Everything is black and gold, Black and gold, to-night: Yellow pumpkins, yellow moon Yellow candlelight;
Jet-black cats with golden eyes Shadows black as ink, Firelight blinking in the dark With a yellow blink
Black and gold, black and gold Nothing in between- When the world turns black and gold Then it's Halloween!
This was the first poem I ever was tasked with memorizing and reciting in first grade at school. Everytime Halloween rolls around with autumn leaves and crisp cool air these words roll around in my head.
My favorite school Halloween event of all time was a zombie play put on by a good friend who was also my son's teacher at the time. She was amazing - glow in the dark makeup, white shredded "zombie" shirts and a black light (my son is holding the moon in this photo):
I've been spending a bit of time looking over all my Halloween photos of the past to inspire my photo list for this year. So far I'm planning to capture:
Jack-o-lanterns
Candy in a bowl
All the kids together in costume
The kids with their loot
Individual snapshots of kids in costume
Getting ready for the big night
Mom and Dad passing out candy/trick or treating with the kids
How about you? What's on your photo list for Halloween?
*P.S. In the next few days we'll be making some changes to the site, we appreciate your patience with us as we work to improve your experience here at Digiscrap101.*
Sometimes the way that we approach anything can make a huge difference in how we see it...
The journaling reads: Standing up mowing my lawn, dandelions seem like the worst nuisance ever. They grow, bloom and then reproduce like rabbits... However, 15 minutes behind my macro lens and they look completely different. Tiny details - hundreds of petals, frayed edges, beautiful sunshine color. Aren’t we all in some ways like the dandelion? Don’t we all have qualities that aren’t appreciated by those around us? Yet at a different time or place or in different company we are valued beyond our wildest dreams? Sometimes all you need is a little shift in perspective.
What could a shift in perspective do for you today?
Lately I've been thinking a lot about the photos I take. Part of my Photo Flow process is thinking about the photos I choose to capture. One thing I really want to consciously document more are connections - the relationships and moments that punctuate them. Everytime I browse through my library - the connection images are some of my favorite. Here are a few of late:
Two Sisters in that "I found THE dress!" moment...
Emily with my Uncle Myron's dog Emma
The twins have been visiting Emma in Yellowstone since they were babies.
The only 2 out of 5 kids interested in the details. Emily was so cute to explain things to Joe.
Father and Son - Joe wouldn't let go of his dad for most of the day. I love this...
Cute kids clowning around - switching their souvenir hats and posing...
If you'd been around our house since this kitty on the left landed in July, you'd know this is a miracle. Sam wanted nothing to do with her until we went out of town for the funeral and she was missing her peeps. Now they are the best of friends...
There are more connections I want to capture. Relationships to document and moments that punctuate them.
What about you? What are you consciously adding to your photo library these days?
***It's that time of year again! Thought you'd all enjoy this post from last year - I'll be sharing this year's photos soon. ***I was happy to finish my photos for our family Christmas card during Fall break in October. I still haven't decided exactly which photo I will use, but I thought it would be fun to share a few things I have found helpful for a successful shoot.
1. Go somewhere beautiful and/or fun for your shoot. When we lived in Centerville, it was tradition to visit Mueller Park in Bountiful. Now that we are in Utah county, we chose the Alpine Loop. It was gorgeous. Being an AZ girl, I LOVE fall foliage and the loop had so much - everywhere you looked... We also got some great shots at the American Fork Ampitheater.
2. Feed the photographed. Seriously - you may laugh but when you are dealing with your kids and a photo session, sometimes we spend so much time rushing to get everyone ready that we forget to feed them. So I always bring along the kids favorite non-messy snacks or even stop along the way to grab their favorite fast food. This year we packed a picnic of their favorites - which we had great surroundings to enjoy it in. I also try to get them to go more on the protein and fruit than the sugar and carbs - they are just happier people when we do that. I then end the session with their favorite treat - i.e. Frosties at Wendy's. :)
3. Make an Afternoon or Morning of it - seriously - the more relaxed your photo shoot is, the better and more candid shots you will get. When working with six kids, I will grab a few group shots first thing and then focus on each kid individually while the others take some time to explore our surroundings - this makes for some great fun. I also will let the kids call some of the shots - asking them where they want to take their individual images or what ideas they have for a group shot... Below is a tree my daughter found while hiking in the woods and wanted her photo taken by it...
Which eventually led to this shot -
and this shot for Jessica -
I also was very happy and surprised to get this photo of my daughter who usually hates having her photo taken - she actually asked for a photo by this tree -
4. Make it fun - mix the crazy with the serious - the elegant with the informal - etc. To keep the flow going, do a lot of fun and crazy shots in the mix to let your kids get their wiggles out - some of my favorite shots come from just letting the kids be crazy and letting their personalities shine -
5. Pretend you aren't looking and shoot - I love taking my kids somewhere we will hike because it means I will get fun images of all of them walking down a path - seriously - my kids will often have an idea but forget they are on camera as they walk... these types of images also tell a lot about their personalities and sibling dynamics...
6. End it on a fun note - in addition to Frosties at Wendy's, I often try to find a notable parting shot - one year it was my son Joseph's face as he told me he was DONE taking photos and all his siblings laughed, this year it was the stop sign at the end of our hike right before we piled in the car. My kids' favorite shots are often the last of the shoot - the fact that they get to act out how tired they are of taking photos and note that they survived another year...
7. Color it with clothing - this last tip is completely optional - but it is something that helps my kids really look forward to our photo shoot each year. I often buy them color coordinating sweaters/shirts so they go together and the focus is on their faces. Most years I have gone with a brown color scheme and this year I decided to do a grey/black/pink scheme with jeans. The girls have a lot of fun helping me to choose what everyone will wear which adds to their excitement.
Looking back at this year's shoot, if I could have done one thing to improve it, I would have gotten the kids up earlier or gone later so the sun wasn't so bright - the first rule of photography was broken this year - but we still had a great time!
Whatever you do, make the experience fun - don't stress about all the technical stuff, focus on making memories with your kids and this will become a family tradition they won't want to miss!
I’ve had a few people ask me what I mean by “photo flow.” Let me start by sharing what Photo Flow is not: A one-size fits all workflow solution.
Workflow is a term that is used by many when describing working with your photos. On the professional photography circuit you can find class after class of photographers sharing their personal photo workflow.
Workflow involves software, it involves steps and process (star ratings, keywords, etc.) and often a “best practice” idea of what works. Students learn this workflow and then go home and apply it step by step in their workflow with a few tweaks.
While Photo Flow does involve some of these things (i.e. you can choose to use star ratings & keywords in your photo flow), it is very different. There is no "best practice" involved in Finding Photo Flow.
Finding Photo Flow is kicking things up a notch to work on a higher level. It's more about how you feel about your workflow. It’s about looking at a bucket full of blocks, each block representing a step you could choose to add to your workflow, but don’t necessarily have to. It's about creativity. It’s about being engaged, happy and excited to work with your photos and building a process for yourself that supports that.
Most photo organization classes focus on how many photos you can keyword, rate, and print during class. While the end goal of Finding Photo Flow is to help you process images and create amazing results, the four weeks in this class are about thinking, inspiring and creating an amazing workflow that will last long after the initial excitement fades.
After teaching photo organization for years, the one thing that gets to me is students who have followed my work all this time and write to me again and again saying, “This is it. I know what I need to do. This time it is going to stick and I’ll get caught up with my photos.”
Finding Photo Flow came out of my thoughts of how to help students find something that "sticks." In my own life there have been times when I have tried to adopt something someone else was doing because it looked amazing, and yet I never could keep it up for the long haul. The lesson I learned from that was this: When you try to do something over and over again and it doesn’t stick, the reality is you just haven’t yet found flow.
Finding Photo Flow is about looking at your time, the current season of your life and then creating photo flow that supports that. It’s about letting go and enjoying. It doesn't matter if your workflow is highly complex or completely simplified, what matters most is that it engages you and supports your creativity.
Finding Photo Flow is about taking the time to absorb different ways of doing things in your workflow. I want you to think about what is working now with your photos and creating a simple system that is sustainable. A process that doesn’t overwhelm and at the same time gives you what you want from your photo library.
Quite simply, Finding Photo Flow is about finding joy in your photo library. It's about inspiring creativity.
I hope to see you in the classroom! You can learn more about Finding Photo Flow here.
Today's final post of the summer photo series comes from someone whose work I find so inspiring - Katrina Kennedy. I'll turn the narration over to her -
My garden is my favorite place in the world. I love the colors and variety this photo shows.
I love that you can see his smile as he views the worst birthday cake I've ever made for him!
I melt over photos of my boys together. I loved all of the texture in this one!
That face. Who can resist it? He was thrilled to feed the giraffe. This is what childhood is about!
Ice cream. You have to love it. Spending time with a visiting cousin, even better.
We were comparing the size of the tomato to his head. He didn't think it was so fun to cooperate, moving to his spot, ignoring my suggestions. That smile is so him.
They talked me into riding the ferris wheel at the State Fair. I was not excited, but standing in line did give me a chance to grab a photo I love. I love the negative space and the curve of the ride.
