About these ads

Category Archives: Humor

Photography (Lesson 2) – Part 3

13 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Etsy, Humor, Photography

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , ,

capiz shell garland on white background
A picture of my capiz shell garland on a white background in natural light

Where were we in this saga?  Umm, yes the aluminum foil bit.  Just to recap, I’m sharing the woeful tale of my photography challenges. First I admitted that I am not a good photographer and then I tried a tutorial to no avail.

Somewhere in the mix of this my good friend and double neighbor (only she will get that one) Spydurwebb told me about this really good deal on a table top photo studio she found on Yugster.com for around $25 bucks.  Good deal.   It came with 2 lights and 4 backgrounds.  “This studio quality table top lighting ensures even color and clarity.”  Bingo!

My first attempt at taking pictures with the photo box weren’t bad – but it wasn’t quite the miracle I hoped for.  God bless her, Spydee took to Ingrid (or was it Donald?) to fix the shots I’d taken and overall I was kinda, sorta pleased.  But not overwhelmed with glee so the quest continued.

starfish Santa ornament

Hard to believe that this was taken on a crisp white background

I found a few tutorials that suggested using Photoshop, Gimp, Picasa, or Paint.NET to fix my backgrounds.  I took some photos and then tried to tweak the background just a bit hoping to capture  the elusive white background that almost every product photo on the front page of Etsy has.  Here’s how that turned out.

starfish santa ornament before and after shots

Before and After - Not so good, eh?

By now you are probably thinking, “This chick is challenged with a capital C!”  I’d agree.  But I wasn’t giving up quite yet.

Next I saw this post from my virtual BFF Jaborandi Grove. Eureka!  Ce n’est pas moi!  It’s the camera!  I need a new camera.  Since it was a few weeks before Christmas I decided to campaign for a new camera.  I “campaigned” to my husband.  I “campaigned” to my co-workers and friends.  I “campaigned” to my dad.  And, wouldn’t you know it?  Good old dad came through!  Dad bought me a new camera for Christmas.  I am now the proud owner of a Canon Powershot ELPH 300 HS camera.  Mr. CA came to the rescue to put the battery in and the media memory card thingy.  But I’ve got a new camera! (dances a jig)

My plan is to:

1.  Read the manual.

2.  Do a few of the Etsy Boot Camp Week 3 exercises.

3. Take more pictures.

I’ll post the results soon.  Happy Friday y’all!

Photography (Lesson One) – Part 2

11 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by in Etsy, Humor, Photography

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, ,

OK -so, confession does the soul good. I admitted to the world that I am not a very good photographer.   I just need to learn how to take better photos, right.  Leonardo da Vinci once said “Learning never exhausts the mind”.  I’m not so sure that I agree.  :)

I saw this tutorial mentioned on Jaborandi Grove‘s blog.  It looked pretty easy so I thought that I would give it a try.

The result:

Nautilus Sea Shell Garland

This didn’t quite turn out the way I thought it would.   Stay tuned.

Photography (sigh) – Part 1

08 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in Humor, Interesting News, Photography

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, ,

I have a confession to make.  I am not a good photographer.

Exhibit A.  Las Vegas Airport

On my first trip to Las Vegas I was surprised to see slot machines as soon as you step off the airplane.  Yes ladies and gents, the city of Las Vegas or rather the city of Lost Wages would like to take your money coming and going.  The Las Vegas Airport makes me feel like I am at Chuck E. Cheese’s on a Saturday afternoon – total and complete sensory overload.  So, I whipped out my camera to show the folks back home.  Epic Fail.

Blurry?

Exhibit B.  Margaritaville – Broadway at the Beach – Myrtle Beach, SC

Here I wanted to capture the majestic beauty of a place that houses a giant margarita blender that excites me like a kid on Christmas Eve.  Margaritaville – good food, good music, awesome drinks, and great friends.  Does this picture tell that story?  Uh, no.

Was this taken before or after 5 o'clock? :)

Exhibit C.  – Virginia Beach, VA

I am proud to call Virginia Beach, VA my home.  Virginia Beach is a resort city with miles of beaches and hundreds of hotels, motels, and restaurants along its oceanfront.  While playing around with the panoramic setting on my camera I took this gem.  From this photo would you guess that Virginia Beach is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world?   Would you want to come for a visit?

Like the port o’ potty in the left corner? :) Yep, I’ve got the eye.

So you can imagine my total and complete delight when I read on Etsy:  “Learning how to take great photos is one of the most important things you can do to improve your Etsy shop.”  Seriously?  Well, like my good friend Heather says “yeah, good luck with that”.

Stay tuned for details on how that’s working out.

Namaste my friends.