HELP I Heart Faces!!

Help! I'm new at photography so I thought I would participate in the I Heart Faces Constructive Criticism thingy today.

My husband is a steer wrestler (aka bulldogger) for those of you who don't know (that's not him pictured below though) anyway I bought my Canon Rebel XS to learn to take photographs before I spend the "bigger bucks" on a more advanced camera. I bought it specifically to take Rodeo pics.

So help me out here. I was using a 300x zoom lens, not on a tripod because lets face it, who wants to carry around a tripod to rodeos?? It was really sunny obviously and I got great detail in the dirt but the bulldogger's face is way out of focus and the exposure is weird. I played with this photo in Corel PaintShopPro but this is the best I could get.

I'm not gonna lie, I have no clue how to tell you what settings I used because I've already deleted this picture off my camera, but I'm pretty sure I was in Tv mode and it was up close to has fast as I could get it to go.

***Edited to add
Focal Length: 281.00mm
Exposure Time: 0.0003s (1/4000
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv: 800
White Balance: Manual
Metering Mode: Center Weight
Exposure: Shutter Priority
Thanks Jessica!! Didn't know that was possible!***


What can I do to make these more clear??? Help!

Also... How in the world do you take great photos at Night Rodeos?? If I turn the ISO up to get a clean shot I've got white noise galore. With the largest aperture I can't get a clear shot, it's too blurry. I've been told to get a lens with a larger aperture, 4.5 is what I'm using now. I can't afford to buy a new lens right now... any suggestions???

Thank you for all the help I can get!!!

Look What I Did

*****You will have to excuse the quality of the Photos today. For some reason my computer here at work, (where I'm supposed to be working not blogging) is not correctly displaying the color or the brightness of the photos so I can't tell if they are too bright or too dark. I've tried to adjust every setting but I think the monitor is just about to die. ****

I got Crafty Last night!! I'm on a pretty tight budget and I'd love to go to a high end home furnishing store and just go crazy buying picture frames and fancy things to decorate my house with, but I'm suck with the Dollar Store so I'm working with what I've got here... I think it turned out pretty good! Again...the photo quality is gross.

Before. (I put the photos on the wall on the Right) Excuse my dirty house.
After. See how much better!

I was tired of looking at plain yellow walls in my hallway. I have bought some prints on e-bay that I'm going to frame and put on the left side of the hallway but I want some really nice barn wood frames for those prints so I'm waiting until I can purchase them. On the other side of the hallway I decided to put of a little collage of pictures. Eventually I would like to get barn wood frames for these photos but these Document Frames from the Dollar store for $2.99 will have to do for now.

First I took some plain white cardboard I got at the Dollar Store for $1.00 (for five small sheets) and painted them with the leftover paint I had from painting my Kitchen. The color just so happens to be a shade of green that I don't remember the name of.

As Sean was leaving for they gym I started to paint. He said, "Jenna! Go on the back porch." to which I replied.. "then I can't watch TV." Then Sean said, "Sometimes I think you are just trying to ruin the carpet so you have an excuse to get new carpet." I then mumbled under my breath "You're exactly right." Apparently he heard me and just laughed and walked out.

Well I didn't ruin the carpet because I'm not 5 years old but I did let the paint dry while watching My Name is Earl.

After the paint was dry I took the insert from the document frame and with a pencil, traced the insert onto the dried green poster board to insure the poster board would be the correct size to fit into the frame. Then I cut it out.

I took some photos the other night at the Arena that Sean really liked and printed them on my computer for free. (unless you count the cost of ink and paper blah blah blah) Then I taped the photo into the center of the poster board and hung them on the wall.

I used a pencil and measuring tape and some very hard Math to make sure they were all evenly aligned on the walls. This took me about 2 hours in all. The paint dried pretty fast. Sean left for the gym when I started and then I finished before he got home. He didn't notice them. When I finally pointed them out he was impressed.
Total Price: $20 (not included paint and photos because I already had that stuff)

So that's what I did last night! What did you do??

Wordy Wednesday

So I got this e-mail today and the title was "Little gator in East Texas" ....OK that's not little. Now, I'm from Southwest Arkansas, not far from East Texas... I've seen a few alligators, we have one that lives at the golf course next to my house and suns on the 18th green. I've even seen one while driving that stretched across my lane from white line to yellow line. Every time I've seen one I get super scared.

If I ever saw anything like the gator pictured below, which looks like it's been around since the dawn of the Dinosaurs, I would never get close enough to it to kill it. I would like to think I would run screaming in the other direction but I'd probably panic and roll up into a fetal position and pray...

Anyway my questions is..
What would you do if you saw this while fishing (still alive)??

Want more wordless Wednesday Posts??

Whoa Betty

Betty Crocker you will be the death of me!!! As most of you know I'm on a Gluten Free Diet because of My Celiac Disease. Gluten is what is in wheat flour. As long as I keep it out of my diet, I'm great! This eliminates most of the foods that would make my butt HUGE, like bread, cookies, cakes, you know, all the fattening stuff.

But now Betty Crocker has come out with a line of Gluten Free Foods. Now, there are a lot of gluten free recipes for cakes and cookies, but they are all a little dry, grainy, and crumble very easily.

Our Kroger and Our Wal-mart here in Benton hasn't had the Gluten-Free Betty Crocker line on the shelves yet, but Linda in the Claims department here at work saw them on her shopping trip in Little Rock and picked me up a box of Cookie mix and a box of Cake mix.

I made the cookies on Saturday and OH MY GOSH. I was in heaven. I'm a little addicted to Sugar, which sucks because too much of it will cause me to be hypoglycemic. But I didn't care this weekend! I ate half of the box of cookies before I baked them. Then the other half I ate for dinner. Can you believe that!!?? I ate Cookie Dough and Cookies for EVERY MEAL.

I felt very guilty because they were so good I couldn't believe they were gluten free! They weren't grainy, they didn't crumble, they were AMAZING. I can't wait to try the cake but I'm gonna wait at least a week so I can work off all the cookies I ate last weekend (yeah right) ha!

I went to bettycrocker.com and they have tons and tons of recipes that are all gluten free that you can make with the cake and cookie mixes. Like the Ooey-Gooey Rocky Road Bars...Just that title makes me hungry!
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 box (19 oz) Betty Crocker® Gluten Free chocolate chip cookie mix
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
3 cups miniature marsh mellows

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix butter, egg and vanilla until blended. Stir in cookie mix until soft dough forms. Press dough evenly in pan.
2. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until top is golden brown and center puffs slightly. Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes or until chocolate begins to melt. Gently spread chocolate evenly over crust.
3. Set oven control to broil. Sprinkle nuts and marshmallows over melted chocolate. Broil with top 4 to 5 inches from heat 20 to 30 seconds or until marshmallows are toasted. (Watch closely; marshmallows will brown quickly.) Cool 30 to 45 minutes to serve warm or cool completely, about 2 hours. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store tightly covered.

Oh Lord help me stay away from fattening food!!! If you're on a gluten free diet...or even if your not, these are AMAZING try them now!