piqulette blog

blizzard 2009!

December 23, 2009 Inspiration, Photography 6 comments

This past weekend I was snowed in! I didn’t take advantage of the time to catch up on posting, or to get some extra work done. I took the time to be lazy and hang out with my husband. It was perfect Saturday we woke up early to a couple inches on the ground, and fell back asleep. When I woke up a few hours later, it was more than a couple inches, and it wasn’t stopping anytime soon. It kept snowing until early Sunday morning. Our official Philadelphia total was 23.2″! Since Pomeranians were bred down from sled dogs, Trouble was loving it. She cannot wait to get outside and run around anytime it is snowing. It was a bit deep for her this time around, but she still enjoyed it. And of course, I had to play with the Lensbaby Fisheye Opti since it is my newest toy And my favorite images were once the snow had stopped and the sky was that perfect post-blizzard blue Enjoy!

album design – island escapes

December 10, 2009 Album Design 2 comments

Seriously – is it Thursday already? We just returned last night from almost a week in San Diego, and I want a do-over. We had perfect weather the day of our arrival. Walked about 8 miles through the city exploring a bit, and from there…..cold wet cold. It was beautiful there while it was snowing in Philadelphia, so I can’t complain too much, but I was expecting to be in skirts and sunshine everyday.

Oh well…..

Alas, I am back in cold dreary Philadelphia, so I needed an album that would give me a bit of a pick up. Something bright and sunny. And not to mention…..Gorgeous! I love this book’s layout. Maybe someday I will post the entire thing, since I can’t get enough of it…but for now, rather than bog down your internet….here are some of my favorite spreads!

SSP_MR_L02 SSP_MR_L03 SSP_MR_L04 SSP_MR_L05 SSP_MR_L12 SSP_MR_L13 SSP_MR_L14

All photos by Stephanie Sherwood Photography.

And don’t forget!!!! ÂRight now is Cans For Comments! So leave some love on this post and a bunch others while you’re at it! Thank you in advance!

lensbaby soft focus starring chocolat

December 7, 2009 For Photographers, Inspiration, Photography 8 comments

This is not my official review of the Soft Focus Optic for the Lensbaby, but we had fun playing with it last night. One of my favorite places so far on this trip to San Diego has been Chocolat, a creperie and gelato stop. It also features the greatest chai I may have ever had. And it can’t hurt that I can get a glass of wine with my delicious savory crepe! Stop # 1 was for salads for lunch. Stop #2 was savory crepes for dinner and a gelato for dessert. Stop #3 will be a sweet crepe. They are gigantic and far too big to have both a dinner and dessert crepe in one sitting.

Anyway – back to the Lensbaby! No pictures of food, but they have a gorgeous chandelier in Chocolat, and the wall is white marble with a pattern of little squares of textured glass. I love it! The soft focus optic adds that perfect glowing skin that we all want to images or a magical glow to anything else. Think “glamour shot” without all the extra Photoshop work. The softness, however is even throughout the entire image, so keep that in mind. I really enjoyed shooting lights with the soft optic. The multiple openings in the apertures create a floral bokeh, which I thought was perfect for the lighting. And when you flash right into someone’s glasses, the effects are hilarious (to me at least) So here are some of my favorites from last night! Just a fun little post, but plenty more to come later!

chocolat_sandiego

Don’t forget! Right now is Cans For Comments! So Comment here, comment there, comment EVERYWHERE!

cans for comments

December 3, 2009 For Photographers, Inspiration 11 comments

I originally stumbled upon the cans for comments concept when they requested to follow me on Twitter. Â I read through their description quickly one morning, hit accept, and went on my merry way. Â My scan through the description didn’t actually process anything through my brain at that early hour one day except “not spam”. Â A few days later, I clicked on someone’s blog post on Twitter. Â Emily Porter‘s to be exact. Â I read through the post and I loved it. Â Maybe it just takes more than 140 characters for me to realize awesomeness. Â I love the idea! Â Emily could not have been more right….when you are dealing with all your daily tasks and keeping so busy, especially this time f year, a comment in your inbox for your blog is a ray of sunshine. Â For me, it lets me know that there are people out there that see what I am working on, and take a minute to appreciate it. Read more

fish eyes are not for eating

November 30, 2009 For Photographers 2 comments

Originally posted at My Latest Distraction (entertainment blog) by me, but I thought it might be something nice to share with my photography audience as well!

One of my many distractions over the years has been photography. Â And not just in a professional manner, but before that. Â I liked to take pictures. Â Didn’t matter what the camera was, or how the image actually turned out, I liked to take pictures. Â A few years ago I purchased my first Digital SLR camera. Â The most exciting thing to me about this was the idea of being able to use different lenses. Â For the first year I owned it, I had the two lenses that came with it. Â Then I bought a used 50mm. Â Meaningless to many of you I am sure (not meaningless to my Piqulette readers, so you can imagine my excitement!). Â But anyway….

Last Winter, while at a photography convention for work, I discovered the coolest toy on earth for my camera. Â TheÂ LENSBABY. Â No, seriously, this little contraption it great! Â There was previously a fad in photography ofÂ Tilt-Shift Lenses. Â That is not what a Lensbaby is. Â And thank goodness, because that sounds complicated and hard to use. Â The Lensbaby is more of just a tilt lens. Â What the best part was, not only could I make images have an entirely different look, it had swappable optics and accessories to transform a standard lens into aÂ macro, aÂ wide angle, aÂ zoom, aÂ holga (plastic lens), or aÂ pinhole. Â The pinhole was one of the most fascinating to me since I had loved making my own pinhole cameras out of oatmeal containers and making prints in my photography class in college. Â I had looked up how to make a pinhole cover for my camera at one point but chickened out. Â The Lensbaby was truly my all in one solution for my new photography toy. Â It was able to give me everything I wanted…..for the time being.

Over the past 9 months, the company introduced new toys to go along with my Lensbaby. Â I had known a few of them were a possibility, so I was excited on each launch day, but waited patiently. Â Today, a Lensbaby package came in the mail. Â My awesome husband purchased all of the new toys for me as a birthday gift. Â There are 4 new accessories for my Lensbaby and we have 4 days until we leave for San Diego. Â So we will experiment with one new toy a day.

Tonight, the first, and the biggest…..the fisheye lens. Â This is an optic for the Lensbaby that is really the entire lens itself and then clicks into the shell that attaches to the camera. Â I have wanted a fisheye for a long time, and what better way to have one than to pair it with my Lensbaby. Â Not only is it WAY more affordable, it is smaller, and I can do a bit more with it (tilt your “sweet spot”). Â The only downside is that everything with the Lensbaby is manual focus, and since I can’t focus anything….my whole life is a blur Â But alas, I love it! Â And now, when we get the focus right, we can take arms-length shots of us with the Lensbaby! Â Cannot wait to explore San Diego with my new toy.