Wedding Photo Book
Posted: April 25, 2012 Filed under: technology, wedding 1 Comment »When I was shopping around for a photographer for our wedding, I thought it was weird that they all wanted to charge me for some kind of package that included prints and albums. They thought it was strange that the only deliverable I wanted was a disc with all of the full resolution images.
In this day and age I think you’re a sucker to pay for prints and old fashioned wedding albums from your photographer. I know they’re professionals, and the prints they make for you will be of the utmost quality. But really, come on, they’re not even shooting film! It’s all pixels. You’re paying for the photographer’s expertise with lighting, framing, and capturing the best images possible through his mucho-expensive lenses. Once the digital image is produced, I felt like I could take it from there.
From about 4 hours of shooting at the wedding, I received a disc with about 225 pictures that made my photographer’s cut. They were all spectacular in quality.
From there I made a Flikr set with 154 of them so I could immediately share the entire album with our families. I uploaded a smaller selection of about 40 photos to Facebook. And of course shared a few of them here on my blog.
I also wanted a little something tangible for us to keep, but especially to share with our parents who are not as savvy with the digital formats. So I started exploring the options for custom photo books.
Out of a few different options, I landed on using MyPublisher because it seemed to give you the most freedom with layouts and because they were running a two-for-one special. With this special we were able to get 4 copies of our custom hardcover book for $135.
MyPublisher makes you download a little page-builder application. It’s very quick to use because since it’s working off your desktop, you don’t have to upload your photos until you’re done designing. You also have the freedom to use any fonts and colors that you’re into.
I kept ours simple with either black or white backgrounds, and used minimal words or captions.
I still plan to get a few prints made from Snapfish or Walgreens or wherever, but I’ve got all the time in the world to decide how many, which ones, what sizes, etc. In the meantime, this book is a nice tangible physical application for a set of beautiful pictures.
I’d love to do the same thing in the future with travel photos, or even just a “year in review” type thing like this example also made using MyPublisher.
What’s Going On Here?
Posted: April 17, 2012 Filed under: maintenance, technology 1 Comment »Wha happen? I busted up the look of this blog and we’re going back to basics ’round here.
I have been using my old theme for over two years now, and it was starting to look a little…dated. Dated and booooooring. I’d like to show the internets that I have a little more classy style than that.
I’m also trying to learn enough about CSS to make a custom look for this blog. In an effort to make this easier, I’ve switched over to this very basic theme called Clean Home. Over the next few weeks I’ll be making small changes to stylize site bit by bit. If you see broken shit all over the place, bear with me for a little while.
But never fear! I’ll keep posting in the meantime. Mundane household projects and self-indulgent reflections on my wedding! I know…you’re so EXCITED.
Long Shelf
Posted: November 7, 2010 Filed under: decorating, office, technology 5 Comments »Although the office has been coming along nicely, I’ve been struggling with this side of the room:
I decided a while back that some kind of file storage was a practical necessity, thus this new little filing cabinet. It took a bit of hunting, but I found one for under $50 new. The only drawback was that the handles were plastic and awful looking. So the ones you see here are actually from Lowe’s cabinet hardware department. It was a small personal goal of mine to transfer the paperwork of my life from a messy series of cardboard boxes into this very adult and orderly filing system.
With the practical storage aspect of this area out of the way, I was left with a really big, blank, grey wall. I don’t have any art that would have been remotely appropriate to fill this big, horizontal space. I thought about painting stripes or a pattern on this wall, but feared that it would still look kinda blank after all that trouble.
So I decided to repurpose an idea I used in the kitchen a few months ago: cheap shelf. Cheap shelf revolves around the concept that wood + brackets = shelf. And those two materials are very cheap. I also recently saw a cheap shelf in this post that looks amazing unpainted against a black wall.
So for the office situation, I felt that black would be most appropriate. So I got a 1″x8″ pre-primed plank, and had the Home Depot fella cut it to a 6′ length. Then I just brought it home and spray painted a few coats of glossy black. It took exactly one can of spray paint.
After it dried, we attached the brackets to the underside of the shelf. Well, actually it sat here in the middle of the floor for a week while we put off doing it. But when the motivation finally surfaced, it really took very little time to get it hung up on the wall. The laser level certainly helped.
