Favorites For Friday

If you have followed my blog for a while you will know (though maybe not remember) that I actually started blogging right after I lost my job (laid off) at the beginning of 2009. Also, if you follow the news at all you will know that Las Vegas has an unemployment figure of 14% so as you can imagine, I was one of MANY looking for work and without much success. So I spent my time blogging and doing what I could with my Etsy shop, living in hope that I was not on the scrap heap. Well, last week I started a new job (only took 2 years and a bit). That is why this weeks Favorites For Friday only includes one item from Etsy and it is a photo of my new employer. Yes, I waited all that time only to get a job at the historic Las Vegas Hilton!! I am working in the retail department and so far I am really enjoying it. Of course, it is just great to not be sitting around the house all the time in my pajamas but I actually am enjoying working there as everyone (so far) has been really friendly.

Las Vegas Hilton Matted Fine Art Photograph - Angels Time

Hopefully now I will be more in the mood to blog and also have more to blog about as I know I have been a bit lax other than my Favorites posts. I will also have to find the time since I am now back in the workforce :).

Favorites for Friday

I don't know about anyone else, but I do know that when I'm down one of the few things that can make me smile and forget all my troubles are animals. Not sure exactly what it is but they just do, mostly it has to be their expressions and yes, animals do have expressions as some of these photos will attest to. I hope some of these photos will make you smile like they did me when I was searching through Etsy for animal photos.

Where's My Carrot? - Angels Time

Raccoon Family - Sara Montour

Ooops - Little Odd Me

Chillin' Polar Bear - Nature Is Art Photography

This last photograph was one that I spotted in today's Etsy newsletter and was the reason for today's Favorites. That face just made me smile and the story behind the otter's good behavior made me laugh - he's being good as there is food involved!

Otter says PLEASE - An Alliteration

Hope you enjoyed these cute photos from a few of the talented photographers over on Etsy. I also wanted to apologize for only posting on Fridays but to be honest, there hasn't been much to share. Hopefully that will change soon.

A Holiday Message

I'd just like to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season no matter which holiday you happen to celebrate!

Deck The Trail - Country Dreaming's Nature Scenes Photography

and have a safe and Happy New Year!

Favorites For Friday

It's that time of year, when the leaves start to fall from the trees. If I had a bucket list (which I don't) then one of the top things on it to do would be to visit the New England area during the time when the leaves change. All the beautiful colors! On that note, that is the theme for this week....leaves.

Set of Pistachio Autumn Leaves - Earthenwood

Branch of Leaves Bracelet - Fourviere Hill Jewelry

Messenger Bag - Sinem Inugur

Glowing Leaves 5x7 Fine Art Photograph - Joy Tanner Photography

Autumn Soap Leaves - Enchanting Soap Favors

I hope you enjoy these, even if you happen to be in the Southern Hemisphere where it is almost the start of Spring.

All Alone

The husband left today (not me) to fly back to England. He is going to get his mother for a visit. I did a post about her visit last year here. As I was re-reading the post I realized that I had not mentioned the fact that when she arrived by herself she was very confused. She has her good days where she is "with it" but some days especially when she was here were not good at all. We really just think it is Dementia as opposed to Alzheimer's which I suppose is a good thing. So that is why he has gone back so she has a chaperon to here and back. Hard for him but worth it so she can have a vacation.


I decided to intersperse some of my newest photos in between since I will be busy taking some more while he is away. Oh and cleaning, of course.


I think I'm really getting the hang of this photo taking thing. One thing I do have to say was/is a big help is to use your timer on your camera. I have such shaky hands that I was always getting blur even with a tripod. Also, I always take at least 2 shots in each position and change my settings so I can choose which one seems more genuine as far as colors, etc.


A friend of mine just placed an order with Nile Corp and asked me if I wanted anything. They have some nice displays at very reasonable prices so I had her order me a leatherette pillow and bracelet display ramp for taking photos. In the top shot I used some paper rolled up and placed the bracelet around it. Works but I'd rather have something that won't end up crinkling. I've found that I really do prefer very simple and plain shots of just my jewelry though I know that a lot of people like to add some kind of prop or different colored backgrounds. That is just me and I can't say that it is the right way as I have seen some product shots with those aspects and they have been amazing.

Photography Tutorials

Are you familiar with Moonangelnay and her brilliant blog which has some amazing photography tutorials?? If you are not, then you need to! Thanks to these tutorials I think I have gotten a better hang of getting my product photos to a point where the only thing I need to do is crop them. Isn't that the secret to great product photos? Not having to adjust much of anything with photo editing software?


I've included in this post, a few of Naomi's photos to show you how good she is and so (in my opinion) makes her more than qualified to give advice.

Sweet Maple

Lobelia Dreams

All of Naomi's articles can also be found on Handmade Spark. You definitely need to take some time to read these tutorials as they will help you immensely as they have me. One thing I have learned about product photography is to always strive for better photos. Even when you think you have it down pat you need to constantly be working at them. I certainly hope you get as much out of the tutorials as I have.

Favorites For Friday

Some fun Winter finds this week. I'm sure most of you have had a little bit of snow so far so and might have a bit of the Winter Blues and I think these items might just cheer you up a bit.

Crocheted Snowman by sabahnur

Waiting for Twilight by ara133photography

Christmas Light Bulb Earrings by atomicdog5

Cobalt Blue Glass Mugs by daydreemdesigns

Fresh Snow Starry Night Necklace by ccvalenzo

Enjoy!! and I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Favorites For Friday

I was at a loss of what to have as a theme for this weeks favorites then I thought I'd do a search on Etsy under the Art category and used the keyword "travel". The husband and I don't get to do as much as we like to now but traveling has always been a big part of our lives. Guess I'm just getting itchy feet.

