I can hardly believe that Leo is already a year and a half old. Where has the time gone? I will so miss having a little baby to snuggle and hold, but I have to admit that having a toddler to interact with is pretty darn fun. I was looking back at some of my old photos and realized that I never posted these gorgeous images taken by my friend Greta at Olive Hill Photography last June. So bright and fun! I don’t think I’ll ever tire of looking at these images for as long as I live.
I found a very interesting book on the new arrival shelf at the library yesterday. A book called Build Fun Paper Cameras: Take Eye-Catching Pinhole Photos
So, I’m curious. I decided to check the book out and experiment. What if I had to physically rely on myself to manage the exposure (and not just tell my digital camera how long to do it for me)? I mean literally open and close the shutter by hand, and not with the press of a button? What would it be like to manually make my own equipment? And wind the film myself? I’m guessing the worst that can happen will be that none of my photos come out, but even so I’ll have made some pretty nifty little paper cameras. So, if you’ll excuse me – I have a Coke can to cut and pierce, film to find and purchase, and 8 sheets of freshly printed card stock to cut, fold and assemble.
To be continued…
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I’m thinking about putting new photographs in the four gallery frames hanging in our living room. Over the years they’ve held illustrations, photos, artwork, magazine pages and right now they’re displaying fabric. However, you’d think with all the photos I take, I’d easily fill those four frames with new photographs. But, no. The issue? Finding four vertical shots to make a set. Since I don’t often photograph vertically, there is a limited number to choose from. Choosing a matched pair is easy. A set of three, fine. Finding four that look good together? That’s a challenge.
I briefly considered doing four shots of Chloe, but it seemed too shrine-like in our little house. Then I considered texture shots, but now I’m thinking about the four nature scenes above. I think what ties these together is the sunlight and glow of color, plus the combination of crisp foreground and softer background. I also like that Chloe and David are represented in one of them, but not overly so.
Someday I’d like to shoot a set of nice black & whites – maybe architectural in theme – bridges, buildings, cityscapes. I like the set of three France photographs donated to Craft Hope’s Etsy shop (they sold!), but they are all horizontal, too. Or maybe I just need to scrap the current frame layout and turn them all sideways. Hmm… there’s a thought.
I thought I’d share this collage I made for the grandmas (framed) and great-grandmas (5×7 matted) for Christmas this year. David and I aren’t big on hanging family pictures (thus there are none around, mostly due to lack of space), but I might try and make room for this one. It is sort-of an updated version of this Mother’s Day photo card I put together when Chloe was 6-months old. It might have been easier to choose just one image per month, but I obviously got carried away.
As the main photographer in my family, it is rare to find both Chloe and I in the same photo. Luckily, a couple months ago my talented friend Greta took some wonderful, keepsake-quality shots of the two of us. And check out that watermark – I am proud to say that her new logo is one of my designs!
Here are just a few of my many favorite captures:
Looking back at our France photos (to find one for this post), I was reminded of how many good ones there were. Here are a few of my faves. But really, is there such thing as a bad photo of Paris?
At the grocery store
At the local library
At the pool
I was just looking through the few pictures I took while in Colorado recently and thought I’d post a few to share. My camera has seen very little action lately and I had to really try and make myself pull it out once in a while, which is pretty unusual for me.
On the afternoon we arrived David’s brother Andrew and his fiancée Aundrea took us to a lovely little creperie for lunch, appropriately called Crepes ‘n Crepes. They make them fresh with an array of fillings for you to choose from. We started off with bowls of delicious french onion soup, and then I devoured my butter, ham and chevre crepe. For dessert the four of us shared the dreamy concoction shown above: a strawberry banana crepe with extra Nutella and cream cheese sauce on the side. OMG. So divine! I hadn’t had crepes this good since I was a college student studying french in Quebec for a summer. And of course, I washed it all down with an Orangina.
Although we didn’t do too much sight seeing this trip, the day before we left David’s “Uncle David” came into town. We enjoyed a nice dinner that night and the next day we took a little drive to see the Garden of the Gods and had lunch in the small, picturesque town of Manitou Springs. It was warm and sunny, so after lunch Sandy and I stopped into a Pikes Peak Chocolate for my first taste of Josh & John’s super yummy ice cream. I couldn’t decide so I went ahead with a scoop each of mint chocolate chip and double chocolate Oreo. I wish I had gotten a picture of that!
On the way back we stopped for a tour of the Van Briggle Pottery Studio in Colorado Springs. I had been here before, but I gathered that Uncle David is quite an antique collector. I can’t say I’m wowed by the pottery, but I certainly respect its history and its surprisingly high prices. I was actually amused to see a sign that said something like “Please handle the pieces, we will be responsible for any breakage.” Since I get tired easily these days, Sandy and David joined me on these cool vintage chairs near the door. I just like this picture of the two of them.
I was reading this post on Pina’s blog about making a collage of Flickr photos that correspond to the answers below. Seeing as I’ve never made a collage before (that I can recall) I thought I’d give it a try.
The Questions
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name
The Concept
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).
Photo credits can be found here.
The weather has reverted to its normal cloudy grey self today. Right now all their little heads are tightly closed against the cold, but this weekend several little blooms peeked out to say hello. David and I both snapped several pictures, hoping to preserve the feeling of joy at these first little signs of spring. Neither the snowdrop or the yellow crocus shown above are ones that we’d planted, so their arrival is that much more pleasantly unexpected.
A few days before we left Colorado, Aundrea and Andrew suggested that we all stop into the Butterfly Pavilion. It’s a neat place, great for kids, where you can see all kinds of insects up close, hold a tarantula in your very own hands, gently pet a few objects of sea life like starfish and horseshoe crabs and see all kinds of butterflies. We were lucky to be on time to watch one of the two daily butterfly releases. A speaker comes out with a small cage of butterflies, picks them out individually (by their wings, which surprised me because I thought you were never to touch a butterfly’s wings), gives a short educational lecture and releases them to fly away freely in the tropical conservatory, which is like a plant-filled rainforest-like room.
It was neat to walk around slowly looking for butterflies hidden amid the foliage, or see them flutter by high above. Sadly, I saw several butterflies with torn wings, due careless children, despite the warnings of the speaker. David’s dad mentioned that the place was showing its age, which is true, but I still found it to be a worthwhile and unique experience.
This past Sunday was David’s birthday. We spent the weekend in Las Vegas and on Sunday we rented a car and drove to Death Valley National Park, a little over 2 hours away. Unfortunately we had a bit of a late start, and didn’t cover as much ground as I had hoped. We’ll have to come back because I was a little bummed to miss Scotty’s Castle and other sections of the park. We did however stop at the Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center and proceed to the areas nearby – Badwater, Devil’s Golf Course, Artist’s Drive, Golden Canyon, Zabriskie Point and a final drive through the Twenty Mule Team Canyon.
It was so nice to get out of the city and enjoy a day away. Our rental was a Jeep Liberty and although it was loud and somewhat of a gas guzzler, it was a nice ride. We had planned to do some of the off road 4×4 trails, but it was getting too dark by the time we were finished with the main attractions. Here are some more pics of the park…
More Death Valley pics can be found here on Flickr.
Paperseed
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