Trip to New York- Day 1

Bruce and I are in New York, visiting our youngest daughter Annie. Annie lives in a little apartment in the Bronx, and we are staying with her. She works in a cute little bakery in the West Village.  Yesterday was my first day in New York- Bruce actually flew in 24 hours ahead of me, and he had a whole extra day to spend with Annie. I spent all day Wednesday flying east, and so Thursday we enjoyed seeing the sights. I go to New York quite frequently, so I don't feel like a tourist, just a visitor. There's always so much to see, and do, and photograph.

I'm just going to post some of my favorite photos from the day, and add a little commentary here and there. Eventually I'll get around to creating some layouts, but for now, I hope you enjoy a few photos.

Wonderful textures & colors next to Annie's apartment.

Cool bas relief right across the street from Annie in the Bronx

Annie's next door neighbor

A pretty brick courtyard in the East Village

Greenwich Village

Getting ready for a storm... dramatic sky over the Village.

Corrado Bakery,  where Annie works on Christopher St. in the West Village.

Bruce enjoying his yummy salmon sandwich.

"Mom! Why do you have to take pictures of me at work???!!!"

Annie at the counter of Corrado Bakery

Across the street from Corrado Bakery.

Holding up the wall.

Pretty brownstones in the Village

Have a Coke and a Smile

 Back in the 1980s, Coke had an advertising campaign using the slogan "Have a Coke and a Smile". When I finished this layout using some of the photos from my previous post, that old slogan jumped into my head. Because of Julie's beautiful smile, I thought it worked perfectly.

I made two different layouts, one with a red background, and one with gray. When I showed Bruce my red one, he loved the layout, but hated the red. So I changed it, and I think I still like both versions. So, which one do you like best?  (click on any of the pictures for a closer look). 

More of the Little Red Car

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a friend, Mel, who restored a wonderful 1953 Morris Minor. Due to his love of all things Coca Cola, he painted it red, and accessorized it with Coke-themed extras. He had a vision of having photos taken of a model posing with his car, wearing some of his vast collection of Coke stuff. Saturday, we set up a photo shoot at the same location as before, and I took a couple hundred photos with our fabulous model Julie.

I love this shot...so retro looking! Julie is wearing my Grandmother's hat, and my Mom's gloves. Everything else is from Mel's costume file.

 I'm planning a layout or two for Mel, but I wanted to post a few of the better photos, because I'm really proud of them. It's certainly not due to my photographic skills, but a combination of fabulous model, wonderful car, great lighting, and a great setting.

The Pause That Refreshes.

Ready to Fly

Bruce and I will be going to New York in a few days to visit our daughter Annie. We love to travel! We're looking forward to the day when we can travel more often, visiting not only our kids, but having some adventures on our own! I thought it would be fun to create a layout in celebration of travel... this layout features some photos of places we've been recently,  and the open window represents the adventures that are waiting for us, just outside our window. (no, that's Yosemite outside the window, not our little cul de sac!)

I hope you like to travel as much as we do! Bon Voyage!

Aidan Smiles

My little grandson Aidan is six, and is not really comfortable having his picture taken. We visited him in Texas ten days ago, and got to spend quite a bit of time with him. But every time I would bring out my camera, Aidan would put on this little grimace that I'm sure to him, is a lovely smile.  But it's really a not-so-natural smile.  So, I always look for ways to take photos of him spontaneously smiling, not posing.  I managed to click off a whole series of these cute photos while we were chatting at a shopping center with some friends. He was horsing around, and Grandma was trying to be unobtrusive. I loved the cute smiles he was showing! Of course, he had a wad of green chewing gum in his mouth but I decided not to Photoshop it out. After all, that's part of the package of Aidan smiling!

Fun With Fruit Crate Labels

Bruce and I were antiquing in Carpinteria on Saturday, and we came across a cache of 'blank' produce labels. These labels came pre-printed with lovely artwork of various types of produce, scenery and the like, with blank areas where the local growers could add their names and information to place on their crates for sales and display. As you may know, vintage produce label artwork is very collectible, especially in California where so much of the United States produce is grown. I have a small collection of 'fruit crate art', and I thought it would be fun to buy a few of these and use them for my design work.

Since we live in an agricultural area (Ventura County), it seemed perfect to add our family name to one of these labels. The only problem was that my favorite had a large grapefruit in the middle, and I'm not a fan of grapefruit. Other than that, and the fact that the art was a bit faded (mostly the blue had faded) I thought I could easily fix it.  Below is the original artwork, and above is the sign I made. I plan on printing it, framing it, and hanging it in our kitchen, where the decor is decidedly vintage and leans towards these colors. If you would like one for your family, leave me a message and I'll send you details about how you can get a personalized one for yourself!

My Baby World

I wanted to scrap some baby pictures of myself, such as they are... this is pretty much all of them! I thought it would be fun to just position it as my entire world as a baby... Mommy and Daddy and sisters and brother... you know, baby life!

I was a cute baby though! Spoiled rotten since I WAS the baby of the family!

Austin

 

I've been creating some fun, artsy heritage layouts this past year, like this one, but haven't really tried it for current layouts & photos. But I was feeling in an experimental mood! 

