Wishing you a peaceful Monday. . .

Sharing another one of my favorite photographs from my trip to Japan. I love the reflected clouds and shadow of the tree, as well as the koi. It's a dreamy dream that touches my soul. Hope this gets your week off to a peaceful start.

Scarpbooking Variations: New Apps and Old Styles

#8 A Scrapbook Page or Art Project

I met some friends at the last remaining local scrapbook store last week and had a wonderful and productive time finishing the last of the pages for Henry's sports album. These pages are from his college soccer team's victorious trip to the national tournament.

Very traditional and basic pages made with cardstock and stickers. But that's the tone of his whole album. And I still have to add journaling. But I'm so proud of myself for getting caught up on this mammoth project. Plus, it ticks off item number 8 on the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. 

I still really enjoy making traditional paper scrapbook pages, and I'm looking forward to figuring out what photos I still have to scrap and which ones I need to print to scrap. 

But I'm also branching out into other types of scrapping, including:

• shutterfly photo books - I'm working on uploading my photos from Japan there and will create a 12x12 hardcover book with those photos.
• chatbooks app -  Deb Turtle's mentioned this app and shared a code for a free book (CFA6GXG7). It actually is free if you choose the slow shipping (which I did). I created a 60 page book with 60 photos from Henry's college life, all pulled from my iphone. I haven't received it yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing it and will give a review once its here. I think he'll like the book, and he's not that quality conscious - LOL! Anyone else tried this yet?
• I also got a notification for a new app called Parabo. If you use the code "amaze," you can get 25 free 4x4 photos. They're supposed to be on high quality matte paper, suitable for display. I did have to pay shipping for this one, so it wasn't actually free. But still reasonable, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they turned out. I printed my favorite 25 photos from Japan, and I'm thinking of matting them together in a grid and putting them on display somewhere (maybe the bathroom, actually!). Anyone else used this service? 

Caravan Photo Then & Now and Thoughts on Returning to Blogging and Photography

Caravan Photo, 2013

2016 Item #6 A camper or caravan

When I put this item on the Scavenger Hunt list, I wasn't thinking about this vintage caravan that's parked around the corner from my house. I was mainly scrambling to come up with items that paralleled summer vacation ideas. But then I saw it when taking the dog for a walk and snapped a picture. It reminded me of when I first saw the caravan three years ago, took the top photo and wrote this post. 

Three years ago, I was a much more avid photographer and blogger. I spent more time with my camera and crafting words to tell stories and capture feelings. I miss that so much. 

And that's one of the reasons I decided, after much thought, to host the scavenger hunt again this summer. It's a great reminder to take photographs and visit blogland. I'm still working on getting 'round to visit blogs. I'm still working on figuring out whether my big camera works (it was treated as a chewtoy by the dogs one afternoon) and how to get photographs from it to the computer (my software was destroyed in my last hard drive reboot). But, those are all goals for the summer. ror now, I'm glad to be back to taking photos and blogging.

I know from reading blogs that there is an ebb and flow in being a blogger. Some people leave and return. Some leave and take to facebook and instagram. Some seem to disappear entirely. I'm glad that you haven't left blog space entirely. I value your friendship and your posts. And I'm glad to be back among you.

Be Still #19: Organic

The prompt for Week 19 (yes, I'm doing some catching up) in the Be Still still life photography class I'm taking was "organic." Since we get a box of organic produce from a local farm every week, it was an easy choice to grab some of the contents for this week's photo shoot. I added my little blue honey pot and a rubber stamp shaped like a rooster to complete the scene. I shot with the light behind me and my camera balanced on a chair to get a nice sharp focus, even thought it was a gloomy day and this counter is in the middle of my kitchen. I was very happy with the results!

I also decided to shoot this bucket off lemons picked from our tree - our yard is very organic! I loved the color combination and the side-lighting, but it seemed a little plain.

So I added some garden gloves and some lemon-related kitchen implements. I like the story it tells about someone working in the yard, getting ready to make a lemon meringue pie or something. The bucket was right up against the sliding glass door for this one, which created some nice shadows I think. Got a favorite today?

Setting an Intention for June: 3D Mixed Media

This year, I am exploring the various types of art and craft that I have practiced over the last ten years, trying to decide where each fits in my creative life (or even if it does anymore). So far, I have focused on still life photography, sketching, scrapbooking, card making and art journaling. This month, I am setting the intention to focus on 3D mixed media work (such as canvases, assemblage and plaster).  I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty and digging through my stash!

