New Year's Eve

I am baking some yummy deserts for the party. It is going to be fun time! What are your plan for New Years ?

Christmas equals cookie time

This weekend I had a blast capturing the moment unfold while baking auger cookies! My Nephews came over to bake Christmas sugar cookies.

First portrait shoot

I wanted to finish the ny course and one of the assignment was to take professional head shoot! I was so nervous I practice lighting with a teddy bear and then too a stab at it! I was so worried about the light and the angle of the subject , but then I let it go! I set up the lighting then photographed him! The photo turned out great. Since he allowed me to take some photos in existing for some prints.

2012 Christmas Cards!

This year my older sister asked me to photograph her kids so she can create christmas cards!

2012 Olympic Games

    Check the following link out! A Photographer created a composite of 425 photo in 1 hour during   the  20120 Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games  at Olympic Park in London, UK. as the athletes entered the stadium. You can zoom  in and around the image! I must say this is amazing! 

You have to take time out of your day to check this out! Here is the link: NBC Olympics .

How to correct the wrong date on camera!

I  am still working on it and I will post tomorrow !

Camera date not correct!

     Today I was uploading images from my memory card and discovered the date and time was wrong. So I got to thinking! Maybe when I set my time on my camera, I did not consider the military time. There is no a.m. and p.m. when selecting the time. Yes, that was it I did not put military time in the equation! So I fix it!

So the lesson of the day is to consider military time when you are  setting the clock on your camera!

ShutterMag 100% FREE Magazine

Sal Cincotta created tis magazine that is very revolution, I think it is part of the future. The magazine has article from some amazing photographer in the industry and a video with each article. The video infused into topic on the page. The magazine is free if you sign up  at ShutterMag.  The magazine also has a contest that anyone can enter. I really like the intro video that Sal created, the ShutterMag video.

How do you hold your camera?

    I was watching CreativeLIVE this last weekend and Sal, mentioned how he his camera to keep it steady. He hold his camera one hand on the camera body, other hand on the lens to support it and he keeps his arms close to his chest!

I hold my camera with both hand holding the camera.

So how do you hold your camera?

Broken Ipod Touch

      You will never guess what happened to me when I went on vacation to Myrtle Beach, Sc with my Sister and her family. Let see, 3 days into my  vacation, I went with the kids at night to try and catch some crabs with flashlights and a bucket. I took my camera and ipod, so I could take some photos.  And what did I do o drooped my ipod in the ocean on the beach! I played it cool,  picked it up, wiped it off , took it out of the Outterbox case and it still work. I was like yes! So I got back to the condo and exported all my photo to my computer. Then sat it out to dry and tried to charge it the next day and it would not hold a charge. I put it into rice when I got home and that still did not help! It would not hold a charge or tun on because the battery was died. So I was like what do I have to loss my ipod will not work. So I was thinking! Maybe if I clean out the connection part it will work. So I googled how to take apart Ipod Touch, because I figured maybe I could clean out where the charger connect to the ipod.  It Would help. Well, lets just say I did not improve it at all. But I will be thankful that I was able to get my photos off of the my ipod!

Vacation

     I went on vacation with my sister and her family! We went to Myrtle Beach, Sc. for 5 days. My favorite part was when we took a ride on the Skywheel. It was amazing at the view. The Skywheel is basically a ferris wheel ride where you can see around you 360 degree view of every thing in site! The Skywheel even lights up at night in different colors.

Cookies

   This post is in memory of Paula Mae. She lived with use for over two and half years and she called me her friend, some times girl. I remember her saying come here girl! She passed away from alzheimer's disease on June 11. 

   It is interesting how some foods reminds you of certain people and how you can pick up eating habits from hanging around someone. I picked up this cookies habit for hang with Paula Mae. She love to eat chocolate Chips Ahoy Chunky chocolate chunk cookies, chunky white fudge cookies and M and M cookies. She got me into the M and M cookies and then it went to Oreos! I use to eat Oreos when I was a kid. My top favorite cookie is Oreo Fudge Creames original cookie. Both of the cookies you can not just eat one kind of cookie. It is like a potato chip. You can not just have one.  You should try them they are really great.


   Below are some of my favorite cookies: Oreo sandwich cookie, Oreo sandwich cookies golden original, Oreo fudge Creams original cookies and popsicle Oreo filled cookie.

    

 What is your favorite cookie?

SEEK and PEAK: Lightroom and Pool

This weeks highlights!

SEEKS are......

• There is not enough time in the day to do what I want to accomplish.
• Four event notes to type from CreativeLIVE workshops.
• I am so behind in uploading images in Lightroom!

PEAKS are.......

• The pool is open, clean and the cover so the water can get warm.
• Skip Cohen on creativeLIVE for 2 nights was really great!
• A t.v. show I enjoy watching is Think You Can Dance show, it fun to watch this week.
• 6 more days till I go on vacation with my nephews. It is going to be fun.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Where do you find  your inspiration?