As you can see, Katrina has an amazing eye for photography. If you're looking to sharpen up your photography or just be inspired, I highly recommend checking out her amazing site: Capture Your 365. Even better, kick it up a notch and take one of her upcoming classes:
Your Life Captured Through the Lens — her most popular class — starts September 13. If you are ready to move off of auto, this class is for you! In this class Katrina balances technical information with creative ideas for capturing the stories of your life.
In the NEW class Exposure learn how to achieve correct and creative exposures in a variety of situations including:
shooting the moon
capturing people in low and back lit situations
getting colors right (including red)
and more
If you are familiar with manual mode but ready to understand how to get the most out of it, this class is for you. This six week class begins October 25th.
Capture Your Holiday Through The Lens will be re-offered beginning December 6th. This class will walk you through the steps to capture the details of your holiday without the head ache. It is to the point with step by step instruction so you can spend your time with your loved ones. It makes a great gift too
Selective focus is a pretty cool tool in a professional photographer's bag because it makes it easy to see the story in an image.
For example, in this senior shoot I focused on one of the subjects to draw the viewer's eye exactly where the story of the photo can be told. It says a lot about how much fun she was having.
P.S. you can get the fabulous overlay I used on this image here.
In this photo, the focus tells you that the story in the image isn't about the people - it's about what is being done - What happens when you don't have the time to selectively focus a shot? Seriously, sometimes you are chasing a toddler's fleeting smile or capturing a hug and you just don't have the time to think - only to grab the shot. What do you do?
Fix it in your post processing using a fabulous Lightroom plugin! For this sample image I was literally chasing ducklings. I didn't have much time to selectively focus. I love that even though I don't have a fancy artistic lens or the time to play with the most creative focus I can get it after the fact with Focal Point.
If you want another trick in your post-processing handbag, take a look. You can find the plugin here.
**UPDATE** It never hurts to ask. :) The folks at OnOne have setup a special discount for my peeps - they just lowered their prices for the summer and are offering Digiscrap101 readers an additional 10% discount using the coupon code Digiscrap101.
Afterthoughts:
There are focal points that can be created in your photos using blur and vingetting as we've shown here and then there are layout focal points which are created based on the placement of elements and photos.
Layers in Lightroom? OnOne's Perfect Layers plugin makes it possible to take your photo editing to a completely different level - without Photoshop. Check it out in this video Review:
Have you ever had a family activity where you wanted to be fully immersed in the fun without your camera? A few weeks ago our family spent a really fun day at Lagoon compliments of Oracle.
I'll let you in on a little secret - the only camera I took was my iPhone because I wanted to ride the rides with my kids and completely enjoy the day. My photos from that day are mainly little vignettes (not very high quality) like this one:
Cute memento but what about everything else? Most of the day I was too busy riding rides or swimming with my kids and husband to worry about taking photos. So I just focused on immersing myself in the moments and making memories.
The morning after the event, I took some time to make a list of the things I wanted to remember for the day. I use MacJournal software for this - it helps me keep a journal of things so I can remember them in general and especially if I want to scrapbook them. The list included:
Riding the Samurai with Kate
Joseph saying, “I’m a Lucky Man!” when questioned why he said, “Because I’m not a man yet, I’m still a boy.”
Freezing with the kids in the lazy river
Riding water slides with Grace & Hyrum
Joseph wanting to ride EVERY ride with his dad.
Hyrum and Grace pairing up to tease Kate
Emily wanting to ride EVERY ride with mom.
The look on Emily’s face during the wooden roller coaster ride - pure glee, happiness and fright.
Emily asking to ride the wooden roller coaster again and again.
The kids (even 15 yr. old Kate) wanting to ride the carousel twice - some rides never get old
Kate & Hyrum’s love of the Tidal wave (swinging ship) ride.
Emily in Pioneer Town saying she wished she lived in that time period (Little House on the Prairie is also her favorite show)...
Troy showing the kids the miniature circus and old sleighs and wagons.
I took some time to expound on a few of the items on the list, most notably my ride on the Samurai with Kate. Riding roller coasters with my oldest daughter Kate is just something we do. She and I have been to California twice to visit theme parks and so it was fitting that we were the only two out of seven in our family brave enough to ride the Samurai.
I wanted to do a layout about this but I didn't have any photos. What to do? Go to my friend Google and search "Lagoon Samurai." The results were just a few videos:
Do you see the word IMAGES in the top left? Click on this and you get all the related images:
Next I just searched until I found a photo with no copyright restrictions for my layout. Granted, sometimes this is difficult to do, so another way to search photos is Flickr. Again I just typed in the terms "Lagoon samurai"
and found lots of relevant photos -
One of the biggest hurdles to using this method is making sure you only use those images that you can obtain permission to use in your layouts. You will need to look at the licensing of the image in the photo description to determine this.
