You know the info has got to be good when the envelope says this:

It sat on the kitchen table for 8 1/2 LONG hours today until C got home. I am forbidden to open his college mail. GRRRR.

Anyhow, this say it all:



He's into his third choice school, yahoo! He's already in his first (but don't know if it'll happen due to finances), and waiting to hear from his second, but he is THRILLED to be in this school and they gave him some really good scholarship $$$ to boot. He is so happy to have some choices! Now he can let some of the other schools that he had as safeties know "thank you but no thank you."

Oh and B, this is what C wanted you to see before talking to you, so please give him a call :)

While editing these pics...

...it really hit home how much I'm going to miss this kid when he leaves in the fall. I am so excited for him to start his grown up life, and cannot wait to see where it takes him. At the same time sometimes it hits me like a ton of bricks and I get pangs of "dang, I'm going to miss him" as well. I have a feeling I am going to be a sniffling mess at graduation.

Anyhow, he and a bunch of his friends went to the semi-formal dance Friday night. They've been boycotting dances for the last year or so (long story), so I was surprised that they decided to go. Unfortunately his date didn't come by here, so I'll have to settle for the pics taken at the dance of the two of them. However, I warned him that for Prom I will be taking pics, no matter if it means me going to his date's house to do so!

I got a few quick snaps before he left and I almost kissed him when he said: "is that really all you need?" If the light hadn't been fading FAST trust me, I would have been all over taking more pics since he was being so cooperative about it!

I think this first one will probably be included with his (gulp) graduation announcements:



:( on cutting off the tippy top of his head on this next one. He was whipping his head back and forth towards me and just being goofy. I love the easy, full smile and twinkling eyes:



The wrist corsage for his date, that ribbon is seriously PINK dontcha think:

Another Hellebores

I really like the way the light was hitting this first one:

Fun with the fisheye

Couple more pics from last week at the Seattle Center. The first two are with the 10.5 fisheye, the second two with the 28-70.



No, the sculptures do not bend over in real life:







Thanks for the advice about helping to keep C motivated. The trip thing won't work unfortunately, we're actually taking him and his best friend to WDW for a week later this month. I guess I should have waited to dangle that for after graduation ;D However, Starbucks gift cards just might work...he's like his mom that way, major addict. Fingers crossed!

Oh and:
Just a reminder, the 30% off sale on prints ends THIS SUNDAY the 23rd. If interested you'll find more info and a link over that-away ----->

Gotta love a 17 YO who only wants a Hula girl as a souvenir from Hawaii

C is an inexpensive traveler at times. A $5 souvenir and he is happy as a clam. However, he has discerning taste when it comes to Hula girls. He looked in several shops to find the one that was the right size, had the right facial expression, the right colors, and just the right amount of cheesiness to her.

I've never had anything decorating my car before, but I kind like her. It amuses me that people can't help but to give her a little nudge when they're in the passenger seat.

Shot while stopped at a red light in downtown :-)



Speaking of my 17 YO son. Does anyone have any advice for helping keeping him motivated during these last few months of high school? He has always been a very conscientious student, more so than most. However he is so "over" schoolwork, especially now that he has some college acceptances in hand. He has a bad, BAD case of senioritis. We've never been ones to dangle rewards for hard work, but I'm beginning to wonder if we should try it....hmmmm, what could I dangle? His middle-of-the-third-quarter report from school was less spectacular than I know it could have been :( I've tried the "could you do it for me?" Jewish mother guilt thing - it's ok for me to say that, I'm Jewish ;) ...it's not working very well...

Come here, I wanna show you something :)

With spring just starting, and many of us shooting more and more florals lately I just thought I'd share something that works for me when shooting flowers. I hope you don't think I'm being presumptious posting this info, but I love sharing what I love to do :)

I played with window light again today with the Checkboard Fritillaria (thank you Pat for the name!) from yesterday. I actually much prefer shooting outside because I love the beautiful backgrounds that the other flowers and foliage provide BUT I decided to reshoot these today indoors because my DOF was too shallow yesterday - I wanted to really bring out the checkered petals by having them in better focus.

