While visiting San Diego last month, we were lucky to celebrate Milli’s birthday at the San Diego Zoo.  This zoo is known as one of the largest and most progressive zoos in the world.  It was so large (and so hilly) they have escalators in the park to get you from one section to another.  You could also catch the bus!

While walking around, I remembered an article I had read about how many wildlife photographers actually take their images in a zoo.  And many times, they take it from outside the cages.  Naturally, I was determined to figure out a few tricks for taking great “wildlife” pictures.

Gear

My first mistake was taking my entire camera bag.  I had to watch my stuff more, and lens changes became a nuassance.  An hour into the day, I’d settle on using my telephoto lens for two reasons.First, I had a better chance snapping close-ups of animals.  Second, I could capture my family’s natural reactions without being in their face.

Sunny Day

Before you are shattered with too bright photos, remember that between 11-3 is the worst time of day to take pictures.  And what time do you usually visit the zoo?  We already have the sun working against us.  The first step to combat this is to change your ISO to 200.  I would go above 400 unless you are in a shaded area.  The second thing you can do is learn about spot metering (but that’s a whole other can of worms)!

Avoiding the Fence

My next obstacle was avoiding the dang caging.  I tried to get creative by moving to the outskirts or kneeling between bars.  When I couldn’t avoid a fence, I made sure to take my picture with a shallow depth of field.  I was able to focus on the background image (the lion above) and blur everything else (the fence).  Remember to use a wide aperture and zoom in to create depth of field.

Eye Contact

You could wait hours for an animal to look directly at you, but be prepared for the chance they do.  These are the most emotional images you can take of an animal.

Animal Behavior

We aren’t attracted to zoos because we get to see the animals in real life.  We also enjoy it, because we can see how animals behave differently.  Avoid taking full shot images of the animals sitting or standing.  Zoom in to highlight a day in the life of *insert your animal*.

Catch the Excitement

Remember that this visit to the zoo is about your family and the excitement ringing through the air.  Instead of approaching an exhibit to photograph the animal, position yourself to take a picture of your child approaching and reacting to the animal.

Friendships

A trip to the zoo is a great activity for families to hang out.  We were blessed to meet this family at our RV park.  Capture the special interactions between friends or siblings.

People Will Interfere

I have to share.  I have to share.  People will get in the way of your photo.  I could not for the life of me get a picture of this hippo teaching her baby how to swim.  Too many heads, too much excitement.  I tried anyways.

Save the Blurry Ones

Everything moves at the zoo.  Don’t worry if a few of your shots end up blurry.  Keep them if it’s only image you managed to snap of that moment.

With a little practice, you’ll stop wishing for a national geographic photographer to accompany your trip.  Instead, you’ll be your best photographer. Gear up for spring, pull out your cameras, and head to the zoo!

Living in an RV gives me a special opportunity to live in a million different communities and landscapes.  The view out our RV windows changes all the time- and sometimes drastically.

We recently rolled into the Los Angeles area and more specifically, Hollywood.  LA is not known for its large acreage properties, so we were lucky to strike a deal with a non-profit organization called DOOR.  A friend of ours is current working with the organization which basically places six volunteer workers in a house in an impoverished neighborhood.  The six volunteers spend the year creating a community hub for basketball, homework help, gardening, and more.

DOOR has invested in a basketball court and were generous to let us park on the back half.

RV Tagging

It’s pretty rare to see an RV the streets of LA, and it’s a “no-no” to park your RV on the street especially overnight.  LA is notoriously ran by gangs, and RV sides are a huge target of spray-paint vandalism.  There are several RVs parked on the streets that are adorned with grafitti.

It’s rare that these RV are occupied by income earning citizens.  They are typically the home of handfuls of homeless people.  In fact, there are several of these postcards floating around Hollywood that say, “Living in Your RV?  Contact PATH for homeless assisatnce”.

Does this mean I’m homeless?

I’m happy to announce that we avoided any tagging.  While we did park the RV overnight on the street one time, we were in a decent enough area to avoid any trouble.  The rest of the time DOOR welcomed us to park in their fenced in court.

PATH

During the day, the six volunteers in the DOOR house commit to 30 hrs/week of work for another organization.  Our friend works specifically with PATH (People Assisting the Homeless).  I was surprised to learn that there are over 80,000 homeless people in LA.  Adam joined Josh (Adventurer Friend) for a day on the road to learn about what kind of assistance is available for the homeless, and also what kind of assistance the homeless even want.