I think this will also be a terrifically fun way to participate in this year's Summer of Color event. If you've never played along before, you should definitely consider it. Details can be found at this link.  Last year, I made little houses but only completed five out of the six color schemes. I had actually selected paint, house parts and embellishment or the color scheme of tangerine, raspberry with a touch of lemon but never put it all together. So, yesterday I did, and here's the result (front and back).

And here are all six of my houses together.

 

Who else is doing summer of color this year? What are you planning to work with?

Visiting in an Enchanted Garden

About a half hour from my home is a beautiful estate called Filoli. It is surrounded by gorgeous gardens.

Yesterday I had the great good fortune to meet my friend Alison of Life in the Slow Lane who was visiting from Spain. We have met twice before (once in Spain and once here in California), and we always enjoy our time together.

We wandered through the gardens, sharing laughter and stories , before having lunch at the cafe. I learned that one of Alison's favorite flower is this one:

It's an aquilegia, commonly known as columbine or granny's bonnet. Besides visiting with Alison, it was also wonderful to spend time with my camera. I have many more photographs to share over the next few weeks. But, today, I just wanted to say "Thanks Alison for coming to visit and giving me a great reason to go visit Filoli!"

The State of the Flock and Photography Musings

Meet the Rockers! We recently added four barred Plymouth Rock Hens. We got them partly because we lost one of the Buff Orpingtons to a raccoon attack over the winter. But we still have two Buffy's.

As well as Laverne, our leghorn chicken.

And we have two Ameraucanus chickens. 

The older chickens are all laying really well, and we expect the rockers to start early summer.
This month, I'm musing a bit on photography. One of the things I sometimes consider is whether I can make an artistic photograph in the chicken coop. Of these, I think the one of Laverne could qualify. I think it helps when the photo is technically good, and I like the crisp focus, dreamy depth of field, color story and composition. I also think an artistic photograph needs some power and emotion, and I think I see it in the portrait of Laverne. What do you think?

Still Life vs. Nature Photography

In the still life photography class I'm taking, Kim Klassen posted a couple prompts on "found" still lifes or real life still lifes. Basically, scenes from your life which look like or qualify as still lifes. She included a photograph from her yard. It made me think about the difference between still life photography and nature photography. Kim's approach to still life photography is that it's about the process - about breathing and finding quiet, stillness and peace. And she suggested that you can find that without posing or choreographing a photograph. While I was in Oregon, I tried to find an appropriate nature still life.  I took the photograph above. What do you think? Is that a still life? I think it's a beautiful photograph, and it captures stillness and peace. I'm glad I took it and it's one of the types of photographs I love to take. But, to me, the thing I have liked about the still life photography class has been the creating, posing and choreographing of shots. It's kind of like creating a painting or drawing but using props and my camera instead. I didn't think nature photography could be still life photography.

And then this happened. I was walking to work, and I "found" this scene. The lighting, the colors, and the composition all screamed "still life" to me. So I got out my iphone and captured the image. And now I think I get what Kim was getting at. There are some still lifes, some vignettes, out there to be found in nature. They have been posed by an unseen hand, but posed nonetheless. Created to draw the viewer in and experience peace and quiet. And stillness.
Thoughts?

One Photo &Twenty Words: Still Life?

Photo taken during my volunteer shift at Guide Dogs. I'm wondering - is this a still life?
What do you think?
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Each month, Abi over at Creating Paper Dreams hosts a link up where people share one photo described in twenty words. I'm sharing this photo and and questions about the nature of photography. Come back tomorrow for more musings on the nature of still life photography and some answers that I found in nature.

Setting an intention for May: Photography

This year, I am exploring various aspects of my creativity and each month I am focusing on a particular form of artistic expression (while still dabbling in all the others). So far this year, I have focused on sketching, cards making, scrap booking and art journaling. This month, I'm turning my attention to photography. I want to consciously think about what photographs I take and what to do with them. 

Setting an Intention for April: Card Making

This month, I am continuing my exploration of the various parts of my creative life by setting an intention to focus on card making. For many years, I taught card making classes and bought tons of stamps for cards. Now, the supplies sit lonely and unused. I purged a lot of them two years ago.  Am I ready to give the rest of them up? I don't know.  I really am not sure where card making fits in my creative life (or if it does at all), but I am looking forward to the journey.  

1 photo, 20 words: Language of Flowers

A surprise gift and lovely book tie-in at book group.
In the Victorian language of flowers, freesias symbolize everlasting friendship. 
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Linking up with Abi at Creating Paper Dreams who challenges bloggers to tell the story of one photograph in just 20 words.

