Capture Your Life

C'mon summer

Spring is barely peeking its head out here in Utah. We've experienced an unusually damp spring, which is great for the water levels, but not for spring/summer activities. We're all trying to be patient (NOT an Anderson trait), but it's sometimes frustrating.

A few weeks ago, the weekend forecast called for highs in the 70s, so we jumped at the chance to take our first boat out for the first time. It was amazing! This shot below was taken at Pineview Reservoir--a local spot that isn't too far from our house.

Ellie giggled and giggled and kept asking her dad to go faster. She is my daredevil!

Kailee on the other hand didn't like being out of control. She was a bit skeptical about being out on the water. Once she got used to it though, it was smooth sailing--or shall I say, speeding.

 

Rhett's a natural--you can tell he spent his childhood boating.

*LOVE* this image of Josh. This smile tells it all: it doesn't get better than this!

And this big kid? Well, he was daring enough to get out into the lake and try waterskiing for the first time. (Let me just say that I had to get in the water to load the boat onto the trailer, and it was NOT a pleasant temperature. This kid is brave! Way to go, Zack!)

   

Zack almost got up the second attempt, but his lips were turning blue. I told him that we'd try later. Can't believe he turns 13 next week. Happy birthday big kid!

And finally, yes, you'll all be proud of me . . . I handed off the camera to Josh (photographer-in-the-making) and asked him to snap a photo of me on the boat. I must say that I didn't let him keep it long, because the bumpy water had me fearing he'd drop the camera. Something I'll work on. :) He framed the shot pretty well, don't you think?!

Here's my weekend challenge to you. Hand over the camera! You know who you are, and it's okay that you love taking pictures. But if you don't hand over the camera, how will you show your kids that you were actually there and had a great time? Just do it!

Have a wonderful memorial day weekend!

Lori

Enjoying the little things

Now starts the insanely busy, ever-crazy time in our family schedule: baseball and soccer season. I'm trying to enjoy the little things and cherish every moment of this craziness . . . for in a few years, my four kids will all be off with friends and I'll be trying to figure out what to do with my spare time. But right now, 6 baseball games a week + 3 soccer games a week + 8 practices a week is enough to drive a woman mad!

This is a series of photos I took of my son, Zack. First tournament of the year, first at-bat. And what did he deliver? A homerun! Although his team didn't have the best tournament, he did pretty well.

I love springtime!

Creating photo packages at home

I have lots of friends who are amazing photographers. Some are dabblers, while others have massive lenses they cart to our kids baseball games (you know who you are!). It's lots of fun to see the people I care for enjoy the hobby I love so much--even if I do occasionally get lens envy.

Some of my friends print to our local lab, others have the lab deliver prints to their home (must be nice!), and a few friends swear by Costco for their printing needs.

Me? I print lots of my photos at home on my trusty Epson printer. I don't have fancy schmancy printers at home, so for the "big stuff" I send it out, but when I need to print photos for my scrapbook pages or for relatives quickly, my home printer works just fine.

I've been busy at work preparing a few video tutorials on how to print photo packages at home. Hopefully the readers of the magazine will see how easy it is to create packages at home and save themselves some gas money by not having to run back and forth to Walgreens.

The two tutorials I created show you how to print multiple photos onto one sheet of photo paper using Photoshop Elements 8 or Picasa. Check them out if you've been wanting to learn how to get lots of photos to print quickly but weren't quite sure how to get started. It's super-easy and super-fast!

Our favorite getaway: St. George Utah

One of our family's favorite getaway spots is St. George, Utah. When I was a kid, my family would head south for a week filled with swimming, golfing and fun. Now that I have my own family, it's a special place for us, too. There's just something about the red rock, the green grass, the blue skies, and especially the low-key pace we all feel when we go there. Who wouldn't love this?

My father-in-law, Andy, loved this place. A few weeks ago, Rhett, Zack and I went down to help my wonderful mother-in-law, Joyce, go through some of Andy's things. It was an emotionally difficult weekend at times, but it was also filled with sunshine, memories and the feeling of Andy all around us.