For example, when you see this on Flickr, you can pretty much assume it is a no-go:
That said, if you have a hard time finding a photo that is creative commons or copyright friendly - I have actually had success emailing Flickr users to get permission to use their photos for my scrapbook layouts.
Just click on the user name near the photo and then the EMAIL (envelope icon) at the top of one of their photos. Most photographers are more concerned about having their images used for commercial purposes. 80% of the time when I contact them and explain that I would just be using the photo in a scrapbook layout for our family's personal scrapbook only and posting in online galleries where I would credit them and link to their photo stream, I have received permission.
Once I have the photo I need (and the appropriate permissions), I create the layout.
The journaling in this layout reads: REMEMBER THIS: Your mother was always ready to ride any scary roller coaster you chose - and she loved it because it was time with you. At times the rides were scary but she still rode along because she loves you. It’s really a metaphor for your life - no matter how crazy it gets, whenever you need your mom, you can count on her being there.
Funny how as I was journaling this experience, what I thought I would write and what I wrote were two different things. On this particular day I wasn't feeling 100% and my stomach especially wasn't very happy. When I looked at this ride I thought there was no way and then I saw my daughter's face as she said, "Mom, we're totally doing that one!" and I knew I had it in me - but I prayed the whole line hoping I'd be ok. Which brought me to WHY I ride roller coasters with my daughter. Sometimes we do things just for fun - and believe me she and I have lots of fun - but for us this is also about the time and something we do. No matter how life goes - whether she's asking me to ride a roller coaster or to help her with a friend or teacher - everyday I will be there.
Now for an explanation of what the Samurai is and why I was so afraid: Lagoon's The Samurai consists of six radial arms that spin as the entire ride rotates through an oval arc in either direction. As centrifugal forces increase, the entire ride rises to a near-vertical position, gathering forces that allow each arm to freely rotate. The sensation of flying and performing loops is achieved in a smooth yet thrilling experience.To experience the Samurai, you must be in good health and free from heart conditions, neck and back injury, and other physical limitations. Prior to participating, guests are encouraged to observe the attraction in operation in order to determine its suitability relative to their own physical condition.
So excited to be going into a weekend of holiday fun! The above photo is a fun cake my teenager made last year. You can find the recipe here if you are feeling especially creative in the baking department. I love the 4th of July - so many great memories... I can't wait to make more this weekend!
So many things I'd love to share with you today to help you celebrate, but I will keep this post simple. There are a lot of great posts in blog land about capturing fireworks. Rather than add to the fray, I thought I would focus on sparklers, one of our family's favorite 4th of July traditions.
I need to preface this information with a disclaimer: Sparklers can be very dangerous - so please read this safety information before allowing your children to use them.
Sparklers are paintbrushes of light - and if you time it right and play with your camera settings, you really can capture some cool shots -
I love this shot of my daughter Grace just having fun - she looks like a butterfly. The settings on my camera were:
Shutter Speed: 2.0 seconds
Aperture: F/6.3
ISO 400
Zoom: 24mm
Mode: Shutter Priority
Now what does that all mean? The first thing you will want to know is the mode of my camera - I had the dial set to TV or Shutter Priority.
Above you may note that I shared the technical details of my photo with the shutter speed in seconds. However, when you adjust your shutter speed on your camera screen, it never says "2 seconds" it gives you a shorter display like 1/100, 1/60 or 1/30. When you really slow things down to one second or more you'll see two small lines next to the shutter speed like 2".
Forgive the quality of the above iPhone photo, but it will give you an idea. To sum it up, 1/100 is like 100 and is faster the 1/30 (or 30); both are faster than 30". If you see a number followed by " that is the shutter speed in seconds.
My advice to you is to set your camera in shutter priority mode this weekend and play with shutter speeds to see what you can come up with. A tripod is extremly helpful if you want sharper shots but in a pinch you could use a patio table, stool, etc.
Here are a few more examples:
Shutter Speed: 2.5 seconds (2"5 on camera settings screen)
Aperture: F/9
ISO 400
Zoom: 24mm
Mode: Shutter Priority
Shutter Speed: 4.0 seconds (4" on camera settings screen)
Aperture: F/13
ISO 400
Zoom: 34mm
Mode: Shutter Priority
So get out this weekend and have some fun with your camera - whatever you do we'd love to see your images of holiday fun here. (No sparklers or fireworks necessary!)
. It made not only my photography better, but also my layouts. 
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