all buttoned up.

Printz

Last month I started ordering prints of my photos to do a side-by-side comparison of some of the most popular online ordering sites. You all were so helpful with your recommendations and with card sending season upon us, I wanted to make sure I was making the best choice for us. I ordered from MPIX, Snapfish and my old favourite, AdoramaPix. Here was my criteria: I wanted the best possible looking print and the one that most closely resembled what came out of my camera. That means: no cropping, no colour correction/filters, and something like a matte finish. I wasn't worried about photo books or other products: just prints. I ordered the same prints on the same night from all three suppliers. It was actually four orders, because I requested both the budget and the e-surface prints from MPIX.

Here's the deal: MPIX and Snapfish both come out with near constant promotions making their prints the cheapest. I will tell you that I was pretty shocked that between these two, I preferred Snapfish for print quality. I will probably use them again if I'm ordering in large quantities for Christmas cards or whatever. In the end, AdoramaPix still has my heart. I could opt for no cropping, their uploader is much improved from the last time I used them, and their print price (without promotion) is slightly cheaper than full price prints elsewhere. I also chose their Lustre paper, which I'm pretty happy with. More importantly, when placed side by side, the colours and tones from Adorama were the most true to what I had taken. This is especially true when it came to Augie and Manny's skin tones. Mpix had them looking a little grey and snapfish upped the contrast in a significant way.

Here's the thing: I'm a average-to-fair picture taker, but if I'm going to go to the trouble of having the photos printed and hopefully put into books, I want them looking the way I took them (however flawed). It might be different if I only took photos of people's faces or groups of people in a commemorative way-- then I don't think it would be so important. But so many of my pictures are of the mundane and everyday variety, and I'd like to think that what makes them worth taking, is what also makes them worth printing. Or that's what I tell my hard drive, anyway.

So. Now to start getting these bad boys in albums that are neither non-corosive or toxic or made from animal parts (is that a thing?), and that will not require a home equity loan with which to purchase. Mo' photos, mo' problems, is what I always say.

I do, I really do.

*(For film photos I would still drive out to Blue Moon in St. John's, and I know lots of my people use Citizens in town for both film and digital.)

Under Advisement

I have been taking your photo storage/printing tips to heart and am going to try several different processing methods. I recently made a Blurb book of Instagram photos for grandparents (as per Molly's suggestion) and I loved how low fuss and quick the whole process was. These are not technically superior photographs, but they are often the most candid and downright hilarious photos that I take. The nice thing about doing it through the IG to Blurb format is that you don't need to download the Blurb book software to get it all done. I'm going to make a longer, hard cover version for our family.

(soft cover blurb book)

One thing that is also helping me feel less overwhelmed in the photo department is the liberal use of the delete button. I don't need doubles, triples or a dozen of essentially the same photo. Realizing that *no* photo is the same, I'm still trying to be a bit brutal with my editing process. I'm trying to take to heart what Beth said in her comment about too much documentation/scrapbooking being burdensome to her offspring one day. I've also been using flickr more and more (yahoo has totally dropped the ball on flickr, but I still love it for connecting with people and as a backup tool), making more of my photos private and using it for a personal 365 project. If I'm going to pay for it, I want to really get the most out of it.

So yes. Summer. It has been a lengthy transition into tolerable (weather and behavior). We had a visit from the bugs, the grandparents, and we are expecting some more great company in the next few weeks. We are far from having an *easy* summer, but that's what I'm working towards.

I can't help but wonder if it would automatically get easier if I decided to drink a lot more.

Habit and Conquering Digital Clutter

I'm back at Habit for June. I love it there. It's so quiet in a way that my life is not.Thanks for having me, ladies.

I've been mucking through our back up hard drive full of photos trying to edit things down and do something with the images we (I) have amassed the last few years. This sort of clutter stresses me out almost as much as physical clutter does. What if something happens to me? Will they have these pictures? Just another way in which to express my neurosis. I'm making blurb books, getting things printed, and looking at blank albums I can stick and go. The couple of times I took a disc of photos to get printed at our photo place, they sort of looked at me with disdain (I usually only take film there), but maybe they've changed? Any thoughts on photo printing? I've used adorama quite a bit in the past, but it's all the way in NYC and their uploader was pretty tedious. The matte photos were pretty beautiful, though.

Reprieve

Paul was saying that he felt like these first few weeks of Truly's life are a sort of reprieve given that she came a few weeks early. She is easing us into newborn-dom easily, even though she has a cold at the moment and is pretty snarfley. Thank you for all your kind words and encouragement. We are so happy to be six. 

The night I checked into the hospital, Ann brought by her Pentax loaded with 3200 speed black and white film. She took some fantastic and funny (but only to me) labouring photos and then gave Paul a quick tutorial on the light meter, etc., and left the camera with us. 

Annie picked up the camera on our first day home with her and had the film developed right away. The prints are a rare and wonderful gift to have. I shot a lot of film with Sam. These make me want to begin doing that again.

(Or maybe just hand the camera over to Paul, since he seems to have the knack. You are so busted, dude.)

PSA: On Nepotism

Our family life does not go undocumented.  Obviously.  I take pictures.  My friends take pictures.  So happens, that my sister takes pictures, too, and has been busy capturing families all over the lower mainland of British Columbia.  She (and her posse) are taking their show on the road across Canada for the month of October-- all the way from B.C. to Ontario.  She's going to be booking sessions along the way, and If'n you live somewhere along the 1, you may want to see if she can fit you in.  She works fast and does a fantastic job with families.  Of course, she'll be back in town in November and is booking all the way through next year. 

***

If you're in Portland and wondering about family or event photography, I would book Deena Hofstad or Kimi Kolba in a New York minute.  Deena specializes in family photography and did a beautiful job on our family photos in the face of overwhelmingly bad smells and uncooperative small people.  Kimi kills it with the weddings, engagements (among all other things), and is teaching a workshop on night photography at OCAC.  I hear she's going to be offering some sort of Polaroid Wedding Package, too.  Intriguing. 

jumpstart the colour

Liberty bin at Bolt.
Seeds, seeds, seeds.
The Goods from Hannah.  She made that shirt for Sam, too.

Flickr is sort of on the fritz, so here you go!  Right to the blog browser of your choosing.

I'm going back outside!!

Pop it in the Post.

I forgot that we had this.  I think there are probably lots of things I forget we have.  It's an electric typewriter from my Grandpa.  Sam has been asking for his own computer which I knew was coming, but is worrisome on all kinds of levels.  This seems to have appeased him for now.  He knows how to turn it off and on, hit return, and roll out the paper.  He then jams the paper in an envelope, stamps it, and "pops it in the post" (he's British apparently) using his mailbag.  Hurrah.  Something I've made for him to play with is actually getting played with.  One day I'm going to do a post on the things I've made that I actually wear regularly.  The results might surprise you.

Augie spent some time trying to jam this bunny from Steph into his mouth.  Sam is so happy because he likes how the bunny matches "his other bunny and his doll because his doll has brown skin, too!".  Oh, the rapid association of a three year-old.   We'll see how stoked he is when the little guy starts getting gifts he might want for himself.  Little A is just happy to jam all these things in his mouth, which is a lovely little developmental milestone reached around here. 

eMailorder 8 is good.  This whole paper cutting thing has freezer paper stencil potential, don't you think??  I feel like I need to try it on sticker paper, too.  Something simple would work on the thicker paper.  This is just paper glue sticked to a jar for handy removal.  The biscotti inside is a little ghetto... I spent a whole winter making it after Sam was born, but my taste buds must have been suffering some postpartum backlash.  I need a new recipe.  This one Mariko looks very promising, but maybe dried cherries instead of raisins?  I made the Cook's Illustrated brownies today instead.  I have high hopes for these.  I will let you know. 

Last Visit

We had our last post-placement visit with our social worker this morning.  Yesterday she emailed me with the list of things we'd need to have ready which included two family pictures.  We had to do this a month ago, too, and we were barely prepared then.  There are few things that strike such dread in my heart as the thought of family picture attached to a deadline.  I'm sure I am not alone here.  It is such a little thing, I know-- but they are going into a file somewhere-- a permanent file.

Thank goodness for the new camera and its ability to stand up to some rather terrible light conditions.  Also thank you, thank you to a patient partner who will humor some rather humorless subjects.  Finally, thank you to Jelly Belly and the awesome power they hold over Mr. I Don't Want to Change My Shirt.  We got two presentable ones though neither of them are going out as a New Year's card.  We'll have to wait another week for that one.  I'm all out of candy.

out sourcing

Like most of you (I imagine) the picture taking in our family is largely my responsibility.  Paul tries, but he doesn't really care-- that is, he tries because I want him to care.  You know how it is.  Anyway, we let Sam have a go last week, and then again last night at a party for our friends who are leaving town for parts unknown (Detroit).  The top frame is the second or third shot from last week.  The rest are from last night.  He holds the camera fairly still, but things get a little blurry because he takes everything sort of mid-stride.  For the most part, he's pretty shy, but he started getting downright brazen behind the lens.  The most interesting thing to me is that he started moving away from taking people pictures last night.   These are some of my favourites.

He goes about ten minutes (or until he fills up the memory card) and then I have to watch him pretty closely or he'll try to figure out how the camera is working.  This usually involves yanking on the zoom lens or turning the entire device into a airplane or frisbee.  It helps that our digital takes pretty decent point-and-shoot pictures.  Even though he operates with substantial liability, I think I want to get him a decent but simple camera in the future.  Maybe something without a visible zoom.  That seems to be the tempting bit.

I got my first camera in 4th grade (i think?) and it was one of those brick-like vivitars with the funny film (I'm still waiting for those to come back around).  I took loads of pictures, but they mostly stunk-- dark, grainy, red-eye ridden.  Do you remember your first?  Do you let your kids use yours?  Am I asking for trouble letting him use ours?

day one. or the last day.

Happy New Year, All. Today is good. This year will be good. Hard maybe? I think they all are in one way or another. Happy? You can count on it. Tomorrow I will be back with some sewing type things after I eat donuts, resolve to lose weight, clean out, and get serious. Yeah...

Thanks for all the love this year... I didn't know it could be this good. I wish the new year started sometime at the end of March because the months until then can be a bit excruciating. But we are bound and determined to keep it light around here. When I was growing up missionaries would come to our church all the time and give slide shows... They would always start with some sort of sunrise picture and then of course, end with a sunset. It was as funny as it was predictable.

Hello, 2007.