Saturday, April 30

Photography Theme: Curves

What a crazy week. Ups, downs, exhaustion - you name it. Still I made time to roam around and take some shots for the Curves theme.

Shadowy Swirls
Swirls on the Sidewalk


Camera Nikon D5100, Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60), Aperture f/5.6, Focal Length 18 mm, Focal Length 18.3 mm, Flash Off, Did not fire,
Lens FStops 5.33, Scene Night Vision, Color Monochrome


This shot was taken using the Night Vision setting on under the Scenes feature of my new camera. I just loved how the light and shade combined to make the playful shapes on the concreate as they filtered from the shop window.


Column Curves
US Post Office

Camera Nikon D5100, Exposure 0.077 sec (1/13), Aperture f/3.5, Focal Length 18 mm, Focal Length 18.3 mm, ISO Speed 3200, Exposure Bias 0 EV, Flash Off, Did not fire

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor ...well, you can read it yourself on the top of the main post office between 32rd and 34th Street and 8th Avenue. I love the majesty of the building with the bustle of the street traffic.

Number Curves
333.333


Camera Nikon D5100, Exposure 0.033 sec (1/30), Aperture f/5.6, Focal Length 55 mm, ISO Speed 3200, Exposure Bias 0 EV, Flash Auto, Fired, Return detected

The catty corner view of the building awning made the triple 3s standout in my nighttime walk.



As you can see, I'm fascinated with low light shots and I'm trying to play with my new camera shooting in the various settings.

Thanks for checking out my shots!

Thursday, April 28

Themed Weekly Photographers

Here is a list of everyone who has joined in the MScraps' 'challenge yourself ' theme photo exercise. Be sure to check out their awesome shots and follow them if you like what you see.

If you want to read more or just join in on the chatter, you can find the posts in this forum over at Mscraps


Heather T's Blog: http://oohlalaartsy.blogspot.com


Linda (Scrapporreia)'s Blog: http://www.scrapporreia.blogspot.com

Meg of OceanWideDesigns' Blog: http://www.oceanwidedesigns.com

Romy's Blog: http://by-romy.blogspot.com/


Reminder:The idea is to have a theme to shoot a set of photos over a week's time. This will hone your eye and give you practice with your camera. You're only challenging yourself, so shoot what you can. Make something fit, or see how it doesn't fit. Just have fun with it.

C'mon -- join us!

Monday, April 25

Today my baby turns 5

I'm so proud of the little boy he's growing into and sad to see the parts of him that are a little baby fade away. This one little guy gives me more joy and genuinely melts my heart more than I ever thought anything could.

Happy Birthday my little love!

Here is a shot of his school birthday cupcake. I made 30 of them. yeah, THIRTY. That's a mama's love, huh?


Tyler's 5th Birthday - with Fruit Rollup bday hat. :)
Help, my house is infested with catepillars... cupcakes, that is!

30 catepiller mini-cupcakes! yikes!

Sunday, April 24

Theme photo blogging - announcement

I'm a regular participator in MScraps. I love their designers, the store is awesome (and why I'm always broke!) and the ladies there are so varied, creative, supportive, caring and I could go on and on. Its a place I feel I can throw ideas out and get real feedback and tons of back up.

Recently, there has been a lot of chatter about buying new cameras, comparisons, brands, etc. It led me to think (because, yes, I am also waiting for the Nikon D5100 to get to my store!) that I loved doing the Theme Photo blogging 'contest' after I got my D70 slr. It wasn't just the contest; it was the fact that it forced me to get out and shoot. I'd go for walks at lunch with my friends and it was so much fun to talk about our shots and what made it hard, what we liked, etc. I started a thread in MScraps to invite some of the ladies to join me in a self-challenge - a blogging circle of photography.

Interested in joining?

Here is how it will work:
4 Themes a month (theoretically one them per week)
Pick 3 - 5 of your favorite shots
Post to your blogs All blogs will be listed after I get some takers (bonus:we can each post the full list of blogs and the link back to mScraps' forum)
Everyone comments, reviews, critiques, etc.
We'll start on May 1, Sunday and the week will end on Sat (May 8)

Benefits: more photos, better shooting increase traffic and 'followers' to our own blogs Can get photo help from a group of fellow photogs

Example from a theme photo contest I ran a few years ago: We chose Circles as our first theme and we all had to shoot things that reminded us of the word. Shots included: Bi-circles (bike tires), retro lamps, the moon, ironwork around NYC, puddles, etc.

THEMES (thank you for those of you who sent in your suggestions prior to this thread) Be sure to name each of your shots - sometimes a clever title makes the shot that much more appealing. :) And it helps if we end up comments about it in the thread, we dont have to say: the one with the blue. lol

WEEK OF
May 1: Curves (hints: Many things curve; the curve of a body, curls in hair, winding roads, or you can to to the opposite extreme: lack of curves - as long as it relates)
May 8: Weather (hints: This outside the box, don't shoot just rain or sun, challenge yourself.)
May 15: Anticipation (hints: lots of us have kids/grandkids - there are so many possibilities here for them, but we can do inanimate things, too: plants prebud, ketchup dripping, an envelope)
May 22: Double takes - This one requires 2 photos; 2 things that look or seem similar (hints: obviously twins, two uses for the same thing, reflections, -- there are so many possibilities to this one.

The other photographers can come and comment on your shots.(I'm planning on posting the full list on my blog as well). Don't worry if you don't do each week at the same time as I've dated them. Whenever you shoot and post, we'll all be taking a look (and those like me, will surely be commenting).

This is just to get us all out and shooting. Practice makes perfect. The more we shoot the better our pictures have to become. Once I see how much interest we get in this, I can post a longer schedule. :)

If you know of a budding photog, send them to this thread at Mscraps so they can join in on the fun, too!

Sunday, April 10

My little patch out back

I love being outside (minus the bugs and the animals - lol ). So I decided to make it feel more like me. My son has the whole house, my husband has the garage. I don't have a room thats just for me. So, for the few months of decent weather, I want my own space.

Monday, April 4

April Food Break




All this scrapping and creating makes you hungry, no? I thought the time was ripe for a food break. heh heh heh

I'll start with my April Fool's treats. I made these worm riddled apples for my son's lunch bag and it came out so cute that I decided to make 2 more for each of his teachers. They loved them and one of them saved it to take home to show her son. :) I love a 'pay it forward'.


I saw this 'treat' on a site or a magazine and I can't recall which, or else I'd give them their due credit. Here is how it was done, I trimmed a gummy worm, used a paring knife and dug out a hole. Then dripped some lemon juice inside to keep it fresh. To keep the gummy candy from getting too gooey too quickly, I dabbed the hole after a little bit. Then I shoved the cut side of the worm in. That's it!

Next Up are Cake Pops. You seen these online a ton of times by now. There are many variations: cake mixed with a binder (like cream cheese), straight up cake baked in ball shapes, or scooped out to ball shapes. Covered with a chocolate concoction, covered with frosting then fondant, frosting and dipped in chocolate, and so on. These were from my local Starbucks on Third and 48th in NYC. Rocky Road, Birthday Cake and Tiramisu. They were a little too sweet for me, but I wanted to try them, so I had to buy 'em. Cute though, huh?


For my DHs birthday, we had some of our close friends and their kids over on Saturday night. For his actual birthday, I didn't want him not to have a cake, so I picked up this peanut butter silk pie at Perkins. They have some yummy pies. I topped it with these colorful, rubber, finger puppets (available at Target). Aren't they hideously cute?

Friday, April 1

Blog Train Freebies with The Design Girl

Happy April Fool's Day! The start of the month, the beginning of Spring, and what better way to start than with a new Sprint kit from The Design Girl and a whole blog train of freebies? Here is her Hop To It kit. How cute are those little bunnies and chickies?? Here is a layout I did with the kit from last year's Easter Egg hunt down in VA.This is our adorable God-daughter (and neice) on her first Easter Egg Hunt. The Little Huntress


I have create 4.25 x 5.5 printable labels for those Easter gifts or just to use as a fun mailing label. Click on the preview below to download the files. Then be sure to scroll down so that you can find all the other free goodies by The Design Girl's CT team.
Your next stop is Andrea's blog

If you lose your way you can find the whole list of blog's here :


Linda/Scrapporreia (you are here) - http://www.scrapporreia.blogspot.com/









Enjoy the goodies!
Be sure to check out some of the other freebies on this site before you go - click on Freebies on the tab above.

And I wanted to thank Danielle, her CT lead Andrea and all the other ladies for making me feel so welcome this month as a CT guest. It was a blast!

Scrapbook Pages

www.flickr.com

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