Sometimes when I am driving on my long daily commute, I plan layouts or different techniques. I just think and think about something I want to do, and figure out how I might accomplish it in Photoshop. I've been wanting to create narrow horizontal stripes to experiment with texture and effects. My hope is to achieve a kind of 'engraved' look, like old engraved drawings from the 19th century. The PS halftone/ line filter in the Sketch artistic filter, doesn't work well for me because the lines are not crisp and sharp, and because it's a filter, not a layer or brush. I totally love halftone dots, and lines, and like the added texture and interest they give my layouts. So, I just started layering photos & playing with blending modes, and halftones & stripes (used as both brushes & eraser), until I got the effects I wanted.

On our trip to Texas, we spent quite a bit of time in Austin. On Friday, Ian took the day off, and we actually made two trips to Austin. Bruce, Ian and I spent the morning in Austin kicking around, and met Jessica for lunch at Zocalo, her favorite Mexican restaurant. We had to go back to Kyle to pick grandson Aidan up from school,  and then we went back to Austin to go to the Texas State History Museum. It was a fabulous museum, and although Aidan found it a bit boring (after all, he's only 6, and the museum is three stories high!), he was a champ, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We all met for dinner at the Shady Grove restaurant.. a typical, trendy, and funky eatery designed to feel a little like you're camping at a KOA campground.

Sunday afternoon we returned to Austin to walk around & see the sights while we waited for sunset when the bats make their nightly swarm.  Hundreds of thousands of bats live underneath the Congress Avenue bridge over Lady Bird Lake, and each evening from about April to October, they swarm out of their temporary home, and fly off in search of food.  You can read more about it here.  So, my layout celebrates downtown Austin- the capitol building, the giant star outside the Texas History Museum, the Congress Street Bridge,  the sign for the museum,  son Ian and husband Bruce, and of course, the bats.

Just a Little Bragging...

My sister Lynne's photo appeared in yesterday's New York Times... she's a docent at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA. Eagle-eyed niece Tracy spotted it, and alerted the family. I thought it was pretty cool!

Around the Town Square

On Sunday, while in San Marcos, I took a little walk around the town square. It was very hot.... probably about 100 degrees, so I didn't go very far. There were so many interesting things to photograph- textures, signage, interesting architecture, historical signs, sculpture. I created this layout from some of my photos. Perhaps it's a bit too symmetrical, but I think it conveys the feel of a lovely, old-fashioned Texas town square.

The Bass Player

 
We just returned home last night from four fun days in the Austin/ San Marcos area of Texas. We were visiting our son Ian, daughter-in-law Jessica, and grandson Aidan. On our last visit to Texas last year, Ian asked me to create a layout about his skateboarding, so I did. You can see it here. This year, he asked if I wouldn't mind taking some photos of him playing the bass, and perhaps doing a layout about that too. So I did! Ian has been playing the bass almost as long as he's been skateboarding. That is, most of his life. He's very talented, and has played with a number of bands through his life, including world-famous Moorpark band Protocol, and San Marcos music stars Falcon Buddies.

Today, Ian plays more for relaxation and experimentation, and is still as talented as ever. Ian also plays a wonderful instrument called the Chapman Stick. You may not have ever heard of this instrument, but it's kind of like a percussion guitar that looks like a fretboard that lost the rest of itself. It has a unique sound, and he's really good. It always adds a unique vibe to any gig he plays.

Rest In Peace

Photos taken at Pepperdine University 9/11/10.  Each year Pepperdine assembles 8-foot flags for each victim of 9/11. The display is sobering.  Layout done in 2009.

Just A Little Snippet of Texas

We've been in Texas since Thursday night, enjoying some time with our oldest son Ian, his wonderful wife Jessica, and our little grandson Aidan. We spent a fun day Friday with the kids, eating, visiting, enjoying "The Story of Texas" at the Texas State History Museum, and then today (Saturday) we spent the better part of the day at the San Antonio Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with Ian and Jessica, and several of their close friends. It was a very special service, and afterwards we all went out for a late lunch at a nearby restaurant.

I am sure I will find some fun things to scrap, with all of the photos I've taken so far, and those that I will take in the next couple of days, but I thought it would be a good idea to just put some of my favorites together for a little sampler of "the Best of Texas". So far!

The Tea Party

 

This week on Two Peas in a Bucket, Garden Girl Erica Hernandez challenged us to create a layout using a photo as our entire background. Well, this is nothing new to me, I do it all the time. But I've been wanting to do a heritage layout for awhile now, I haven't done one for a few weeks. So, when I found this cute li'l photo of me in my collection, I thought it would be fun to do an entire layout about it.

I decided that the thing to do was to try to figure out as much as I could about the photo and when it was taken, and what I was doing just from looking at it, because I don't actually remember this little tea party. But there are many clues. First and foremost, we only lived in this hillside house in Glendale for a little over 6 months... from sometime before Halloween (I clearly remember my Tweety Bird costume Halloween '55, so we must have moved there before Halloween). And we moved to our permanent home in South Pasadena sometime in the summer of '56, just before I started kindergarten. Our family lore is that we lived in Glendale for six months, but it must have been somewhat longer than that.