I think inspiration is anything that helps you generate artist ideas for a photograph. You can find inspiration from many places. I like getting inspiration from Pinterest, magazines, advertisements, music videos and other photographers work. You can get inspiration form a photograph. It can be one little think you like about the photo like the posing, lighting, arrangement of the composition or the emotion in conveys. You do not have to copy the photograph, but you can take a piece of the photograph and make it you own style.

Where to you keep your inspirational images?

I keep mine in a binder and on Pinterest. I am think of storing the photos on my computer in an inspirational fold with keywords. So if I think of an idea, I can type the keywords in and photographs will pop up. It would be faster for me to locate my inspirational images.

Get inspired from what ever you are passionate about or what ever inspires you!

NOTES: Post-Wedding Workflow with Zack and Jody Gray

         This Friday I watch another CreativeLIVE workshop that was a one day event. It was all about  Zack and Jody  Gray's Post-wedding workflow, here are some highlights from the day.

• "Acquiring knowledge is the thing I want to spend a lot of my time doing."
• "Strive for greatness not perfection."
• "The future of the economy is not based on how goo  your photographs are, its based on how much knowledge you have."
• "Half of our success within us believing that we can do it." 
• "Know where your money is going, so you can make your money behave."
• "Money good for 3 things: spending, saving, giving."
• Don't make decisions when you are emotional charge."
• "Routine and schedules keep you sane, everyone need habit"
• "If you schedule it, it will happen."-Jody
• "Our business is part of what we do, not our identity."-Jody
• When building schedule: "More structure and routine is your day the more effective and better your business will be."
• Delegate out much as can as business grows, that don't require unique voices. For example: uploading blog images, linking in blogs, packing/shipping items, placing product order, edit.
• To find some great books he recommending in the workshop chick on book recommendations.
• "Business don't maintain, they either grow or die."

NOTES: CreativeLIVe Fundamentals of Digital Photography with John Greengo

This week I watched the Fundamentals of Digital Photography, It was a 5 day workshop with John Greengo!  The course was amazing with some really great graphics that make the process of  understanding photography very clear. I took 94 pages of notes and some screen shots.

• 10 thing every photographer need to know from  Wednesday.

1. Photography is not cheap
2. The best camera of tomorrow can't shoot a picture today
3. Quality is important...  up to an point
4. Nobody makes a living being just a photographer
5. An average photographer with great business skills beat a great photographer with average business skills.
6. Opinions matter, yours most of all.
7. Three years to three stars (Year 1 & 2: trash most photos and one and two only, Year 3: three stars)
8. The hardest part of photography is being in the right place at the right time
9. Good photographers are good problem solvers
10. The learning never stops

             Look, Shoot, Edit, Repeat!

• Here's John Greengo's formal for taking great photo from the creativeLIVE workshop on Thursday.
1.  You need a camera (least important)
2.  You need time, available light (to scout and be available)
3.  You need effort ( photography is not easy)
4. Your need knowledge (the more you know, the better you'll do)

• The Formula for what makes a great photo from John Greengo on Friday.
• Beautiful Light
• Beautiful Composition
• Beautiful Moment
• New Interesting Subject
• New Perspective
• A Little Mystery ( not tell whole story in a photo)
• Also
• Bring the camera
• Pack light/Pack smart
• Stand steady, shoot steady
• Bring a tripod
• Get closer, get closer, get closer
• Watch your foreground and background
• Get out there and shoot, shoot, shot

• Go through your images and critique yourself
• Back up your photos 

• Fill the frame
• If you're giving nothing to shoot just shoot nothingness

• Get down on your belly and get up in the tree
• Keep your balance and wait for the decisive moment
• Shoot what you know
• Shoot what don't know

• To be a great photographer.. you need to see what others do not, you need to know the fundamentals of photography, you need the ability to portray your subject in a way that is bold beautiful and simple.

Easter Snack!

What snack do you look forward to eating at Easter time?

Easter is the only time I can get my hands on Starburst jelly beans. They are so good!  I can eat the whole bag in one day! No joke they are delicious and you can not just have two. One of my nephews received some starburst jelly beans in is Easter Basket and I told him I will give him a dollar if be give me  the small bag of Starburst jelly beans. He was not having it, but he ended up giving me one jelly bean. I said, " How kind of you to sharing and thanks!

