My Scrap Mojo is Back, Baby!

It is so true that you have to make time to have a hobby, well, a hobby other than white cheddar popcorn snacking while watching Top Model. In creativity it also takes staying in it, both in your own production of creative material and being inspired by seeing what others are producing, to stay sharp.

So, here is a new production of mine -- a new personal fave -- and a new inspiration, a fantastic photographer who I never knew until today. Interestingly, as I sometimes have happen, I found out about a great photographer through a digiscrapping thread.

Credits: overlay from Shannon Fahrnbach's Make a Paper Scrapbasics
paper from Audra Little's Family Traditions kit

Check out the beautiful photographic artistry of Irene Suchocki:
Irene Suchocki

Maple Syrup Time!

Outside the sugar shack

I love the soft borders between winter and spring that occur where I live: the snow melting into glistening water droplets falling from branches, the first chirps of returning birds, and the reemergence of the best sugar product out there, maple syrup. When I was a child I remember my first trip to the sugar bush and how a simple, delicious treat was created by pouring syrup on fresh snow; better than anything from a store. The tradition has continued with trips back to the bush with my own children: they are run in conservation areas and those are maintained by the sale of maple treats at the end of the educational tour. For kids, and their parents, there is no downside! In this case, I will own up: I used the auto setting on my camera because mother nature provided perfect light and Photoshop let me add the finishing touches once I was back home.

Enjoying maple lollipops

Blogging and Baking Don't Mix!

Almost two months since this blog has been updated? How did that happen? Oh wait, I know: children, school, tripping over toys, teaching, scrapping, printing, and baking. Baking and blogging are definitely not a mixing combination. My blog won't fit in a KitchenAid mixer and butterfingers typing on the keys makes for an expensive repair job. C'est la vie, n'est ce pas?

The good news is that baking does make for great photographs and fun layouts so I am back to blog a new one.

On a side note, why is it that decaf coffee and blogging also don't mix? I tried to quit caffeine and all it did was make me cranky and not quite a morning person. Lesson learned; coffee and I were meant to be together, caffeine and all.

Credits: Fonts are Bradley Hand & Felix Titling; papers, button & stitching are from Jan Crowley's Orbital Kit (oscraps); charm & ribbons are by Jennifer M. Trippetti DBA JMT-art and the tag is from Trish Jones's Crush Bubbles kit (Scrapbook Bytes).

The Everyday Sublime

No matter where I take my camera, I look to find rectangles of reality that are something beyond ordinary, something that I could "enhance in Photoshop later" or, better yet, have be "as is" and still look fabulous; I suppose that's the film photographer still in me. Some situations are easier than others to accomplish this at, though: anything with children helps and, in this case, beautiful directional light at a casual birthday party made what I was after all but impossible to miss!

ISO 800, F3.3, 1/30

ISO 800, F3.3, 1/80

ISO 400, F2.8, 1/40

ISO 400, F2.8, 1/30

Black and White, Four Ways

The Point-Shoot-Click challenge this week is to shoot black and white, which is my favourite medium. It forces a photographer to think in stronger contrasts, to focus on the details, to know how light works and to really know in her head what she is wanting to acheive in a photograph. I wanted to take on this challenge by illustrating the possibility of black and white in four ways:

1) 19th century daguerreotype style--I went for a softer focus close-up and adjusted the contrasts digitally in Photoshop.

Hands of a Toddler
(directional natural light, f 4.0, ISO 400, greyscale gradient added digitally)

2) casual portrait--this one has a softer sepia on it which will always make this type of portrait timeless.

Thirst
(directional natural light, f 3.2, ISO 400, custom sepia added digitally)

3) modern style--to show how black and white can be used alongside colour to add drama, something that was possible before digital but definitely easier with Photoshop!

Wine by Moonlight
(available light, ss 1 second, f 3.2, grayscale gradient and recolour overlay added digitally)

4) contrast detail--black and white can effectively showcase contrasts and directional, natural light.

Isabel's Toes
(directional natural light, ISO 200, f 2.8, digitally resized and grayscaled)