365 Project - Days 10 & 11

 February 10th, Day 10:

On the 10th I spent the day painting with my friend, Chelsea. We both painted one small piece of furniture. Mine was this side table. The weather was nice and sunny which was perfect for our craft day. I had a wonderful time with Chelsea and I am really happy with how the table turned out. I am lucky to have such a wonderful friend and to be able to take a day to just paint.

This was taken with a Canon Rebel T4i.

February 11th, Day 11:

Today I woke up in a slightly grumpy mood. While getting ready I always enjoy listening to some tunage. Today I had my iPod on shuffle and this fun song came on: "Lightning" by Alex Goot. This song always puts me in a good mood. I love how music has the power to brighten our day.

Taken with a Canon Rebel T4i.

365 Project - Days 7, 8, & 9

February 7th, Day 7:

This is Lily (with Fletch in the background). I used to find myself feeling lonely frequently. Lily provides unconditional love and company. She lays with me when I am feeling ill and runs with me when I feel like I need to do more to be healthy. I chose this photo because it featured my little puppy and also my partner, Fletch. He makes me unbelievably happy and I am so thankful to have him. To have them both.
This photo was taken with a Canon Rebel T4i and is unedited.

February 8th, Day 8:

This is a photo of a few prints I ordered. I love getting stuff in the mail and I was extremely excited to receive these square prints. On the left is a photo I took with my iPhone in the Fremont area of Seattle, in the middle is a photo my friend Justin took of me with my Ansco Shur-Shot and on the right is a photo of my oldest brother, David, with my niece, Gia. I don't get to see either of them often and when I received this photo I knew I had to save it. Photos help me hold the people I care most about a little closer.
This photo was taken with a Canon Rebel T4i and is unedited.

February 9th, Day 9:

 Today I had the opportunity to sleep past 7am!! Something small but definitely something to be excited about. I had a wonderful morning. I woke up and took Lily for a nice long walk while Fletch got us breakfast burritos. I am now sitting at Forza enjoying a coffee and updating my blog. I am glad that I can have these days to do something small for myself. Something as simple as discussing cameras while drinking a delicious cup of coffee.
This was taken with my Nikon Coolpix P310. It was the closest camera to the bed.

365 Project - Day 6

February 6th, Day 6:

Today I got some bad news. Nothing too terrible, just disappointing. Jessica, my coworker and friend, dragged me downstairs to get a fancy coffee to cheer me up. Talking with her and Courtney, our favorite barista, made me feel better. I laughed instead of cried. Jessica has been a huge support system for me and I really appreciate her. She helps me remember to be positive and focus on the good.

This photo was taken with my iPhone and edited with Instagram.

365 Project- Day 5

February 5th, Day 5:

This is a picture of my spare tire. The night of the fourth I ran over a nail which punctured my tire. I was not having a very good day and this was just the cherry on top of it.  Fletch was very sweet and attempted to change the tire for me. He was outside for about 45 minutes attempting to take the lug nuts off with a tool that was too large. I went out to see if there was anything I could assist with. I was only out there for about five minutes before a stranger approached us offering help. A simple act of kindness. 

Fletch and the stranger changed the tire and were done within ten minutes. 

This morning Fletch and I woke up early to get the tire repaired. As we drove into Titus, fear of the cost overwhelmed me. Any extra expense is difficult these days. They took my car in and had it ready to go in about an hour. The worker told me that they do the repairs for free and to have a great day.

A simple act of kindness.

They could charge people for this service. I am sure it happens enough that they would make money off of it. Instead they chose to help out their community. They understand that car problems can cause stress.

This simple photo of my spare tire reminds me of the generosity of others and the kindness of strangers.
This photo was taken with my Nikon Coolpix P310.

365 Project

I just recently learned about the 365 Project. You come up with a subject and take a photo everyday for an entire year.  I really want to try this out. My subject is beauty. Specifically, finding beauty and joy everyday.

February 1st, Day One:

I love my camera collection. It brings me happiness to take photos with these cameras and to be able to share them with you! This was taken with a Canon Rebel T4i and edited with Photobucket.

February 2nd, Day Two:

This is a weeping willow in my neighborhood. I love this tree and I can't help but smile when I see it. I took this photo with my Diana Mini.

February 3rd, Day 3:

A yummy personal cookie. This little cookie was delicious and fun to make! This was taken with my iPhone and edited with Instagram.

February 4th, Day 4:

This is my first Umba Box purchase! I was so excited to receive it. Sometimes it is nice to treat yourself to a little surprise. This photo was taken with a Canon Rebel T4i.

I am going to try to update this daily with my 365 project photos. Let me know what you think!

Ansco Shur-Shot

For Christmas this year I received an Ansco Shur-Shot. It is a simple point and shoot camera that takes 120 film. The Ansco has two view finders that are used to line up your photo. I am not sure when this camera was made but it was sometime after 1943. I am very excited to take this camera out for a test run. It is best for portrait photos and should be used during a sunny day. Living in Washington makes it difficult to find appropriate weather for taking photos.
Below are the photos I took using the Ansco Shur-Shot.

Want the film look without the work?

First off, I now have an iPhone which means I can now try out all of those fun camera apps. Here I am going to discuss the apps that I have tried.

Hipstamatic:

Hipstamatic is an app that features different types of cameras. You can purchase different packages to add cameras and films to your app. The initial app came with the classic black camera. The application offers personalization through different lenses, flashes, and films. The lenses include Buckhorst H1 Lens, John S. Lens, Jane Lens, Jimmy Lens, Laimal Mark II Lens. The flash options include the Standard Flash, Dreampop Flash, and Cherry Shine Flash. Finally, your film options include Blanko Film, Ina's 1969 Film., Ina's 1982 Film, and Kodot XGrizzled Film. Each item includes a description and samples of what the photos look like using each product.

I enjoy this product because it offers personalization with the different settings and features. It also allows for sharing on social networking sites which makes it easy to upload on your smart phone. Lastly, you can also order your photos right from the app! You can get the prints sent straight to your door without the worry of pixelation that you get with uploading to a site and ordering prints.

Vintique:

With this app you can edit your photos easily. You simply select the photo from your camera roll, crop it, then have fun using the different filters, borders, and additional edits to create a unique photo.  My favorite feature on this app is that it allows you to write text on your photos. Below is an example of a photo I edited and added text to in Vintique.

Pocketbooth:

Pocketbooth

IncrediBooth

Pocketbooth is my favorite app so far. This was an app that was featured as a freebie at Starbucks. With this app you can take photobooth type pictures with friends! You can choose the photo type, the paper type, how many photos it takes, and the time between each take. Once your photo is finished you can save it on your phone, email it to a friend, upload it to a social networking site, or order it online! This app is great for taking fun photos.

IncrediBooth:

IncrediBooth is very similar to Pocketbooth. It is a fun app and offers four different lenses for your booth. This app is all about getting you to buy additions. You can buy different booths, different lenses, and even a film development lab. It is created by the same people that made Hipstamatic. They create a lot of ways to personalize your booth but all involve paying more money. Overall I think it is a fun app but be ready to pay more than the initial $1.99. 

Instagram:

Instagram is an app that is widely used and popular. You can use this app to edit photos then post them to your stream. It pretty much took the profile photo feature of Facebook and made it even more obnoxious by encouraging people to post more and more photos of themselves and inanimate objects. Don't get me wrong, I have an Instagram account but don't really use it. I load photos on it so I can then use a different app to purchase the square photos later. I am finding better ways to get my edited phone photos everyday and will probably stop using Instagram any day now. 

Pic Stitch:

Pic Stitch is an app that allows you to edit your photos then arrange them in a collage format. As you can see from the examples below you have many different layouts to choose from. The all black and white collage was made out of photo booth photos that I took with another app. I cropped each photo from the strip and placed it. A fun feature of this app is that you can upload the photos directly to Walgreens to have them printed! Talk about a great way to save your memories!