Well, this week I was supposed to share a wonderful and fun birthday cake with you, but the weather got in the way and I was stranded in North America’s most eastern town, missing my son’s birthday party. He did have a grand time with his friends though and a bunch of store-bought cupcakes. I’ll try and make the cake for him in the next couple of weeks, and if I do, I’ll share it here.

In lieu of cake, I thought I’d share my new online tabletop photography class I’m teaching on atly.com. I decided after teaching a photography workshop last fall, that I’d take the content, expand on it and adapt it for online learning. This was quite a bit of work, but I’m super pleased with how it turned out – even the world of video, which was very scary for me.

In this course, I will walk you through seeing and using available light, effective framing and creative composition, using surfaces and backgrounds, colour choices, getting the most from simple equipment and building your visual brand. You will leave this course with skills that can be put to use immediately on your blog or online shop. And you’ll have life-long access, which is perfect if you want to refresh your knowledge or work on an assignment later on.

If you have a chance, check it out. It would be fun to see you there.

Last week I did this little branding exercise. Inspired by House of Brinson’s Styling class I wanted to figure out the colour palette I was subconsciously using in my photographs. I had consciously decided on my actual blog colours (logo, titles, text, sidebar, social media), but I had not paid specific attention to my photo colour palette.

So, this little exercise was taking it a bit further – stepping back and looking at my work for the past 11 months. And this is what I saw – a colour palette of neutrals, blues, some dark purples and occasional pops of green, pink and yellow. There is a theme going on!  Also note that I had no purple until I did an upcoming holiday shoot, which will go live in December and then I used purple for a recipe that’s going live on Monday, so this is a little sneak peek for you.

Sometimes it’s worth the time to go back and look at your work as a whole – making sure that things are cohesive, well branded and tell a story.  Have you looked at your work recently?

Some specials I want to share with you this week:

• Talking about colours.
• Aran and Sarah make Cranberry and Quinoa Scones
• Purchase Make Your Day – the craft ebook. Some lovely ideas there.
• Spinach and Egg on small pizzas? yes please!
• Personalized wrapping paper? Awesome!
• Herb and Fruit Pairings