Zack came along because he wanted to see grandma, and he wanted to help out. It helped him with his grieving, as you can see from this photo:

Grandma Joyce gave him some of grandpa's things, and Zack wore them all day long. Andy was about 6' 4" tall, and Zack just hit 5'. The clothes may not fit, but Zack wanted to wear them to feel close to his grandpa. So sweet! Driving grandpa's cart through the neighborhood was an added bonus. Don't you love the fuzzy dice? We gave them to Andy as a gift for his last birthday. Joyce told me that his friends joked with him about having them in the cart and he proudly said, "Hey, my grandkids gave me those!"

We were able to watch a little baseball and got to go to the art festival in Kayenta , which was a nice way to break up the weekend. It's such a beautiful place!

I'm so excited we're headed back with the whole family in a few weeks. Zack's team plays in a big tournament every year there, and it truly feels like our official kick-off to spring.

To give you an idea about how much my kids love this place, check out this layout I created for the November 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes. They're full of smiles, and you can just feel how relaxing it is. This place is truly the best!

Photo Editing: Lighten up

(That's my cute son, Zack. Isn't he handsome?)

I'm getting ready to head out of town for my first ever CKC event in Portland. I'm super excited to meet lots of people who share the same passions I do (photography, scrapbooking, socializing)! Before I head out the door, I just wanted to share a super-quick photo editing trick I use to brighten up my photos in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

First, the before and after:

 

And now, the steps:

1. Open your photo. Duplicate the photo layer two times.
2. On the middle layer, change the blending mode to screen.
3. On the top layer, change the blending mode to soft light.
4. Move the top layer (soft light layer) opacity level down to 5%.
5. Move the middle layer opacity (screen layer) level down to your liking.
6. Move the top layer (soft light layer) opacity level up from 5% to your liking.

NO need to purchase fancy actions for this one.

If you aren't too familiar with Photoshop or Elements, and want more details, leave me a comment and I can give you more detailed instructions :)

It's an invasion

Take a deep breath. Here we go again.

This happens on a weekly basis at our house . . . just as we get the house cleaned up on the weekend and I finish up the laundry, something ruins the calm.

Because I don't have a monster-large laundry room, I 'm a fold-as-I-go type of person--folding and placing pieces in the closest basket. (Yay, me for folding right away!) Then comes the fun task of sorting all of those clothes into piles for each person in our family so they can put their respective "pile" away.

6 people+dirty clothes=lots of laundry!

My cute mother-in-law, Joyce, once told me, "You must be doing laundry every day!" Close to being 100% true. I'm doing laundry A LOT 'round these parts.

It almost looks like my dryer threw-up folded clothes all over my living room, doesn't it? It's a definite invasion of some sorts. (At least they come clean, folded and "in peace!")

You know what the funny part is about all of this? I don't really mind doing laundry. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. And once it's done, it's done for the week. Now, cleaning bathrooms on the other hand? NOT a favorite!

Photography resolutions

Each year, people make New Year's resolutions, and by the end of January they've thrown those resolutions out the door. Are you one of them? I'm not the type of person who approaches each year with grand schemes in my mind to overhaul something, but I do try to look at the year as a fresh start. Last year, I wanted to take more pictures. And I did. But I could have taken more. So, I'll continue on that path and try my best to capture my everyday just a bit more.

The other day, I ran across a link on This Week in Photography showing"10 New Years Resolutions Every Photographer Should Make." These 10 resolutions really got me thinking. You know what I noticed to be the common theme among these 10 things? You have to be confident in what you are doing! You have to be confident to know your camera. You have to be confident to step away from shooting on auto. You have to be confident to share your photos online and be willing to accept critiques. And you know what? The confidence doesn't just jump onto your lap and say, "Here I am!" To be more confident in your photography, you have to practice!

