scrapyourday: pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

The twenty-third it is. And that brings us to this month’s photo fact sheet. Just click to download.

This month’s photo emphasis is on awareness behind the lens. It’s a step that I often find neglected when discussing photography, and I think I have finally figured out why. It all comes down to film.

My most formal photography training is not that formal at all—it was a module as part of a high school journalism class. Most of you will remember the days when we all shot on film (and if you don’t remember those days, kindly keep it to yourself, for you are making the rest of us feel much older than we really are) and the feeling with film was that we couldn’t make mistakes. When we pressed the shutter, we were taking a calculated risk, and because we had to pay for film and processing and developing and reprints all as separate costs, we were less likely to try something that was deemed quite risky and even less likely to try something just for the sake of trying. So in that class, we learned how to use a camera in the same way we learned how to develop film and print pictures in the darkroom: through regimented technique. We had posters to help us remember the things we needed to check before we started shooting: did we have the right film for the place we were photographing and was the camera set to the ISO of the film you have loaded? Had we checked the light meter from several angles and had we metered with a neutral shade? Had we composed the shot with a sales factor in mind—meaning if we were shooting a school sports event, you would much rather see our fans in the background that lots of supporters of the other team. The curriculum was regimented with two lessons each on things like aperture and exposure, and when they finally set us loose with cameras and film, we had a checklist in our camera bag to help make sure we didn’t take an entire roll of nothing. Because we could shoot three rolls at the homecoming game on a Friday night, develop the film in Monday’s class and show up on Tuesday to find that the roll with nothing on it? That was our evidence of the homecoming game. Great.

And so many things have changed since so many of us went to digital cameras for day to day use. We take risks now. We shoot things just to see what happens. We can stop worrying and flip a few dials and see if we like the results…because we can see straight away and change as we go. And that’s not even getting started with the fact that we can change the ISO on every picture if we really want to, when some of us remember the horrible feeling of a day that started so sunny you loaded a 36-roll of 200ISO only to find that the biggest, thickest cloud in the history of the world had then descended over you and there was nothing you could do but turn the flash on and hope for the best, because you had to take thirty-six whole pictures before you could use a different kind of film.

But a lot of books out there are (quite rightly) still based on shooting film. And there is a point where it does become important to know lots of regimented, technical stuff if you want to move on with your photography. But the girls I meet at crops and through this blog often tell me the technical stuff isn’t helping them right now…they just want to take one step up in their snapshots. And Scrap your Day is about snapshots. We’re not posing every element of life for a finely-tuned portrait. So instead of starting with technical stuff, we’re started with awareness. Because with a digital camera, it costs you nothing to walk around your house taking a picture of a cup of coffee on every different surface you can find. But when you put them on the computer screen and look at them side by side, you can find where the best light is in your house. And then suddenly you’ll know where to take the picture of the crafty thing you made or the amazing dessert you’re about to eat or the painting brought home from primary school.

And on Sunday, you just might want to use that to your advantage with some elements of your day.

Of course, we still have ten more photo fact sheets to come, so I reserve the right to say something that sounds remotely technical at some point between now and next March! But not today.

Scrap your Day links & schedule:
About this project
Sign up for reminders
Getting Ready
Photo Fact Sheet #01
April Album Prompt
Photo Fact Sheet #02
May Album Prompt: coming Sunday (25th May)
Our Flickr group
UKScrappers discussion thread

xlovesx

Comment [7]

I really meant it when I said there was no way you could feel behind until the 24th of the next month with this project. Take pictures on the 25th of the month, then you have an entire page of the calendar to tick off before the next photo day, so I just needed to find a bit of time between those magic 25s to scrap my own pages, take some pictures and have a gander at the web to see all the others this month.

I pretty much stuck to my sketch for April’s entry, and ended up including thirteen photos plus two 4×6 journaling cards attached to the back of two photos that flip up, attached with Making Memories fabric tape. I did swap one photo for the word ‘April’ as things just fit nicely that way. I am loving these letter stickers and just may use them throughout the project, as they come in a massive pack and there seems to be plenty to spell out all the months, though I will probably be stuck for zeros with all the 2008 and 2009 labels, but that can always change each month.

Another thing I am already planning to change each month is the little bit of extra embellishment. I’m not using much on top of the photos + preassembled background pages, but there is just a little. Right now, my plan is to pick something each month that is an embellishment I am using a great deal in other scrapping projects. Right now I using Circus Stories stamps and Prima flowers on page after page, so putting them to use here is not only easy but it documents that bit of personal trend. Of course, I will need to have a new favourite embellishment each month for this to happen…so we’ll see how that goes! (By the way, all Banana Frog stamps are 15% off this week along with a bunch of other stuff, so if you were dithering or fancy a bargain, now’s the time.)