I loved that table and chair set. We bought it when our family lived in Oregon. I have photos of me sitting at that table on my second birthday, but I have no idea if it was bought new for me, or if it belonged to my older sisters. It was white metal with red seats and table top.

Looking at the photo, it's hard to tell if I have the ginormous scab or scar above my lip where our dog Sandy bit me Christmas Eve 1955. (I had many, many stitches, I still have the scar). It's likely that, even though California is warmish in winter, the photo was taken in the spring, because I'm not wearing a jacket or long pants. So, Sherlock that I am, I surmise spring.  Afternoon, because the sunlight is coming from the west, over the hill by Forest Lawn. Late afternoon, because of the long shadows cast by the railing.

The funny little delight was noticing my brother Gene's scooter, propped up almost out of sight on the far left side. Seeing that little detail made me smile... I remember that scooter so well. It was red, and many years later, the handle was removed (by someone, probably not me) and I used it as a skateboard to smoothly traverse the hills of South Pasadena. It was on this makeshift skateboard that I took a nasty spill going down Stony Drive into the Arroyo Seco, but I digress.

The one thing that I wish I did remember, is that doll. I wasn't really a 'dolly' kind of girl, especially as I got older. I do remember playing with baby dolls a lot, and I had a wonderful Revlon doll when I was about 8 or 9. (I still have her). But I just don't remember this particular doll at all. So sad!  I DO remember a doll I had while living in that house, whose body was made out of a material called "magic skin". I took her to a little friend's house down the street, and she & I fought over the doll. She tugged and I tugged, and this doll split right down the middle of her magic skin. Stuffing flew everywhere! But I digress yet again!

So, here you have it. A few little clues, and a lot of empty spaces. But still, a fine photo of a happy little girl.

Two Is Cool

My grandson Jackson is way cool. I was inspired to create a fun layout about him, using 3D letters for his 'seat'. It was tricky & a bit time-consuming to do the letters and keep the perspective and shadowing realistic, but I'm pretty pleased with the results.

One of the things that I struggle with, when looking at people's fantasy layouts, is seeing perspective that doesn't look right to me.  Although I don't create very many layouts in this style, it is very important to me that the perspective be correct, and each detail look as realistic as possible. Everything in the layout except for Jackson, and the robot was created from photos I've taken of different textures. My challenge is to take these flat photos and shape them into something 'real'.  I wish I had time to do this every day!

*ETA, I wish I had CS5 on my own computer (I have it at work), it would be so cool to have the 3D features so I wouldn't have to create it all by hand!

Isaac's Big Day

                                                      (Click on the layout above for a closer view)

Saturday was a big event in our extended family: my grandnephew Isaac was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and celebrated his eighth birthday surrounded by lots of loving family.  Isaac (Ike) lives in Northern California, but one set of grandparents live in Southern California, along with one Great-grandma, and lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. So, his family and his other set of Grandparents traveled to LA for the baptism and celebration.  It was so much fun to have eleven of my fourteen grandnieces and nephews together, they are my favorite photography subjects. After the baptism at the Wilshire Ward in Los Angeles, we went to a lovely park the Church owns near the Los Angeles Temple. There we enjoyed a feast prepared by my niece Sarah (Ike's Mom) and the kids played and had a great time. Although I tried to get photos of nearly everyone there, I missed a few. But my favorite photos were of the kids.  I think they are all adorable, and VERY photogenic.

                                                    Nikki and Ella

                                                             Aerie

                                                 Ben and Baby Brooke

                                                            Nikki

                                                            Owen

                                                             Zoie

Lucky Shots

 
 I almost always have my camera in my car. Every day on my long commute, I see things that I want to photograph.... some days I have the time to stop and take a picture or two, other days I'm in such a hurry that I miss some great shots that I often regret later. 

The key to getting good shots on the go is keeping your eyes open. If you travel the same route often, or every day, it's anticipating the shot that you might be lucky enough to catch: the school bus stop just as the children are embarking or disembarking. The dog-walker with that cute pug. A certain way the light reflects off the lake, or a building.   On my daily drive, I often stop and shoot the ocean, the surfers, the sunrise or sunset over the coast.  But sometimes something else catches my eye. The other day as I was driving home, (earlier than usual, I might add) I spotted a patch of giant sunflowers planted at a gas station of all places, on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Blvd. in Pacific Palisades. I quickly pulled into the gas station, pulled into the pump area, grabbed my camera, and took a few nice shots of the flowers. Of course, the gas station sign did not make a very attractive backdrop, and the height of the flowers meant that some of the shots facing away from sun, were of the busy traffic along PCH.  But thanks to my telephoto lens, these background annoyances were just a blur, and I was able to take some pretty shots.

The other morning, I was driving downtown early, to go for my early morning workout, when I saw how pretty and ethereal the fields looked in the fog. Certainly my shot wasn't very dramatic, but I like it anyway.

So, moral of the story: be sure you have your camera with you all the time... either your full-size SLR if you have one, or a pocket sized digital, so you can grab those unexpected, or anticipated, photos.