Today, while tooling around on the Queen's website, I found something I had never seen before. She has an area where she posts about hotel rooms in cities she has visited. I loved it! And since she doesn't always stay at the Holiday Inn, there are some pretty unique posts. Her tour promoting her cookbook has enabled her to be in some wonderful cities, and it looks like her sister, Betsy, finds great places for her to stay.
This area of her blog came to the surface when I learned her trick about steadying herself when taking pictures indoors, or in other low-light conditions. She uses the hip cock strategy. You steady your whole body, almost creating a human tripod, by leaning to one side, taking weight off of both feet and putting it on one. Your body doesn't fight with itself to keep steady, and if you cock your hip to one side and then lean on a wall or doorway, even better! She goes on to show several pictures of herself using this technique, and they were all in hotel room bathrooms. Most likely that is the only time she photographs her own image in mirrors.
I have tried to use her photography tutorials before, but some of them tend to be a bit technical for me. Nevertheless, I find myself returning again and again, hoping to garner some bit of knowledge from her. More than the photography info, I am attracted to her everyday life on the ranch bits. Just about the time I think, "wow, I sure am tired today," I read a post from her that describes how her family has gathered and sorted cattle or wild horses, weeded the big garden that is watered by a center pivot sprinkler, and picked up or loaded 300 tons of hay -- then they came back to the house for breakfast. Let's just say we are in different seasons of our lives, she and I.