Backlit Freesia: Photo Pair for Be Still #8

The topic for this week's lesson the Be Still 52 still life class is back lighting. It's not something I have played around with much at all before. At least not on purpose! I'm a full frontal light kind of gal usually. But I do like how this class is stretching me to try new things. One of my biggest take-aways is that the back lighting needs to be filtered or muted in some way - here I simply closed the curtain.

The back lighting definitely gives a moodier, dreamier feel to the photographs. For both of these, I only cropped and sharpened them. Otherwise, left them SOOC ("straight out of the camera"), not adjusting the brightness or contrast or color saturation the way I usually might. For comparison, here's another shot (in a different window) where I did adjust these things:

It's pretty in a more conventional, less dark and dreamy way. I think I like the first one best. What about you? Do you have a favorite? Hint: they're easier to see if you click on them to enlarge them.
Good lesson this week, and I'm linking them up with Helena's photo pairs.

Setting an Intention for March: Art Journaling

This year, as part of my "one little word" (selfhood), I am exploring the various areas of my art work to see what I wish to do more of, less of, or abandon all together. In January, I focused on sketching. In February, I focused on scrapbooking. This month, I am setting an intention to focus on art journaling to see where that fits in my creative life.

Playing with Distance: Still Life 52 #7

Tres Flores

This week's lesson in Be Still 52 focuses upon placing objects at various differences and adjusting the focus. I found the lesson fairly difficult to master, but I eventually created Tres Flores, above. I like the soft colors and curves/rounded shapes throughout the photograph. I shot this downstairs in my studio in the afternoon. I get a lot of direct sunlight from the southwest facing window in the afternoon, but a cloud passed over right before I took this shot. 

Beneath my heart

After the sun came back out, I had to switch the direction I was shooting  because the light was too bright. Although there's not that much distance between the three objects in the photograph, I played a lot with where to place the focus. Eventually, I really like the way the eye is drawn into the words and the heart.
Both of these were shot with my 50 mm lens. I may try this lesson again with my 80mm lens tomorrow.

More Thoughts on Scrapbooking and Product Reviews

Feathering My Nest

It's three-fourths of the way through February, a month in which I have been focusing on scrapbooking. So far, I have organized my already-printed photographs and layouts; completed Henry's birthday album; completed Clara's middle school album; scrapped 6 pages to complete my 2010 chronological album; scrapped 18 pages to complete my 2011 chronological album; updated my Christmas card photo albums and made Clara two photo books with her cross country and track photos from sophomore year.  

These last few days have been spent "feathering my nest" by going through all the photographs on my computer and iphone and trying to get them organized (at least in my head). I ordered all the photographs from my computer that I plan to scrap with paper, as well as photos to complete Clara's birthday album. 

I continue to find the 2,500 photos on my camera roll on my iphone a challenge to organize and order. But I did make some headway by following everyone's advice about getting Dropbox as an easy way to get the photos off my phone and on to my computer. I have been finding the dropbox-shutterfly interface to work pretty easily, so I will keep using that to order photos off my phone for 2013, 2014 and 2015. Then I resolve to reclaim the storage space on my phone by deleting the old photos from my camera roll! And to use my big camera more. 

One of the biggest epiphanies I had while looking through all these photos was that the best way to deal with a big bunch of them is to create a photo book for Clara's work at the Humane Society and Guide Dogs for the Blind. I have never taken my big camera along to these places, but I have hundreds of photos on my iphone from our time volunteering. 

So, at the end of week 3 of February, here are my remaining projects:

1. Photo book with Clara's volunteer work at Humane Society and Guide Dogs (probably 8x8 from shutterfly).

2. Photo book with Barcelona pictures (probably 12x12 mixbook).

3. Order photos from iphone (through Dropbox and Shuttefly).

4. Organize 2012, 2013 and 2014/2015 to paper scrap.

5. Scrap 2012, 2013 and 2014/2015.

6. Update Henry's sports album
7. My heritage/genealogy album - a project I haven't mentioned before because it's always on the very bottom of my to-do list. But it is something I would like to do . . . someday!
8. And, finally, I do occasionally think about taking our wedding photos out of the album we received 30 years ago and scrapping them (mainly so I can add journaling). Not sure I will ever do this. Thoughts appreciated on this one!

I know I won't get through these all before the end of February, but I will probably go ahead and move on to my March intention, while continuing to work on these projects for the rest of the year (or the rest of my life - LOL!).

