Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts

Monday, November 23, 2009

Super simple gift idea

Seehere is offering 100 free prints and free shipping to new users. I ordered cards from them, but haven't received them yet, so I can't yet give you my opinion on their prints or service. I'm hearing good things about them on the interwebs from others who have already received their cards, though.

In the Target dollar aisle (aka my nirvana), I found some calendars with spots for a 4x6 photo on each month. I saw "My family," and "My grandchildren," ones. We grabbed two of the grandchildren ones for both sets of grandparents. I plan to order my free prints and put them in the calendars.

It's an easy, quick and super cheap gift. When the year is over, the grandparents still have 12 prints too.


Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Photographic evidence

from the ice storm. Visually, I'm fascinated by both fire and ice. So even though we were without power, I was still out there snapping pictures in the storm. While I forgot to charge the cell phone battery, I made certain the camera battery was charged before the storm. You've got to have priorities.


www.flickr.com






There are more than just those 5. Click to see the rest.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Because I really need a positive spin right now...

we return to the Gratitude game.

I got the letter D.

1. Daughters: I adore my girls. I consider myself very lucky to have not only my girls, but kids of both sexes. I have friends who desperately wanted a child of one sex, but wound up with 3, 4, or even 5 of the opposite. I'm blessed to know both sides of the coin. Although, I consider the opportunity to raise girls to be a great one. Aside from the stereotypical cute girl stuff, I get the chance to teach our girls that they can make a difference in the world. Granted, I plan to teach our son the same thing, but it's a whole different ball game with girls. I have been given the huge responsibility and privilege of raising daughters in a way where they hopefully feel confident in their own skin and can excel in whatever they choose.

2. Diary: This thing helps me sort things out. It forces me to continue writing. It allows me to look back and see things in a different light.

3. Dance: It was my escape for so many years. It lead me to some of the most wonderful people in the world. I was raised believing that everyone is a dancer at heart. Then I met my husband who has no sense of rhythm. So now I can better appreciate all those long hours and hard work I put into dancing. The ability to do that really is extraordinary. I will never be able to explain how much magic dance brought into my life.

4. Darkroom: My grandfather was a photographer. He had very little formal education, but he taught himself so much about his photography. His pictures of family members are some of the only portraits we have. Without his pictures, I would never have known what many of them looked like. His touching candid portraits of my grandmother (for whom I'm named, but who died long before I was born) introduced me to her long after she was gone. We had the remnants of his darkroom in my basement when I was a child. When I was in high school, I set foot in a working darkroom for the first time and I was in love. Not only was I better able to realize a life-long passion (I got my first camera at 6-year-old and never looked back), but in that darkroom, I found a connection to that grandfather.

5. Deodorant: I work out for 2 hours every day. 'Nuff said. :-)

6. Dessert: Chocolate. :::drool::: Once again, 'nuff said.

7. Determination: I'm not the type who believes people when they tell me I can't do something. I'm stubborn as hell which can be a problem sometimes, but once I make up my mind about something, it's gonna happen. "Don't start with me. You will not win." That about sums it up. :-)

8. Dictonary: I was voted the top student in my AP English class by my peers. My award was a penny (long story) and the biggest dictionary I had ever seen. That award meant SO much to me. I still have the penny (framed) and I still have that dictionary.

9. Dreams: I'm thankful for dreams for two reasons. #1. You can always have a goal. XY and Z may be wrong with your life, but if you have a dream to become something, you have something to work for. You have a light at the end of the tunnel. #2. I'm a daydreamer, so I love flight of fancy dreams. While my body may actually be stuck in the car behind a long line of other cars moving at roughly 3 miles per hour, my mind could be wandering damn near anywhere and I assure you it's much warmer and picturesque there plus it smells a lot better too.

10. Drinks: of the alcoholic variety. Not only the drinks, but the friends with whom you go drinking. Don't worry, I'm responsible about it, but I just love having a drink (or an entire bottle of wine) with friends. It's so nice to get out with friends, have a few drinks and chat.

Monday, May 15, 2006

I've been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they're real
I've been living so long with my pictures of you

That I almost believe that the pictures are
All I can feel

Title from "Pictures of You," G-d bless the Cure! If that looks familiar and you're not a Cure fan, that's probably because Hewlet Packard used the song in a commercial a few years ago.

I've been thinking a lot about photographs. I LOVE photography. I grew up with a dark room in the basement. It had been my grandfather's back in the day. My dad never used it, but I was always fascinated by it. I got my first camera when I was 6 and I never looked back.

I don't know if some of my personality traits are why I love photography or if they didn't exist before I discovered photography. Did they lead me to the camera or did the camera lead me to them?

I was listening to Vienna Teng today and this bit from "Say Uncle" really caught my attention:

"I retrieve the memories quickly as I can
add them to the portrait
we all draw in our minds
your body gone, we shall keep the man."

Some people paint portraits in their mind. They piece together fragments of different memories in order to form a whole. Me? I've always taken photographs long before I first held a camera. To this day, I can still see exactly what I was wearing on my third birthday. The picture of my aunt's face as she walked through the front door is frozen in time. She passed away when I was 2, so I must have been very young when that happened. Still, her face at that moment is forever frozen in my memory. I've photographed these moments in time all my life.

My only knowledge of most of my relatives is through their pictures. There are the distant cousins who died long ago, but at the same time, there are my grandfather's pictures. I knew him briefly, but through the photographs he left behind, I learned so much more about him. He had such a wicked sense of humor. I love it. The man who never made it past the sixth grade was able to do such amazing things with his pictures. Through lighting, posing and techniques done while he printed the photos, I can see his brilliance. My grandmother died long before I was born, but through his pictures of her (that range from their courtship through the year she passed away), I got to know her and how much he loved her.

Sometimes I wonder what fuels me. Am I drawn to the camera or is the camera drawn to me?