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I love coming up with ideas, writing posts, and taking photographs for this blog. But I’m sorely lacking in discipline when it comes to putting my blog out there on social media.

I rolled my eyes when Instagram became a thing. Just another social media platform to deal with. I held out for some time, but I finally joined.

And now I love Instagram. I found some gorgeous accounts to follow. I still don’t post consistently, but I’ve found it’s a great way to document all those home, garden, and exploring moments that aren’t quite big enough to be a blog post.

So for fun today, I’m sharing a few of my favorites.

Ombré Cake

Recently I hosted a little family lunch to celebrate my mom’s birthday and my niece’s first birthday.

I can practically count on one hand how many times I’ve baked a cake. But for this occasion, I knew I should step up.

So I tried my hand at this strawberry ombré cake.

The stated 30-minute prep time is for other people. For me it was more like two hours. And somehow I wound up with extra batter, so I did six layers instead of five.

Since Instagram is easy to use with cellphone photos, I’m guessing that’s how most people use it. But I go old school and use “Bertha,” my entry-level DSLR camera (a Canon EOS REBEL T5 ). It’s a few extra steps to post my photos, but I feel Bertha gives me more artistic control than my cellphone does.

I took the cake photos with the EF-S 18-55mm lens that came with Bertha. I call it my “street lens” since it serves many purposes.

Late Snow Fall

We had a beautiful late snow fall. Chris and I took a walk in the park. And yes, I lugged Bertha and the street lens along.

I thought this mix of pristine nature and urban decay was Instagram-worthy.

Spring is Just Around the Corner

There is still so much for me to learn about using a DSLR camera. But I know this much: If I use Bertha on the manual setting, which I do if I’m not hurried, I can control the f-stop.

To me, this is the biggest advantage to using Bertha. I never use a flash so, by controlling the f-stop, I can add light to a photo.

And I can control the depth of field.

I love a shallow depth of field to shine a spotlight on the subject of my photograph – in this case these tulips.

Here I used an f-stop of f/3.2. Shutter speed 1/20 sec., ISO-800.

The background is blurred just enough to make the tulips pop – while still adding some context.

For this photo, I used my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens. This fixed lens brings everything up close, and I’ve found it’s wonderful for portraits. One great advantage of this lens is that it goes all the way down to a 1.8 f-stop. Now that’s a lot of light – and a shallow depth of field.

Mom’s Chandelier

Using the street lens, I photographed Mom’s beautiful winter chandelier decor. I was able to keep the background dark and create contrast by experimenting the Bertha’s light meter.

Street lens at 29mm, f/4.5, ISO-800, 1/25 sec.

Estate Sale Find

I found this adorable little Towncraft travel case at a neighborhood estate sale. Although I’m not sure what I’m going to use it for yet, I just love the soft vintage colors.

The 50mm portrait lens somehow makes the case look better than it does in real life.

History and Intrigue

Last October I visited my friend Jennifer in Washington D.C. We had so much fun exploring the city. I’d never been there before, so it was invaluable to have a local showing me all the history and intrigue I might have otherwise missed – especially such a fun-loving local.

A few of my D.C. photos made it to Instagram, including our late-afternoon visit to the United States Supreme Court.

Just before it closed, I got this photo. Later I dialed down the color saturation so the photo is almost black and white.

I love plants and gardens so of course we had to visit the United States Botanic Garden near the Capitol Building. Little did I know that the greenhouse itself would be the most interesting part.

And I was surprised to find a Monarch butterfly in the middle of the city – near Smithsonian Castle.

I captured it with my Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS STM Lens. By using the right f-stop with this telephoto lens, I can isolate subjects from afar by creating that blurry background that I love.

Shot with the telephoto at 131mm, f/7.1, 1/2000 sec., ISO-800

I lugged Bertha, the street lens, and my telephoto lens all over D.C. I took too many photos. Here are just a few that I wanted to post on Instagram but didn’t.

The U.S. Capitol Building in the late-afternoon sun

The June Bug

This photo appeared in this blog post and on Instagram. It’s one of my favorite photos of our vintage Airstream trailer, the “June Bug.”

Here we have Bertha on a tripod, and the street lens at 35mm, f/4.5, 25 seconds, ISO 200.

What’s fun about this photo is that it was taken around 11:00 at night.

Using a tripod, I set up a very slow shutter speed (25 seconds!) that brought in a surprising amount of light.

I used a similar method to take this twilight photo of the June Bug at Yosemite a few months later.

For this one, we have Bertha on a tripod with the street lens at 23mm, f/5, 8 seconds, ISO-200

On the automatic camera setting, the light from the campfire could easily have overwhelmed the photo. But by going to the manual setting and selecting a slow shutter speed (and using a tripod), the trailer and surrounds are also visible.

For more photos from our trip to gorgeous Yosemite, check out this post.

Not Bertha

We are very lucky here in the Pacific Northwest to have one of the finest annual flower and garden shows in the country: The Northwest Flower and Garden Show. (In fact, the floral artist that I featured last year in this post won the people’s choice award at this year’s show!)

Mom and I go to the show every year. The intimate little vignettes and table settings really pull me in, and I shared a couple on Instagram.

Not wanting to lug Bertha through the crowds, I brought my point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera to the show. This little camera can do a lot. It has a great zoom (much better than my cellphone), and it’s compact.

But as you can see, the photo quality is not quite Bertha.

I love the frayed gauze table runner and the moss here. It’s definitely something I’m going to try.

A few weeks prior, Chris and I took a brisk bike ride to a city park.

Chris loves to collect vintage camp stoves, and for fun he brought a compact Swedish Optimus stove along and made us tea in the park.

Although taken with my cellphone, I thought this photo was Instagram-worthy.

Of course then I applied an IG filter. Most of my Bertha photos don’t really need one.

More to Learn

Every time I look at my Instagram feed, I’m reminded of how much I still need to learn about photography – both the technical side and setting up compositions.

Bertha is an entry-level, very affordable DSLR. So could I do better with a higher-end model? I wonder. Somehow I think Bertha still has a few more tricks up her sleeve.

All posts on this blog are for entertainment only and are not tutorials or endorsements

Resources:

My photos were taken with this equipment. But since models change and are upgraded from time to time, it’s always a good idea to verify compatibility between cameras and lenses before purchasing.

Bertha and the street lens: Canon EOS Rebel T5 with EF-S 18-55mm lens
Fixed 50mm portrait lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens
Telephoto lens: Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS STM Lens
Point-and-shoot with a good zoom: Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera

Some of these photos and others are available at Story Time, my Society6 shop

My Favorite Instagram Moments