Yum!

I thought I would be safe mentioning my birthday after it was over. But I underestimated my sweet friend and neighbor, Alice. Six hours after she heard about my birthday, she was down with this deliciously decadent chocolate cake:

Alice has been taking a pastry class, so this tasted even better than it looks. I'm fortunate to have such a wonderful neighbor who shares her baking talent, even if it is hard on my willpower.

Scrapbooking has taken a bit of a back seat to starting a web design business lately. But I will be back at it soon -- I still have lots of photos of our Colorado vacation to scrap, such as these:

Date Your Camera

I've realized lately that many of my best photos were taken in the past, during my photography class. It wasn't so much the class itself (excellent as it was), as the fact that I HAD to shoot photos to complete the assignments.

Then today I saw this "date your camera" workshop. It seems like an excellent way to motivate me to shoot photos. Plus it's free, low stress, and you can see the photos that others took. I'm in!

Here's some of the better photos from a recent kayaking trip. It was a very overcast day, so there wasn't a lot of contrast in the colors.

Sports Photography

Since we're the parents with the fancy photography equipment, always out there shooting pictures at games, we have become the unofficial team photographers.

Here's one of the items we will be giving the girls along with their trophies at the end of the season: a "players card", similar to pro players cards that are traded among fans:



Now I've got to put the individual and team composites together, and decide if/how much to charge.

Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking

Charlotte was the 'Timex' soccer player this weekend -- she "took a licking and kept on ticking". Her team was in a tournament this weekend, playing four games in two days. And boy did she take a licking.

One team especially had huge players -- some as big as me. The goalie for our team took one looked at them and wailed, "THEY'RE NOT 10!"

You're always biased when it's your child, but I'm positive Charlotte hit the ground more than any other player in the tournament -- often flying through the air first. We weren't able to get any pictures of her actually in the air, but here is one of her just after she was hit by a "10-year old" on the other team (nicknamed 'Tiny", with great irony).

But her team managed to come in second in the tournament. I was most proud of her in the final championship game. Most of her team's offensive line got tired and discouraged and just gave up. But Charlotte stepped up and was all over the field, supporting defense and offense, like a good midfielder is supposed to.

She did start falling apart once we got home, however. She was tired, bruised and sore. It's a good thing tournaments are only a couple of times a season.

The Best Camera...

Is the One That's With You

In addition to being a great quote, this is the title of a cool little 6"x6" book, The Best Camera Is the One That's with You, by Chase Jarvis.

All the photos in the book were taken by Chase on his iPhone. Granted, Chase isn't your average cell phone photographer. But his book is inspiring for it's examples of photos that are not digital SLR sharp, but do a great job of evoking a feeling or mood. It makes me want to quit blowing off my cell phone camera and actually use it! Chase did post-process some of his photos in his iPhone app (which is conveniently for sale for $2.99), but I still think it's impressive that he didn't use Photoshop or any other high-end photo software.

Some of the photos remind me of photos taken with old film cameras. There is a school of thought that says that imperfect photos taken with old film cameras (like those from the old Brownie cameras) actually capture the "truth" of the subject more than today's super high-res, exact-replica cameras. (Some examples of Brownie photos.)

Here are a few examples from his book that especially caught my eye:

In addition, there are several quotes from the book that I think are classics:

There's an old adage in photojournalism: "f/8 and be there." Now we don't even have to remember the "f/8 part".

If you don't think you can take a picture of something with a certain camera, you're playing by the rules.

People usually ignore the camera that's built into your phone because they consider it useless. That comes in handy.

The dirtiest secret in photography: shoot a hell of a lot of pictures to get the ones you want.

Charlotte's Trip to Washington, DC

Wow -- It's been almost a month since my last post! In my defense, I have been unusually busy with doctor's appointments and (much more fun!), a trip to Washington, DC.

My brother and sister-in-law started the tradition that when each niece turns 10, they travel to stay with them in Washington, DC. They live on Capitol Hill, within walking distance of the Capitol, so it's a real immersion in Washington culture (not to mention a great learning experience).

Charlotte is the fifth and last niece to follow the tradition. After hosting four other girls, my brother and sister-in-law are experts at children's tours. The trip centers around the girl -- we adults just get to come along as chaperones.

Here are a just a few highlights from Charlotte's awesome trip:

Charlotte with her aunt and uncle in front of the Washington Monument:

The Capitol the evening of July 4th:

Charlotte and a Revolutionary soldier:

Charlotte on the steps of the Supreme Court:

Inside of the Capitol dome:

Spiral staircase inside the Supreme Court:

Free Photo Editing Class

If you're a photographer and/or digital scrapbooker, there is a free online class coming up from Jessica Sprague:

Jessica's very well respected in the digital scrapbooking world for her PhotoShop and design skills. And how often do you get to take a quality class for free??

Registration starts here Monday, and the class starts July 6. You can use PhotoShop or PhotoShop Elements for the class, and if you don't have either one, Jessica tells you where you can download a free trial version.