I love asking questions....and most of the time I love answering questions.

Except 'What's for dinner?'. For some reason this one irks me.
Especially when it is asked after we have been on the road all day and arrive home at 4:30.

Hurumph.


But, just in case you want to know.

We are having ribs tonight.


On to the questions....


1. Chin hairs. Amy J in SC want to know how to get rid of them once and for all.

Amy, I don't know.

Not a good way to start the Q & A. :o)

I just want to say that if the hair on my head grew as fast as the ones on my chin...you could all start calling me Lady Godiva.


2. I did not watch America's Got Talent. Did the best man win, Robin?
I am looking forward to Dancing with the Stars. But am still baffled by the "stars" that have been chosen.
The previews to House do look fantastic!
I tried to watch Leno but got bored with the man singing at the car wash. I changed the channel and doubt I will go back.

3. Di....You are a wonderful communicator who writes the most wonderful letters. That is your natural gift. I think that will be your best way to stay in touch with your daughter. I think college kids would love packages. Mine never got them. Poor Booshay kids. I have figured that if my kids want a taste of home....they can read the blog!

4. Alicia, I do very little to advertise donna boucher photography.
I have a website, this blog, word of mouth, Moms in Madison write up, and google.
If you type in children's photographer madison wisconsin....I come up at the top.
If you just type my name in a google or bing.com search...my business comes up first.

donna boucher photography


5. Aimee,
Richard Avedon inspires me lately. I saw a big book about him at Anthropologie a while ago and I was so, so, impressed!

Here is a cool link I just found.


famous photographers


6. I would imagine you need to be far away from the group in order for them all to be in focus.

7. Yes, I shot today's pictures with an 85 1.8. I like it for portraits.

8. Carolee, Have a wonderful time at the Secret Workshop. Come back and tell me all about it!

9. Pam O,
I use the oldest blogger template in the world. It is so old that I don't have a way to give my blog posts a title.
I type up my posts in 'compose' mode. I upload my pictures to flickr. Then I get the code from flickr.
I copy and paste my code in the body of my blog.
Lately I have been sizing my pictures to 700 x 500 pixels in photoshop.
This way they upload in that size at flickr and I can copy and past that nice large size right onto my blog template.

10. I have Photoshop CS3.

11. Lianne, I do not take naps. I can't even sleep in the car.
I wish I could. But I feel sick to my stomach when I wake up so I don't like it.

12. LwithK, I thought Kanye was rude. I thought Taylor and Beyonce handled it perfectly.

I just added an image. Here is what I did. I clicked on the head. There is a pencil to click on. Do you see it?
Then you just select an image from your files. write something and then click post.
Now, I just did this for the first time. I may be gone by the next time I try to leave a comment.
I'll let you know what happens.
One more thing...if your picture is too big, it won't work.



Okay. That's it for now. I will answer the next batch of questions after one o'clock.


Part Two:

A. Stina asks how I started this blog and how I generated readership.

I started Quiet Life almost six years ago. Most of my first readers were family and members of a wonderful homeschool message board called The Well Trained Mind.
When I started writing photography tutorials for Ree aka The Pioneer Woman my readership grew.
After visiting the ranch in August about 500 new readers are stopping by every day. (When Ree mentioned this blog on her front page I think 5000 people came in one day. Yikes!)
Monday thru Saturday roughly 2000 visit Quiet Life each day.

I was head photographer for my college yearbook so I have been taking pictures for a very long time.
I got my digital SLR camera in March 1997 and people started asking me to take their pictures in about six months.
I had my first stranger sessions in May of 2008. I didn't leap. I crept. I took a valuable workshop and tested printers for months.

I don't know how to subscribe to my blog.

Anyone know how to do this?


B. Theresa,
The rule of thumb is....

If you have one person....use a f-stop in the ones.
Four people used a 4 f-stop.
Eight people....8 f/stop.

C. Jess,
Google Meta Data Tags. I can't remember exactly how to do it. But it helps.


D. Weesheart,
Learn the buttons on your camera. What they do.
Read small portions of your manual to learn this.
Read Ree's and my tutorials at The Pioneer Woman Photography.
Mine are especially basic.
Get Scott Kelby's little Digital Photography book. He writes very simply and knows his stuff.



E. My 50 1.4 works perfectly on my D700. I think my d80 was just too week to focus it well. (That is my wild guess and not proven by any experts.)

I ask specific questions of Katie. Who did you sit next to? What did you do for recess? Did you play four square or swing?
What did you talk about in math? Did you get any papers back?

F. Rosa, I carry my camera in my hand a lot of the time. Sometimes I put it in a little Land's End tote.
If I have more than one lens I use a larger tote that I have.

If I could afford it, I would by a shoot sac, cause I think Jessica is cool.

Shoot sac blog

F. Stacey,
I'm not sure. I just put my camera on Automatic and set it on a picnic table. It stayed open for 4 seconds for that shot.
So what I know for sure is you need a tripod or something solid to put your camera on.
Then put it on Priority so the flash doesn't go off.
(I was able to use Auto because my camera doesn't pop up the flash when it is dark.
My D80 flash popped up.)
I say...experiment. Try tons of different setting until it works.


G. Angie,

I use a Blu Domain template for my photography website. It is called Audrey. They named it after Audrey Woulard but she says she was not in on the design.
I think it cost $100 to set up and $100 a year to host.
It is super easy to use. I load the pictures myself. I do not have a shopping cart feature. Well....maybe I have one, but I don't use it. My clients order straight from me.

I love Color Inc for my printing. I am always sure the pictures will come out gorgeous from them. Our color profiles are made for each other.
I use Simply Canvas for Canvases. Love them.

Best wishes on your new biz!



Phew! That was fun! Thanks for the questions!




Encourage one another,
Donna