the pan at time if you can. Cut them in half to leave you with quarter circles and serve with a salad, potato wedges or both!

 

If you do have any left over though they are great for lunch the next day. Cassie xx

The Elisalex Dress: Take One

I have fallen in love with dressmaking. My goal was to make one item of clothing a month and I am already on number 3. This is the Elisalex dress from By Hand London. I mentioned before that I was tempted to try one of their dress patterns and this is it. I have been tempted to buy it for ages but only decided to take the plunge a couple of weeks ago. I am now totally in love with dressmaking. It is such a pleasure to be able to make something and then wear it, especially when it's as lovely as this dress. The shape is very flattering and gives the illusion of an hourglass figure. I chose to make my first Elisalex from some leftover vintage fabric from this quilt (did you recognise it?). Admittedly I was freezing when taking these photos so I can't really wear it yet but as soon as the weather warms up I will for sure.

As for the Elisalex pattern itself I found the instructions easy to follow and simple to sew. I have never put in a zip before but the online instructions broke it down into small steps to make it easy. The result is almost perfect- which is good considering it was my first zip. As you can see below you can zip the dress right off! Ooh Lala!

If you are thinking of buying the Elisalex pattern yourself there are more detailed instructions on the By Hand London blog which are worth reading if you have any doubts but there are some instructions which come beautifully packaged with the pattern.  The pattern also comes with alternatives for the sleeves and my next version will use the short sleeve variation (rather than this sleeveless one). I'll be making it in time for spring. Then I plan to make a long sleeve version nearer Christmas.

You can expect to see quite a bit more dressmaking around here. I am fairly sure I am going to smash my new years goal and make well over 12 items this year so watch this space! Zoe x