Archive for December, 2007

Whew, Christmas!!

December 27, 2007 | Animals, Douglas, Family, Holiday, Products, the Uncle

Well, Christmas has been and gone, and we got lots of photo-related gifts in our family. I got my longed-for Canon Digital Rebel, and Santa brought the family a Flip camcorder. Even my husband got into the game — one of the few things he really wanted was a device that attaches to his telescope and uses the PC as the camera engine to take astronomy photos. And my brother, known here as the Uncle, got some items for his new Nikon D40, including a book on how to get the most out of his camera.

So I expect we’ll have lots of things to write about in the coming year. Starting with a report on last Friday’s Hannah Montana concert, which we were lucky enough to attend courtesy of my client HP, one of the sponsors.

Because HP was a sponsor, photography was allowed at the concert, and it was amazing to see so many people clicking away. Our photos are on Flickr.

In the meantime, let me leave you with a video I took with the Flip of my dogs playing with another one of my brother’s gifts, an alarm clock that runs and hides if you attempt to snooze. It was dead easy to upload the video directly to YouTube using the Flip interface.

Tags: Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus, Flip, Scottish Terrier, HP

WhyMommy & give Peas a chance

December 21, 2007 | General, Parent bloggers

cross posted to Marketing Roadmaps

Over the past week or so, a movement took shape on Twitter to support a fellow blogger Susan Reynolds recently diagnosed with a difficult-to-treat form of breast cancer. As a result of a comment she made about using frozen peas to relieve pain in the affected breast, folks started adding images of peas to their Twitter avatars in a show of support. I don’t know Susan, but many friends and acquaintances do, and I truly admire bloggers facing life-threatening diseases who write about their battle in an effort to help others.

So, I decided I would put up a new Twitter avatar. A decision made easier when the Queen of Spain’s talented husband offered to make pea avatars for people, meaning you wouldn’t be subjected to my sketchy graphics skills.

However, I decided I didn’t just want peas. I’ve written before about a courageous woman fighting inflammatory breast cancer, Susan Niebur, also known as WhyMommy, who used her blog and the community of mommy bloggers to spread the word about this rare form of cancer.

I wanted my avatar to honor both Susans.

So today, in their honor and also in memory of friends and family lost to cancer, my Twitter avatar is a pink Y, for WhyMommy, wearing a pea necklace, for Susan Reynolds.

Tags: Susan Reynolds, WhyMommy

It came upon a midnight clear

December 20, 2007 | Holiday

Or something like that. Tomorrow is Hannah and then Saturday we are off to Vermont, but before we left, I thought I’d share a bit of the holiday spirit we’ve been enjoying here at home.

More photos on Flickr.

Holy moly Hannah Montana

December 19, 2007 | Douglas, Family

Friday, I will be escorting three children to see Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana at the DCU Center in Worcester. We got the tickets from my client HP, who is a sponsor of the US Concert Tour.

Douglas doesn’t care that much about Miley/Hannah, but I know he’ll enjoy the concert because he loves music. The two girls we’ve invited to join us, the 11-year-old from across the street and an 8-year-old who Doug has known since daycare four years ago (WOW, time flies) are both a bit more invested.

Call me crazy, but I am really looking forward to spending the evening with the kids.

I know it’s hard to get tickets, but unlike most concerts, the Miley/Hannah tour encourages you to bring your camera, so kids lucky enough to go to the concert should remember to bring their digital camera. We certainly will.

Afterwards, Doug and I will be making MyConcert Memory Books on Disney.com as gifts for his two friends. We’ll be making HP Photo Books, which makes sense given my recent work on the launch campaign, but you can also share the books at Disney.com or purchase a printed one online.

What’s really cool about the Hannah books is that the kids can mash up their own photos with one that Miley takes from the stage at the concert they attended (how cool is that!) plus four- six other pictures of Hannah/Miley from the concert and a whole bunch of general photos from the tour – rehearsals, promo photos and so on. Even if a child doesn’t attend a concert, they might enjoy a book with some of the photos.

An important note: kids should make the book with their parents. Children under 13 logging in alone will be able to make a book with the photos on Disney.com and share it with their friends on Disney, but they won’t be able to add their own photos or comments, or print out the book at home. Plus most kids will go to the concert with their parents, and this is a fun activity for them to do together afterward!

We’ll report more after the concert on Friday!

SLR nOOb, a continuing saga by the Uncle

December 18, 2007 | Equipment, the Uncle

Continuing my story of learning to use my new Nikon D40…. I am still somewhat boggled by the numerous settings possible. I knew I would be, of course, but in ways it turns out even more confusing for me than I had expected. Even the “auto” settings have adjustments that can be made.

But I am actually starting to pick up a few things.

“Metering” for example. This looks at the available lighting and lets the camera choose just how to adjust for differing conditions. MOST of the time, having this set to “matrix” seems to work best, especially in low-light, outdoor shots.

“Center-weighted” takes into account the whole scene but gives the center of the frame more priority, and sometimes gets better results. I am still trying to figure out exactly WHEN this is the case- right now it is hit or miss for me.

“Spot” only looks at light level on just what is the center of focus. I have yet to get better results with this for any pictures yet, although I am sure there ARE circumstances when it will.

Part of my difficulty lies in the fact that I am so deeply OUT of practice with a good camera. So many settings, so few that I really remember what has what effect.

Spot metering MIGHT get the best results for some of the pictures I have taken if I had other settings adjusted differently. However, with the plethora of combinations available for just the AUTO settings, I am trying to isolate just a few to get the hang of at once so spot metering will have to wait.

Right now my main focus…. (sorry for the pun) has been on exposure and speed, and getting decent light levels in my photos. I am having some decent results with this although lately my subject matter has not really been picture-worthy, which is why I am posting none.

Next time!

Happy Holidays

December 14, 2007 | Douglas, Holiday

Next week is shaping up to be pretty crazy — a new client, more bad weather, I’m taking 3 kids to the Hannah Montana concert next Friday and then we’re off to Vermont until the New Year — so let me take this moment to wish you all a Merry Chrismakah and a Happy New Year.

After Christmas, I’ll have a report on the Hannah concert and new photo contest. I’ve got a bunch of 8×11 HP Photo Books, plus extra packs of paper. Stay tuned for details.

I so appreciate everyone who has discovered Snapshot Chronicles. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to more photo fun in the New Year.

Peace.

Winter Wonderland (NOT)

Winter

Last night it took me three hours to get home from Boston. Here are a couple pictures I took from the car around 3 pm. More on Flickr.

Susan & Cash on Greater Boston

December 8, 2007 | Animals

Last Thursday, my puppy Cash and I were on Greater Boston with Emily Rooney. I was there to talk about the Bay Colony Cluster dog shows going on this weekend in Boston. Cash was there to look cute. Watch yourself to see how we did.