A few weeks back, I asked you guys if you would like me to answer any questions. So here goes:

From Nicole:

Do you have any other past times other than scrapbooking and reading that you like to do?

I like to take very long baths and I enjoy doing genealogy. I also bake a lot of cookies and pies. Every so often I get a wild hair and make a quilt or a dress; I’m a good enough seamstress to make something, but not good enough to do it without a lot of aggravation and cursing under my breath. So that’s not very often. I suppose blogging would count, as well, but that is probably kind of obvious. I would say my primary non-scrapping activity is housekeeping, but I don’t think that’s really a past time, even if it sure passes my time.

From Susana O:

How do you get such great pictures? Do you use an DSLR? If so how did you learn to use it to get such wonderful photos? I love all the pictures you post and your children are so cute in every way.

First off, thank you! Honestly, I’m not that good. I get lucky and my biggest photo tip is just keep shooting frames. Most of the photos you see on this blog have about 100 pictures where everyone looks awful or the lighting is terrible or I’ve stuck my finger in front of the lens.

I use a Canon Digital rebel XT, and I’m quite happy with it. I started with a 110 mm PHD (Push Here, Dummy) when I was about eight years old. I went through a couple different 35 mm point and shoots before I purchased a film rebel in high school. When I got the chance to upgrade to the digital version of that I learned a lot very quickly.

I’ve always had an eye for composition, and I am good at seeing light, but having the SLR gave me a lot of artistic control and having the digital allowed me to see my mistakes and successes immediately so the learning curve was faster. It is easier to correct yourself when you find out you’re messing something up at the moment rather than finding out two weeks later when your film gets developed and you can’t remember what modes you were shooting in. All that being said, I’m still a total hack with a lot to learn!

I would love a nice, fancy photoshop program for my computer, but the versions I’m interested in are pretty expensive, so I use the very basic Microsoft picture it 7.1 that came with my computer. It allows me to crop, mess with tone and contrast, and convert to black and white. I can also remove a zit, which usually makes me feel really good until I walk by a mirror a few minutes later and wonder why it is still there.

My photo tips:

A) Always use natural light. Unless you can afford a great lighting system, natural light is your best friend.
B) Use the rule of 3rds when composing or cropping a shot. It adds visual interest.
C) Just keep on shooting. I figure if I get 12 really wonderful shots in a year, I’m doing a good job.

I also very much recommend reading Designing With Photos. It is photography for creatively-minded people. More art, less f-stops and numbers. It is also awesome because the entire book is so gorgeous you want to read it over and over just to see the incredible photography.

From Chandler:

Okay, here’s one: do you have a secret (or not secret, even) ambition, something you’d like to achieve one day after your kids are all grown up? (Like, I dunno, climb Mt. Everest or start a llama farm or something!)

I think I have pretty simple secret ambitions. I have always wanted to write a book. That’s on my someday list. My biggest recurring “fantasy” these days is living in the country, in a beautiful home of my own with a wonderful garden (I love the Mittleider growing system), a chicken coop, homeschooling my brood of children (which includes more children than I presently have) and having them be truly free range, organic kids growing at their own pace and feeling the wonder of the world without the immense amount of pressure we put on them these days. I’d like to accomplish this while canning my own vegetables, cooking lovely meals from scratch, sewing lots of useful things, enjoying the natural order of the seasons and being as self sustaining as possible. I’d want really good high speed internet and online shopping as well. Even in my fantasies, I ask a lot of myself!

This all requires more patience and energy than I currently posses, and leading a military life in frequent upheaval doesn’t lend itself to a lot of putting down roots and planting gardens that expect years of cultivation; we seem to bounce from one “crisis” to the next at warp speed, and spend a lot of time in survival mode. Moving! Being pregnant and really sick! Husband deployed again! Kid trouble! Family Crisis! Have a baby! Lather, rinse and repeat! Surviving all of this requires having a lot of inner peace, because there isn’t much to be found on the outside. This reminds me of very good counsel from James E. Faust,

“You are learning that sometimes the Savior calms the storm. Sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms you.”

I think that is why I dream of this secluded, self-sustaining home. Outer peace to help along the inner. A haven from all of the storms.

I am a lot more of an introvert than people suspect. I love to talk and be around people on a one on one basis, but really, I could be very, very happy tucked away someplace serene in my own little kingdom and only leave home a few times a month. Most of the things I enjoy I enjoy alone, and I find the older I get, the less I crave the social and the more I want to draw my own little family in and create a wonderful world for us. I am also a person who really enjoys work. I am happiest when I have projects to complete and my hands are busy. It is extremely frustrating for me to spend so much time coming and going and bouncing between activities and people’s many, many needs, when I very much just want an hour to scrub a floor or an afternoon to piece a quilt. I could be content living a very simple life filled with work and tiny accomplishments that served my family.

OK- there are more questions, and I will get to them. If you have another question, leave it in the comments section and I’ll write you back!

(Photos are baby mallards and young Canada geese- shot at Travis AFB, CA).