April Edition of Gingerscrapstreet is now available for reading....
Here is the Link
If you haven't checked it out yet, please do!
You will not find an easier online magazine to read than this one!!!!
That being the case,
I can now share my April Magazine Article with you.
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| Scrapbooking is a great way to preserve our memories and great moments from our lives, but the integral part of scrapbooking is the photo. In this story I really wanted to concentrate on being able to capture those great action moments in the lives of our loved ones in a simple manner. There are so many action packed activities that showcase our children’s abilities, whether it’s playing on the slippery slide or hitting a home run, playing basket ball or jumping our ponies, the activities are endless. Not all of us own professional SLR Cameras, and not everyone knows about light, shutter speed and f stops and all that other gadgetry that make photography so confusing for us ordinary folk. So this month I have put the question to fellow Scrapbookers. “How do you capture those awesome action moments of your loved ones?” We aren’t talking highly technical stuff in this story, we are simply showing how everyday scrappers and snap those everyday action moments in our lives.  Fast by Michelle Winston Supplies: Paper: Fancy Pants Designs, Teresa Collins, Chipboard: 2Crafty, Teresa Collins, Alphabet: American Crafts, Die Cuts: Teresa Collins, Elle’s Studio, Journaling Spots: Elle’s Studio, Bling: Kaisercraft, Brads: Crate Paper, Pens: Signo Black Gel Pen, Labels: Dymo, Software: Picasa. Design Notes: I cropped and enhanced the image before printing using Picasa. Journaling: State Multi Nowra.  Game Over by Michele Edwards Supplies: Paper: The Paper Company, Creative Imaginations, Moxxie, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper, Stickers: Jolee’s, Reminisce, Brads: Bazzill Basics, Floss: DMC, Sketch: Allison Favis, Tools: Electronic Cutter: Cricut, Cartridges: Plantin Schoolbook. Design Notes: I cropped and printed the focal picture to 10” x 10” and then trimmed to 6” X 10” carefully cutting around the hockey stick. Journaling: March 2010..... The last game of the season.  Embrace Life by Holly Takatsuka Digital Supplies: Kit: Fall in Love by JM Designs, Kit: Lavender Delight by JM Designs, Vintage Spring Festival by JM Designs, Software: Adobe Photoshop Elements, Fonts: Aquarelle, Pea Ashley. Design Notes: I had some action shots of my kids playing on the beach but wanted to use them apart from that environment for my page. So I used a combination of selection tools in Elements to isolate my children and extract them from the original photos. In order to make the page feel more dimensional, I added some fairly strong and deep drop shadows behind the extractions on my page. Journaling: This is an English translation of a popular Japanese song called Ikite Koso. Mama, what color was the sky on the day I was born? Daddy, how did you feel when I was born? I remember the things you have taught me. I feel your love deep in my soul. Embrace life, live fully. Start now and experience many things. Grow and build relationships. Mama, how did you feel the first time you held me? Daddy, were you happy on the day I was born? Since then life has brought many miracles. I want to find love and grow too. Embrace life, live fully. Let your dreams take you on into forever. Live life to the fullest. Let your roots be deep, wide and strong. Embrace life, live fully. Start now and enjoy life. Grow and build relationships. Live life to the fullest, just live. Grow strong and embrace life. Sung by the artists Kiroro. Most point and shoot cameras and also SLR Cameras have a “sports” setting, this setting is automatically set to take your photos using a fast shutter speed which allows you to capture your actions photos without blurring. Some cameras might even allow continuous shooting in this setting, so you can capture the action frame by frame. This is what Maria has done in her layout “Love Baseball”. She has captured her son at the batting plate and was able to capture frame by frame his batting action. Bonnie and Cheri have a similar way of capturing their action photos on the basketball and volley ball courts. As the arenas are inside and the lighting can sometimes be a bit dark, Bonnie uses a 85 mm Prime Lens on her SLR Camera as this allows her to take close up photos from the sidelines and lets in enough light to keep the focus clear. Bonnie also uses the continuous shooting mode so that she can capture lots of photos knowing that at least one will be perfect! I have found personally, that it is a lot of trial and error with capturing those sporting outdoor photos. I have used both Point & Shoot Camera and an SLR and with both cameras I use the automatic sports setting. There is no guess work in it; you know that as long as you are focused on your subject, you will get a great photo.  Love Baseball by Maria Snell Digital Supplies: Morning Smile by Mandy King (Scrappity-Doo-Dah), Software: PSCS3, Gimp 2.6 Fonts: Scrap Happy, PS Actions: The Pioneer Woman. Design Notes: To capture action shots of my son I use a setting in my camera that allows me to shoot constantly without downtime and without blurring the picture. The resulting pictures are continuous frames of the action. Journaling: 9/19/10.  Rebound by Bonnie Davis Digital Supplies: Good Eye by Libby Weifenbach, Volleyball by Clever Monkey Graphics. Software: Adobe Photoshop CS4, Fonts: Angelina. Design Notes: I extracted the top half of the photo and the basketball to make it look like my son was jumping out of the frame as he reached for the ball. When shooting action pictures, I get the best results in locations with good light. I shoot with a Canon 30D and 85mm prime lens for most of my close up action shots in basketball and volleyball. I use this lens because it is a very fast lens and works well in gyms where the light may not be the best. I have my camera set to take multiple shots so when I focus in and start shooting I can capture the sequence of the action from start to finish, hoping that at least one of those shots will show the peak of action clearly. My goal is to completely stop the motion of the ball, or freeze the ball in mid air. Sometimes this will require me to increase my shutter speed, which might result in the pictures being a little on the dark side. If this occurs, then I just lighten them up in Photoshop after shooting. Journaling: Garrett is a rebounding machine – April 2010.  Spangler by Cheri Spangler Digital Elements: Software: Adobe Photoshop Elements 4, Fonts: Stencil, Frankruehl. Design Notes: The background was done with a gradient and I made the photo into a negative to show her jersey number. I used her face in the upper right corner and just erased around the head shot to remove the background. The three action shots are from separate photos, I used the magic wand tool and then kept adding areas until I had the whole body. I then copied and pasted onto the background. Journaling: South Iredell Vikings, Spangler #8 . Capturing the action during sporting events is one thing, but how do you capture the action of our little people while they are having fun!! Our little ones get up to the most fun playing and splashing and it’s nice to really be able to get down to their level to capture the moment. Barbara has done just that to capture these way too cute photos of her toddler tumbling throughout the house. Once again, Barbara used the “Sport” mode on her camera and got down on the floor to get these wonderful direct photos. Barbara said she took at least 50 photos making sure that she would at least get a couple of clear shots. As I mentioned before, we aren’t talking professional photo shoots in this article where using the right camera settings are guaranteed to get the perfect shot the first time, in this article we are just talking about everyday Mums wanting to get some awesome shots without necessarily knowing all the tricks of the trade. Tricia agrees with this method as we can see in her single layout “Splish Splash”. Tricia got down on the grass laying on her stomach so she could capture the toddlers whizzing down the slide. It captures all the action too at this angle, you can see the pure delight on Tricia’s sons face and you can see that the water has got into her daughter’s eyes and she has the squeezed tight. At a standing angle for this photo, you wouldn’t be able to see their faces, just the tops of their heads. Alexandra says that when she is trying to capture photos of her children playing she always uses sports mode and tries to make sure there is lots of natural light. Alexandra also has some other great tips for us. She says “If my subject is moving around, jumping and sliding, and I know I want the picture focused at a certain place instead of focusing on the child” rather than “following them with my camera I focus on the area and wait for the subject. For example when my kids where sitting on top of the slide I focused on the end of the slide, not them on top of the slide, so when they slid down I didn't have to worry about them being blurry or fuzzy. If you use a sports mode be prepared to have dozens if not hundreds of shots to go through and get rid of. If it isn't worth scrapping don't keep it!”  Tumbling Toddler by Barbara Maranzana Digital Supplies: Kit Just Like Sean by Scrapberry Designs (GingersScraps), Software: Photoshop Elements 6, Fonts: Adler, Rhino Dino. Design Notes: Capturing photos of my active toddler often proves to be difficult, so I take many more photos than I need to because I just never know if “the one” I want will be in focus. For this LO I must have taken at least 50 photos in order to get the right series. It never hurts to take extra shots! I used the “sport” setting on my camera to minimize the blur and got down at his level to catch him in action. Journaling: One night you decided to show us that you knew how to do a somersault. We had no idea you knew how to do these by yourself. What will you show us next?  Splish Splash by Tricia Oren Digital Supplies: Kit: At The Drop-Off by Bella Gypsy, Template: You Made Me Ink by Bella Gypsy, Software: PSE 7.0, Fonts: DJB Print. Design Notes: To get a great shot of the kids on the slip 'n slide, I laid down on the grass in front of them, and took a shot as they went whizzing through the water toward me! The best way to get a great action shot is to get on the same level as the action itself. The photos I took from a standing position weren't nearly as fun! Journaling: 7/10/10.  Splish Splash by Alexandra Martin Digital Supplies: Kit: Make a Splash by Chelle's Creations, Software: Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. Design Notes: Capturing these two photos of my twins didn't take a fancy camera, or detailed camera settings, it only took two crazy kids, patience, and a sports mode. Whenever I am outside with my twins for a "photo shoot", I always try to choose a time of day where the natural light will benefit me, that way I can use a sports mode and not worry about the light in the picture. Also if my subject is moving around, jumping, sliding, etc. and I know I want the picture focused at a certain place instead of focusing on the child and following them with my camera I focus on the area and wait for the subject. EX: When my kids where sitting on top of the slide I focused on the end of the slide, not them on top of the slide, so when they slid down I didn't have to worry about them being blurry or fuzzy. If you use a sports mode be prepared to have dozens if not hundreds of shots to go through and get rid of. If it isn't worth scrapping don't keep it! I personally take lots of action photos. My daughter rides horses and my husband and a son ride motorbikes, so there is always something happening that requires documenting. I have found that when I am taking photos of my boys when they are doing drag races on their motorbikes, I like to use a tripod to keep me steady, and I follow the action. I have my camera set on “Sport” and follow the bike with my camera. That way the foreground of the photo is clear and the background is blurry. The alternative to that is to focus on the background and click when the motorbike passes through the viewfinder. You get a great action shot with a blur, but this isn’t always suitable to scrap. When I am taking photos of my daughter doing horse events, especially jumping, I actually focus on the jump. I set the shot up ahead of time on the jump and focus and then as she is approaching the jump start clicking away. The camera refocuses itself with every shot and I find that this way most of my photos are in focus and clear. I hope you have learned a little something about action photos from this article. We can’t all be professional photographers; although I’m sure like myself you would like to be. Just using trial and error and experimenting with the auto select modes on our cameras, we can get professional type photos ourselves.  The race to 80 by Jodi Dolbel Supplies: Paper: October Afternoon, Alphabets: American Crafts, October Afternoon, Die Cuts: October Afternoon, Brads: Making Memories, Other: Dimensional Magic, Pens: Arline. Tools: Border Punch: Martha Stewart, Software: Photoshop Elements 6. Design Notes: I played with the brightness and contrast on my photos so that the horse and rider really stood apart from the background. As this was a training session, I did the photos leading up to the 80cm heights in the filmstrip. To capture these action shots, I zoomed in with my 200mm lens and auto focused on the jump. When my daughter reached the jump I was ready to go and using auto focus each click re focused automatically to capture a clear shot. Journaling: Didn’t take long at all. 18.4.’10  You+Smile=Football by Julie Stevenson Digital Supplies: Kit Horray for the Home Team by Kathy Winters( GingerScraps), Software: PSE8 Fonts: Pupcat Actions: Little Perk & Bright Eyes by Coffee Shop. Design Notes: This LO was for the Battle of the Creative Teams, I had to follow some rules of what HAD to be on the LO, I love how it turned out. I use my SLR on Sports mode when taking football pictures, they turn out great. I PS I usually run the action “Little Perk” by, Coffee Shop and on the close up I brightened up his eyes a tiny bit with “Eye Bright” by Coffee Shop. They have free actions for PSE. Journaling: I was nervous starting you at 5...but you wanted to be on the team so bad. You love watching your brother play so I knew you were ready. You are so dang cute in your gear! Everything is so big on you. You love it even more than i thought you would. You love hanging with all your “Big football friends” at school. You love wearing your jersey. You even love going to practice and cheering your team on during game time. You love being the only 5 year old that gets to practice with the team. I love you. Watch out world...Tyler is ready to take you on!  Skyhawks Camp by Tracey Monette Digital Supplies: Kit Softball Princess by Tracey Monette Ninth and Bloom. Software: Photoshop CS3 Fonts: Arial. Design Notes: Title was created by adding a stroke to a font. Then yet another stroke was added. With the capabilities in Photoshop I was able to separate my stroke layers from the basic font layer so that I could do a bit of erasing with a grungy brush. Journaling: This summer we tried a Skyhawks Baseball camp. While Taylor had fun, she was the only girl and every day had a new story of the gross the boys at the camp did. Think peeing in public and crushing bugs!!! |
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