Here’s me cutting the beads out:

When I frog a knitting/crochet project, there is usually a sense of relief that comes with it. Unfortunately, no relief here with this wretched bracelet. Instead, there is discouragement, frustration, and sore finger tips. I’m desperately looking for a quicky beading project that yields high satisfaction to keep my hopes up.

* * *

(P.S. Spent an hour last night making a necklace/earring set with the salvaged beads, while watching the latest episode of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta. The jewelry set was somewhat satisfying, but the trashy drama on the show definitely made up for it! Love it! Haha!)

Lunch @ the retreat:

Magnet craft @ the retreat:

And this past week, I’ve been in Lake Tahoe. The first couple days, sharing a cabin with friends, and then the remainder of the week hubby and I have been staying at Squaw. We have this awesome studio room (580 sq ft!) in the Squaw Village for $100-ish/night, and prices go as high as $600/night during peak season, which makes our price a steal for a really awesome room!

Anyways, I digress. Here’s a little panoramic I did of Lake Tahoe (there’s some barrel distortion and other things but no matter, I’m still proud of it!). The edges are not straight because I snapped the shots by hand, about 180 degrees around. It only took a minute to put them together via Photoshop.

If you click on it, you’ll view it in it’s entirety. (And if you look closely, you’ll find my brother-in-law in there somewhere.)

And speaking of Lake Tahoe, most of the slopes/lifts are supposed to open by next weekend, but seeing how the weather has not been optimal (barely enough snow!), the season looks like it might start off very slowly.

Northstar:

Squaw:

Hubby and I brought our mountain bikes and did some riding. Here’s a self-portrait at the Squaw Valley olympics entrance:

And because we were in Tahoe, we did a day trip to Reno. And of course, I couldn’t miss visiting a very popular yarn establishment:

I also came just when the mailman was arriving. Because of the high volume of online sales, he had his work cut out for him. =)

Of course, I was too self conscious to take pics in the store. I felt like such a dork, but I was giddy with all THE WONDERFUL GOODIES they had (and I’m not just talking store front, I snuck a peek at the store rear, where their warehouse is, and it was packed with stuff!). Hubby dropped me off and spent a significant time at Toys R Us, got bored, and came back to find me, and I still wasn’t done looking around. I also have to say, the ladies working there are so nice!! I wished they still had their Truckee location, but I guess it’s not meant to be.

Tomorrow we’ll be packing up and heading home. Rushing to class and then a mountain of laundry waiting for me afterwards. Sigh… all good things must eventually come to an end, I suppose. =/

So the assignment was to get: 1) a shot of a building/structure at night, and 2) a shot of someone “painting” with light. I’ll explain #2 in a second. But here was one of my better shots of #1:

F5.8, shutter 1/5:

As for #2, instructions for this was as follows: 1) find a really dark area to take this particular shot; 2) set your camera for a really slow shutter speed on a tripod; 3) get a flash light or sparklers or any type of light source and wave it around during the course of the exposure.

So I did a shot in my garage where it was pitch black, and had Hubby take a tiny little flashlight and wave it around. He was trying to spell out the mirror image of my name.

Shutter speed at 30 seconds (click for a closer look):

There are areas in the light streaking where it is especially bright; I think those are the areas where the flashlight was pointed directly at the camera’s sensor (as Hubby was waving it around). And why is it that you can’t see Hubby at all? Why is it that the light is the only thing that appears? (Pretty cool huh?) =) The exposure is so slow, it catches the light, but doesn’t catch the person moving behind it.

Here’s me drawing hearts at a nearby park. I couldn’t really tell where the picture physically ended, plus it’s hard to “draw” in the dark because you can’t really see what you’re doing… thus it being cut off near the end. (Also, sorry for my really dorky looking hearts.)

Shutter speed at 15 seconds:

And because you can’t play with night photography without playing with those street exposures (Hubby insisted), here you go.

