digital photography

This lovely flower is called Fuchsia. It’s just one of several flowers my mom has planted this spring. I have planted a few begonias. That’s been it so far. As much as I love flowers, I would plant more.

Taking photos of flowers is so much fun. I just leave the camera on the auto settings and then touch it up in Paint Shop Pro or IrfanView. They turn out so well with such little effort from me. If only all my subjects were so easily photographed.

This weekend many parents will be spending it either at an egg hunt or hosting one. Last year we attended three eggs hunts. It was exhausting but a lot of fun. I snapped a lot of digital photos but still never got the picture that I wanted. This is the closest I came to how I wanted to capture the moment -

The problem with taking photos during an egg hunt is positioning yourself at the right place to get a good picture before the child finds the egg. If you make a move to an egg before the child, then you give away it’s location(although last year most of the eggs were just spread across the yard).

This year I plan to do things differently when it comes to taking pictures as an egg hunt. First I will just snap photos for the memories. Then afterward we can stage some egg findings to get that perfect shot. In the picture, I wish I had gotten more of her face. This year I will get my straight on shot even if it’s staged. It will look so good in a picture frame on the shelf.

If I had to choose my top blogging tool aside from my computer it would have to be my digital camera. Not only can I take photos to make posts more interesting but my digital camera serves more than one purpose. It actually helps me to organize my blogging ideas.

How you might ask? A lot of times I think of a topic to blog about but really have no way to make a note. Who am I kidding? Even when I make a note I usually lose it within a day. To compensate I’ve added a wipe board to one of our walls in our home. But still I run out of room quickly especially since I write for more than one blog.

I use my digital camera to take photos of my ideas. This way even if I forget my idea, I will remember it was I scan my digital photos for sorting purposes. By doing this I feel less stress when it comes to blogging. Having ideas is so important and losing good ones is frustrating. My digital camera and digital photos are the most organized part of my life. It’s seldom I lose digital photos but I lose scraps of paper and misplace notebooks all the time.

Since I use my digital camera for blog topics, I really need a memory card just for those pictures as this would really make it easy to locate my ideas.

When something catches my eye, I just snap a quick photo. It might be a product I tried, a recipe I made, or a tool I bought. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then hopefully I can at least get 1/4 or half for a decent blog post. Pictures do help to jar the memory. Next time you have a blogging idea, grad you camera and take a pic.

Recently I inherited my husband’s cell phone since he had found another one(on another network) that he really wanted. I was glad to get his even though I made fun of it when he first got it. Seriously, what kind of phone comes with tutorial videos on how to use it? It just seemed too complicated.

Well, I’m slowly learning about my new-to-me phone. My husband did take his micro SD card to put in his new phone. Not wanting to buy another one and knowing we had one somewhere at the house, I finally found it about two weeks ago. Now I can store ringtones and take digital photos with my cell phone.

I had forgotten how cool it is to have a camera phone. It’s just so darn handy. There are several things I would like to take pictures of but never have my digital camera with me. I always have my phone and for just a snapshot it’s great. It’s nice to be able to create a photo Christmas shopping list instead of having to write down items of interest. Or to take a photo of the office Christmas tree without having to break out the big camera that will draw attention to what I’m doing.

The camera phone is best for sharing those small, cute moments that you wouldn’t have time to whip out a digital camera to capture anyway. But with an always near cell phone, it’s just a menu option away.

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.

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.

A trip to the pumpkin patch is a fall tradition for many. It’s a fun time for families to get out and enjoy being outdoors. Also the pumpkin patch presents many great photo opportunities.

Our local pumpkin patch has several displays that are just for taking photos. Keeping kids focused long enough to snap that photo can be challenging as there are many distractions at the pumpkin patch. Every time we have been there has been a healthy crowd. So be patient and wait for the shot you want as people will clear out of your way eventually.

Another issue is lugging around camera gear and then having a huge pumpkin to carry around, too. It’s best to either bring a wagon or stroller to help with the load. Either that or be prepared to grab the pumpkin when you are ready to leave. Our pumpkin patch has picnic tables and a kids’ playground. You can really make a day out of going. This is important to remember when choosing which camera accessories to bring and how you plan to carry it around during your stay.

One thing is for sure is that it will be easy to snap some great photos at the pumpkin patch. It’s a great opportunity to get artsy with photos. Have fun exploring different angles and perspectives. Oh and don’t forget to grab a few photos of the kids, too.

Besides snapping a lot of photos of my daughter, I also like to take pictures of things that serve as reminders of things I need to do or want to remember like this -

This is a picture of my kid’s toy box. On this particular day, she actually put up one of her toys. It was quite monumental, or at least I thought so. I snapped a photo of it to remember to blog about it on her blog. You see the toy she put up was actually my Nintendo DS. She had gotten tired of ‘playing,’ so she turned it off and stuck it in her toy box. It was just one of those ‘gee my kid is so cute and smart’ moments that I wanted to remember.

I take pictures of a lot of other objects to help me remember to do things. I always take pictures of any new products I buy because I love doing reviews for either my blogs or on review websites. Also the picture will serve as a reminder to do it when I browse the photos that I normally do at least once a week.

Digital photos can also be very useful in the store to take photos of items you want to buy but not immediately. I took several photos around Christmas of potential presents.

So not only do digital photos remind me of the good times, but they also help me to remember to do items on my to do list since that thing gets misplaced daily. It is seldom I misplace my digital camera.

Now here is a cute project for anyone with small children or is looking to make a great gift for one. It’s called a color photo book. Basically you take pictures centered around one color. Then print those photos out and label them. Place them in a small photo album and voila! You have a color book that helps young kids learn their colors.

You could take the same concept for the alphabet and numbers. A letter project would be fun to do especially if it featured letters from local business signs.

This would also be a good way to practice taking photos of still life and setting up pictures. Most of my pictures are done ‘on the fly’ with little thought given to the background. This would be a wonderful lesson in setting up the whole picture instead of just the subject.

Kids love to look at pictures, and a learning book filled with photos would reinforce colors, numbers, and letters. Plus it has a personal touch that shows you care and took time to make something special just for them.

I have to admit that I was a tad bit nervous to get close to this little guy. It made me realize that a macro lens does have a place in the universe. It was interesting to shoot so close something that on auto focus didn’t even register.

It’s good to practice those ‘old school’ photography ways like manual focus every once in a while. It definitely helps you get the picture that you want especially for small subjects. Now to order that macro lens as there is such a thing as too close for comfort.