Thank you, babe. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for making me feel like a rock star by cheering for me after every song I play on Rockband. Thank you for all the nights we’ve stayed up just hanging out instead of watching the movie we rented that’s sitting on the kitchen table piling up dust and late charges (it’s been 7 or 8 days, I think it’s time to pop that guy back into the Redbox). Thanks for being so damn cool.

I haven’t found a way to really show you how happy you make me, but I promise I’ll spend the rest of my life trying.

Oh, and if this really is a dream, please don’t wake me… It’s perfect.

All photos taken by Visionyard Photography. Thanks, guys!

This was my bad/good breakfast the other day.

I made the breakfast for my queen and I, so I made the bacon by putting it in a cold oven on a rack over a cookie sheet, and setting it to 400 degrees (easy, easy, easy). The trick for the eggs is to put a little oil or butter in a small skillet, drop in two eggs and cover it with a lid. The heat that’s trapped cooks the top perfectly so when they’re cooked the way you like ‘em, you slide them off onto a plate. No broken yolks from trying to flip them. Boom. A few drops of the bacon fat that has been dripping into the cookie sheet go into a larger skillet with some veggies and the lid goes on them, too. The grease will give you some nice crispy bits and the little bit of water left on the vegetables after washing them will steam them at the same time. Boom again. Make some toast. Done.

Well, except for the eating part. Go on, get to the eating part.

Owen hung out in his fireman boots for a little while.

His mom wasn’t kidding when she told me he never leaves home without his train toys!

Just love his big eyes!

Standing oh his tippy toes looking at the ducks in the lake.

We walked along the train tracks leading up to the station where we took a ride to cap off a great day at the park!

When I was a kid, I hated broccoli, as most kids do (except my youngest brother, Danny, who has always liked veggies like a weirdo…). Lately, I’ve been craving it. Like a light switch, my (literally) unhealthy relationship with broccoli turned into a pining for it. I stopped daydreaming about fast food and hungered simple meals. Real food.

After finally realizing that the bad food I was eating would make me feel, well, bad (duh), I began making smarter choices when it came to food. I love cooking so this was also an excuse to try new things in the kitchen.

So, here it is, my simple, delicious, Cast Iron Salmon recipe*

Ingredients:

salmon fillet

broccoli

green beans

garlic (minced)

red potatoes

butter/oil

Bring the oven to 350 degrees with the cast iron griddle in it. Cut the potatoes into small pieces (around 1/2 inch) with skin on. Rinse the potatoes (very important) to wash some of the starch out so they won’t get all gummy and stick to each other. Dry the potatoes with paper towels or a clean hand towel so they don’t splatter oil all over when you start to cook them. Bring the griddle out and put it on a burner. Melt some butter on it add the potatoes. Brown them for about 10 minutes, turning them every few so they brown on a few sides. Cut the salmon filet into serving sized pieces then rub a little butter on them and add whatever kind of seasoning you like, I used Old Bay Seasoning. Put the salmon on the griddle skin side up to sear the meat. Throw the whole thing in the oven (with the potatoes still on it) for five minutes while you prep the veggies. I cut and rinsed broccoli and green beans, asparagus would go great with this, too. Make sure to dry the vegetables after cleaning them. Drizzle a little olive oil, sprinkle a little salt and pepper (I actually used a little Old Bay on these guys, too), add the finely minced garlic, and mix it all up, coating the green stuff evenly. Take the potatoes and fish out of the oven, flip the fish over skin side down and throw in for another 5ish minutes. Take it all out again, add the veggies to the griddle and back into the oven it goes. In about ten minutes the whole party should be done. Take the griddle out, take some pictures, plate it, take more pictures, eat it, then blog about it. (The last few steps are optional, except for the eating part).

The whole party, on one griddle.

If you like your vegetables a little softer, you can boil ‘em for a few minutes before you put them into the oven. Just make sure you dunk them in ice water and dry them off before adding the oil and seasonings.

*recipes usually have “measurements,” I forgot to actually write down exactly how much I put in. You like what you like, though, so, please, change the meal as you see fit.

I got excited about how it may look in a photograph so I pulled out all my gear, poured the body wash into a wine glass, and started shooting. I know I was at it for about an hour and a half because Rachel got through a couple episodes of Vampire Diaries while I worked. I’m sure I would’ve finished earlier if I wasn’t half watching with her but, hey, the story was getting good.

High school vampire dramas really wear me out so I left the editing for another day. Messing around on the computer led me to the photo at the top of this post. The body wash is bright yellow with little blue beads suspended in the bubbly soap but, you can really see all the detail when it’s black and white. Thousands of bubbles fade into the back with only the ones in front in focus.

Look around you, the ordinary is anything but if you really look closely.

A lot of you know about my 2010 new year’s resolution, to take and upload a photo a day for the whole year. I ended up about halfway there at 173 photos. After a few months of steady daily pictures, life happened. I got engaged, bought a house, and got promoted at work in around the same month. The photos took a bit of a back seat. When I started uploading again, it started to feel a bit like a chore, and as I got better, I started to be a bit harder on myself when it came to the quality of the images I uploaded. Even though I didn’t keep the resolution as it was made, I got exactly what I wanted out of it. I can look back and see a progression in my eye as a photographer, and a bit of a visual diary for the year. The interaction with the photos, from simple “likes,” to comments, to critiques, all were amazing.

I’ve made a few resolutions this year. In fact, you’re reading one of them. 2012 is the year I plan to really kick my business into gear. Part of that has to do with building this site. I welcome you to come back often. Watch with me as it evolves. I’ll be talking photography, family, life, interests…

I’ll now be able to really tell the stories behind my photographs. Cheers to the new year, and new beginnings.

EV

P.S. a HUGE thanks to my good friend, Steve, who has a similar resolution. Check him out as he blogs about his world, including being a new daddy. Much love, Steve.