I used a 1 yard piece of cheap ($1.49) pale yellow fabric for the backdrop. I have about 8 different pieces of fabric I have purchased just for this use. You can also use towels, blankets, a shirt, or any other pieces of fabric you have lying around so long as you get it far enough away from your subject to be thrown out of focus. You can also use pieces of cardstock.....just about anything. I chose the yellow because yellow is the compliment to purple so I figured it would help make the magenta of the flower petals pop.

ANYHOW, I just wanted to show you the subtle but effective difference using a reflector will make. Take a look below. These are SOOC other than resizing and sharpening for web. They were shot seconds apart on a tripod.



Now, I could have gotten a similar effect with my flash, however I didn't use it for a couple of reasons. One, I was too lazy to get it out and then futz with where to put it and at what power to get the look I wanted, and two because I didn't feel this flower needed all over light. It just needed a little pop of light up into the middle where the pistils are. I use a 22" 5 in 1 reflector for macros (I used the silver/gold side for this one), but you don't have to have one. You can get the same effect with a white sheet of paper, or if you need more reflected light than that use a piece of cardboard with foil wrapped over one side of it. Then you just play until you get the quality of reflected light that you want.

Oh, one more thing. I intentionally underexpose floral shots just a hair. It helps to preserve the rich colors, then I can bring up the lighting a bit in PS and control keeping those beautiful colors while doing it.

This is the final image, and resized to 5x7 which is the ratio I almost always post at:



Hope this is helpful to someone :)

Kitchen table shooting

It's been too rainy and windy the past 4 or 5 days to shoot flowers outside, so I did these on the kitchen table today. I added some textures to them, I'm on the fence about them. Do you think they work, or not so much?







Thanks so much for the recommendations for new music. I'm going to sit down tonight and listen to some of the clips on iTunes and see what I like. Also, thanks for the explanation of why the owls are hanging from that building, I had no idea they were there to keep other critters away!

A few more "tourist" shots

This old building is so pretty, but kind of odd. There are a bunch (a dozen or more) of owls hanging outside it. They look like they're made of wood, I don't know, and I wonder why they're out there? If you look closely you can see 3 of them in this photo:



If you look the opposite direction (we were on top of a parking garage) and put a fisheye lens on you see this:



And if you look closely at it you'll see a little it of bright green in the lower left corner, that's my sleeve. I was constantly fighting not to get it in the photos. The angle of view is just so wide on the fisheye. As much as I enjoyed playing with it, it has come off my "must have" list, Jen's too. Both of us decided that while they are fun, they are really not our cup of tea, at least to shoot with on a semi-regular basis. Instead, I ordered a 12-24 the other day which is due here on Tuesday. I had some money set aside from Christmas (thank you Mom!). I'm excited to get it, and I know it'll come in handy when we go to WDW in a couple of weeks.

More in Pioneer Square, love the moss growing on the tip of his nose:



One shop we went into downtown had a bunch of wild toasters. Can you imagine waking up to this on your kitchen counter every morning? Holy moly!



As a complete and totally off topic part of this post, just a word of warning. ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT! Ok, the fine print wasn't so fine, but I didn't read it . I designed our Hawaii book to Asuka's specifications (which do not match other labs specifications). I spent hours on this thing. I am so happy with it, it is gorgeous. I went to start uploading it today, Asuka only offers their books in page increments of 20. PERIOD. Our book is 32 pages. Yes, I'm crying in my soup right now. I don't have 8 more pages of photos I want added to it. And I'll have to completely redo it if I use a different press. I want to kick myself, hard.

Ok, one more off topic thing. I need some new music, badly. I am bored with what's on my iPod. I'm game for just about anything but rap or country music. Any suggestions?

Tourist in my own town

Jen and I played tourist quite a bit while she was here which is always a lot of fun. One of the places we ended up was Pioneer Square which is one of the oldest places in Seattle. Lots of textures and interesting things to photograph.