And now for some quick product reviews:

Shutterfly 12x12 Hardcover Photo Books

Love these! I made one for Clara's sophomore XC season and one for Clara's sophomore track season. More importantly, she loved them and asked immediately if I would make her one for this year! Since all my photos were already up on the shutterfly site, the photo book part went together really quickly. It took a bit longer to go back and add the journaling. The quality is good, and they came really quickly in the mail. They can be a bit pricey, but they are very affordable if you wait until there's an appropriate sale (because there's always a sale at shutterfly, and retailmenot often has discount codes as well). I got mine during a 50% off hard cover book sale, plus found a free shipping code and another code for some additional percentage off my entire order. I'll definitely use shutterfly to make her photo books for the rest of her running seasons and will use them for a book on her volunteer work.

Shutterfly Prints

Eh, all of okay. Quality is basically fine, especially if I'm printing iphone photos. Price is very reasonable. Order takes a loooong time to arrive in the mail. I'll use them to order the rest of the photos I want from my iphone, since their interface with drop box works pretty well.

Persnickety Prints

I really liked the quality of these! The photographs arrived super fast. More costly than Shutterfly, but the couple of cents difference is such a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of all my other scrapbooking supplies. Since I truly believe that the photos should be the star of the layout, I don't mind paying more. I'll continue to use this service to print photographs taken with my DSLR. Thanks to Melissa and Karen for suggesting this service in response to this post. Blog friends really do offer the best advice!

Drop Box

Thanks to Missus Wookie and Helena for suggesting this service in response to this recent post.  I had to upgrade to accommodate all the photos on my iphone and camera, but I'm happy to have a safe backup for my photos. And I'm very happy to find a low-frustration way to get photos off my iphone and into print! I'm also hoping I can use it as an easy way to upload photos from my iphone onto my blog. Still experimenting with it, since I thought I had cropped my toes out of the photobook photo, but they showed up in the drop box photo! LOL! I'm thinking that it preserves the original photo, not the unedited one, which is a bit of a bummer. Any advice from you drop box gurus?

Props! Be Still #6

my cup runneth over

This week's topic in the Still Life class I'm taking is props. I have LOTS of props. I collect all kinds of things. I especially like glass ware and linens. And old thing. Vintage things. I love the things I inherited from my mom, from my Grandma, from my Aunt Vera. And I love the things I have bought at antique stores and junque shops.

Slightly unbalanced

I have always been partial to these egg shell tea cups, even though they don't match anything else I own and don't really serve any purpose other than looking cool. So I pulled them out to play with this week.

cup of pearls

I took lots and lots of photographs using the cups, my pearls and a vintage apron. I was proud of myself for being able to pare them down to these three, all of which I really love.
Do you have a favorite among them?

Thoughts on Scrapbooking (and rant against the iphone).

Honey and Lemons

Happy Monday! I hope you had a good weekend. It was a beautiful, sunny weekend here, and I spent some time outside. But I also did a lot of scrapbooking.

On Friday, I did a mountain of organizing. Most of my scrapbooks are chronological, but I also do some project or subject based albums (Henry's sports, vacation albums, December Dailys, Week in the Life, etc.). I reviewed all my albums and all my already-printed photographs to see where I stood. 

1. My chronological albums up through 2009 are complete. 

2. For 2010 and 2011 chronological albums, each of the albums needed about six layouts to be complete. 

3. Clara's and Henry's birthday albums each needed a couple of pages (these are simple albums where I scrap one layout each year of their birthday gathering). 

4. Clara's middle school album was started and then abandoned. I thought about chucking it, but instead rounded up the photos and memorabilia needed to turn it into a "done" (if not perfect) project. It needed about a dozen simple layouts (24 pages or so) to complete.

5. Henry's sports album needed layouts for senior year soccer and baseball and then all-star pages from back when he was 13 and 14 (I've been avoiding these layouts because I had been planning on finding more pictures). At this point, I decided to scrap what I had and continue with the "done is better than perfect" philosophy."

6. I plan to do photo books for our 2012 trip to Barcelona and Clara's junior cross country year. I'll do the latter on Shutterfly but may return to Mixbooks for the Barcelona one. The Barcelona one is bound to be a bit fraught because that was when Paul was diagnosed with cancer. The kids were only with us for a few days. Paul spent the whole three weeks while we there in the hospital, but he encouraged me to go on outings with my camera as a form of therapy, and I did. I'm not even sure if I have edited those photos yet!

