digital photography

It’s getting close to the time to send out those Christmas cards. I always try to send out the first of December but usually end up pushing it to closer to Christmas, like December 23rd close.

The last few years we have done a photo Christmas card and this year we plan to do it again. But thanks to having a great photo printer(Epson Artisan 800) and some extra 4×6 photo paper, I plan to make our Christmas cards.

For the background, I either plan to use something from Stock Exchange or use a free digital scrapbook page. It will most likely depend on the photo.

Since it’s nearly impossible to have a photo shoot with my three-year-old, I will have to use an existing photo. Luckily we’ve been on several trips and have some good ones to choose from that are also recent.

Thanksgiving is always a good photo opportunity for holiday cards since those cameras will be out and everyone will be looking their best. Also an outdoor photo would be nice for a holiday card especially if there is fall foliage around.

It might be time to look at our options and make a plan for next week. Hopefully it will all come together way before December 23rd.

Today in our local newspaper was a picture that made me to a double take. Over half of the photo was out of focus. How on earth did such a photo make it into the newspaper? Well apparently the photographer was going for art when he should have been focused on the story.

The picture was focused in on the person’s image in a video viewfinder. So since the focus was there, it made his face blurry. While the photo itself was OK, for a news photo it failed. If it had been a feature/fluff piece, then I could see trying to go for a more artistic photo.

The photo reminded me of the Bible verse that says “there’s a time and a place for everything.” This was not the time for an artsy photo. It distracted from the story instead of enhancing it. Sometimes it’s best just to take a picture of the subject and leave the artistic instinct checked at the door especially if you are covering a news story.

Photo books make great Christmas gifts. It’s a way to share those favorite photos with family and friends. It seems every place offers some type of photo book, too.

Photo books are bound pictures. You can personalize them in many ways from themed photos to custom covers. This holiday season, it seems there has already been a few offers for free photo books. Snapfish had an offer recently for one as well as Shutterfly offered a photo book with every order. Also there is one available through My Coke Rewards. Currently it’s out of stock but hopefully will return before Christmas.

Last Christmas I bought my Canon Rebel XTi that I just love. It replaced my Sony Cybershot that I had for about a year. The Cybershot was a nice camera as it was very thin and went everywhere with me. It’s been an adjustment trying to carry around the DSLR. So most days it just stays home and I miss some great photos because I don’t have my camera. I would just use my Cybershot for ’spot’ photos but my husband has claimed it for himself.

I’m not sure how much I would use a second digital camera since I really like using my DSLR. But for some occasions it would be extremely useful.

Also with news of Circuit City going out of business and Best Buy backing off their predicted earnings, it might be a good time to get a great deal on a digital camera. While there are advantages to having a second digital camera, I’m not totally convinced that I will use it as much as I think. What I will probably do is to claim back my Cybershot for a few weeks and then see just how much I use it daily while on the go. If I don’t use it at all, then I really don’t need a second camera. If I use it a good bit, then I might keep an eye out for a good holiday sale.

My mom recently got a new digital camera. Since I helped her buy it, I purchased a memory stick for it online. It worked well for about a month but then it start giving her problems.

I’m not sure if the memory stick was corrupted by a magnet or if it was just a bad stick. Reformatting the disk a couple of times did seem to help with the issues. But using one that’s been corrupted is not a wise choice since it could leave you high and dry again.

It does make me realize the importance of removing pictures off your memory stick as soon as possible. I have a terrible habit of viewing them and leaving them on the memory card.

Also it’s a good reminder that a backup memory stick is a must have. Luckily mom’s memory stick didn’t mess up on a trip or some other photo opportunity moment. Sometimes it’s easy to find memory sticks but every once in a while they will be sold out. It’s best just to be prepared for anything.

Even though the memory stick was cheaper online, next time we will be buying locally as it would be easier to have it replaced and less worry that something happened to it in the mail.