Thursday Bummer!

This is what I woke up to last Thursday morning, (taken out of the kitchen window). Pretty yes, but I've had just about as much snow as I can stand at this point. Luckily we left that afternoon for a weekend get-away in San Fransicso with Jeff's siblings and spouses. We had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect!

Tech Talk Tuesday

A picture is much more interesting when you take time to compose the various elements in the picture artistically, which really means pleasing to the eye. Today I'll only mention one thing to consider, the Rule of Thirds. If you were to study photographic composition, this is probably the first thing you would learn. It is almost always more interesting to place the most important part of your picture off center. Imagine an imaginary tic tac toe board superimposed over your viewfinder or LCD screen, (like the one below), and put your subject in one of the 4 intersections where two lines cross.


I wish I had better examples to post, but since the 'crash' I don't have access to my last several years of photos, and I'm too lazy to pull older ones off of CDs or download from the website. So, here is a photo of tulips taken on Easter day, and another of the remains of an old building in Lehi that I passed last week. (I thought it would make an interesting photo, and titled it 'Stairway to Heaven' as a joke.)








As you can see, I've composed both of these photos to be 'off center'. I should have posted the same subjects set in the center. Side by side, I think you would agree that the 'off center' compositions are more appealing to the eye. (All this having been said, remember that at times all photographic rules are meant to be broken. As you think about your composition, there will be times when putting something smack dab in the center makes a stronger statement.) But back to the Rule of Thirds, I've saved the best for last.....

While I was watching the boys yesterday, I snapped a few of Chasey-bug. Even portraits usually look better if you place the eyes somewhere near one of the 'intersections'.

HE IS RISEN!

I just took this image of this morning's beautiful Easter sunrise. Can there be any holiday or message more important to mankind than this one - HE IS RISEN! And we, too, will be raised as well to be reunited with our Savior and our beloved family members. What peace and comfort this gives me to know that in time I will be with my parents and grandson again!

Phriday Phun

HOW OLD IS YOUR BRAIN!!!
This may drive you nuts!!

The instructions in the link below are in Japanese, so read the following English version and then click on the link:

1. Click 'START'
2. Wait for '3, 2, 1, to count down telling you the game will start
3. Memorize all the numbers' positions on the screen, then click the corresponding circles in order from the smallest number to the biggest number.
4. At the end of the game, the computer will tell you the age of your brain.

Mine is so old I could not even figure out how to play the game at first! Then I did it several times. This game must have been designed by someone who wanted everyone to 'feel good' about themselves. Three times my brain was 39, one time it was 37 and one time it was 29!!! Hey, I would have been happy with 50! Have fun, and I'd better have a few people tell me how old their brains are so I can confirm what I've always suspected...my family and friends are exceptionally smart!

http://flashfabrica.com/f_learning/brain/brain.html

P.S. Thanks to my friend Denise for e-mailing this to me.

MONEY and MEMORIES DOWN THE DRAIN - A Hard Lesson!

I keep all my photography on an external hard drive. With so many high resolution photos I don't want to bog down the memory of the computer's internal drives. I usually upload photos from my card reader, sort through them, save the ones I want. Then I copy the originals of important photos to a CD. Then I pull those up in Photoshop, do my post processing work then save the final images on another CD.

Then two summers ago after we got back from Belize I came down with a strange intestinal problem that lasted literally 9 months. I had every test the various doctors could come up with and nothing was found. Finally after about 9 months the symptoms slowly went away. It was at this same time that I had to produce a DVD about the YM/YW trek experience that I can only say was stressful and grueling. After that came the move into the house with all the chaos that brought and then summer and Gavin and Gabe. You know where this is going. I was preoccupied and lazy and just didn't back up my photos during that time. Now, for the past several months my 5-6 year old computer has been acting up. So I decided it was time to get a new computer which I did last week; and then my goal, as soon as it was up and running, was to transfer all my photos to a new external drive attached to my new computer. (Then instead of burning CD's as backup for all the photos I've neglected, I'd just keep safe the old external drive where they were all originally stored.) Talk about bad timing. The day I turned on the old computer to start this process, the computer goes crazy and the hard drive crashes. I'll skip the part about my tantrum, and the bizillion calls to Scott (my son-in-law and computer man), and other support services. Bottom line, I've taken it to a data recovery service. I'm waiting to see what they are able to recover. The good news.....after taking the thing apart, the tech thinks he can save a good share of the data....the bad news is that it will cost me between $500 and $1200. Yes, you read that right, there is no typo!!!!

With digital cameras we are able to take so many photos. It is easy to fill up cards and be lazy about either making hard copies, (printing them out), or procrastinate downloading them to a computer, and/or saving them to a CD. (Cards get lost or compromised, too.) When I read discussions on saving digital files, there still is a question about how long CD's will last, what happens if they get scratched or warped, what happens when the technology changes, (when was the last time you saw or tried to use a floppy disc), let alone how heavy several years of CDs are to store. (I have mine in a rubbermaid container, that I can hardly lift.) Many people save their photos on external hard drives not hooked up to their computer, but that certainly doesn't give me any comfort at this point. People who want to have an extra level of protection can subscribe to one of various websites that specialize in storing photos for you. The website I have www.karenlarsen.smugmug.com is just for that purpose. They claim to have user's data/photos stored on 3 separate servers in 3 separate parts of the country. I've been slowly uploading my photos to this website when I have time, but because I have so many, it takes time to sort thru everything. The real tragedy is that I have left all my family photos until the last to upload, because they are more complicated to sort through, get them in order and decide which folders/multiple folders to save them in. And of course they are/were on the hard drive that crashed.

The bottom line is that all important photos should be printed out, (hard copy), and displayed in an archival type album along with a copy on CD, and stored in a safe place. Something else for you bloggers.....you all have such a treasure of family history in pictures, every day stories, family events, etc. It would be a shame to lose these precious memories. Please find out how to back up your blog and also print out a hard copy. I'm sure there must be a way, but I probably won't get around to figuring that out for now. If anyone knows how, or can find out, please let us know.

Phriday Phun.........

You know how easy it is to get a speeding ticket going through the small towns in southern Utah on the two lane roads? We really try to watch for the signs outside of town that gives a speed limit change. On this last little jaunt we came to the outskirts of Loa, (I think), and I say, "Jeff slow down there's a cop on the side of the road just ahead." Of course Jeff slams on the brakes and we glide by the cop................................







Hey, wait a minute. There was something not quite right there. A block down the road we decide to go back to get a better look..................................



I guess the city budget of Loa is pretty tight! This guy probably doesn't get a very big paycheck, even though he probably is responsible for a lot less speeders going through town.....it worked on us!