We both really liked this guy with his big ears, we probably stood there and shot him for a good 15 minutes with both regular lenses and the fish-eyes we had rented. We finally moved on when a discussion between a few homeless guys nearby got very heated!

A regular view of "our" guy:



And a fish eye view. I was maybe 3 feet away from him at most. Crazy, isn't it?!?



He's got a face only a mother could love, doesn't he look like he's waiting for a smooch?



PS, Leah, in response to your question, my view is a resounding YES! Having used both lenses, the 105VR is worth saving and waiting for :)

I got to play with the 60mm macro lens

Last year about this time I rented the 60mm macro lens, and decided after renting it that I definitely would prefer the 105mm VR. I haven't regretted that decision for a minute, I LOVE my 105 in a big way, it is my favorite lens :)

My friend Jen was visiting from Alaska this week, and we rented some lenses while she was here. First off we each rented a fisheye - I'll post some pics from that another day. What a crazy lens!!!

She wanted to try out macro, so she borrowed my lens and also rented the 60mm so she could compare them side by side. I think she prefers the 105mm as well.

ANYHOW. We went to the Arboretum and shot one morning. Things are really starting to look like spring down there. I want to get back again this coming week. She pretty much used the 105mm, so I tried my hand at the 60mm. It reinforced my love for the 105mm. While the 60 is a fine lens, I missed the focal length and really missed the VR since we were not using tripods. Also, the bokeh on the 60 just doesn't compare to the 105, I had to shoot with the lens opened up more usual to get a decently blurred background.

I don't know about you, but I cannot seem to pass by a pussywillow bush without stopping to touch the buds....



I don't know what kind of tree these tiny little blossoms are on, but boy were they beautiful. I REALLY need to go shoot them again!



I didn't realize that any azaleas were blooming this early, what a pleasant surprise! I love the soft yellow on these:

Quick peek at spring

It's been a very busy week and I literally have to post and run, but wanted to share this little peek at spring. I'll be back in a few days to share bunches of pics! Have a great weekend!

Hellebores

I have these tucked away in a part of the garden where I really don't notice them unless I'm working out there. I figured I ought to take advantage of a non-rainy day (although I got pretty damp laying on our soggy grass to do so) and shoot a few pics as they are some of the earliest bloomers in the garden. Spring really IS right around the corner!







And I converted this last one. I have the toughest time converting floral pics to B&W:

Not everyone's cup of tea

Took a few quick macro snaps today. I typically don't do this sort of extreme close up stuff very often and never know how I feel about them once I'm done, this time is no different.

Thanks so much for helping me decide which photo to use on the cover of the book. I'm going to use the one with the palm tree. I personally prefer it, plus all 3 of us were just wowed by the location. I wish you all could go there in person, it would take your breath away!

It's awfully quiet around here...

B left yesterday morning for a last minute trip for work to Arizona. C left this morning for a callback to one of his schools in Minnesota, so here I am, all by myself. Honestly, I kinda like it :) A friend of mine is coming in tomorrow from Alaska so I won't get too bored here on my own for long!

I think this is going to be the end of the Hawaii pics since I shared so many the other day when I posted pages from the book (which is almost finished already, woo hoo!). I am so thrilled with how quickly this is coming together compared to when I paper scrapped. Such a HUGE difference!

A couple of people asked who I'm using for the book. I've heard such wonderful things about Asuka over and over and over again. So, I'm going to give them a try. They are not inexpensive, and they take a loooonnnnggg time to get your book to you, but everyone says it's well worth it.

I'm trying to figure out which picture to use on the cover and i'd love some input. My personal favorite picture from the entire trip is the one from the first inside page of the book (posted a couple of days ago). It was such a gorgeous location (Wai'anapanapa which is near Hana), probably the prettiest place I've ever been in my life! So, which would you think should be the cover photo? The first photo or the second one?



This next one I took with C's little pocket P&S, not too shabby, eh? There is no way I would hang out on the beach swimming and stuff with my camera. On this trip we found out that sand can get places you really, really don't want it!