I took a cue from the afore mentioned Door Sixteen post to paint the steel brackets with the wall color so they’re less obvious. It really made a huge difference in how finished it looks.
I’m very happy with what it’s done to this side of the room. It adds height to the computer area and makes the puny Walmart desk look more significant. The length of the shelf is roughly the same as the length of the file cabinet, desk and stool combined, so it looks neat and cohesive to me.
I have a few key items in mind that I’d like to get up and displayed on that shelf. I have to get some accessorizing on.
To save space on the small desktop, I also found a way to get the cable modem and wireless router out of the way. Over there on top of the filing cabinet, there’s a glorified cardboard box I got today from Target’s office supply section. I cut a hole in the back and ran the wires through. Out of sight, out of mind.
I’m getting very close to having the office all finished up. The to-do list is whittled down to just a side table for the chair area and some fun accessories to liven things up. The hardest part right now is to get those things taken care of before mentally moving on to the next room.
Canon S90
Posted: November 4, 2010 Filed under: technology 3 Comments »
At long last, I have a new camera. Behold the Canon S90, a robust yet compact point and shoot camera.
I’ve already gone through the justification of purchasing an expensive point and shoot camera versus a DSLR. The bottom line is that I’m more likely to carry and use a small point and shoot camera. And so far, this one is tops. It comes highly reviewed, and in the short time I’ve had to play, it’s completely living up to the description.
The settings really mimic the important DSLR capabilities that make great pictures. Namely, you can adjust everything. It even shoots in RAW, if you’re into that kind of thing. The controls are convenient, and you don’t have to pull up a menu screen every time you want to adjust. There is even a little ring around the lens that you can set up to control anything. The default is focal length, but I’ll likely end up setting it to ISO or exposure compensation, which is more useful to me.
The best thing so far, and what really sold me on this guy is the low-light capabilities. On the low-light or indoor settings, it’s able to take a sharp picture with no camera shake. Previously EVERY indoor picture I’ve posted on this blog required at least five shots, and a makeshift tripod to get a clear image. No longer an issue. These pictures were all taken inside tonight, after dark, with no flash and no tripod or balancing act to keep the camera steady.
Nothing fancy here, for sure. But also note that none of the colors here were futzed with in iPhoto, which was also a necessity for our old camera to get in the ballpark of reality. I also haven’t done any real tests with exposure settings yet, so I haven’t found the perfect balance. But it can only get better from here.
I spared you all another crappy post last weekend full of underexposed iPhone photos because I knew this guy was on the way. Come back this weekend for your regularly scheduled frustrating home improvements and half-assed decorating.
Schooner
Posted: October 17, 2010 Filed under: fall, pets, technology 5 Comments »
Oops, we just got a second dog.
Our house is now officially a zoo. But it’s the cutest zoo ever…look at this thing!! She’s a six week old Jack Russell mix and we’re calling her Schooner. She only weighs about 2.5 pounds now, and likely won’t grow bigger than about 15 pounds.
We had been considering it for a while, and besides the dying-of-cuteness factor, I think it’s best in the long run for Seamus to have a little companion for the rest of his years. He spends a lot of time alone, and sometimes it seems a little sad. But then again, I do love projecting emotions on animals and inanimate objects, so it’s hard to say.
The big dog is still pretty hesitant of her, but he’s slowly warming up and teaching her how to eat sticks in the yard. She’s completely fearless.
In other news, our old camera finally kicked the bucket this weekend, thus only phone photos available at the moment. I’ve secretly been waiting for the day that the old camera dies so I can get a new one.
I’m strongly considering the Canon S90. I just have to get over the price tag and bite the bullet. Why no DSLR? Because I wouldn’t use it enough to justify the cost, and for travel it’s so much easier to have a small camera instead. The S90 is supposed to have a ton of manual features that give you more image control than most other compacts. Plus it is supposedly great with low-light photos which our old camera SUCKED at. Basically every decent indoor picture that I’ve taken for this blog was shot using a makeshift tripod. For every usable picture you see here, there are about six that are too blurry to use. So I’m looking forward to using something a little more powerful and accurate.