So, take these 10 resolutions and squash them into one and what do you get? One resolution:

I WILL PRACTICE SHOOTING WHENEVER I CAN TO BECOME MORE CONFIDENT IN MY SKILLS

Remember, the only way you get better at taking photos is to take photos! (And yes, that does mean that someday you have to believe in yourself enough to stop shooting in auto.) Take macro shots of the stuff on your counters. Head outside and capture the sunset or your flowers. Or grab your kids, place them next to a window, and start shooting. Sure, they'll get sick of being your guinea pigs, but tell them that you can't cook dinner for them until you take a few photos. Works like a charm!

You can get better. And with practice, you will!

Inspired by

Have you ever found yourself in a bit of a funk, and you're determined to snap out of it? That's where I'm at right now. The weather here in Utah has been bleh to say it kindly . . . smog, polution, fog, you name the icky characteristic, and we've got it. That weather does bad things for my mood.

 

Today the sun snapped out from behind the clouds, thanks to a bit of snow. And you know what? I realized that seeing the sunshine is a huge inspiration for me! I was smiling all day. I wanted to create something. I wanted to organize and turn up some great music!

 

Along with sunshine, these are a few things that are inspiring me lately. It seems that red is a theme this month:

 

Don't you just love this wreath? I'm not usually a go-gaga-over-valentines-decor type of person, but seeing this wreath by SimplyDelightful just might help me change my mind. She made it out of 100 wool felt rosettes. Brilliant!

Seeing these stripey straws from Jack and Lulu really takes me back. Wouldn't it be fun to make rootbeer floats or shakes with the kids and use these paper straws from our childhoods?

Check out this room of the day from the Material Girls Blog. When I saw it I thought to myself:

1. I want to go create a layout right now that is mostly white with bits of red sprinkled around. This room is so crisp and cool!
2. If only I could afford a room like that!
3. Yeah, right. Kids play in a white room, wear white clothes, and keep it neat and tidy like this one!

*Love* the piping of red on the ceiling. Soooo awesome!

What's inspiring you lately? Share a link with me--I'm always looking for inspiration (especially during this bleh time of year!)

A tribute to Andy

Where to begin? This week has been a blur for our family, because on Sunday afternoon we received devastating news that Rhett's dad, Andy, had suddenly passed away.

 

Never in a million years did we expect this call, and to say Andy's passing took us by surprise is an understatement. Andy is our patriarch, mentor, and a giant among men. He believed in being honest, hard-working and always doing your best. There aren't many people like Andy around, and it breaks my heart to realize that our kids will have to grow up without such a wonderful, wise grandfather.

I've found peace (and tears) this week as I've gone through the many photos and prepared the video for the funeral. Here are a few of my favorites.

Kailee and Andy

One of my favorites of Zack with Andy at the ballpark

Andy taking Zack and Josh out on their first boat ride

Ellie and grandpa last year

I can still hear his voice--the low calm tone on the other end of the phone saying, "Hi, Lori." when I answered--and I hope I never forget what it sounds like. I'll miss his big hugs, and I'll miss our conversations at the dinner table when he visited, but most of all I'll miss grandpa Andy. I know my kids will too.

As I type this at 2:30 am on the morning of his funeral (after watching the video multiple times and filling up buckets with tears), I hope he knows how much we loved him. Because I know that Rhett and I will remind our kids every day how much he loved them. We love you, Andy. Until we meet again.

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year!

So, what did you do on New Years' Eve? Us? We kicked off the night by making homemade pizzas (a first for us, and I must say that it was messy and fun, but I think that takeout is much easier and not as big of a pain to clean up).

*the second pizza turned out much ROUNDER than our first attempt! (this is the second)*

Two intense games of Scrabble followed.

*lucky for you, I didn't take a photo where the word poop was played*

The highlight of the night for the kids happened as we were watching the ball drop in Times Square . . . Dick Clark was counting down the ball drop, and the kids realized that he flubbed up a few of the numbers. Did you notice it? After they rewound and replayed it on the DVR about 12, 10, 11, 10 uh 9 times, I think I've got it memorized!

Here's to wishing you an amazing 2010! I'm looking forward to it!