If I use the top one then I'll redo the first page of the album with a different picture so it's not both on the cover and right inside.

Anyhow, a few more pages, and then say goodbye to Hawaii over here and visit Pat's blog for her amazing pics. I can't believe she was in the same places we were just days after we were there. Pretty cool dontcha think?!?

One of the things I played with has been adding low opacity pics as backgrounds for a few of the pages. I think I've done this to about 6 of the 2 page spreads:





This one C and I each listed our most memorable times of the trip, so I included crummy pics of the both of us (I had already used up the cute ones). His is on a catamaran coming back to Maui after an early (and I do mean EARLY) morning snorkle trip to Molokini, and me sans makeup with a nice sunburn near Hana. By the way, do you remember a few weeks ago I posted the sunscreen shots right before we left. I thought we'd be able to use 15 and 30 SPF. Boy, was I wrong! We ended up going through 2 bottles of 50 SPF, and still had to be very careful about how much time we spent out in the sun. Being fair skinned stinks. Ok, end of tangent!

I'll do the same kind of page once B gets me the rest of his journaling as well.



And the very last page of the album:



PS. If you haven't heard this song before, spend the 99 cents and treat yourself at iTunes. Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (get the longer version). I loved it before we left, but now even more :) I've been playing it far too much since I bought it last night.

Pics from last weekend

My brother in law and niece visited last weekend, they live in San Diego so it's been far too long since we've seen them. My niece is 10 months younger than C, and is such fun to be around, we really had a great time! C is fortunate that all of his cousins are close in age to him, however we sure wish they all lived closer to us so they could know each other better!

I am always ridiculously bad about taking spontaneous people pics (my Seattle area family tends to have fits whenever I pull out the camera), so all I have are from their last night here while we were playing games (and my niece was cheating at Clue). I hate using flash in our living room. Our walls are a dijon color and if I bounce they give off the WORSE color cast. Does anyone else ever consider painting all their walls white just so the light bounces better? I do!

These first two are with my Flip-It diffuser, the shadows are still too strong but there was no color cast. I'm about ready to try something else for diffusing the flash. I've had this for over a year but am still not 100% happy with it.





And the next one I bounced. I thought I was bouncing off the window behind me, but I actually got some of the sloped ceiling as their faces were VERY yellow :(



And we went down to the Seattle Center for a bit one afternoon. The weather that day was CRAZY so I got very few pics. It would pour down rain, then hail, then drizzle, then the sun would come out for a bit. We even got a rainbow as well as a bit of thunder that afternoon. All we were missing was some snow to make the weather picture complete. Welcome to spring in Seattle!



If you've ever been to the Seattle Center you've seen the Experience Music Project building. It is, ummmm....very...ummmmm....."unique" to say the least! To me it looks like a blob of weird shapes and colors, and not necessarily in an eye pleasing way. The sun was reflecting off of the magenta part of it at one point, so I got the reflection of the roller coaster in it. I was hoping that the word "wild" came out clear, and it pretty much did:



It was hard to capture the rainbow without getting a bunch of junk in the picture...

Let me show you what I've been working on:

First off, thank you so much about all the nice comments about my Hawaii pics. I really appreciate them a lot! I would LOVE to set up a photo tour and go back there with a bunch of photographers. Can you even IMAGINE just how much fun we would have?!?

I started on a very simple album yesterday, so I'm taking a break from posting pictures to show you some of the pages. I have never done an album digitally and I am thrilled at how it is coming along. I gave up paper scrapping 2 years ago when I got bit by the photo bug, and I have felt guilty ever since that I'm not doing anything with all my pics. Now that I know how easy and fast this can be, maybe I'll get more of my pics in books from now on.

Anyhow, the book will be 10" square when finished and bound like a regular book. Other than the first page, what you're seeing are 2 page spreads. I've just been doing random pages right now, whatever strikes my fancy. Journaling will need to be added on most pages still. You may need to scroll a bit side to side for these, if so I'm sorry!