Shutter at 5 seconds:

Shutter at 10 seconds:

Shutter at 15 seconds:

See the differences? The longer the shutter speed, the more information it gets, thus the brighter and longer streaking of the car lights.

Fun, huh? =)

We’re now transitioning from the technical stuff to the artistic. It’s a hard transition for me. I was nearly drowning with the technical things and what makes a proper exposure and aperture and shutter speed and light and this and that… it sucked my creativity dry. Now that we’re switching gears, it’s a difficult switch for me. We are now critiquing everyone’s pictures, and learning how to give informative and good feedback (as opposed to saying “I like that photo or I hate that” and not explaining exactly why something is working or not). I’m realizing that I have a lot to learn in this department.

We did a monochromatic assignment where we had to shoot scenes from everyday life that had only one color (that one color had to take up 90% of the photo). Here was one of mine:

Other “interesting” shots:

And these were me playing with my manual focus at my largest aperture (shots of Monterey Bay framed through a fence):

I was told that it’s not the camera or the fancy smancy equipment that makes great photos. It’s the photographer who makes great photos. I’m realizing that the difficult part is not handling the equipment - it all begins with you, and that’s the hardest part. What’s your perspective? What do you see? The photo starts there.

Next assignment: Night photography.

My brain hurts.

This, is soothing to my soul. If you can’t afford therapy, this could be the next best thing. There is something rhythmic and soothing about the stitches and how they intertwine and weave into each other into itself to create a soft fabric. The textures and the colors draw me in, and it’s a terrific escape.

Did I also mention that this was Malabrigo Lace? (Yes, that helps with the knitting experience tremendously.)

I’ve had a stressful year, and outside pressures (as well as internal ones I put on myself) really put me up against a wall. When my mind is about to explode, I pick this project up. I immediately sink into it’s soft, smooth, rhythmic motions, and it puts me at ease.

***

P.S. This pattern is Flutter Scarf. A perfect amount of lace that it makes it interesting but not boring, but perfect amount of simplicity where you can memorize the repeats and mindlessly knit anywhere.

My Shop

And to celebrate my humble little opening, I’m giving away one of my pieces for free:

This necklace is made with Swarovski crystals and a sterling silver lobster clasp, measuring 19 inches in circumference. To get this piece, you must be the first to do the following:

1. Purchase something in my shop

AND

2. Make a mention in the notes section (as you’re purchasing your item) about this blog post!

ETA: This necklace is not available anymore. Sorry! =)

So what’s panning? Ever see those action shots with atheletes at games? Or maybe the recent Olympics, where cars are following the marathon runners at their exact same pace? And they get these awesome shots where the runners are in mid-run, but they are crystal clear and sharp, but the background is blurred? Apparently, to get that kind of shot, you need to be at the exact same speed as the subject that is moving. Pretty difficult. So here are my amatuer attempts at panning.

A car on the highway (see how the car is clear, but the trees in the background are blurred?):

Hubby running across a field, with my camera focused and following him as he ran past me:

Hubby running across the field with my camera stationary:

If you google this subject (or do a search on Flickr), I’m quite sure you will find some really awesome (and professional) shots out there. Mine are not so great because my panning shots are not as clear, but you get the general idea, right?

Exposure = aperture + shutter speed
(Exposure = intensity of light + time amount of light)

This next assignment is how to meter the best combination of aperture and shutter speed that would expose a picture correctly. You could use the automatic controls on your camera and it will set the combination for you. Or you could use your manual mode and set the aperture and shutter speed on your own. Whatever combination is best for that particular exposure, you can make different combinations for the same exposure. Often times the camera’s automatic controls get this combination incorrect, particularly in certain scenes, creating the wrong exposure. Most built-in camera meters are designed to calculate an exposure for scenes that include both light and dark areas, that average out to a middle grey tone. Sometimes if a scene is uniformly light (bright subject blends in with a bright background, like in a snow scene), automatic controls may create an exposure that is too dark in order to compensate. So sometimes you can’t trust the automatic controls that your camera gives you. So you have things like light meters, that measure the amount of light in a scene, and calculate the correct f-stop (aperture) and shutter-speed combination, so you can get a correct exposure for a scene. I certainly don’t have the money for a light meter, but a $5 grey card will do just nicely.

