Puttering With the Camera for Pink Saturday

Happy Pink Saturday. Please go visit with Beverly at howsweetthesound to view all the participants and get your fill of PINK. Ooops, almost forgot to put in the names of the new bloggers I visited last week. Actually, there are 4 of them and darling blogs: Postedfromhome, Rahrah, Comicallyflawed, and Lookinthenook. Go check them out and have some fun, sweet chicks.

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First of all, these are the first pair of shoes I made for Miss A, our great granddaughter due in May. Squeeeeeeal, she's going to be a very fashionable and pink little sweet chick. "Baby's got a new pair of shoes!" ;-)

Flash off:

Flash on:



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Hopping around the blogs as I do and being an amateur photographer, and I do mean amateur, I notice photographs more than anything. They're the first thing that grabs my attention. I've seen them so dark I could barely make them out, and I've seen them so small when I'd like nothing better than to see them magnificently large in all their glory. That's one of the reasons I changed my template recently to the stretch one. I wanted larger photos. That's also one of the reasons I purchased a Canon Rebel XS. I wanted the best photos I could take with a camera that wasn't going to start a war with Love Bunny. But I've told you the story about that. ;-)

Anyway, since I'm by myself tonight I've been puttering around the craft room even though it's in such disarray I can barely get a space to craft. I wanted to make some more ribbon roses. And since I made it, I thought I'd share some more tips on the cameras. After all, don't we all want beautiful photos?

These are in sequence from the first one I took to the last one I took and just about all of them were different setting for light on the camera.

This one was taken with flash off, incandescent lights on in the room. See how yellow it is. I've cropped every single one and we'll go into that later.

This one was with the flash off also but the little arm lamp over the table was off. So no lighting in the room. I had this setting on auto and let it adjust itself. Not too bad.

The flash was on with this one. But the setting was on auto so it also adjusted itself.

With this one the flash was on also, but the light was turned off and the setting was auto so it turned out rather blue.

Flash off but the swinging arm light was on casting it into a very orange-ish color.

Flash on and setting was auto also on this one. No lighting was on in the room. BTW, I took these about about 7:30 pm so it was dark.

Flash off and lights on in room.

I think this one is probably the best. Flash on, backed away a bit from the table and snapped it. You don't want to get too close or too far when taking closeups. Let the camera work for you.

Okay, with that being said and explained very basically, the one other thing to get closeups is this: set the "Quality" of the photo to the absolute highest you can get. That will allow you the biggest pixels in width and height. My Rebel is set at 3888 x 2592, its highest setting for quality. So when I crop my photo to just show the rose it comes up really close. Every single camera has that on it. You just have to look at your "menu" and figure it out. There are a lot of settings on the new digital cameras and it is NOT as hard as it looks. When you get the camera just play around with it for a day or so. Then read the instruction book! READ IT. Then play around with the settings. As you play you'll want to reference the instructions and they'll make more sense to you after that. I can't say that enough: READ THE INSTRUCTION BOOK. It will help you get beautiful photos. Plus youtube has videos for just about any camera and they have been very informative for me in getting to know this new one. After all, you want the best you can get if your family is in the photo, right?
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Pink Saturday 12/6/08

Welcome to Pink Saturday.

Last week when my daughter and her hubby were visiting she and I took a day and went to the thrift stores. I found a few things and she did also. Howeverrrrrrrr, she paid about $4 for all her stuff. It didn't all fit in their suitcase so she had to mail it home. That cost her $12.50!! Can we say "did ya get a good deal, chickee??!! Nuuuuuu, totally wasted money. THEN when they went to the baggage claim the suitcase was taped with duct tape because it had popped its hinges!! She lost some books I had given her but nothing else. Can't you just see undies all over the S.F. airport? LOL Well, I can laugh; she wasn't! AND hubby and I told her it looked like it was going to pop. Forty-six years old, you would have thought she'd have learned to trust her dad and mom by now!! I am very sorry it happened though. Those books were really a cute read!
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Okay, here's what I got. Three little candle lights. I was going to get pink bulbs but got the white instead because I plan on putting little shabby frou-frou shades on them and use them as window lights. How cute will that be! Can't wait to paint them and decorate them. BUT since the bulbs weren't with them I got one for free! I didn't even know they were supposed to come with the bulbs but I'll take that deal! Now, who in the world would steal little light bulbs out of the Goodwill lamps for heaven's sakes? But it got me one free so whatever........

