You've Been Framed

Last month our little boy had his first professional photo session and it was with the lovely Natasha at New Era Photography.

I absolutely adore every photo she took and I wanted to display them as quickly as I could.

This Hanging Polaroid Photo Frame project made it possible...

I bought a £3 framed image from my local Country Baskets store, simply because I love the frame.

Using PicMonkey, I made each of my 12 images into a polaroid (see the 'Frames' section)

I printed all polaroid images on to photo paper as 'Wallet Size'

Using a knife and craft mat, I cut out each polaroid image

I removed the existing image from my frame and using drawing pins, I attached 3 pieces of twine to the frame

Finally, using small pegs/clothespins, I evenly attached each image to the twine

A perfect way to display many images in one space

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Tea O'Clock

Last week I completed my first website design for someone else.

It has a very simple look - I wanted the photos to stand out!

Less is more...

The website is for a friend's new vintage china hire company.

I spent a morning taking photos of some of her china collection. There was so much of it!

It took a few child-free hours to get the site up and running, including a new Facebook page.

I'm really pleased with how it has turned out.

Go check out Tea O'Clock Vintage and let me know what you think!

(logo design and images by quintonwench)

Over The Moon

The Supermoon is the closest full moon of the calendar year, when the moon appears largest in the sky.

Tonight it was visible over the UK and I ventured out into the darkness to get a quick shot.

Considering I couldn't really see what I was doing, I am pretty pleased with the image!

Fjord Eyes Only

We've just returned from one of the most beautiful and scenic holidays I have ever had...cruising The Norwegian Fjords.

We sailed on the Queen Victoria, a member of the Cunard family.

Taking a baby on a cruise was a great idea - no chores to do, no washing to do, no meals to prepare, just 7 whole days to enjoy being a family.

Our first port was Bergen and we took a trip on the Fløibanen Funicular to experience the fantastic views (you can see the Queen Victoria bottom right)

We sampled the delights of the Fish Market

Second port was Andalsnes where we got ashore via the ship's tender

One man didn't seem too keen to see us...!

We then went on to Olden and saw it's beauty from an open top bus tour

We stopped mid tour to photograph the glacier down Olden Valley

Stavanger was our final port of call and it was hosting it's Gladmat food festival

It was our first cruise and it's safe to say we definitely now have the bug for it!

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Who's The Daddy?!

For my husband's first Father's Day, I wanted to create a personalised card featuring our little boy.

I thought it would be easy...

Who said never to work with children and animals?!

What should have taken a few seconds took twenty minutes! I lay our baby boy into his cot and handed him a printed greeting.

I snapped away, hoping to get a decent image...

I soon needed to print another greeting as the original one became very creased and soggy!

We were nearly there...

Eventually, after a few tweaks at picmonkey.com, I came up with this image ready for printing to the card....

The pointed finger was definitely a fluke!

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Say Cheese!

What with Christmas and our little boy home from hospital, I know I will be using my camera a lot.

I haven't looked back since buying my DSLR. I am always happy with my images and it does so much of the hard work for me.

Most DSLRs come with a standard lens, but like me, many people choose to buy extra lenses - all for different desired shots - hoping to get the best results possible.

Retailers like Clifton Cameras sell a huge range of lenses, including Nikon lenses (like mine). Knowing which one you need can be difficult, so here's a quick guide...

WIDE ANGLE

These lenses capture more of the horizon in the frame, so they're great for those breathtaking landscape shots! The mm represents the focal length, with 21-35mm defined as wide angle and below 20mm classed as super-wide angle.

A fisheye lens is an ultra-wide angle lens that will give a fish bowl effect to your photos. They are great for capturing the sky beautifully! Check out this shot from Scott L Robertson Photography

MACRO

These lenses are made for photography on the small scale. They magnify the tiniest details and are great for capturing every detail. Often you'll also require a tripod - a steady shot will reduce the risk of blurred close-ups. Nikon have put together a great gallery of macro images - see it here

TELEPHOTO

These are great lenses for drawing focus to your subject and they have a shallow depth of field. Those between 50 - 100mm are usually used for portrait shots, while those exceeding 100mm are great for zooming in on wildlife.

PRIME/ZOOM

Prime lenses have a fixed focal length, unlike zoom lenses which can alter theirs. Prime lenses are often lighter and smaller than zooms and make focusing and taking brighter photos easier. This is thanks to their large apertures. Zooms however offer more versatility and are an ideal purchase for the beginner.

If you have a thirst for more knowledge, then I would definitely recommend a photography course. I went on a course back in March and you can read all about it here

A Zing For Life

Here's Zingy...

Star of the EDF TV adverts

I love Zingy and wanted my own, so I searched the net to find a crochet pattern. I found this one on Ravelry - just search for Tor Thorpe.

It was quite easy to follow and came together quickly. The pattern suggested white felt for the eyes, but typically I have every colour BUT white! So, I crocheted some white circles and used buttons for the pupils and a bead for the nose.

Zingy gets everywhere...

I'm obsessed...

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Flash, Bang, Wallop, What a picture!

For Christmas, my husband bought me a course with Red Cloud Photography

I use my Nikon D3000 camera all the time, but like many digital SLR owners, I only really use the automatic settings. So I jumped at the chance to learn more.

The day was great. The beautiful, but freezing surroundings of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and the warmth of the Study Centre.

We learnt all about aperture...

And we got to grips with shutter speed ... 

Heart shapes in the tree trunks... heart obsessed...

And when I say it was cold, it was cold! Look at the photo Simon Bolton, my tutor, tweeted...

The day? A fountain of knowledge...

The White Stuff

We've had a day of falling snow (and a cosy day working from home), so a chance to wrap up and take some photos

Early this morning, a photo taken from my window, overlooking the field

I tweeted this to my local newspaper and it made it onto their website

The birds were very active in the garden

As the afternoon arrived, so did the sledgers on the hill

The lane at the back of our house looked magical

No work tomorrow, so us 'big kids' are planning to get out there with our sledge!

Handmade Christmas

Over the last month or so I have been busy making Christmas presents.

Crocheted cowls are definitely the theme this year!

Purple...

Black...

Buttoned... a shorter version of this

Blue...

... and using the same pattern as the blue cowl (alternating SC and DC) I crocheted a cushion cover (above).

****

Every year I try to make some of my Christmas cards and this year I used a photograph I took back in February. 

Using PicMonkey I faded the edges, spun him around and gave it a more frosted look

All set now to get writing the cards and wrapping the gifts *opens a bottle of wine and puts on a Christmas CD*

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