Not that you need an excuse to spend more money, but if you want some ideas to take advantage of this outdoor season, here are my picks for layouts and good photos.

Patterned Paper

I love this paper by Cosmo Cricket. I love the fun, bright colors and the happy shapes. It just feels like being outside.

Telephoto Lens

If you have kids in sports, a telephoto lens is a great lens to have. We bought our lens when Blake was in baseball and suddenly we were able to get good shots from way across the field.

These are the kinds of things that inspire me–good colors that match my mood and the season, and great photos. I hope you’re all enjoying the summer and bright outdoors.

Does the amount of digital photos on your computer intimidate you? In today’s episode for the Premium Subscribers, you’ll see my system for getting photos from my camera to my computer and then to print. Maybe I have a few tips you can implement to make the process easier for you.

If you’d like to learn more about the premium membership so you can have access to all of the videos, click here.

In this episode I’ll show you an easy technique that will give your photos dimension and a more professional look.

This episode is in the archives. To learn how to access the archives, please visit the membership information page.

You may also read the show notes for this episode.

Liz and Jackie at IllustratingStories.com just issued a challenge to take a photo every hour. Later on they’ll post a project idea using the pictures.

I’ll be posting my hourly photos today on Flickr and attaching notes to document the day-to-day parts of my life. If you want to join in and you post your photos online, leave a comment with a link to your photo page.

Note: Start this tomorrow if it’s too late to do today!

Update: I saw this quote on Ali Edwards’s blog and had to add it here. It’s’ so applicable:

Nathalie Goldberg: Learn to write about the ordinary. Give homage to old coffee cups, sparrows, city buses, thin ham sandwiches. Make a list of everything ordinary you can think of. Keep adding to it. Promise yourself, before you leave the earth, to mention everything on your list at least once in a poem, short story, newspaper article.

…or a scrapbook page.

Identifying The Little Everyday Things

Today at breakfast the kids started reminiscing about a time when I used to take them to “the gym.” I realized immediately that they must have been referring to the exercise room of our old apartment. That was so long ago and I only have a very vague memory of taking them with me.

I said, “I wonder why I can’t really remember that.”

And Israel answered, “It’s because you didn’t scrapbook it.”

What’s missing from your scrapbooks? Lately I have been trying to identify those little things that are so much a part of our daily lives that I don’t even really think about them. One that I thought of recently was the fact that Fridays are Aiden’s and my favorite day right now. He gets to take a toy for Show-and-Tell and then stay an extra hour at school for Lunch Bunch. And that’s the reason it’s my favorite day, too!

Today’s Everyday Observation

This morning I made biscuits. We love homemade biscuits that are so fat they almost split in the middle. Israel encouraged me to start making biscuits a long time ago because it was one of his regular breakfasts he enjoyed while growing up. Weekend mornings seem to feel a little happier when I make biscuits.

What are some of the little things you haven’t thought much about before? What are those things that don’t seem significant at first thought, but in actuality bring little bits of joy into your everyday life?

* * *

Pals
2-Page 12z12 Layout

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill) * Patterned paper (Daisy D’s, other unknown) * Wordstrip, metal tab (7 Gypsies) * Chipboard (Scenic Route) * Brads (Making Memories) * Pen (American Crafts) * “Pals” clothing tag and ccircular running icon (re-purposed “found” item).

A question from Theresa:

Noell, these are such beautiful photos. I’d like to know more about shooting the lit up tree. It’s so tricky. What ISO and f-stop did you use?

I meant to write a post on this before the big day came, but I was so busy with last minute mini-book gifts I just didn’t get it done. It’s one of my New Year’s goals to have more timely holiday posts!

But, for those of you who still have their tree up (like me!) and want to practice for next year, I have some tips.

First, if you have a setting for White Balance, set your camera for Tungsten lights.

Next, crank your ISO to 800 to allow more light in. Also, open your aperture as wide as possible. I set my f-stop at f/1.4. This allowed me to have my shutter speed at 1/125.

In hind-sight, I would have lowered the shutter-speed, though, because I ended up adjusting the light and mid-tone levels in my editing program to bring out more of the light.

Good luck! Every beautiful tree deserves a beautiful photo.

Thank you for all of the Christmas well-wishes.

I took a wonderful break from all obligations (except obligations to my family, hee hee) and had the funnest, most relaxing and enjoyable holiday I can remember.

I hope your day was magical, too.

In the last article, I wrote about composing good table shots. Now let’s talk about manual camera settings. I took the same photo four times but with different settings so I could show you the differences. Your settings will depend on your own environment and your camera, but it should be similar enough to give you a good idea where to start. Then you can adjust from there.

Photo #1

The settings on this picture allowed too much light. The yellows are blown out so you lose the detail of the pumpkins and some of the dishes. The cup farthest back lost its blue coloring.

The settings are:
aperture: f/2.2
shutter speed: 1/30
ISO: 400

Photo #2

I like the lighting on this one. While a couple of the pumpkins are still a little blown out, I was able to capture good detail overall and kept the ISO at a great speed for the indoors.

The settings are:
aperture: f/3.2
shutter speed: 1/30
ISO: 400

Photo #3

I also like the lighting on this one. The disadvantage of Photo #2 is the slow shutter speed. A shutter speed of 1/30 is too low for hand-holding the camera, which is what I was doing. But sometimes you can get away with it when photographing inanimate objects (as opposed to people, who are always moving, at least a little).

The disadvantage of this one is that I had to crank the ISO up to 800 in order to let in more light. The higher the ISO, the grainier the shot. Photos #2 and #3 were a compromise between slight blur and a little grain. The lower shutter speed in the previous photo let in more light than the higher ISO in this one.

