The Night Sky, Nature by Design
We all need something that inspires us, the universe inspires me! Its hard to believe that there is so much beauty around us and we often don’t take the time to stop and see it!
Late in the evening on March 1st I got a call from my husband, he was excitedly telling me to check the sky watch maps at Space Weather to see the Aurora intensity. When I pulled up the web site I mirrored his excitement and said “Heck yeah, we are so going sky watching tonight!” Since we live in Northern Minnesota we have the opportunity to see Aurora’s when they dip low enough, its not often though.
What does this mean? Well, first of all the sun has to be active and when it is it sends out solar flares that can interfere with our atmosphere and cause geomagnetic storms. OK, this is the really simplified explanation, there are a lot of factors and more scientific stuff but I’m sure you don’t really want to hear all that. If you are interested check out SpaceWeather.com for more info. Our atmosphere is always slightly active but when its more active we get a nice light show of green and sometimes purple ribbons to the north. Because of the light pollution from cities most people that live in the northern areas still don’t see them. In order to catch them in Northern Minnesota we still have to go out to remote areas and use long exposure photography. On the night of March 1st we were hitting K5 to K6 for intensity, which means it was dipping low into the upper United States and perfect for sky viewing.
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Winter Fun!
You can’t be serious and work every day! I recently took the kids out to enjoy the sun, although it was extremely cold! Living in Northern Minnesota you do learn to acclimate a bit and even at -10 we were out playing. I should also add that hand warmers are your friend. Normally I shy away from taking photo graphs outdoors in the winter because all the white scares me. It can be tricky to get your camera settings right so that the pictures aren’t all over exposed, or blue. We took a chance and had a blast in the snow.
So I’ll leave you with a few pictures and the reminder that you shouldn’t work too hard, you have to take time to go out and play as well! Want to see more Northern Minnesota Photography? Check out Nate Paul Images for more photos taken by myself and my husband.
Our Clients Make a Difference
Really. Check out Jamie Roth’s new web site (designed by Web Savvy Mama, of course) to get more information about her new book. I’ve worked with Jamie on a few projects now and have had a blast creating web sites for her because we often have the same vision of what it should look like. I kid that she is my easiest client ever. Design aside, her web sites are also fun because of the content. Jamie is definitely not afraid to speak her mind and tell it how it is! This is why I highly recommend taking a look at her new book currently available in eBook format. I did get the pleasure of not only doing her website but designing the cover for her book as well.
From Jamie:
The General Manager of Your Universe is not another how-to-be-happy book. There are plenty of those on the market. It’s about facing your responsibility to create the life you desire. This includes recognizing how you have contributed thus far and how you can do so much better from this point on. It’s time trade in the victim card and replace it with the empowered, confident you that you are meant to be. This book has straightforward language and sometimes shocking examples. It is not going to stroke your ego, it’s going to lead you to the inside of you and that might not always be easy to look at. But it’s time to stop searching for external influences to make you happy and feel good. Make yourself feel good. Live authentically, joyfully and empowered. That is the journey this book will lead you on. Only read, if you are certain you are ready to be you.
Buy the book online at Smashwords.
Something for the Little Ones
I know, I know, I’ve been slacking lately! Busy busy with all the holiday rush, finishing up finals in school and then of course all the kids’ music programs! With three school aged children we keep extremely busy this time of year. Its nice when we can sit back and enjoy the festive music.
Our oldest traded in her violin for the clarinet this year and we were treated to an awesome band performance yesterday. This evening two of our children had the school carol-a-long program which proved to be a night of loud, enthusiastic singing from the kids in grades 4-6. Of course we can’t forget our 2nd grader’s performance in “The Littlest Christmas Tree”. Who cares if it was our third time seeing this music program, its always cute and lots of laughs! As you can guess, our house if always filled with music! (PS, did I mention that our Christmas tree is synced to flash along with an iPod?) So when I visited the site for Lunch Money Music I just had to share!
First of all I should explain how I came across this site. J.P. over at Lumos Photography (amazing work guys!) recommended that I take a listen, and I did. Love it! Its indie kids’ music that even parents could dig. Having been a preschool teacher for 10 years I’ve heard and owned a LOT of kids’ music. I can tell you from first hand experience that listening to Elmo a 100 times gets old pretty fast. I always wanted something I could sing along to and made me want to get up and dance silly with the kids. Lunch Money definitely fits the bill here. It hits me like an indie version of Laurie Berkner. (As someone who has 4 Laurie Berkner albums loaded to her iPod… even though I no longer have preschoolers… that’s my way of complimenting them.)
So if you are looking for some fun music to liven up your day with the kids, check this music out! I adore it and I’m sure your kids would love it too! Even if you don’t have kids, just check out the site because of its totally cute graphics, I love the whimsy!
Photo Alterations, Aperture Tutorial
(Mouse over photo to the left to see original unedited photo)
My last blog post highlighted photo enhancement, now we’ll look more at alterations. When a photo has unwanted clutter or defects it is necessary to alter it with photo editing software in order to direct the viewer’s attention to the subject of the photo. To the left you’ll see a photo that I have altered from its original version. Along with altering to remove clutter I have also enhanced the photo. This is not as hard to do as you might think. For this I used Aperture for Mac which has a variety of built in features to let you manipulate your images. The original picture here is actually a low quality image that was loaded on Facebook, imagine what you could do with a higher quality image!
I’ve also done a video tutorial so you can see the process in which I used to create the final image to the left. Check it out and see what you can do with your own photos. Don’t have a Mac? Try GIMP, Photoshop or Paintshop Pro on your Windows computer.
Want to see in high definition? Click the video to go directly to YouTube and view it there.
Photo Manipulation and Enhancement – Why?
(mouseover photos in this blog article for before and after examples)
Enhancing photos to maximize your web site visitor’s experience. Sell your products with the use of great photos!
You’ve visited web sites and seen amazing product photos or just great photos in general, you might have asked yourself “How can I get photos like that?” or “How come the photos I take never look like that?” Well, they can! Chances are, the photos that you see and love don’t start out that way. In fact, they probably look like the photos you have been taking all along.
Of course you have to start to with a good photo, but it might look different than what you think! The photographer (you) will matter the most when taking your pictures, not the camera. Get the shot you want, make sure it is in focus, good light balance and a large enough resolution that you can work with it. Most point and shoot digital cameras are plenty good enough for your web site needs! (If you have a fancier DSLR, chances are you already know how to digitally correct your photos anyways so this blog post wont teach you much! Sorry!)
Find a graphic editing program that will work with your computer. I prefer Aperture on my iMac, many use Adobe Lightroom or even Photoshop. Many cameras have software that you can install to edit your photos as well. I wont go into the actual editing process here though. I have a Aperture video tutorial on the blog if you want more of that specific information. Play around with your photo, adjust colors, contrast, smoothing and sharpening features. Pretty soon your so-so picture may look amazing.
Why is this important? When shopping for products or browsing a web site you look for images that pop and catch your eye. Pictures truly do say more than words and many wont stop to read a description if the picture doesn’t interest them. If your pictures are washed out or flat, that is what your customers are going to feel about your site and your products. Editing your photos can give your products a more representative finished look. The color you thought was beautiful in person may look flat in the picture. You want your customers to get excited about your products so make sure the pictures show what they really look like! Your product probably isn’t flat, so your picture shouldn’t feel flat either. You don’t sell a product? That’s ok too, this still applies! Pictures often are used to show emotion, a little photo editing can really enhance this so your visitors can grasp that emotion immediately at first glance.
I’m not a fan of photo editing to the point of altering body perception, I prefer to only enhance the natural beauty of the subject as it is. Sticking to this, I feel the photos look more natural as well. An over photo-shopped image will leave the viewer scratching their heads and wondering what they really going to get if they dare to order. So keep it simple, keep it natural, enhance to promote an emotion you wish to emphasize.
Not sure if you can do it? Give it a try and don’t be afraid to experiment! Try funky effects to create your own style.
Still not sure? Web Savvy Mama (me!) does offer image manipulation and editing services. Just contact me and I can give you a quote for your project.
The images on this page are ones that I took of my children and did some very basic photo enhancing to. Mouseover to see the original images and the difference that can be made.