What I did:
I set up my shot, and put my camera on aperture priority. I set my aperture on f8. Then I had my hubby take my grey card and place it right in front of my subject. I metered the card up-close (pressing half-way to get the combination my camera was suggesting for the grey card). I memorized that combination (f8 @ 1/125), and set it with my manual mode. Then I took the shot with that combination, and other reciprocal ones to that combination, to get the exact same exposure.

F5.6 @ 1/250:

F8 @ 1/125:

F11 @ 1/60:

F16 @ 1/30:

F22 @ 1/15:

The idea is, if I move one stop up in aperture from f8 to f11, I let in half the amount of light. Thus, I would have to adjust the shutter speed from 1/250 to 1/60, which allows twice as much time for light exposure. And on and on for f16, f22, etc, to get each picture with the exact same exposure. Get it? (I’m working with full stops, not half or quarter stops.)

If I did this assignment correctly, each of the exposures above should be exactly the same. (Except maybe the depth of field, since the apertures are different?) I hope I did this assignment correctly. =P

SS rollo chain, Swarovski AB crystal channel links and drops in 4mm and 6mm, SS 2.5″ ear threads (box chain), SS mini lobster clasp.

P.S. The reality of photographying jewelry: It took me +20 shots just to narrow it down to these two.

P.P.S. I didn’t make the cookies. All I did was provide a recipe and kitchen supplies. And take pictures. =)

So I purchased freezer paper at my local grocery store and downloaded some clipart/images online. I traced those images onto the freezer paper, and with my x-acto knife, I cut them out. Here are some of them:

So here’s the lowdown on how to put them together:

1. Prewash your fabric. Do not use fabric softener!

2. Set your iron to the setting that corresponds with your fabric of choice. For the onesies, since they were cotton, I had it on the cotton setting.

3. Iron the freezer paper stencils onto your fabric, shiny side down (for me, this took no more than 10 seconds). Don’t make the mistake of ironing them on shiny side UP, or then you risk ruining your iron (and melting the wax/plastic side all over your iron plates).

4. Using foam/stencil brushes, apply fabric paint onto your stencil in an up/down motion (as if you were stabbing the fabric with your brush). You want to be dabbing the paint on, not brushing it side to side. If you brush it side to side, you risk having paint accumulate on the sides of the stencils, and having paint bleed underneath the stencil. It’s best to apply a couple of thin coats of paint, and do them evenly, rather than just gob it all on at once.

5. Wait for the paint to dry, then carefully peel the stencil off the fabric. With this particular fabric paint (I used Tulip Soft Fabric Paint from Joanns), the instructions say to let the paint dry flat for 4 hours. I didn’t wait the entire 4 hours to peel the stencil off - I just waited until it wasn’t completely wet. Probably 5 minutes or so is good enough for peeling off the stencil, then let it dry completely for the remainder of the time.

6. After that, I would recommend sticking them in the dryer on medium/high for 10 minutes (with no fabric softener), to heat-set the paint.

Washing instructions: When you want to wash them, turn them inside out and wash in warm water, tumble low/medium.

Easy huh? Here were some of my samples:

Here are some of the girls working on their onesies at the shower:

Some of their work:

Nice huh? I would post more pictures, but the rest of my pictures ended up dark and/or blurry. (I’m still a newbie with the camera manual controls.) So instead, I’ll leave you with some REALLY GOOD cupcakes we had at the shower from Sibby’s Cupcakery.

(If you couldn’t tell earlier, the shower was ocean-themed.) =)