I spied these big pink balls and almost flattened a lady to get to them. They had my name on them so they were MINE!!! If I hadn't gotten to them my daughter certainly would have intervened for me. She's 5' 11" and I'm 5' 4 3/4" and she's a pistol at getting what she wants even if it is for her motherrrrrr... So I'll cover them with decal roses and then glitter them and they will hang from the ceiling in my craft/sewing room probably.

My visiting teachers from church came wednesday and brought this for me. I love this flower. It always reminds me of Christmas and I've always thought of it as "majestic"! I'm not sure how hard they are to grow but we'll soon find out. I'm planting it in a vase today or tomorrow.

*Sigh*........my nemisis - cake plates. I pack really well, I truly do. Even the buyers say they are packed well, but I've had 2 cake plates on pedestals break on me. My daughter has shown me the key though this past week and we'll see how the next one makes it. I buy vintage plates so sometimes they are not replaceable. BUT I always make good on my sales to people. Sooooo I had to go find another plate and another unique pedestal to put on it. I had a vintage little sugar bowl and it was darling, but couldn't find another one so used something else for the base. But I did frou-frou it up with netting, ribbon and paper roses. She says that will do just fine - the buyer. I couldn't stand it if I didn't replace something someone has bought from me. Those roses are silk and do not come exactly cheap either. Oh well, I'll feel good knowing I made it good for the lady.

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Now, for a little surprise if you've gotten this far in reading my posts. I've wanted to do a giveaway for a while and was thinking of doing it for my 500th post but decided in the spirit of this season I'll do it now with this little camera bag. Yessssssss, my little cherubs, a giveaway. This is a quilted camera bag with a single rose on it. It is velcro-ed to close it. I've used a similar one for my camera for about 2 years and it works well for me. Uuuuhhhhh, of course, no guarantee comes with it!! DUHHHH!!! But I have a Canon Powershot and it fits nicely in there along with the instruction booklet, charger, 2 extra batteries, an extra disk and the connection cord for camera to computer. It measures 7" wide x 9 1/2" long. I could even get a wallet in there. It can go over your head for carrying as I find that most convenient and don't worry about dropping it or getting it stolen. Hey, this is FREE!! Why am I extolling its virtues when I'm giving it away to some lucky person. I'll draw a name from a bowl on monday afternoon. All you have to do is comment on this post right here. Just leave me your email so I can get in touch with you if you are the winner. If you can't follow directions and do that then there isn't much hope for ya, chickees, so get to it!! ;-) LOL

First Friday 11/7/08

I can't wait, I can't wait!!!! I've got to show you how the walls look and the roses on the ceiling. Squeeeeeeeeeeal!!!!!! That's just the beginning of the roses for the ceiling. Three different ones will be up there by tomorrow night. It's so pretty, gals..... *Sigh*........

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I made this quilted purse for carrying my camera and other items when traveling. I made 2 since the first one turned out so well and I'm selling one. Inside is a pocket for a pen, a pocket for lipstick and camera if you'd like (velcro closure) and a pocket for cell phone. The quilted roses fabric is different on each side so on the front flap is the reverse of the bottom of front - a beautiful contrast from the tiny and larger roses. The pockets for pen and cell phone are a white quilted roses fabric to differentiate from the camera/lipstick pocket, but still a beautiful fabric also. I've tried my cell phone and camera and they both fit in the pockets. A pink ribbon rose is on the front. This is 100% cotton. Measurements are approximately 11 1/2" x 14" and strap is 60" (that's a 30" drop) so easily goes over head and shoulder for secure hands-free shopping. The closure is velcro. Price is $35.00 plus shipping. This is truly a one-of-a-kind bag (well, except for the one for myself but I doubt we'll be in the same town) and beautiful for the lover of shabby chic romantic items.