Fireworks Photographs

I have a new camera!  I'll post more about it later; but for now I'll just say that I got a Sony Alpha NEX-7. And I also just got a little tripod.  So I was excited to try fireworks photography for my first time on Independence Day. However, our 4th of July plans did not go as we had originally planned (for the better), and I ended up at the fireworks with my old camera (Canon PowerShot SX 20 IS) and no tripod.

But I decided I'd still try to make the best of it with the old camera. So I sat in the bleachers, held my camera in my lap and pointed it upward and hoped for the best. It has a flip screen so, I popped it out and rotated it so I could glance down to see if the fireworks were in the field of view.

I used manual mode (which is somewhat limited on that camera) with an ISO of 200, Aperture value of f/8, and a Shutter Speed of 2 seconds.  I pressed the shutter button when I heard/saw the shot start to go up and tired to hold really still.

I got a bunch of great pictures, at least I think so for my first try at this. For most of the images below, I ran the Pioneer Woman Boost action on them, which mostly darkened the black of the sky.  And I sharpened them a little after saving a web-sized file. But they aren't too much different from the SOOC images.

This one is my favorite:

But I love them all!  Well, maybe not this one...

 
I can't wait for the next fireworks to try again.

If I Could Give the World a Gift

I want to share a layout I made back in the fall of 2011. It was part of the Project: Love, Me album I made that year. I believe the theme for that month was "giving," and the specific prompt was "If I could give the world a gift ..."

Simple and Sweet Album Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Bohemian Spirit, My Project V3, My Project Year in Review, I Should Have Told You and Well Documented
by Captivated Visions; Art and Soul Freebie by Sahlin Studio; HoHoHo by Miss Tiina

"If I could give the world a gift, I would give the world a functioning United States legislature."

I don't remember what was going on at that time, but I felt like our legislature wasn't working the way it should work. I still feel that way.

I've been reading a book called Republic Lost by Lawrence Lessig about this very topic. The hypothesis of the book is that the people no longer have faith in the workings of our Congress because of all the special interest money that congressmen need to constantly raise.  Huge sums of money are donated to the political parties and to congressmen from a very small percentage of the population. That being the case, can we truly believe that our leaders are responding to the will of the people? Or are they influenced by the money they receive?

This isn't to say that our leaders or corrupt or that they are engaged in criminal behavior. It just means that money has a corrupting influence on politics, and we need to end that corruption now.

I know that politics is kinda taboo in the scrapbooking world, but I feel like I need to do something about this because I love this country. There is an appendix in the book (Republic Lost) called What You Can Do Now.  I haven't finished the book, and I haven't read the whole appendix either.  But Lessig lists the first important thing that I can do right now: spread awareness of this issue.

• TED Talk by Lawrence Lessig: We The People, and the republic we must reclaim
• Rootstrikers is a site founded by Lawrence Lessig to help end the corrupting influence of money on politics.
• I've added a button in my sidebar to The Anti-Corruption Pledge (you can also get to that from Rootstrikers)

That's all for now, but I'll keep you posted on what I do in the future to help end the corrupting influence of money on politics.

AdoramaPix Album Share

I'm back! I didn't feel like blogging for a while. I think it happens to a lot of people, so I'm in good company. But now I do feel like blogging again, and did you notice that this is posting exactly one year after my last post??

I'm back to share an album that I just had printed by AdoramaPix. I received a coupon code for a free 14 page 8x8 inch book (I had to pay shipping).  By happenstance, I just finished scrapping 16 pages of our recent camping trip. So in a total display of spontaneity, I decided to use the coupon and print my book. I'm not trying to write a formal review of the book here, just sharing for anyone who might be interested.

How did I fit 16 pages into a 14 page book?  One of the pages was a title page, so I used that for the front book cover.  Two of the pages were "bonus" pictures, and I simply had to leave one of those pages out of the album. Now that I think of it, I guess I could have used that 16th page as the back cover of the book. What I actually used for the back cover was the solid paper that is the background of every page.

The book is very nice. It has a lay-flat binding. And I also believe that the prints are true photo prints that have been mounted back to back. They aren't printed with ink on paper - it's the actual chemically developed process of photographs. I believe you can use these books to scrap 2-page spreads without losing anything in the middle. The cover is very vibrant and shiny, and to my eyes almost has a metallic look to it. The scientist, however, said, "It doesn't look metallic to me." I'll just get to some pictures now.

Spine.

Front Cover.

Bottom Edge. Notice that white scar right on the corner?  That is the one defect that I saw in this book, and it was noticeable within minutes of unpacking.  The paper (on all corners of the book) has rubbed or torn where it folds around the cover.

Some inner pages. 1 and 2

 3 and 4

5 and 6

9 and 10

13 and 14

Close ups of the lay-flat binding seam. I can't tell if the two sides of the pages have been printed separately, or if the spread was actually printed as a 8x16 and then creased down the middle.

  

Back cover.

The only additional things I'd like to mention are that (1) it was a very easy process to upload my files and arrange them in the online software; and (2) it shipped very quickly, several days earlier than their estimate. I see on the AdoramaPix site that their books can hold up to 76 pages.

A drawback of this type of book is that in the book creation, all pages are 2-page spreads. You don't really have a way of making a right hand side title page at the beginning of the book.

Besides just being an exercise in spontaneity, I do have a purpose for this book. Our elementary school has a fund raising auction every year, and I have considered donating the creation of a scrapbook album. I didn't participate in the auction last year because I just didn't have time to figure out how I would make this work. But I think I've got it all figured out for next year.  I will donate my services to digitally create, and have printed, a 14 page album of memories from AdoramaPix. I will submit this book of mine as an example of what the auction winner will receive. Hopefully this book will be so impressive that a generous family will be happy to pay lots of money to have their very own custom album. The winner will provide me with photos, and possibly some journaling. I will create the pages (properly observing TOU for any kits used) and have the book printed, and then deliver it to winner. I think that would be a nice auction entry.

The main digital supplies I used in this album were:

• Simple Journal Card Inspired Templates 1 and 2 by Scrapping with Liz
• Alpha: Woodland Wonder by Jenn Barrette (from May 2013 BYOC at The Lilypad)
• Other May 2013 BYOC products from The Lilypad
• Bountiful Buttons 1, 2 and 3 by Karah Fredricks
• The two trees on the cover: Nature's Goodness by Faith True
• Wood background paper: Photobooth by Paislee Press (I made it a little redder to match the redwood theme)

I also mix and match a lot of different supplies in my layouts.  You can check my DST gallery for complete credits on most of the layouts above.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

My Containter Garden

My friend Kate asked me to show some photos of my patio so she could see the whole thing.  Although I'm very proud of my garden, I also believe it is probably very underwhelming to the seasoned gardeners out there.  But I tell myself everyone has to start somewhere, and this is my start.

Here's a copy with the plants named, to the best of my ability.

That blue planter on legs is actually a sand and water table.  Miller graciously gave me half of it to plant in.  And he as sand in the other half.

I'm probably guilty of over crowing things.  I just don't have the experience to know how big things will grow.  Plants usually come with some guidelines, but when I buy a six pack of plants, and they say to space a foot apart ... but my planter is only 2 feet long at the most ... well, then I just shove them all in.

Also, I should probably not plant things like radishes and green onions, which will be pulled out of the ground, next to other plants that I want to be more permanent.  Ah well, it's all part of my learning process.

My favorite right now is the shrub verbena.  They have these multi-flower heads that start with little folded up pillows that gradually pop open into a bulb of little flowers.  One of the hanging planters actually has one (with purple flowers), but right now it doesn't have any flowers on it.  The yellow planter on the ground has a shrub verbena with bright yellow flowers, and one of the brown planters has a shrub verbena with flowers that start out yellow and then mature into a bright peach color.

I forbade myself to buy any more plants, so hopefully I can now sit back and enjoy as everything grows bigger and better.