Homelessness is a tricky subject, because some people don’t want to change.  They don’t want to not be homeless, and that’s an impossible thought for most of us.  Many don’t believe they deserve another life.  On the flip-side, there are tons of homeless people that are looking for a way out.  How do you know who’s who?

Weight, debt, and stuff held me down for a long time. I felt too tired, immobile, and unmotivated to get outdoors and play. I felt too worrisome about owing people money, remembering my monthly payments, and the amount of money I was loosing to interest rates. I felt cluttered by a bunch of small things that I was constantly cleaning up.

Then I started shedding. I started shedding, because it wasn’t enjoyable.  I wasn’t enjoyable.  Sure I had nice things, but my nice things weren’t enough to make the weight, debt, and extra crap worth it.

I wanted freedom.  I love that I can say all these things in the past tense. I’m no longer immobile, debt-loaded, or cluttered, and it’s the most revitalizing feeling. I feel so maleable. So open to opportunity. So un-conflicted. So joyful.

You can do it too. Chances are you have already been masterminding how to get started.

Create a Vision

Don’t get too carried away. I’m not a big fan of the “five-year plan”, because we become blind to new options. But what do you need to shed? How much? What would take you from a groan to a sigh of relief?

Want to shed weight?

I don’t have a miracle story of how I lost fifty pounds, and it changed my life. It only took ten, but I instead challenged myself to accomplish physically difficult tasks. For me that was running a half-marathon and hiking more, but for you it’s probably different. I highly recommend SparkPeople as a free, simple way to huge food tracking database and great group accountability. They also have a million recipes that I live by.

Want to shed debt?

Debt creeps me out. I find it more exhausting and limited than anything else. There are a million great personal finances websites to get you going like GetRichSlowly, Wisebread, Budgets Are Sexy. For more information on our personal struggle with getting out of debt, visit our site ManvsDebt.

Want to shed stuff?

I love a great bargain. Unfortunately, great bargains lead to buying lots of stuff we don’t need. Which then becomes our crap. Or we don’t replace the old stuff with the new stuff we bought, and it then becomes our crap. Sell Your Crap is a guide that builds your motivation to declutter and then tells you how. Sell on Ebay, Amazon, or Craigslist? Yard Sale? How much is my junk even worth?

Want to design your own life?

In the end, remember that you can design your life. By shedding the access, I have the ability to pursue staying at home, traveling full time, and learning photography from scratch. I’ve learned to pay with cash and budget. I’ve learned to buy more produce and play new sports. For ideas on lifestyle design, visit ChrisGuillebeau and TammyStrobel.

60 Days of Shedding

It’s your time to break free. I’m challenging you to make a pledge to yourself. Start with one areas above. Set a goal for how much you want to shed in the next sixty days. Perhaps, you want to slim down your spending by $200, start budgeting. Maybe you want to donate three boxes of crap. You choose. But most importantly, do it.  Break the shackles and start saying YES.

What is your pledge?  What do you want to shed in the next sixty days?  Are there any resources I could help you with?  Why is this important to you?

That's me, age 2! Always dressing for a special occasion.

Even as a child, I use to think about what my future family was going to look like.  When I met new families, I would reflect on which of their traits I wanted my family to have.  Later in high school and college, I thought in more depth about the kind of life I’d like to have with my husband and children.  How many we’d have.  The sports we’d play.  The vacations we could take.

I sometimes felt desperate to know how everything was going to turn out.  Sometimes, I felt doomed to live a spinster life because there was to perfect match for me.

And then one day, I got engaged (literally we went from friends to engaged), and I suddenly felt silly for being so …desperate.  I said to myself, “I can’t believe it’s actually here.  Now I know who that person is going to be.”  So I began fantasizing about how great our married life was going to be…

I did eventually learn my lesson that creating expectations can actually ruin an event, a relationship, or a career.  My first year of marriage was tough, because I was so busy rebuking the expectations I had wildly created.  I had to slow down and look at how my relationship with my husband was really developing, not how I assumed it would.

That’s when I learned the most important key to a good relationship:  acceptance.

Once I began accepting him for him, me for me, and us for us, our marriage flourished!  In fact, it’s turned into a better relationship full of more opportunities than I could have even fantasized on my own.

You may be feeling desperate like I did for something to happen. Or you might already be chugging along on your “plan”.  Stop and think for a minute about the relationships you have.  Are you really accepting those people?  Are you really loving your children for being their quirky selves?  Are you trying to upkeep an image you created before you had the information you do now?

Live in the moment.  Accept.  Be.

That's Milli, age 2. Fashion runs in the family.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Link up your post below.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

“Simple living isn’t about depriving; it’s about getting rid of what doesn’t belong to make room for what does.” – Erin Doland

Nearly three years ago when we evaluated our life, our stuff, and our debt, I wish I had these words of wisdom ringing in my ears.  During those times, I felt an energy.  An excitement.   I wanted to simplify my life, but had no idea where to begin.

My thoughts felt against the grain.  What I wanted seemed like a simple life.  It seemed like the life of poor people.  Simple lives are unconventional.  They aren’t poor, they’re actually very rich.

No tv.  No grill.  No patio furniture.  No monthly shopping trips.  At first, I liked the challenge of being deprived, in a survival of the fittest kind of way.

It wasn’t until several months into my challenge that I realized I wasn’t deprived at all.  I hadn’t really missed my things, because they weren’t important to me to begin with.

Eating out however was another story.  We’d cut our eating out budget drastically to $50/month.  It was doable, and we did it.  But we were miserable.  We caught ourselves eating unhealthy choices because they were cheaper.  We felt deprived.

Simple living isn’t about depriving.  It’s about making room for what matters. We were wasting money on goods and services that were insignificant to us.  By getting rid of those, we made room for things that made us happy like eating out.

We had hard evidence that we could strip away the crap to make room for the important.  But this was only the beginning. We eventually ditched all of our things, so we could begin from scratch.

Here’s to rebuilding…

We thought rebuilding would be an incredible experience.  We could include anything we wanted.

While we had the freedom, it took exploring to learn how to utilize it.  We had been trained for so long to find “stability” in our things.  Now we had none.  We had to rediscover how we really wanted to shape our life without letting the crap sneak back in.

1.  Scrap the plan

Now that we weren’t strapped to a place, we decided to travel abroad as a family (two adults, one infant) to “live in Australia”.  Adventurous right?  Not entirely.  We had an exact plan for where we would live and work.  We wanted  no surprises. After three days in Australia, we left our plans behind and began backpacking. Soon after that, we landed in New Zealand.

We realized that there are opportunities we don’t know about yet.  By planning too much ahead, those great life opportunities will slip by your fine-tuned agenda unnoticed.

To Start:  What is your grand plan?  How did you create that plan?  How would you like to spend your day, the whole week, the month if nothing else mattered?  There are options for doing what you love every day.  Find them.

2.  Relationships Overrule

We were mostly sad to leave home because of relationships.  While traveling, we preferred meeting locals to exploring famous landmarks.  We knew that making new and maintaining old relationships were a core part of our happiness.

Within our family, our relationship with each other became more prominent.  We shifted from “make a lot of money, have lots of nice things, enjoying each other when we’re well-off” to “Learned to live now, because for all we know, we may be poor for the rest of our lives.  But we’re sure as hell going to enjoy it.”

To Start: Always too tired to spend time with friends or family after work?  Is it like that every day or just on occasion?  We get caught in race to be successful or make more.  We work so hard that we view this time as a “sacrifice” for the good life.  Don’t spit away the people in your life now.  I’ve always said, “It will be nice to have that great big paycheck, until you realize you have no one left to share it with.”

3.  It’s okay to move slowly

I am a proud multi-tasker.  I love checking off to-do lists.  I always think I should be doing something, going somewhere.  What happens if I don’t do the dishes today?  Or tomorrow?!  I spend time existing with my family instead of swarming through the house picking up behind them. I have time to really listen to conversations.

I also learned to plan less in my day from living carless.  I LOVED my carless days.  Surprisingly, I became more punctual.  When walking or taking public transport, travel time is a little less predictable, so you have to give yourself plenty of time.

To Start: Think about the household stresses you have.  Are each of those tasks really important?  Is it a family need or just a personal standards you’ve set?  Could you develop a new system so everyone is engaged in household clean-up?  Are you just “serving your time” in certain groups or clubs?  Nobody says you have to do any of these tasks.  You’ve designed this routine.  Start remodeling your day.

