The top photo is what my camera thinks the white balance should be -i.e. “auto” white balance.  It’s very yellow-toned/warm.  The bottom is the correct white balance for the room & lighting currently.

I switched back into auto and snapped a photo, then went back into my new custom white balance – what a difference, huh?  (yeah, don’t look too closely at the photos, I just snapped them for illustration purposes….not 100% sharp…plus shooting at ISO 2000, aperture 1.8, shutter 1/80, Nikon D700, Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens) It’s totally dark now, but I can’t wait to try it out in my front room where I shoot all the time!  You would not believe how I have to edit the photos to get the result I want….it’s ridiculous!  (see this post for an example…)

My neighbor Nichole and I were chatting on the phone last week and we talked each other into getting one of these.  SO glad I did!!  And it folds up into a nice little 6″ circle that fits perfectly in my camera bag!  Another cool thing is the opposite side is a silver reflector!  BONUS!  :-)

Anyway, thought I’d share….  :-)

OH, and the cool thing is since I shoot in raw, I can adjust the temp and tint to match my custom white balance in case I mess up and have it set to auto wb. In other words, my temp was 2600 and tint was +3 in the “test” image.  If I put the sliders to that same temp/tint on the “auto wb” files, the color looks way better.  Apparently it’s even easier to do this (i.e. sync from the “test file” & apply to multiple “incorrect color” files) in Light Room – but I don’t have that.  :-(   So in other words, you can mess with the temp and tint to get it where you’d like it (pretty much) if your white balance is off and you shoot in raw, but it’s soooooo much easier to just get it right straight out of the camera.  :-)

The puppies were ADORABLE!  They are a Bichon Frise/Shih Tzu mix – their mom called them “Teddy Bear” puppies.  They came all the way from WI (6 hr drive) for a party this weekend.  Since they were only 1 week old, the owners didn’t want to leave them behind – so they all made the trip over! 

Here’s proud mama – Kai – with her babies!  :-)  This is Kai’s first litter…she was very protective of them and needed to know where they were at all times!  This shot was super hard to get!  They kept wanting to curl up into a big ball and tuck their heads into each other.  Jennie is so great at posing!  I loved assisting her!  Claire and Jacy were in heaven!  awww!  It would be so fun to see what they look like in a few weeks!  Too bad they live so far away!  Thanks for having me over Jennie!  I’ll work with you any time I can!   

btw….I just want to say that this whole photography industry can be very competitive and catty.  It’s so nice to have someone like Jennie that is so NOT that way!  I really appreciate that about her (and many of my other photography friends!  You know who you are!    )

Then some jokester put this critter in there.  I think it’s the new neighbor because Scott & Jon have pulled a few pranks on him…but it could be a number of different people….hmmm….no one is fessing up! 

He’s a cute little fella, huh?  So far we’ve gotten some yummy broccoli, some radishes, and a green bell pepper!  It’s looking good!  Nice job guys! Jon & Scott (used Sheye’s “pretty gritty” action here).

Then wouldn’t you know I accidentally DELETED all the pics! So I put the chair back to see if she’d sit there on her own again over the next few days and of course she wouldn’t. So Jacob had the idea to give her some catnip so she’d be a little more cooperative for pics.

Catnip + Amber = these pics! haha!OK I’m a dork, but these just crack me up! Of course Buddy was VERY jealous that Amber was getting all the attention, so he got in on a couple pics too. A few days later, Jacob found this tree frog outside – so so cute!