For the Love of the Craft | Tilt Shift Photography

When I started moving back into photography a few years ago, I spent a lot of time experimenting in photo editing software starting with Microsoft PictureIt, then Photoshop Elements and finally professional versions of Photoshop.  But as, business and life took priority, I accidently left behind learning and experimenting with  my photos.  

As the Cardinals moved into the World Series last week, I remembered some photos I took while up in the top of the St. Louis Arch last Christmas. Photos that, shamefully, didn’t make it to my blog. But after recently reading a blog post about tilt shift photography (the process of making a life size image look like a miniature model) I was inspired to revisit them!



Obviously, I don’t have a tilt shift lens, but revisited these images in Photoshop with a very easy tutorial that you can find here, gave them a new life that I love. I honestly think I took them with photoshop in mind - I don't get to shoot from this perspective often and I'm happy with how they turned out! You can see the originals here and here.

I’m going to have to go through my archives and see what else I can fake into a tilt-shift photo.

But that’s for another day.

One Last Thought of the Season (a.k.a The Great Santa Debate)

Christmas for a 3-year-old is not an easy task. There are questions to answered and more questions to be answered. And in case I didn't remember the first round of questions, they need to be asked again. Santa, and Jesus, and Snow, and Rudolph, and the fire place, the three kings, and presents, and how many cookies, and the candy canes - "When can I eat the candy canes!?"

As Harrison watched Super Why on PBS one morning last week, the story centered on 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, at the end of the show Harrison turned and yelled, "Mommy! Santa like cookies! We need to make Christmas cookies for Santa!" That sealed the deal.

Until...

We stayed out way too late to leave cookies under the tree. Luckily, Harrison forgot about that well-known fact, and fortunately it never came up again.

But there's always next year...

In fact, Christmas morning came and Harrison stood next to the tree in a tired daze as his daddy cried, "Harrison look! Santa came! Look Santa brought presents!" After a moment the haze lifted and Harrison started opening.

And now, after chewing on the thought awhile, he thinks EVERY gift under the tree came from Santa - all our gifts. AND that Santa is responsible for his birthday gifts as well. We'll work on that later.

We kept the focus on what is important to our family about this holiday - the birth of Christ Jesus. We talked about how Santa is a man who loved Jesus and wanted to show his love by giving to others. Remember, Santa is also known as Saint Nicolas.We focused on the giving to others. Then on Christmas morning we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Just like Harrison wanted to, just like his daddy always did as a child. That's our tradition.

We went through the Great Santa Debate this year, to Santa or not to Santa, that is the question for so many. Bottom line for us, why not.  Really people, none of us have ended up in therapy over finding out that Santa wasn't real. I don't have any deep-set scars from believing in and finding out the truth about Santa. And ss much as some feel we "shouldn't lie to our children - about Santa" I believe my child doesn't need to know the cold hard truth about this messed up world at three-years-old. Call me what you want. I let Harrison be the guide on believing in Santa. He has decided that he believes in the magic. We'll see what next year holds...wanna come along for the ride?

For us it all goes back to that fact that childhood magic is childhood magic. Santa is part of the magic of childhood, the magic of what Santa represented continued in my house long after I knew he wasn't real. In fact, I probably thought he wasn't real for a long time before it was confirmed... but my mom didn't let the magic die with the knowledge of his existence (or lack there of).  During this season when we give to others, whether it be our time, resources or money; when we feed the homeless; when we put money in a parking meter that is about to expire; when we spontaneously buy a cup of coffee for the person behind us in line at Starbucks - we are spreading the magic that Santa (St. Nicholas) started so many centuries before. I know it was because of his great faith. And an act of goodwill is magic.
Matthew 25:34-40
Hebrews 13:2

Whether you're a Chirstain or not, this year don't let the spirit of giving stop with Santa or Christmas - stretch yourself and Pay it Forward.

Or let it become a Magnificent Obsession.
But that's a story I'll share another time.