4. For 2012 and 2013 chronological albums, I have photos printed for most things that I want to scrap but haven't started any pages. There are some things for which I need to order photos, too!

5. For 2014 and 2015, I'm just starting the process of ordering and printing photos of the things I want to scrap.

On Saturday, I dove into the project albums. I made 26 pages to complete Clara's middle school album. Super simple, but really cute (IMHO). I was reminded again how happy I am to have what amounts to a small scrapbook store in my craft room, with lots of appropriate paper and embellishments ready to go. 

On Sunday, it was time to turn to the last few lay outs for 2010 and 2011, as well as the birthday albums, because I love the feeling of getting unfinished projects done. I decided I wanted to complete these before facing 2012 and 2013. I did seven pages in Henry's birthday album, and now it's complete! I was only able to do one page in Clara's album because I need to order photos from her 15th and 16th birthdays. I also did six pages from 2010 to compete that chronological album! Then, I also organized the 2011 pictures and worked to complete journaling in Clara's middle school and the 2010 albums.

Layouts coming soon. 

But, for now, here's my big take away . . . 

I need to bring my big camera with me to more events. I love the ease of my iphone camera, but the process of getting photos off my phone is a pain in the rear. Before the iphone, I brought my camera and took photos at all kinds of events. And then I printed them. And then I scrapped them. The reason I don't have photos printed for 2014 and 2015 are because most of them are on my iphone. The bulk (75%) of photos on my computer hard drive from my big camera are of Clara running. Another 10% are art photographs taken for photography classes (like the one up top). That leaves very few DSLR photos of family gatherings, outings, etc. The iphone has definitely changed my memory keeping practices (and not necessarily for the better). This year, I want to take more photographs with my camera (and fewer with the iphone). I know the saying "the best camera is the one you have with you," but all that means is that I need to take a better camera with me.

Thoughts?

Thoughts on Sketching, Scrapbooking and Balancing Creative Endeavors

As part of my one little word for this year ("selfhood"), I'm exploring my various creative endeavors by setting a different creative intention each month and exploring where that bit of creativity fits in my life. In January, I focused on sketching and began to develop a style I liked. Here are my last two January sketches:

In February,I've been keeping up with the sketching, but in a faster and more relaxed style that fits me. Here are two recent examples of what I mean:

I did these two sketches in about 15 minutes while waiting for my daughter to be ready to leave for an appointment. They fulfilled my need for a quick art fix and are the types of things that I can incorporate into my art journals. I think this is where I need to go with my drawing/find arts. I don't think I have the patience or desire to learn how to draw better, paint, etc. As a result, I think I'm going to officially give up on the Studying Under the Masters class which I bought in 2014 and worked about half-way through. It was a good class, but not something which feeds my creative passions at the moment. 
In February, I've started to focus on scrapbooking. I made two huge photobooks at shutterfly for Clara, using her cross country and track photos from last year. I got these done during the 50% off sale on hard cover books. I need to make one more book but want to wait for the next sale. I also updated my Christmas card photo albums and ordered a bunch of current photos to scrap. I'm trying pernsnickety prints for ones taken with my big camera and ordered some iphone prints from shutterfly. I have found that neither the shutterfly nor the persnickety iphone apps work very well - they tend to crash half way through the ordering process. Very, extremely frustrating!  Look for some actual scrapbook pages coming soon. I also need to do some organizing to figure out what other photos I have to be scrapped (either printed already or on my computer hard drive).

I'm also very much enjoying the still life photo class I've been taking. 

Which brings me to the question of balance. I'm trying to figure out to make time for all my various creative pursuits. How do I fit in scrap booking and sketching and photography? Let alone art journaling, card making and the other intentions I have lined up to examine this year? Are you able to balance a variety of creative endeavors? If so, how? Do you do a "fly by the seat of your pants approach?" Or something more structured?

Happy Valentine's/Post Card Swap Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I'm not a huge Valentine's Day girl in general, but this year, the holiday was made much sweeter by Sian who organized a wonderful February postcard exchange. I received wonderful post cards from Karen of Random Reflections, Jo of curly scrapbooker, Melissa of Daily Life - Bits and Pieces and a lovely card title "rules are made to be broken" from someone whose name I couldn't quite decipher (Cylie, maybe???).  I love them all! Thank you so much! Were you in on the swap? Have all yours arrived yet?
This is the post card I sent out to my recipients:

I hope they arrived safely and that you have a love-ly day!