Leathermap's Shop

Intrinsic Value's Shop


Anne Smith Studio

LoWorks

Dana Hunting Photography


Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Just Sharing A Few Photos

I hope everyone is enjoying the Labor Day Holiday, at least those in the US who celebrate it. I finally have been able to hop onto the computer. I figured that since there was so much sport on TV that the husband wouldn't be on it much....boy, was I wrong! I had it for about 5 minutes this morning and I finally said to him about 4pm "Can I PLEASE have the computer???"....lol. Much as I love him being home for the day it will be nice tomorrow when he is back at work and I can just sit on the computer as much as I want.


I also wanted to update my blog so you didn't have to keep looking at that expired Treasury. I didn't have anything so I thought I'd at least share a few photos that I took at Red Rock Canyon during our last visit. The bottom photo I actually adjusted to black and white in Picasa as I thought it made the rocks look really cool. Plus, I'm a huge black and white fan. Two of my most favorite photographers are Ansel Adams and Man Ray. Years ago, when we were living in London they were having a Man Ray exhibit at The Barbican which I was able to check out. It was brilliant. The Bellagio had an exhibit of Ansel Adams work a while back, sadly I didn't get to go as by the time I heard about it it was almost over. I really hate fighting the traffic on the Strip so I skipped it. Next time, no excuses.

Working On A Dream

Actually, more like working on photos. I suppose this is something I should have done months ago but I never really paid much attention to the fact that I should "get to know" my camera. I bought my camera (my first ever digital) back in December and never really fiddled around with the settings. Really, I didn't have any idea about them until I got one of the Etsy emails about Storque articles and threads in the Forum about taking pics. So, I grabbed my camera, a pen and pad of paper and started to play. I wrote down the different settings I was using for future reference. The best thing about having your settings correct is that you don't need to edit the photos much. Here are a few I have done so far.


This bracelet (above) is not in any of my shops at the moment though I may re-list it over on Etsy with the updated photos. It's woven in a weave called Inverted Round and I used argentium silver and rainbow anodized niobium rings. I think with the new photos you can see the range of colors on the niobium rings much clearer. The rainbow rings are so cool and each ring has at least 2 colors on it.


This next bracelet is one listing in my Etsy shop here. It's a chainmaille weave called Queen's Chain and I added the Swarovski cubes as a center piece. Like I said, the photos didn't need much done to them other than cropping which is such a relief.


This last photo is a pair of earring I just made recently and will most likely list them over on Etsy too. I call them Queen of Hearts. Obviously you can get the heart part of the name but the Queen part comes from the small section of Queen's Chain at the top. There are so many chainmaille weaves and so many new ones all the time but I tend to gravitate towards the older ones such as Queen's Chain, Byzantine (ropey weave), Double Spiral (ropey weave) and European 4 in 1 (flat weave). I'd rather use one of these weaves and add embellishment of some kind. I try to learn new ones but I always end up back with the old standards. So, what do you think? Be honest now, you won't hurt my feelings. Well, even if you do, I won't tell you. Do my photos look a little more "professional"? The only problem I seem to be having is with the copper jewelry. I may have to get a different (darker) background for those items. Maybe a grey rather than black.

Photo Tag

Deb over at Stroll Through Storyland has been kind enough to tag me. It is a photo search from your 6th file and the 6th photo. So here it is:



One of my photos from Red Rock Canyon here in Las Vegas. Now I'm supposed to tag 5 more people but here is what I'm gonna do....consider yourself tagged if you are reading this and stop by my blog and you can play along if you want. If not, then don't worry as long as you enjoy the photo.

Blog Love

Time again for me to show some love to one of my favorite blogs. I had intended this to be a regular feature but you know how that goes, right? I have quite a few favorites and I will admit that quite a few are art, craft and jewelry related. This one is in that group. The Photographic Aspect is the blog of Mark Alan Meader and if you are a fan of nature photography then this man's photos will blow you away. Mark is lucky enough to live in San Diego which has some beautiful coastline within easy access but he is also able to move around the whole of the Southwest of the States. This area of the States is a photographers dream (well, in my opinion) because of the beautiful desert landscapes and mountains which Mark has the perfect eye for. One of the things I love about his photographs is that he doesn't always "see" in color. Sometimes black and white is the perfect medium for his landscapes. Saying that, the photo below is one of my all-time favorites.



I could sit and look at that photo all day. With every new photo Mark posts on his blog he tells the story behind the photo, even if just to tell us readers about waiting for the right light. Make sure you stop by and check out all of his posts and photos and if you love them as much as I do then you can always stop by his Etsy shop here. I dream of having that photo above hanging in my apartment, till that day comes I'm going to be visiting Mark's blog and shop and look in awe and of course enjoy the stories behind them.

Working On Photos

Yesterday I spent the day at a friend's house and we took pictures all day. Most were in her backyard but I did bring my "lightbox" (it's a home-made one) with me for us to play with. Her husband decided at 1pm to set it all up which didn't give us much time since my husband was picking me up around 3pm. So this is one of the ones we took in the lightbox. It took a lot of playing with her fancy camera and moving about 6 lights around but we did get some great shots in the end. I left my lights and lightbox for them to play with and I will probably go back again next week to play some more. Her camera has more settings than Imelda Marcos had shoes so I'm hoping they can figure out all the right settings for the next time. I find the main problem with any kind of metal jewelry is getting it right so that it doesn't wash out the color of the metal.

If only I could find some budding photographer at the local Community College who wants to build up his/her portfolio then I'd be set but till then we will keep on playing. Beats sitting in the apartment all day.