scrapbooking/photography for those interested

For those of you that asked about scrapbooking...
I use lumapix fotofusion the scrapbook edition for most things. $39.95. I have certainly gotten my moneys worth. I sometimes open photoshop elements 5 if I really want to do a page that is more complicated, but for the most part right now I just don't have the time to learn anything harder than fotofusion. Its very user friendly and a good place to start without getting frustrated and to see if you like scrapbooking. I decorate the blog with it; too... IT can also make collages. Auto or make one yourself.
If you go to the site you can watch a few tutorials and download it and try it out free. If you get stuck, feel free to email me, my email is on my profiile. I shop at sweet shoppe designs or shabby princess for papers and elements. My friend Pixel Fairy Princess recently started sharing a lot of scrapgirls, she is on the scrapgirl design team and her work is beautiful. I will just warn you though that a lot of the techniques in the gallery are done by photoshop scrappers and a little more complicated. You can go to the gallery at sweet shoppe and with fotofusion you can do most of the things you see. By looking at both places you can see if you would rather try to learn a more sophisticated program like photoshop or keep it simple with a program like lumapix. I personally think lumapix fotofusion is a great affordable beginner tool to see if you will enjoy scrapping before attempting to learn a more challenging program.

I feel very inadequate to share any photography tips! I appreciate all of your super kind comments so much. I have never taken any classes, Only read and studied here and there on the web to learn. There are many bloggers more qualified to share tips!:) I have a canon rebel and right now for the past 4 months or so all images you see have been taken with a sigma 30 1.4 lens. I am never happy with my images if I use a zoom lens so I just prefer to have a prime. I suppose if I spent a large amount of $$$$ to buy a nice zoom it would be different. I have a canon 28-135mmf/3.5-5.6 IS but have not fell in love with many of the images I have gotten with it, I have a canon 50 1.4 love it, just a little tight sometimes on a rebel which is known also as a crop camera so after reading forums I went with the sigma 30 1.4 and fell in love with it. Its been just what I needed for my style. I just follow around for the most part and shoot candid's. If I take 200 photos I usually throw away at least 75-100, I am always snapping looking for the perfect shot of the day.
I personally have not learned manual mode yet. I am learning AV mode which is what Chris from Sophie's World told me they use for most photos. I fell in love with their images and that is why I bought the rebel. I also follow Pixel Fairy Princess's blog who is one of the best photographers I know, and I follow Julia's blog. Looking at their blogs and many others (some of yours!;)) keep me inspired to continue to improve.
Any way with AV mode you choose your aperture or your f stop and your ISO, the camera chooses the shutter speed. Here is a link that explains it way better than I could. This is a great photography course you can take a week at a time, on your own ,at home and practice away!
http://is.twopeasinabucket.com/photocourse/weeks1to6.pdf the first couple deal with the way I take photos... in AV mode. You can do it !:) it won't take you much time at all to read the first two lessons and practice away. It really helps you to understand your lens and what gives you that blurred look behind your subject how to get it etc...
Here is a link to 7-12 they are separate and you will have to click on each one individually when ready. . http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/cg_display.asp?g=2&seed_id=26134
If anyone ever wants to ask me anything feel free to email me.

Updated to add: Some ask how do I post larger pics than blogger will post: I use flickr.com. I dowload to flickr, then click on the photo I want to blog, I click all sizes next, then medium, then copy the code at the bottom of the page into my post. Flickr also has a great editing tool picnic that you can add borders and add edit your photos. You just click edit photo. I use picasa most of the time but sometimes use picnic. They are both great tools... sometimes it can just take a tad longer with picnic.

I give most of the credit of good images to my lens. I love my 50 and my 30 and thats what most of the pics on the blog have been taken with. Oh and to the Treasures themselves;)
They happen to be kind of cute, I think;)

Finishing up from Saturday fun ...




















I have no idea what the seriousness is about!