Christmas Giddyness!

Hope you had a nice Christmas, we did. I've been enjoying my new Camera case [I really needed one!] and my macro filters [can't afford a new macro lens so they're the next best thing.]

My husband also got me a pair of Sock Monkey slippers that Harrison happily pointed out matched my Nick & Nora Sock Monkey flannel pajamas. I L.O.V.E. pajamas - and I love my new, much needed, slippers.

They're so cozy! (I give credit to Kat for spotting them at Target last month & blogging about it. Hope you don't mind if we have matching slippers!) Slippers were on my Christmas list and I had NO idea what style to ask for until I read her post and marched the hubby right down to Target to show him the exact size and style. On that note, he got the wrong size and style and I took a trip to Target on Friday; well, three Targets all within an eight mile radius and the last one had ONE pair left in the right style and size! What luck! Worth the drive. [It was worth the drive for Harrison, too. he picked out a gift to get with his gift card from his Aunt.]

...but I think best of all, my husband surprised me with season passes to Disneyland. I had resolved myself to not having passes this year, but I was starting to feel sad as several [and I mean several] of my friends are getting season passes. [It doesn't hurt that Disneyland started a payment plan for Southern California residents.] So he splurged. After all, it really is the gift that keeps on giving all year long. 

I. Am. So. Excited!

Merry Christmas!

since I don't have a picture of us laying around on our sofa holding our stuffed stomachs, I leave you with this...

Here's wishing for more sugar plums to dance in your head tonight. Sweet Dreams.

More Christmas Card Antics

Here are a few of our other cards over the years.

In 1999 I did a Christmas letter written to the 12 Days of Chritmas only I substituted the 12 months of the year. It was the year we were married - a very busy year!

In 2001 Duke came to us as a rescue dog. He plopped down, exhausted and scared, under our bedroom window and the rest is history. By that time we already had a rescue fish, from the year before, named Hyper. Big Borther named him that because he would swim around the fish tank like a lightening rod and he ate all the live plants within a week of buying them. [they weren't meant to be fish-food]

(If you're wondering about a rescue-fish, he was left behind in a nursery classroom by a teacher that unplugged the tank and went on a permanent leave of absence. Our maintenance man found him still alive amongst in the mucky water and brought him to the office in a water pitcher - I took him home and he became family.)

With that, our 2001 card was to the theme of Barney's I love you. I no longer have the original file so I scanned a card.

Plenty of embossing and gluing. I thought I had learned my lesson about gluing...

Hyper was the "ball" that dances over the words of the song.

 

  

Our newsletter was on the final page. Since this is only 4.25 x 5.5, it was a short & sweet newsletter. and on the inside back cover was our greeting.

 

In 2002 we experienced a lot of stress in our lives so I did a quick postcard type card with velum over the top of a beach picture (not taken by me) with a smiple paper ribbon. We did manage to find the positive in a trying year including the fact that we changed Hyper's name to Sushi [and did he even know because he was a fish after all] I didn't have Photoshop back then so I punted. The copy below is one of my proofs.

 

 Oh yeah, we did utilize that Top Ten list...as in a Dog's life. Here's the end of our Christmas letter - that actually went out in January of 2003.

 

By December 2003 Mike Myer's Cat in the Hat was out in theaters. I saw the perfect opportunity. This was my favorite card. It was newsletter and greeting card all in one. Reading through it still makes me smile, although I can see room for improvement with some of the lines. Isn't that always the case? I tried to turn this into a slide show or something but that didn't work out so if you want to read it, just click on the pictures to enlarge them.

See? I didn't learn my gluing lesson...

 

In 2004 I created an easy card, a fold over 8 1/2 x 11. I took pictures of Christmas bulbs and Christmas lights and put pictures of us as children at Christmas. It seemed easy, but I had my printing challenges. I didn't send it out to some fancy online printer, I did it all myself.