NOTES: from CreativeLIVE Lightroom 4 Workshop

I enjoyed watching CreativeLIVE workshop regarding Lightroom 4.  Here are some off my notes from Laura Shoes workshop on the new Lightroom 4:

• Why Lightroom
• Customizes for Photographers, their workflow to all our needs
• Library Develop for retouch and adjusting, want to get the most out of your photos, powerful
• Lightroom is forgiving ( means it is ok you can undo, never touch your own photo)
• You can do more faster ( can find photos), work multi photos at the same time
• Recommended to have 1 catalog for all your photos is recommended
• Catalog can be on external drive, NOT on network drive
• Organize photo, back them up and  photo library to
• Organize photo, Lightroom doesn't organize photos, don't car how you do it
• Lightroom catalog contains all data you have ever done, have backup folder on photo library, to protect from corruption
• Backup catalog only back up data, to photos you did in catalog, not the images it self.
• Have photo library folder with image files and backup folder inside the library folder and back up the folder to be safe on a external drive.
• During import you can pre set in develop setting save time, add keywords need commas, apply to every photo you are importing tell where to store image
• DON'T delete photos, thinking they are in Lightroom
• To CLICK all photos in Lightroom, click all images by pressing (Command and A)
• If need help in LIghtroom or in doubt, RIGHT click on a Mac for options.

Lighting

I need to make time to practice and understand light and how what I can do to improve my photo. I need to spend some time watching practicing lighting and review my work!

Amazing Photo shoot

  Exciting one year old photo shoot this weekend with my nephew, Jacob! He was a precious little boy who's favorite words right now is "Whats That" and pointing at any object that he is curious about! The photo shoot took place on St. Patrick's Day! Here are some photos from the event.

                              

Under the Sea Baby Shower

This weekend I enjoyed making some deserts and a center piece for an amazing baby shower, with the under the sea theme. The center piece is coral with bath toys swimming around.  The deserts consist of blue cake pops, octopus marshmallow pops and yummy stuffed strawberries. Bellow are some of the photos of the deserts I made.

Center Piece:

Coral with sea creatures 

Deserts:                                            

 Cake Pops (Beach balls)

Octopus Marshmallow Pops ( the octopus are sitting in browns sugar, white sugar, blue sprinkles, and white round sprinkles for pearls)

Stuffed Strawberries (I cut the bottom and cut the top off, then scooped out a bowl like shape in the top and filled it with cream cheese softened filling)

Have a great week!

Amazing Glamour weekend on CreativeLIVE

Wow what an amazing weekend! Will post what I learned this weekend!

NOTES: CreativeLIVE with Sandy Puc

I watched 2 of 3 days of amazing information on CreativeLIVE. Next week I will post some of my notes!

Making a plan

       I need to make a plan to tackle one part of photography each week and then evaluate my work to see how to improve and what I cam learn. I think it is time to step up my game and get my hands dirty! So next week I am going to focus on one part of photography.

Goodbye Whitney!

Whitney Houston died yesterday at the young age of 48. Whitney Houston an artist, legend and an icon. I grown up lessening to her music! She has an voice that tops no other in the music industry. I remember the first time  I herd her music I was hoocked. When I was young, she released Whitney Houston's, The Greatest Hits 2 dic. album. I saved up my money to purchase the album. I purchased the album and the next day my boom box scratched one of the cd's! I was so mad. So I went out to the store and  purchased another Album for round two.  Let me tell you it was worth every penny. AMAZING! Whitney has an amazing voice and her music inspires everyone. She will be missed and her voice will live on! Whitney was, is and always will be loved and now she knows it.

Organizing photos

I have been working on it all weekend .

Scrapbooking

     I was working all week on a scrapbook for my nephew to create a year full of memories in one book. I purchased a Cricut Mini to create tittles and details. The Cricut Mini saved me alot of time and helped me be more creative. The scrapbook turned out amazing and everyone loved it.

Thank You Kodak

This week Kodak filling for bankruptcy was sad to here. Kodak has played an major role in my life as a photographer. My  first  photograph with my SLR camera was taken with Kodak film.  My Nikon N80 film camera was taken with Kodak Tri-X  film. Also it was the first  type of film that I captured an image, developed the film in the darkroom and processed my first photo in the darkroom. It was amazing!

I can alway remember my Grandma using Kodak camera and film to develop the amazing images when I was younger.

Thank you Kodak for all the years  you have dedicated to the world of photography and helping families capture moments!

Vivian Maier a Photographer's Chicago street photographer

Vivian Maier is a Chicago street photographer.  I have herd about her a year ago when she passed.  I just found out she has a book out.  You can purchase her book at Amazon.   I can not wait to get my hand on the book! Watch the video below to learn the  amazing story behind this lady who left a gold mind when she passed.

Some Of My Favorite Apps

Here are some of my favorite apps:

Camera+ app allows you to have more creative control over your image when capturing a moment.

Snapseed app is amazing when editing your photos in post production.

Week Cal app is great for planing and organizing.

Things app is great organizing and planing a project or event. I used this app to help plan a birthday party.

Tomorrow app is used to create a to do list that you can check off what you accomplish and transfuse your list to the next day to try again.

Instantpaper app is great when you want to read a blog or website when you do not have Internet connection. You have to sync the app before you loose the Internet connection. So you can read the blogs later

Flipboard app is like a personal magazine that you can customize to your personal like on social networking and magazines around the world.

Photoverse app is great to read and discover photo blogs and website.

Inatagram app is great for sharing your images.

Pinterest app is great for making inspiration boards that you can share and follow other people.