Weekend recap

So at last weekend's barbecue I had taken a few pictures of the newest addition to our crew... baby Jake!




I was very excited when Jake's mom asked me to come over and do a full-on photo shoot. We had initially scheduled the session for Saturday but the weather forecast was calling for rain all day. We rescheduled for Friday and I was on my way down to Norfolk after work when it started raining. Sad! We got a few nice shots indoors but I am looking forward to shooting outside another day.

We woke this poor little guy up from his nap:






I had a little fun editing this one (PW's vintage action):


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On Sunday my sister and I went to see the Flaming Lips at the Bank of America pavilion and it was AWESOME. They put on quite a show. I'd never been to the pavilion before but it is a fantastic summer venue. Unfortunately, I was too chicken to bring my nice camera. In retrospect, I totally could have (and should have)! Oh well... please forgive the quality of these as they were taken with my point & shoot:


Umm yes, this is Wayne Coyne walking over the audience in a plastic bubble:


Lots of balloons:

Summertime... and the livin is easy

It was HOT around here this weekend! Marc and I spend our days cooling off by the pools of family and friends who were nice enough to invite us over. We headed down to Franklin for a pool party with some college friends on Saturday.

Sangria is always a hit with this crowd. This peach, apricot and mango version was sublime and the beverage jars were so cute!


My friend Sapana was a fabulous hostess as usual:


We enjoyed hamburgers, hotdogs and this delicious rosemary grilled cheese:


And of course, icy cold beer:


We relaxed:


And played lots of pool pong. Because I am a nerd, I made this animated GIF showing the intense action, haha:

In business

Yesterday, I had my first PAID photography gig. YAY! I responded to a craigslist ad for a photography assistant and to my great surprise and excitement, I got the job! I assisted Karl Baierlein with lighting for a senior portrait shoot on Hingham Harbor. I did not shoot but I had fun and learned quite a bit about lighting. Thanks Karl!

So I will be pinning my $20 (cha-ching! haha) over my computer to commemorate the occasion, restaurant-style...

After the shoot, Karl approached a group of kids barbecuing in the parking lot and asked if we could photograph them with their VW bus. A few of my favorites are below. I took this opportunity to play with some of Pioneer Woman's Photoshop actions. She just posted updated sets that are compatible with CS4!

I thought the "seventies" action was particularly fitting on these next 3:






This one uses "PWs B & W":




And I liked what the "fresh & colorful" action did for this one:

Chatham Part 2

One of the best places to grab a bite in Chatham is the fish pier. The fried scallop plate (and everything else) is amazingly fresh and delicious. The view isn't bad either:




There are often seals in the water off the pier. We were lucky enough to catch one up close.


I was somewhat surprised at the shape of its head...


My focus isn't that great here but I wanted to share anyway... it's not everyday that you get this close to a seal doing the backfloat!


This was a drive by shooting (don't worry, I was not the one driving):


And what is a Chatham post without a bunny?

Posting large pictures in Blogger

As is evident from my last entry, I FINALLY figured out how to post large pictures! I had been having problems with picture quality on my previous attempts and was getting really frustrated. Since this took me several weeks to figure out, I thought I'd share my solution.

Here's what I WAS doing (don't do this!) -

After editing, I would upload a full-size jpeg file to Flickr and paste the HTML code into my blog. Then, I'd resize the photo to 810 pixels by editing the width within the code. This method degraded the quality of my photos significantly.

Here's what works -

1. After editing, resize your pictures in Photoshop to exactly the size you need for your blog. Mine are typically 810 pixels wide but it depends on what template you are using. In Photoshop, go under the Image menu, then to "Image Size" and a dialogue box will pop up. You will need to check the "resample image" box, then you can adjust the pixels to whatever is needed. If you adjust the width, the height will automatically adjust to preserve your aspect ratio (and vice versa). The ppi does not affect quality (for blogging purposes) as long as it is 72ppi or greater. Most people's computer screens are 72ppi.

2. Save and upload the photos to Flickr (or another photo-hosting service).

3. Get the html code for your photo from Flickr and paste it directly into your blog posts. The code can be found when you click the "all sizes" button above above any picture in Flickr and choose "original size".

That's it!

Chatham Part 1

I took two extra long weekends in July and went to my parents' new condo on the Cape. Here she is:


They are still very much in the process of fixing it up. The first weekend I was there, my dad was installing an air conditioner. Before you think that we are weak and spoiled, you should know that the A/C was actually for our little doggie, Bijou, so that he can stay cool while we are away during the day (he will be the subject of a future post). Anyway here is my dad, being handy... using a saw blade with no handle:


I am more than a little obsessed with my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8. It creates some delicious flower bokeh.


I love how this one looks like a watercolor painting.


We were in agreement that Skaket beach is one of the best places on the Cape to catch the sunset.










My mom and I treated ourselves to some Gouda from the Chatham Cheese Company. It was heavenly...


And because we are such classy ladies... we paired it with a nice bottle of Arbor Mist. Haha.


To end this post on a cute note... here is a bunny. Chatham is strangely overrun with them.

3rd of July festivities

Hough's Neck is a pretty fantastic place to be on the 3rd of July. There are block parties, bonfires and fireworks all within a few minutes walk of our house.

This is the "before pic" of what will later become the bonfire:






I tried to capture some patriotic details around the neighborhood:



Yes, I pulled over at the cemetery because I thought the flags would make pretty bokeh. Unfortunately (or fortunately!), my friends called to be picked up from the T station just as I was getting started. Oh well...

We barbecued and played bag toss all evening. I got Marc this fancy custom set as a graduation gift:



Marc has a slight obsession with picking the weeds out of our new lawn. Good luck with that hunny!





Finally the fireworks! We could see the Weymouth fireworks from across the bay and the bonfire was blazing on Edgewater beach:


I read up a little on taking pictures of fireworks but it didn't help much. This next picture is what you get with a handheld 30 second shutter speed (haha). Next year, I will most definitely be using a tripod (nerd alert!).


I finally started getting some decent pictures when the amateur fireworks began going off over my head: