Fwamily

My siblings and I took some pictures last year for my mom’s birthday present. Since we wanted a cheap heartfelt solution, I took them for us on the self timer. I found them again while sorting files on the computer and I thought I’d post them just because we’re a goofy bunch. The first shot is a pan of about 20 pictures of the wall right above Papa Jazz in Columbia. I had wanted to get it printed but I can’t find anywhere that will let me print it because of the odd file dimensions/ file size.

That’s my Spot

For Christmas, we pretty much did all of our shopping online from amazon since it comes to the house and we didn’t have  a whole lot of time or money to shop. The result was a multitude of cardboard boxes which I stacked under my desk to get out of the way until there was room in the recycling. (trash days around here are overflowing ..I’ve never seen people throw away so much but I guess that’s apartment life for you.)

The stash and shove was a good idea for getting to and fro in the tiny apt, but Juneau informed me that it was encroaching on her space. She likes to sit on my feet under the desk while I edit. Sometimes she likes to eat my feet under the desk while I edit. Somehow she crawled in the tiny hole left between the printer and the boxes.

and started to whine because she couldn’t get back out :

(she knocked the modem off the desk so that’s why the wires are a-hanging)

The boxes are thankfully out where they belong and my feet and Juneau are back to the former position. I ended up sorting our whole apartments recycling and making room in the trash cans so that the trash people would actually pick up.

we bums got a free dinner

thanks to the resort’s holiday party.

they had food, drinks, dancing, prize drawings and a photo booth..not bad. 

we tried to win an ipad2 but nadda.

A light and breezy beach house

I’m editing a couples wedding photos right  now and remembering what it’s like to be warm. Seriously, today was way to cold. We don’t use our heat at the apartment to save money (I know we aren’t the only ones) so I’ve been wrapped in a quilt at my desk with the space heater on full throttle. It might take off like a tiny jetpack any moment now.

I must admit, the cold mixed with how much I’ve been working and how much editing I’m behind  in is taking a toll on me this week. My insomnia is at like an all-time record. and watching kids on low sleep is the pits. God really provided today however because I got off a few hours earlier than I thought I would, letting me come back home to edit the pile. A little power nap and I’m back in action.

These pretty beach pictures were sending warmer happier vibes into the air and I thought I’d share (since I’m back and forth waiting for photoshop to process). I think beach weddings are my favorite because of all the wonderful available light. My dream home would be nothing but windows. Maybe one day, but for now we get the lovely view of construction and closely built apartments. For photographic reasons, I really miss our old glass door that led out to the backyard at the old house.

A gift guide for your fabulously geeky photography friends…

We know you have them. or maybe you are one. and yes, I’m aware that it’s after Christmas. what gives?

1. Photoshop Fridge Magnets

2.  The Lens Cap Strap Holder

3. Magnetic Photo Rope

4.  A pretty custom camera strap

5. a vintage camera

6.  a bag of perfection

7.  a paper floor sheet

Ew. What is that?

It’s cabbage. theme of the week because we were gifted a four pound bag of it. I’m not creative enough to think of what to do with so much cabbage but charley’s been busy. he made cooked cabbage with pork fat, and he canned some sourcroute. I’m sure we’ll have some col slaw and some spring rolls later this week. Any other ideas of what we can use cabbage in?

the Apartment Christmas Decorations

Space is limited but I couldn’t forgo the Christmas décor altogether. We didn’t want to take up any coveted counter/floor space with even a charley-brown tree so we splurged on a 4 dollar fake wreath from Michaels. When I made the ornaments for the kids I nanny to paint, I stuck a few aside for us and went crazy with the glitter. Just like the gingerbread cookies, I made a Juneau, a Bruno, and then the moose because hey, maybe we’ll get a moose pet one day! I made two Juneau's just to hint to charley that we should get a friend for Juneau one day when we have a yard. A really big yard with a whole flock of huskies!!

Blurb, a book review

So I ordered a book from www.blurb.com quite some time ago and had been meaning to do a book review. I wanted a book of my engagement shoots at a decent price so I could have it as a keepsake (it’s only pictures from over a year ago). I’ll give you fair warning, I wasn’t too happy with my final outcome but it wasn’t completely horrible either. Here’s my synopsis:

1. The Cover: there was no option to stretch your image around the spine so you had to have a dividing color, which in the end wasn’t a huge deal but it would have been nice. It also printed with noticeable streaking in the solid sections.

 

2.Print quality. severely disappointed here. Unlike a lot of people that will be printing from blurb, I took the time to sharpen my photos for print and fix any edits that might look strange in print…and even with all that …they still look off.  All of the dark photos are incredibly dark. They also are not tonally rich so the darkest photos just look flat and lifeless. 

In this one, the dark areas just sort of lost definition so you loose things like subtle shadows and eyes sink into dark sockets. Not cool.

here is an original file vs. the print (see how it looks very flat and all the highlighting is gone from her hair/face/background)

3.Paper weight: I ordered the premium paper and it just wasn’t what I expected. It’s very thin and wrinkles/dents easily.It’s almost the equivalent of a magazine’s paper. I expected my 120 page book to be a little thicker.

4. Color. I think the color was exceptional except for the aforementioned darkness of the pictures. My grey’s were not tinted. The blacks and whites are true black –not green or sepia tinted. There was a slightly magenta cast on some of the faces where maybe the printer ran a little more red on them…but this could just be  a difference between my screen. 5.

Ease of use. Blurb lets you download their software and either start from a template or build from scratch. I thought it was pretty easy to use but there were some times where I wanted to force the software and it wouldn’t let me. For example, the title box, you can’t really chose where your text sits. You could however create your cover in Photoshop and then bring it in.

6. Customer service- I didn’t use, it came in two days so I was pretty impressed.

The paper is not exactly matte and not exactly glossy- I tried to catch the little bit of sheen it has below. Lets just call it Glatte.

So overall

cover *  *  * *  *

print quality  *  *  *  *  * 

paper weight  *  *  *  *  * 

color *  *  *  *  * 

ease of use    *  *  *  *  * 

customer service  *  *  *  *  *

I had a little surprise on my desk this morning