4.  Pick one or two hobbies

I’m guilty of being interested in too many things at one time.  I’ve never felt really accomplished in any one area.  Over the last two years, I’ve learned to commit to one or two hobbies.  I don’t feel guilty dedicating time or money to my hobbies, because I’ve cleared a space for it.

To Start:  Are you struggling to keep up with clubs, practices, maintenance?  Clear out a few hobbies.  Get really good at one or two, instead of dabbling in several.  Try to come up with a hobby the whole family can enjoy so everyone isn’t involved in different activities.  Most importantly, have a hobby.  Everyone needs playtime, and hobbies are the most justifiable source!

In all the beautiful landscapes and biological wonders I’ve seen, nothing compares to the freedom of shaping my life.  I live a different life.  An unconventional life.  But I certainly don’t live a deprived life.  What’s holding you back from designing your life?  Begin remodeling.

Are you living an unconventional life?  Would you like to be?  What’s one thing that you need to strip away?

This plant attacked me. Details below!

We are currently visiting Phoenix, Arizona parked at the Usery Mountain Regional Park.  RVing isn’t always glamorous, so we RVers really cherish the times we find clean park facilities, great company, and beautiful scenery.  Here’s a peak at my backyard this week!

And then I was attacked by a cactus…

Milli and I went for a brief quarter mile loop hike that runs behind our RV.  Knowing it was a clear path and not far, I didn’t think to change my shoes.  That was a mistake.

I stayed in my designated, cleared path; but for some reason, I was targeted by this bugger.

The Culprit

I swear it was outside my pathway and jumped to get me!  Crazy, I know, but it came out of nowhere!

So I posted this excerpt on twitter, “I was attacked by a cactus today.  All Milli had to say was ‘Oh goodness’.”  What two year old says “goodness”? Hehe, anyways.

An Arizona friend, I think jokingly, asked if it was a jumping Cholla.  So I immediately googled this plant and had goosebumps race up my skin when I saw the dastardly culprit from my walk.

The Wikipedia image caption states, “The cholla spine has microscopic barbs which make removal extremely painful.” Agreed.  From the picture of my poor foot above, I’m sure you can see that they weren’t coming out easily.

Needless to say, I deserved it for wearing sandals.  It hurt at the time, but I can laugh about it now.  Am I accepted into the tribe now Phoenix-ers?’

Kids, spouses, family friends- everyone is around yet you feel so lonely.  You are in two places, but not enjoying either.

Feels like someone woke you up out of your sleep to tell you something.  Your mind is partly there and partly trying to hold on to the dream you were having.  It’s hazy.

During the day, you courteously maintain your routines, put on a happy face, small talk, but you are itching for a spark, something citric, a belly laugh, edge, giddiness, SOMETHING!

Don’t feel pity for yourself!

Pity will turn your grey sky a shade darker.  Do something about it!

There are five things I do immediately to bust a funk, so I can feel happy again:

1.  Sit upside down on the couch or hang over the edge of my bed. Either way, get your feet in the air!  It feels good to feel the blood rushing, and you can’t help but feel youthful with your body flipped around.

2.  Close the shades, shut the door.  Shake it. Body roll, shimmy, move it, because “Hey mommy, you sexy!” If you are little more hardcore, have a mini-mosh to let your rage out.

3.  Take off your bra. Lose the underwear.  Go freestyle in some way.

4.  Work out your funk.  Run, walk, swim, bike, dance it out. I’m known for a slightly bizarre method of meditation.  When I run, I isolate a problem.  I start from my head and “gather and push” the problem down through my body, careful not to leave any of it behind.  Eventually it exits through my feet.  Then I move on to the next one.  I know it sounds weird; try it, and you’ll be amazed at the focus you gain.

5.  Devote an hour to a child, pet, friend, or spouse.  No interruptions.  No agenda. I find I tend to get into funks when I’m trying to multi-task the wrong pair of tasks.  Like trying to write or work on the computer while watching my child.  Disaster waiting to happen.  If I devote that time to engaging her or doing a chore she can help with, then we are both happier and more sound.

Most importantly remember that it’s hard to enjoy the things around you when you don’t enjoy yourself.  Once you’ve learned to love yourself, you’ll finally understand why the people in your life enjoy you.  Sometimes, we find it hard to believe.

