Tuesday's Top 5

I am totally DIGGING the color yellow right now. Like, you show me something yellow and I HAVE to have it. It started when we were in Oslo this summer and I picked up these CUTE yellow coat hooks (which don't look like coat hooks at all, but that's not the point). I had big plans for redoing our basement/my office using the yellow coat hooks for inspiration. That hasn't happened yet, but my yellow obsession continues. (By the way, I think the yellow trend generally started back with Michelle Obama's inaugural dress in 2009, and we're about to get going on a new presidential election cycle, so you would think it would have passed by now, but I'm still all over the yellow and I don't think I'm the only one). What does this have to do with Tuesday's Top 5 anyway? Well how about...

The Top 5 Reasons to Dig the Color Yellow

5. Yellow is happy. Sunshine, warmth, smiley faces, lemonade. Yellow is such a happy color.

4. Yellow is a primary color. That means, of course, that given at least one other primary color, you can combine the two to make something else. How clever of you, yellow.

3. Yellow goes with everything. Grey, brown, black, tan, green, red. Yellow is tip top on the versatile scale.

2. Yellow is seasonless. Bright crisp yellow for summer, full warm yellow for fall, gold for winter, muted soft yellow for spring. It's an all year kind of color.

1. Almost no one looks good in yellow. Okay, you would think this would be a reason NOT to dig yellow, but really it's a good thing. If you can find the exact one shade of yellow that looks perfect on you, it will be a total statement piece because NO ONE else will be able to pull it off. (By the way, I'm still looking).

Have you found your yellow?

Tuesday's Top 5

(What?!?! Tuesday's Top 5 is back? Hooray! Hooray!)

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on its way! And you know what that means? The Great Peep Off of 2011 is underway! What is the Great Peep Off of 2011? Among other things, it is the successor to the Great Peep Off of 2010, but it is also a silly little (ahem...fierce) competition between fellow photographers and anyone else who wants to join in to come up with the best photo using that classic and totally nasty Easter candy called Peeps.

In honor of the Great Peep Off, and because Peeps are really really really gross and should never actually be eaten, I thought I'd suggest some alternative uses for Easter's most disgusting candy:

5. Target Practice. Seriously, you want to learn the art of dart blowing but don't want to shoot them at your husband, child, walls, or dog? Peeps would seem to be the perfect target. Squishy with that extra but of stickiness to keep the dart in place after it's come in for a landing.

4. Packaging Material. Sending an Easter basket to the grandkids? Consider throwing a ziploc bag full of Peeps in with the basket to act as a bit of cushion. Drawback: Grandkids may eat the Peeps and thence become "Peep people." Shudder.

3. Adhesive. I can personally attest to the fact that Peeps will stick to anything and everything once you get past that outer layer of sugar. What's that you say? Your corporate presentation is starting in 5 minutes and you've lost your trusty easel? Grab a few chicks and stick your charts straight to the wall. Probably best to leave a fiver on the conference table for the cleaning crew, though.

2. Payback. I'm not condoning this one. Just putting it out there in the interest of full and fair reporting. Given their 100 % sugar content, 1000 % sticky residue, and the 10,000,000 sugar crystals that fall off when you even look at a single Peep, Peeps just may be the perfect payback. So let's say your kid came home from little Suzy's house last time with a mud-stained shirt, lacking a clump of hair, and sporting a few new four-letter words. What can you do? How about sending little Suzy home with a secret baggie full of Peeps next time she comes over to play. Again, I'm not condoning this choice. I'm just saying.

1. Enter the Great Peep Off of 2011. You probably saw this one coming. But really, the Peep Off is open to all. So grab some Peeps and your camera (try not to handle Peeps and camera at the same time. See #3) and get creative. I promise you it's a much better use of your time (and calories) than eating them.

See more Peep entries and enter your today at the Great Peep Off of 2011

Slice of Life @ Iheartfaces

Over at I Heart Faces this week the theme is "Slice of Life," as in, a slice of real life. This is one of those themes that is really for anyone and everyone because who doesn't have their own special brand of life to share and celebrate?

I was all set to enter an old picture of Max sitting in his toy cabinet (see it HERE), but today I happened to have the camera out (taking pictures of our cat after I'd realized that I took TWO pictures of him in all of 2010-shame on me) when my husband snuck up right behind Max and surprised him out of his Mickey-Mouse-Clubhouse-Is-The-Only-Thing-In-The-World-Stupor (it's a real medical disorder, look it up). I took about ten super fast clicks and this was the last frame.

I love my life.

More great entries over at I Heart Faces. Head on over and get your own dose of real life!

Welcome to the World, Luke

It has been way WAY too long since I last blogged, so I better make up for it with a super cute baby, right? Well, okay, you talked me into it!

Meet Luke. This little eight-day old was just teeny tiny and had the nicest skin and feathery light hair. There was a serious precious factor going on. Throw some bunny ears on him and the sweetness level goes through the roof. There are more of Luke over on the KSP Facebook Page, too!

p.s. Luke, let your Mama get some sleep!

Tuesday's Top 5

Sorry, no Tuesday's Top 5 this week as my little guy is sick and I'm feeling tired. But here's a picture full of color to brighten your Tuesday. Don't you just love colorful things?

Fireworks & Such

I tried my hand at some fireworks photos while we were at the Magic Kingdom. Here are my two favorites. I think the first one looks like pixie dust being sprinkled on the castle.

For photogs, my camera was tripod-mounted using a 2-second timer (use a remote if you've got it, though) and my settings were ss 3, f/10, ISO 200





Also thought I'd share some snaps from the Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom. We had great seats so I was able to get up close & personal with just my 28-75mm. Settings were ss 1/320, f/2.8, ISO 2500.

Up, Up and Away

Sorry for the lack of blog posts but we have been away. By means of a 737 (and not a bunch of balloons) we flew to Florida to celebrate my son's third birthday at the happiest place on earth. What a blast! I won't bore you with the family snapshots (although, if you're interested I'll post them on Maxaroni (and Cheese)) later today, but while we were there I took the boy out to Disney's Boardwalk to toy with an idea for his birthday pictures.

As these things tend to go, my idea did not work out exactly as I had planned, but I am still IN LOVE with this first picture, and my back up plan saved the day for the rest. I am having dreams of a canvas wall over my fireplace now....

And in case you're wondering how I got so lucky to have the Boardwalk all to myself, the truth is, I didn't. That is one of the kinks that got thrown in my grand plan. There were a lot of people there! I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me before. In my head, Max and I were leisurely taking pictures on an empty Boardwalk filled with late afternoon sun, with blue sky stretching out beyond him. In reality, the Boardwalk is curved, so the blue sky was hidden behind buildings, and there were people everywhere.

Here's a secret. The first picture is doctored. I used three different pictures to make it appear that there was no one else around. Check out the original below (you can also see what it looks like straight out of the camera without the vintage processing), and the final edit again. Pretty cool, right?

I'm not saying photoshop should fix everything. Ideally, you can get the shot without having to doctor it later, but in this case, I'm glad I was able to save this one with a little digital magic!

I'll be back soon with a few more disney shots. Fireworks! Oooh! Aaaah!