Little bit of digi news

I have two little bits of news.  Little in the larger scheme of things, but kinda big for me.  First off, I entered a layout in the California State Fair again, and I placed!  I got second place for this layout:

I'm really excited to get 2nd place.  I was hoping for 3rd, having picked a layout that I thought the judges would like (based on the winning entries from last year).  I'll get a big ribbon, and I have a couple complimentary tickets and parking pass for the fair, as well as winning a little money - enough to compensate for the entry fee and printing the layout, so that's really nice.  My layout will be on display at the fair, July 12-29.

My other news is that I've landed a guest spot on The LilyPad creative team for the month of November.  Last summer I won a guest spot there by completing their monthly challenges, and it was a really fun month.  I'm excited to have the chance to participate in their store/forum again.  This was the "layout" I submitted with my application to show off my creativity.  It looks like a lot of work, but I actually recycled photos and extracted paper spiders from other layouts.  The little "drama" that I wrote out was new, though.

Love+Grace charity collab, Whole Wide World Alpha by Rachel Young, Free Spirit Alpha by CD Muckosky;

Talk to Me Labels and Hi Hello Patterns by Miss Tiina;

That's all the news.  Now The Goddess is scheduled for an "airplane adventure" with The King. I don't think the spiders are coming along, thank goodness. So, I must depart. Bye!

Could I have a green thumb?

I've still been scrapping away, although I haven't posted here in several weeks. And I'm still working on my little patio garden.  Apparently, gardening is addictive.  I've got it really bad.  I can't go anywhere without looking at plants and wanting to buy them.  Yesterday I planted the last of the plants I've bought, and told myself, "No more!"  I can play with my seeds, but no more buying plants.

Right now I'm playing with some grass seeds.  I put cat crass/oat seeds in some hanging planters, I have some wheat grass that I'm going to use to fill in some areas of my herb planters.   And I have some blue fescue  that I read is a decent option for indoors.  I really want some more indoor plants, so I hope this grass works out.

There is so much to learn about gardening.  I have trouble even with the terms "annual" and "perennial."  It's the word annual that throws me.  Annual ... yearly ... oh, it must come back each year.  That's how I want to think.  But I think I have to go more along the lines of: Annual ... once per year ... oh, it just grows once. 

So much to learn, and I have learned a little.  One of the plants I started from seed (I think it was from a seed pack called Butterfly Flower/Swamp Milkweed) was starting to get yellow spots.  I did a little reading, and decided to try some fertilizer on it.  I did, and after a week or two the yellow spots started to go away! Boy, was I proud after that.  I have now fertilized all of my pots and planters and plan to keep doing that once per month.

Here are some pictures from my little patio garden.

A post full of layouts

Here is a slew of layouts I've made in the last month or so.

This layout was just for fun with a cute picture of Miller.  He was playing in his little sandbox on the patio.  I was playing around with my camera.

These were a bunch of pictures I took when we watched the eclipse.  The scientist built a little apparatus for us to use called a pinhole camera. He used an old packing tube and an Honest Kids box ... and black t-shirts wrapped around to help block out light.

This was one of those layouts where I had a cute picture, but no particular story to go with it.  But then later on Miller said something really cute and it worked perfectly with the older picture.  He loves our cat Bob.

Another just-for-fun layout with cute pictures.

 

I found a tiny little spider in a tiny little web, nestled in the plants on the patio.  I was trying to get a really good, clear picture of the tiny spider, unsuccessfully by the way.  Later I thought the photo was a nice little slice of life ... because I'm always out looking at the plants on my patio ... it's hot now so I can use the clothesline ... and Miller walking around with the bare minimum of clothing. All that is a pretty good summary of my life the last few weeks.

A two pager for Miller's 5th birthday.

I was so pleased with these photos on the swing which I took at my mom's group Easter egg hunt and picnic.  I have tried so many times to take pictures of Miller swinging on a swing set and they are always blurry, or he's out of the frame or just plain awful.   I was just ecstatic with these photos. Not only did I get some great pictures of Miller being silly, but James got included too, with the angle I was at.

This was a colorful post.  I've really been drawn to colorful kits lately.  That's all for now.