Santa Came Early

So, awhile back, like over a year ago, I won a 250 buck Visa gift card from the lovely women at Parent Blogger's Network, and this major name company. Who shall remain nameless lest I have to associate their name with their PR firm trying to welch on the GC, ahem! PBN of course, loveliest women ever.

So, after a Christmas, a birthday, and some other stuff, along with the GC, I finally had enough money to get my DSLR. Except... I couldn't do it. It just seemed like if I got it, it would be like a gateway. I would need at least two or three more lenses, some of them more expensive than the camera itself. So, I went searching for an upgrade to my current Canon A540 (free won at holiday party three years ago). I finally settled on the Canon SX 20 IS. I ordered it Tuesday, and it came today.

It is everything I hoped for and more. While my old camera could do great macro and decent distance shots, it sucked in low light. It also wasn't the best at dealing with a complex depth of field.

Here are some lovely examples, unedited, and before I managed to read the manual (I know, being a geek I should totally RTFM, but it was a new toy).

Flash off again, using pretty much just light from the LED's on the tree.

Christmas tree, flash off, in my not terribly well lit living room.

Dog pictures are so much easier with this camera. This one is a bit fuzzy, but I would have never gotten anything close to this before.

Disclaimer: Canon didn't pay me, or even know about me writing this. I'm just a Canon girl from way back. They made my first SLR camera that I loved.

Steps to a New Header

Rebecca left a sweet comment on my photo post about liking my headers and wanting to know more about software. I responded to her comment, but I thought it would be fun to go through my process for the headers using Picnik, since I think that is just about all anyone needs. For around 25/year for Premium and regular updates to it I think it is a great deal.

Step 1: Find a photo I like. (this one is my purple flowering kale in the garden) It needs to have enough interesting detail in a narrow band for a header. Rotate it until you get the right angle.

I rotated this one left, once.

Step 2: Crop it. I know the general dimensions that look good and fit, I try to have a focal point, and I like to follow the rule of threes. Ever wonder why your camera has that nifty grid to divide the space into 9 parts, yeah, that would be it. I use it for balancing positive and negative space as well. Sometimes I just go for content, but the ones I like the best follow those rules. (left two thirds positive space, right third, negative space)

Step 3: Adjust exposure (this one was over exposed so I decreased) and contrast (I increased it a little, more drama)


Step 4: Play around with effects. Here we have Boost:

and Vibrance.


I went with Vibrance. They also have some seriously far out ones, and traditional like Sepia & B&W. For a lot of fun, go with Lomoish.

Step 5: Soften if needed. Sometimes I like doing this, especially if the colors are strong like in this one. This is the Matte effect.


Step 6: Rounded corners and add text. I love the text options, and I keep wanting to find reasons to use the really wild ones. Still, the ones I like best look like neat writing or retro typewriters. I was feeling purple, so purple text it is.

Step 7: Shrink to Fit. My Blogger header has a 890 pixel width. To make sure that it scales appropriately (instead of letting Blogger do it for me) I save the file as 890 pixels wide and let it scale the height.

Haiku Friday - Fall

wood smoke smells outside
blankets and snuggles indoors
fire erupts the trees

still green with flicks of
colors so bright a last flame
before the gray ghost

winter is coming
but for now fall is still here
favored time of year

It is most definitely fall in Minnesota. I love it. The colors are peaking here, and I finally got my header shot. (though I am sure I will keep taking ones to use in the future) I went out to our massive maple tree right before dusk. The lighting made me figure out some stuff on my wee little point and shoot camera. I just need to reacquaint myself with f stops, shutter speeds and depth of field. I have been puzzling over what to tell the in-laws I want for Christmas, but I may have found my solution. I am ready for a better camera. Ready to blend my knowledge of 35mm photography with digital. I'm thinking another Canon like my small camera and my favorite 35mm, but I'll take suggestions.

Haiku Friday can be found here, with the lovely Christina.

They call it 60's

I've been having more fun with Picnik for the new header, and adding another column over there on the side. (I'll comment on that soon enough) Still not done tweaking, but it is nearly bedtime here in the steamy twin cities. (bad air alerts, so if you're local, stay inside in the AC)

I've also started a cool new photo project of sorts, details coming on that too. I may need all six of your thinking caps on to help me figure something out.