If I’m still feeling a bit funky, I refer to Rowdy Kitten’s 8 Simple Tips to Overcome Loneliness to rebuild my spirit.

Tried Plan A and Plan B, but still not cutting it.  Check out my friend Stephanie St. Clair at Blissbombed for advice on tackling those deeper conflicts.

Lastly, I go through these cycles a couple times a year.  Plan A and B always bust my funk.  In fact, in college, my roommates and I coined the saying “Courtney’s Back” when I could finally bust it.  So here’s to you.  Get busting, because you are coming back.

What strategies do you use for busting the funk?  How often do you get in a funk?  Do you find it happens more now that you are married, have kids, or are committed to a career?

I don’t really care for David Shannon books.  *gasp*

I find little quality in his writing and the illustrations seem so aggressive.  So many people, parents and teachers alike, rave about how much they love his books. Do you really or are you suppose to LOVE his books?

David Shannon stands out, because a lot of his illustrations derived from pictures he drew as a child.  His books resemble how life looked as a child.  Very cool concept, but I find it’s lacking depth and rhythm and a handful of other storytelling traits.

Unfortunately, Milli is wildly attracted to the images in It’s Christmas, David!.  She picked up this story faster than her other picture books.  So maybe David Shannon really is on to something.

In the end, I am going to regift this book to another child, mostly to keep our stash fresh.  Pick up a David Shannon book and decide for yourself.  But first, I’ll let Milli read it one last time:

Are you a David Shannon fan?  Are there picture books you really don’t care for?  What picture books would you recommend?

About two years ago, I decided it was time to use my SLR for all its worth.  I was the mom running around with a great camera and no idea how to use it past AUTO.  Use these tips to help you move away from auto and snap professional photos of your children, grandchildren, or pets.

Photographing motion certainly takes a little thought beforehand.

The rule of thumb is that for:

• clear, crisp, caught-in-the-air motion, you need quick, high numbered shutter speeds.
• blurred, motion-as-it’s-happening, you need slow, low numbered shutter speeds.

For this project, I wanted to have crisp images, so I selected the shutter speed 1/3200 sec.  For me this is more or less trial and error, although there is an elaborate formula for finding the appropriate shutter speed.

When I’m taking sequence shots, I make sure that my camera is set to take multiple images instead of one.  I also flipped my dial to TV- shutter priority mode.  In this mode, I can set the shutter speed that I want to stay constant, and the camera automatically adjusts the aperture.  You can see below that the shutter speeds remains at 1/320o sec, but the f-stop changes.

This especially helps in this situation, because the lighting changes as Milli runs down the ‘catwalk’.

f/2.2 1/3200 sec

f/ 2.5 1/3200 sec

f/2.5 1/3200 sec

f/2.0 1/3200 sec

f/1.8 1/3200 sec

Feel free to ask any questions about where to find these settings on your SLR in the comments below.  Today’s your day to switch out of AUTO!

Adventurous.  Observant.  Grounded, yet experimental. Love a sense of home like old blankets, to-do lists, and photo albums.  Chocolate milk can fix any bad mood.  And grocery fresh daily muffins for that matter.  I love to exercise, but not too much.  Nothing beats the countryside  in the summertime and sweet tea.

Once upon a time, I wanted to be a secret spy. I realized I’m a bit too clumsy, and I sleep too much.  And I can’t run all that fast.  That, and I don’t have the sexy hair for it.  But I did think I could fit in with the mafia and obtain insider information…

I’ve changed from my secret spy days, and I’ve opted for the family instead.  But family life doesn’t have to be any less adventurous.  We’ve had fun in suburbia, scrambled around living abroad, and now touring the US via RV.  Luckily, bad hair days are expected, and I’m given naps!

I originally used this space to document one aspect of my family life:  Milligan.  I posted images of what she was seeing as we lived abroad in Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand.  She was a nomadic baby.  But the truth is that I was also a nomadic baby.

In fact, being nomad isn’t just for travelers.  We are all nomadic.  We are always changing, trying to find our best composition. As soon as we find it, find “who we are”, we shift.

We are constantly moving.  Switching hobbies, jobs, favorite restaurants, hairstyles, relationships.

Nomad Baby is now my space to share my journey in finding my best composition.  And when it shifts, I hope you are there to laugh through it with me.

Feel free to contact me at courtneyrbaker (at) gmail (dot) com.