And now, time to click around the interwebs to see what everyone else did on the 25th of April!
Cameron
Willow
Flower
Lainey
Jackie
Aimee
Kristy
Sarah
Jen
Mary
Lily

Plus you can see more here at our Flickr group, and UKS members can see even more pages here in the UKScrappers class gallery.

Coming soon: a post all about the album covers, so if you’ve made yours and posted it somewhere, do tell me so I can include you!

xlovesx

Comment [13]

Alarm clock shot sorted. Now just everything else to keep up with the snapping.

You can download this month’s album prompt if you fancy.

A little word about the scrapbook tape mentioned in the prompt—I didn’t mean to cause confusion with so many tapes around! Essentially, you’re looking for anything that is sticky on one side and not on the other. So not double-sided tape. But something decorative. Heidi Swapp decorative tapes. Clear tapes from Prima/Iron Orchid. Fabric tape from Making Memories. Adhesive-backed fabric paper from Love, Elsie. Even border stickers do the trick.

If you don’t have those lingering in your stash, don’t worry about buying them. You can do exactly the same thing by cutting strips of patterned paper, folding them in half and adding adhesive to one side of the paper, both sides of the fold. Attach one side of the fold to the photo, the other side of the fold to the paper and it all works.

Never fear—I will post some pictures tomorrow to help illustrate.

But otherwise—snap away and scrap away!

xlovesx

Comment [33]

This photo is absolutely rotten by pretty much every standard. And yet I love it. Hurrah for pictures like that. They make me very happy.

It also makes me happy when we finally have a little springtime sunshine. Yesterday was so warm that the entirety of this city had to get outside and make sure it was real. Days like this are not unlike All Summer in a Day, for as I write this it is steadily pouring outside my window. But that is just to make me extra glad that I spent yesterday outside, walking around and finding new places. Why did I not know that there is one street in Soho with about a zillion fabric stores? There is! And apparently it is where costumers for film, theatre and fashion come to do their shopping, as every shop was filled to the brim with people looking for fabric appropriate for gowns for ‘London Hair Fashion Week’, costumes for a new production of La Cage aux Folles at some unnamed location and the elements for making something to be worn by Eva Green. This was the lady ahead of me at the cutting table, who turned to me and asked me to hold a piece of fabric so she could see how it looked with the ‘right colour hair’. So apparently I have Eva Green-coloured hair. Who knew? See, mystery abounds.

Fabric also abounds there and I am so happy to say I now have enough fabric to make all three bridesmaids’ dresses and so far I am still within my budget! It turns out it is useful to visit all of these little aladdin’s caves of fabric, as I found the fabric I wanted at the second shop, but at a price that would have put me over budget on dress one, let alone getting to dress two and dress three. I took a swatch and kept looking. Four shops later I found the same fabric for a fraction of the price, right inside the front door. I am also thinking it’s a good sign when not one but several people ask you on your way to the cutting table if you’re going to need all of what’s on that bolt, as they would like some too. Sadly, they would only have been able to make a minidress with what was left. There is, of course, another bolt down the road for much more! All part of the mystery and discovery.

Today I have discovered a mystery in my home that will make you laugh. We had a visitor from the gas board coming to do annual checks on the boiler and such, and our boiler is in the kitchen. I show him the cupboard and he proceeds to remove a section of wall beneath the cupboard! As in, it just lifts away. An entire section of the tiled wall in our kitchen is attached to absolutely nothing, and merely keeps all the ugliness of a million cords, valves and cables that seem to go to and from the boiler out of sight (and also collects a great deal of dust, seeing as I never knew it was there). Upon seeing him lift the wall away I was astounded that we had such a secret compartment. Why, there could have been people hiding in there and I would have never known! To which the man replied, ‘Well ma’am, they would have to be some very small people.’

I didn’t tell him that I was thinking spiders were more likely and that frankly, I would rather find very small people behind a section of wall than very large spiders. Because I only admit things like that to you, not to people who visit to check on appliances. Obviously.

And I tell you these little everyday interludes because they all lead into the project that is coming up this Friday! Click here to download this month’s Photo Fact Sheet, to get ready for photographing your day this Friday. (There are more details about this project here.) I do hope you’ll join us. And perhaps snap a few photos that are rotten by pretty much every standard, and yet make you very happy indeed.

xlovesx

Comment [14]

Starting this Friday, the 25th of April, our masterplan is to photograph the day in full, then document that day in a scrapbook. And the same on the 25th of May, the 25th of June and so on…for an entire year. By then, we will have captured an entire year of life as we live it, with the changes, celebrations and obstacles that come our way. I would love for you to join us.

Each month there will be two prompts posted here and on UKScrappers—a photo fact sheet and an album prompt. All the materials for this project are free and you can download them at anytime.

Today, you can download a file to help you get ready by building the background pages of your album using papers from your stash. Just click here to download.

The photo fact sheet will be posted here on Wednesday—so spread the word and see you then!

xlovesx

Comment [70]