Coastal Living

Even though we live in the desert, I love to decorate with a coastal/cottage feel. I guess I'm trying to trick myself into believing that I'm not in the desert. I also like the casual and comfortable atmosphere that it creates. Much better than something too stuffy when it's hot outside, I think.

Because of that, I LOVE Coastal Living magazine! I'm not subscribed right now because I was getting WAY too many mags and not finding time to read them, so I'm simplifying. The cool thing is that even without the magazine, I get their awesome newsletter which still links to some amazing decorating ideas. If you click on the CL link above, it will take you to the latest one.

And can you believe it? This is the first pic I saw. I love the 4 photos on the wall. They are so simple, yet so eye catching in the white room. What a great idea! The hardest part of that would be getting the pics onto a canvas.

If you like coastal or cottage decorating, be sure to visit their site often and click thru their great room ideas, recipes and more.

Maui Reunion -

Last night we got together with the group that went to Maui in December. It's mostly co-workers and spouses and a great group of people.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner, then had the most fun looking at a slideshow of all the photos that everyone took and reminiscing about how much fun we had on the trip.

We also had a chance to present the Uhlmanns (our hosts for the Maui trip) with a photo book as a thank you from all of us. I had the privilege of putting it together for them. It took a long time, but was well worth it when we saw how much they seemed to enjoy looking at it. They were genuinely surprised that we had made a personalized book just for them. I think Steve enjoyed seeing some of his photos in the book since he enjoys photography as well.

And the surprise for me was that the rest of the group gave ME a thank you gift for putting the book together. It was so sweet of them, but TOTALLY unexpected.

I posted a link on the right side of my blog that takes you to the site where you can preview the first 10 pages or so of the book (which is 90+ pages in all). Once you get there, if you click on "full screen" view you'll get a better look at it.

I will say that I enjoyed the process of creating the book and want to do more in the future. It may even replace my scrap booking to some degree. Blurb.com has very easy and intuitive software with dozens of templates available. I think I even read that you can create your own templates if you can't find what you want in their selections. I ended up creating two different books because I thought the first one that I made was too small when it arrived. The second one was easier because I already knew which photos to use and just copied the text and templates generally from the first one.

I did have a little trouble with the file crashing at one point, but Blurb was very helpful and able to repair the file so that I didn't have to start over again, which was a lifesaver. It took a little while to get it fixed, but they upgraded my shipping on the book order so that it still got to me in plenty of time for the presentation party.

Now I need to make a few revisions to the file to make the book specific for Terry and I. I'll add pics from our anniversary and free time excursions and take out some of the "thank you" content from the other. That should be so much easier than starting from scratch though.

I just had to post this.

I've been sorting old pictures all day and many of them made me smile, but this one made me laugh out loud (several times). It's the look on Amy's face.

I know she was sincere in her affectionate gaze at her new little brother. Come on she wasn't even two years old, but you'd think she was going to grow up to be an actress or something.

I JUST LOVE IT!!!

What did people do before photographs? It's so fun to look back at these.

Today I started sorting my old printed photos by subject. I realized that when I look thru old pictures, I usually am looking for a picture of "someone" not a specific event or date. So, I'm sorting our photos in separate boxes that way. Here's the categories I have so far:

Amy (includes activities that they participated in school, church, etc.)
Amy & Andrew
Kevin(includes activities that they participated in school, church, etc.)
Amy & Kevin together
Terry
Me
Terry & I together with or without the kids
Perkins extended family
Hann extended family
Friends
Home & Pets
General (scenery or whatever)

At some point I may sort there even further and I'll scan my favorites, but for now this will help greatly to narrow down the location of photos when I'm searching.

Travel Stock Photography - now that sounds like a great plan!


Check out this great article about this guy's career doing travel stock photography. Note: there are 3 parts so read them all. The photo here is one of his.

It sounds like a perfect way to start small and work up to something full time, plus you can make your own hours.

I also have another idea for making custom greeting cards with photos taken at the gorgeous resorts around AZ. The gift shop at the resort could sell cards (saying things like "I miss you!" or "Wish you were here.") with photos of their own resort. Do you think anyone's doing that already? All I would need is permission to go around and get shots, then they could decide if they want to buy the cards as they go along. I've been thinking about this for a while, but just haven't had the time to follow up on it.

Let me know what you think.

Follow up on the last post:

Just a couple of responses to the comments on the last post. Thanks for those who read my blog. I guess sometimes I just get insecure and you know me, I love a good conversation so the comments really motivate me to do more.

Re: the philosophy of touch up vs. not touching up a photo. Here's what I read in a photo magazine that kind of made sense to me. If you make slight changes in a portrait especially of a significant event in your client's life, (nothing extreme, just things like removing a blemish, evening out skin tones, removing stray hairs that might be in the wrong place, taking a few unsightly bulges off here and there) your subjects will feel beautiful when they look at your photos of them. They will see the most complimentary photo possible and will then want to have you do more photos of them and their families in the future. Plus, those who see their photos will feel the same way and want you to also do photos for them. As long as the changes aren't extreme, it feels to me like you're just putting together everything in the photo as if it was the perfect shot. These are pictures that people will be looking at for generations and you want them to be represented in the best possible way, but still represent who they really are (on their best day). Of course, you wouldn't do these kinds of edits on every photo. Just a few of the significant ones that could be hung on walls, etc.

Let me know what you think.

I am VERY excited!!!

I just ordered this new 50 mm lens for my camera. Click on the photo if you want to see the specs. It should be better for the low light situations where I don't want to or can't use a flash. It's also supposed to be ideal for travel photography, landscapes, etc. I ordered a few filters to go along with it as well.

Plus, I should get it in plenty of time for our New England vacation, which is the best news ever.

And all I had to do was give up going to one baseball game in order to get it. That's kind of a long story, so let me know if you really want to hear the details.

Trip Advisor posted a few of my pics on their restaurant review web page for Santiago's, the Mexican restaurant that we went to in Bisbee. Just go to the site and click on "View Candid Traveler Photos" and you'll see 3 of them. No big deal, I just had to submit them for approval, then they post them.

Just thought it was fun!

This place had this pork dish that was amazing, but I can't find a menu listing so I don't know what it was called. It's the meat on top of the tortilla on the left side of the plate.

More to come about Bisbee...Enjoy!

Joanne West Photography Workshops

Check this out. I just stumbled across this site. She's doing some photo workshops locally and is very reasonable!

One is at Boyce Thompson Arboretum this Monday! Too bad I have to work. Another is in February about how to take pictures of a full moon at the Superstition mountains!

By the way this photo is of Havasu Falls in northern Arizona. I've been there and it's like paradise! The water is really turquoise like that. I'd love to go back but it's quite a hike...we'll see.

She does some nice work!