The settings:
aperture: f/3.2
shutter speed: 1/80
ISO: 800

Photo #4

Looking at this photo, you can see that one of the two compromises I mentioned above is necessary. The reason is that trying to get a good ISO and a good shutter speed for hand-holding required a higher f-stop (or smaller aperture).

Even in this well-lit room the smaller aperture produced a dark picture. I wouldn’t want it any darker than it was in Photo #3.
The settings are:
aperture: f/5
shutter speed: 60
ISO: 400

The natural light in your dining room will have a large effect on your settings. Because this was our breakfast table, and because our room gets the most light in the morning, I had a lot of help from the sun. If the sun doesn’t grace your room at the time of your picture-taking, don’t be afraid to push the ISO to 800. Any resulting graininess won’t show up as much in a 4×6 as it will in enlargements.

I hope this give you a good starting point for your own documentation of your holiday table.

If you’re like me, a major part of most holidays is the mood you set in the home, and much of that revolves around the dinner table. These photos are from this year’s Thanksgiving breakfast, but the principles apply whether you’re photographing your Christmas meal, New Years dinner party, or any other formal dinner.

Avoid full table shots. Instead, take a combination of close-ups and partial table pictures to show the ambiance of your Christmas (or other holiday) table.

Lean down to the level of one of the place settings to get a view of the dinnerware and the table beyond. Set the camera at a fairly low f-stop to focus on the place setting near you while the rest of the table is just slightly out-of-focus. For this photo, the f-stop is 3.2.

Getting an extreme close-up like this gives you texture.

To show the look of the overall table, you only need to photograph a part of it. Put the centerpiece to one side of the frame and get just a few of the place settings at the other side. Stand on a chair to get an above-view.

Now move in closer to the place settings to get a view of the dishes, the napkin rings, and the textured place mats. Notice the line that the edge of the table makes, the negative space on the other side, and the line of the plates and cups or glasses. Make sure the lines and negative space are attractive.

There is a common thread in all but one of these pictures. Do you see the L-shape? I usually place the tallest item (in this case, the over-sized vase) to one side, making the vertical line of the L. All the others stretch out sideways, forming the horizontal line. The photo above is a backward L, which is okay, too. An L-shape is an aesthetically pleasing ways to compose a photo.

Last of all, don’t forget to highlight the most romantic part of any formal setting: the candle light and its reflection on all the glass pieces.

Take lots of pictures and put the focus on different pieces to see what kind of effect you get. In the next post we’ll talk a little more about camera settings so that you can get perfect lighting around your candle-lit table.

Those of in the United States are celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow. I am reposting an article I wrote on capturing relationships, since many of will have that opportunity during the holiday meal. I am taking the next four days off to relax and prepare for a new week of Paperclipping articles and videos starting Monday. Happy Thanksgiving!

What would you do if you realized you didn’t have any photos of yourself holding one of your children? This was my own discovery last week!

Of course, I have the required hospitals photos of me holding my youngest son, Aiden. But beyond that, it’s mainly the older kids holding him, or my husband holding him. I am only there in spirit; in other words, behind the camera.

Last week I was ready to scrap the “Hold-You” story I shared in a previous post. My four-year-old is small and I still hold him a lot. How could I not have any pictures to match my story?

It’s a dramatic example of something I already wanted to write about: photographing the relationships between different members of your family.

Following are 6 tips to help you capture and document each paired relationship within your own family.

1. Make sure you have photos for every possible pair within your family.

In high school I took a lot of drama classes. I wasn’t a very good actress, but I did learn some things. One was that any time a character entered the stage, there should be some sort of subtle demeanor-change in the characters that are already on.

This is because different people bring out different parts of our personalities.

Who I am with my son Blake is slightly different than who I am with my daughter Trinity. Trinity is slightly different when she is with Aiden than she is when she is with Blake.

Each pair is a unique dynamic to capture and celebrate.

2. Make sure you have photographs of yourself with each one of your children.

Someday when you are gone, your children have photos to remind them of their special relationship with you?

While we’re at it, make sure you photograph your spouse with each child as well. And not just once, but periodically as your child grows.

3. Photograph each of your children with their grandparents.

I am fortunate to have in-laws who devote a day every year to each of their 14 grandchildren, to spend time with them one-on-one. My desire to document those days in our scrapbooks made me realize I need one-on-one photos with the grandparents and each of my children.

Even if I never scrapbooked those “dates” they have together, my children will treasure a photo of themselves with Nana and Grandpa.

And by the way, don’t forget about photos of yourself and your spouse with each of your parents!

4. Take advantage of extended family gatherings to capture relationships.

Think beyond the event or the holiday. For many years, when our family got together I only photographed my kids taking part in the festivities. Now I try harder to capture relationships, as well.

These photos tell their own story, separate from the event in which they take place. You don’t have to include these pictures with all the other ones from that specific event. Separate them. Let them tell their own stories.

The photo in the layout at the top is from one of our geo-caching adventures. I will not be putting that layout with the others from that event, though. It is going into an album about us and who we are.

5. Crop new photos out of old ones to get the relationship you need.

Sometimes I want to scrapbook a topic about two members of our family, and to my shock and horror, I cannot find a photo of those two people together at the age that I want. Of course, that is always a wake up to pull out my camera.

But when scrapbook page is calling and I don’t want to wait until I can print up new photos, I have a Plan B. I find a picture where those two people are together in a group, I make a duplicate version of that photo, and then I crop a new photo of just the two people I need.

The result is two completely different photographs!

A New Purpose

Look through your pictures. Have you taken photos of each pair within your family? Writing this article, I realized that I definitely have not. I’ll be making use of my camera over the next little while with the particular goal of capturing more of the one-on-one relationships that make up who we are as a family.

Would you like to join me?