Here's the other cover. I printed some of each and sent them out. The Guy-I-Dig comes from a large family and didn't have any childhood pictures by the Christmas tree, so once again, I got to work in an editing program and "photo shopped" him in front of a tree. Yes, that's a school picture.

 

You saw the 2005 card in yesterday's post; and just when I was about to throw in the towel and not send cards in 2006, I came up with this idea...

It's printed vertically on 8 1/2 x 11 in green and dark red. I love the earthy paper, too.
And no, it didn't cost more to mail.

There you go, a brief history of the Pierce Family Christmas Card extravaganza. I'm open to ideas for next year... I think I should start working on them now.

Have a Merry Christmas!

The Little Reveal!

My Christmas cards are all in the mail as of today and although not everyone has received it, I'm finally posting it!

This is the front of the card. You may recognize the angel.  I printed 2-up on 8 1/2 x 11 card stock and then cut them in half.

I took picture of candy canes and then played with the image in Photoshop because I wanted it more rounded. Then I took pictures of each of us and added them into my candy cane heart. Harrison has a Bug pop-up book that I used is a folding guide. I'm not sure where I got the idea for the card this year. I think I just buckled under the pressure to come up with something "good". I did go for a clean, white look - hence all the white space.

 After that I printed the inside, cut close around the edges, folded and glued them inside.I now know which stick glue truly does hold the best. The strongest permanent hold is the Avery permanent glue stick. this after trying three different brands. ( I accidentally left the lid off my Avery stick to go Caroling and it dried out. Elmer's permanent bond craft glue just isn't as good.)

And here is kind of what it looks like all finished. (actually, I forgot to get a picture of a completed one, this one isn't fully glued down at the bottom.)

Christmas cards have morphed into something much bigger that I had ever imagined - and I can't seem to cut down my list. I usually send out some sort of not-too-wordy newsletter either incorporated into the card or in addition to the card. The year Harrison was born I didn't send out a newsletter - I figured it was a no-brainer. We did a top ten list shortly after we were married and I had done one a couple years before I was married. So it was fun to ressurect the Top Ten...

 Only we didn't. I think these went out around Valentines Day 2006! No joke.

This year once again, no newsletter. I have released myself from doing one. (and relieved my firends from having to read one!) Seriously, I don't see the need to send one EVERY year.  Pluse, I didn't feel like doing one for so many reasons; but mainly because I was too busy, too tired, too rushed to be witty about the past year.

Infact, last year I swore I would just do a photo card, but I had to play around with the idea and create my own template then fill it with toy versions of us (toys that consumed our lives at the time). I did include a newsletter with pictures of the past 20 years in SoCal with n updated family picture- quickly taken by the Christmas tree for said newsletter.

Maybe next year I will finally REALLY be boring and do an honest-to-goodness picture card or even old-fashioned boxed cards. What a relief it would be!

Then again maybe the friend that emailed me this year  will once again turn up the heat for me to come up with something new. 

Most likely the later...

Photo Story Friday - Dinged Up But Still Standing

Last year I tagged a photo from SoulMama's flickr pool that just spoke to me.There, in that picture about a glued little creamer dish, sits a little one-winged angel holding a tree - not unlike the 6 little angels  I keep stashed away in my box of Christmas ornaments.

 Those dented, beat-up little angels don't get to come out very often anymore -  a few years have passed since I've set them out - but they are well-loved. I refuse to get rid of them and this year I resurrected a new love for them.

They are all that remain from a box of 12 clear snowglobe Christmas ornaments that my parents had. As I grew up each year we would open the box to discover another one had seen it's demise, all that would be left was the paper angel glued to the base.

Then we began displaying the angels or hanging them on the tree. A perfect project for a little girl who loved to help decorate. As I grew and moved out on my own, my mother gave me odds and ends until I finally inherited all of the Christmas decorations.Including these well wore angels.

It's amazing what "pieces" of things we will hold onto in the name nostalgia.

In this case, I'm happy I did.

Photo Story is Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek