Winner of the Giveaway

Isn't this exciting? I'm announcing the winner of the 'Beauty Design Studios' giveaway of a blog design package worth 80 dollars! Sadly, I couldn't enter, boo-hoo. But I will use random.org to get the winner! There were 18 valid comments in all, so here it goes!
The winner of the giveaway, was comment number 17!

It was from 'The Cluttered Thoughts of Ellie B." aka, Ellie. This is what she wrote:
My favorite thing about photography is the art of it. I love how a single photo can tell a whole story.

Congratulations! Email me at maeve.platinumdream@gmail.com, to officially expect your prize! Then I'll refer you to Hannah, where she'll begin the design process to your exact taste!

Photographer's week is nearly at it's end, but it's going really well so far. Hope you enjoy this interview I did with Iona from Life in my Eyes and Through the Lens.

 

{One of Iona's favourite photographs}

Tell us a bit about yourself and your photography: I can't say something like, "I've been into photography for a long time," or "I adapted to photography at a young age." Because I haven't. I got a small camera, ran on a battery, no memory card. Nothing. I was content and didn't even care that when it died, I lost all my photos. I decided to set that one aside and stick with doing videos with my mom's old video camera. Christmas 2009, I got my very first digital point-and-shoot. It wasn't very good quality, mixing with the fact I knew nothing about camera's. When I lost that camera my mom offered up for me to use her DSLR. I used it and thought my under exposed, blurry photos were amazing. I still use my mom's and I'm hoping to get my own DSLR later.I have improved so much since that day, and still improving every step of the way.

What was your proudest photography moment?: When I learned to shoot in manual. I was so happy and now I can take good photos in any shooting conditions. Without flash! It also could have been when I taught myself what all the dials mean.
What things, apart from photography interest YOU? I love art. Definitely art. I started an art joint blog, and the lovely Maeve here is a part of it. http://amateurartistblog.blogspot.com/ I am not very good at art, but just like with my photography, I am definitely getting better.

A couple of your favourite photos:
These are just a few recent ones that I am loving.

 

{side note, aren't her photos absolutely gorgeous?}

Do you have any tips for viewers?:Even though I don't prefer flash, sometimes it's necessary in low light conditions. Flash is also a really good filler for underexposed photos.If you are new to your DSLR or even point and shoot. Consider starting slow. Shoot with flash, in auto. As you progress, try learning what all the buttons do. Read the manual. Or go to iheartfaces.com It's really helpful.


If there was one thing and only one thing you could do to improve your photography (as wonderful as it is!) what would it be?I really want the 50mm lens. I am saving up for it, but it isn't exactly cheap. I also want to start selling prints on etsy.

Photographer's Week: Tips for Editing with Picasa

Hi everyone! I hope you're enjoying Photographer's Week so far! Today, I'm going to show you some tips I figured out about editing with Picasa.
 So, a while ago I was trying to access picasa web albums, but stumbled across the program picasa, which you download onto your computer. I thought it looked interesting enough, so I downloaded it. I ignored it for a good many months, but just a few days ago rediscovered it. I wanted to get an effective black and white photo, so when fiddling with the controls, I came up with a black and white look that really really works!

For this tutorial, I'm borrowing two photos from fix-it-friday on iheartfaces which came up a few weeks ago.

So, I took this photo from iheartfaces as I said before. Now in this tutorial I'm going to make the picture a nice black and white. So the first thing I always do is go onto the 'Tuning' button and raise the highlights feature up a bit.

 

Then, do the same with the 'Shadows' button, but make the setting higher than the 'highlights' one. Don't do anything with the 'fill light' button unless the photo is really really dark!

Then it's time to go to the black and white effect. At first you may not think it's wildly better than just using the black and white effect in the first place, but for me it adds more dimension to the picture.

See, this is what the picture would look like if I had just pressed 'black and white' without tuning it. It's got much less depth, and it doesn't draw you in so well!

I'll also show you the same thing, except this time I'll use a different photo from iheartfaces - just to show you that the effect works universally!

So, here's the original, but it's a little dark. Even though it's dark, we still are going to go through the same process as above.

We change the highlights.

 Then the shadows. You could leave it like that if you wanted, because it's got nice vibrant colours!

 Then black and white-ified. I really do think it's pretty like this! I love the depth <3

 Again, this is what it would look like if I hadn't changed the tuning. I think there's quite a big difference!

Now, I'm going to mess with a bit of colour. (Original photo again)

 It's all well and fine if you're going to just change it to sepia or tint it, but I am a sucker for tuning!

 This time I added fill light as well and went a little more wild with what thing went where.

 I also changed the tone to give her a 'healthy tan', even though she's perfect as is, I thought it would be nice to change tones - not just to give her a 'healthy tan'.

 If you can't read it it says: 'See, it's quite simple. Picasa is an easy editing software, even though it may not give you 'professional' results it's good enough. And no, I was not payed to say this! :)' also, it's free, which is a plus!

I also find it fun to give the photo a 'blown out' effect, again, tuning is key!

I hope you enjoyed these tips :)

Photographer's Week: Interview with Photographer Jeneca

Jeneca is a friend of mine who is really good at photography! I interviewed her a week ago. Here's what she said:

Tell us a bit about yourself and your photography:

 Well, My name is Jeneca, and I enjoy nature photography the best. {You know, getting up close and personal with flowers.}

   I have a Kodak Easyshare M531, and even though my mom thinks I should get a better camera,  I think my camera is good
   enough quality for me. :3 

What was your proudest photography moment?:

 When I randomly took a picture of some lilac after it rained, not excepting any quality, and it turned out to be my BEST photo

   ever. Oh and when I was swinging, the light hit my feet so well... another one of my best photographs. :)

What things, apart from photography interest YOU?

 I am an aspiring writer, a heavy reader, a blogging fanatic, an avid tree climber, a swim-all-day kinda girl, a crocheter,

    and unsuccessful knitter, a person that spends WAY to much time of the computer, but a summery is that I'm a tomboy.

A couple of your favourite photos:

   The foot photo  https://picasaweb.google.com/jenecaz/JenZipPhotography#5601507305734465826

The lilac photo https://picasaweb.google.com/jenecaz/JenZipPhotography#5601739556186074962 

The wild flower https://picasaweb.google.com/jenecaz/ATweenGirlSPencil#5614086101572410290

    The rose flower https://picasaweb.google.com/jenecaz/ATweenGirlSPencil#5613433553029079842

Do you have any tips for viewers?:

 Focus the camera, make sure you have nice lighting and a nice subject. Other than that, no, I have nothing else to say.

If there was one thing and only one thing you could do to improve your photography (as wonderful as it is!) what would it be?

I would LOVE to get a Canon. Like one of the 1,000 dollar ones. Of course, That's not going to happen. Oh course, I can still dream.. ;)

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Well, there's your daily dose of Photography Week! 

Photographer's Week: Interview with Photographer Carolyn

Are you enjoying Photographer's Week so far? I hope so. :)

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 So, today I'll share with you an interview I did of aspiring photographer and friend Carolyn.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your photography:

   Hiya!  My name is Carolyn, and I sometimes go by Carolyn Liac, Caro, Caro-Sauce {Maeve's name for me!}, or Carter {which was my fake name before I could reveal my ACTUAL name}.  I have brown hair, hazel eyes, and glasses.  Photography is a big part in my life, and I never go a day without snapping a photo!

  As for my photography, I love to photograph every day life.  I especially enjoy taking photographs of nature.  I, living in a state where winter hits hard, also love to take pictures around my home, which probably sounds a bit odd.  I just snap pictures of anything I can get my hands on, I guess!

 What was your proudest photography moment?:

   Hmm . . . this one is tough!  I would probably have to say . . . when I took this photograph:

I was just beginning photography, and I bent down on my little dresser where some necklaces lied, tangled in a not together, and snapped this photo.  I didn't notice bokeh at this time, I just cared that there was a focus one place, and it was blurry everywhere else.  Still, I just love this photo, and that was definitely my proudest photography moment.  (:

What things, apart from photography interest YOU?

  Well, I have a long list.  You can tell I love photography {duh}, but besides that I love to dance.  It's really become a huge part of my life!  I also love to read and write, play piano and French horn, travel {when I get the chance, and just around Amerikay!}, and blog.  (:  Nothing too crazy there!  Besides those, my "little every-day hobbies" include smiling, laughing, being happy, and being with friends.  Sorry, that sounded utterly cheesy!

A couple of your favourite photos:

 First of all, the one from above!  Ok, now I'll actually show you some photos:

Do you have any tips for viewers?:

   Hmm . . . I'd have to say . . . bring your camera everywhere.  You don't know when something beautiful will come up, because beauty is everywhere.  Also, don't be afraid to try out some weird things to get a great photo!  I've bent around to get pictures, I've closed an eye and focused to see what it would look like on a screen . . . just keep taking those pictures!

If there was one thing and only one thing you could do to improve your photography (as wonderful as it is!) what would it be?

  Well, I'd like to get a bit of a better camera.  I know that the world's best photographer could have a simple point-and-shoot like me {I have a Canon Powershot A495, and I love it}, and the world's WORST could have a DSLR, but I still think that I could improve with a better camera.  The current camera I want is the Fujifilm Finepix!!  Also, I'd like if my photography would be crisper and have more vibrant colors, but not unreal vibrant, 'ya know?  Lastly, I'd like if I could zoom in REALLY far and get an amazingly crisp photo.  <3  A girl can dream, right?

~

 Thanks so much to Carolyn! I think she deserves a round of applause. She has lovely photos too :)

Photographer's Week : Giveaway

 I had some friends guessing  what the 'big surprise' would be for Photographer's Week would be, but none of them got it. There was a... shall we say amusing response by Ben. 'You're going to find the address of every one of the people who follow you on buzz. Then you're going to send them cheques for $1,000,000.
WOW! You're the best!' Unfortunately, no. 
 But I have the next best thing! A GIVEAWAY! :D 
 The lovely Hannah over at Beauty Design Studios donated a Professional Package which is worth $80! I would call you people, very, very lucky. :) She designed my blog around December, but I'm in the process of moving the fabulous design she did for me over to another blog of mine, which I'll give out more details closer to the time. Anyway, to the fun part!
 Here is what the package contains:

>>website (elegant package)

>>blog (elegant package)

>>custom logo and watermark
>>optional Facebook integration

Pretty sweet, right? Now here is how to enter:

Mandatory Entries

Follow this blog

 

Extra Entries 
Follow the Beauty Design Studios blog
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Follow Beauty Design studios on facebook

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Comment telling me what your favourite thing about photography is

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Blog/Tweet/Facebook about this giveaway {please give me a link if you do :)}

Leave one comment per entry.

This Giveaway will go on until Thursday 23th June 2011 at 11:59PM {GMT}. This Giveaway is going on for 10 days, for the whole duration of photographer's week and the littlest bit beyond! I will announce the winner on Friday the 24th of June :) Good luck!

Confusion over 'Interview with Photographer: Iona' post

 Hello. To quote the fabulous Firefox 'Well... this is embarrassing...' One or two of you are possibly panicking because I had written 'Photographer's week is nearly at it's end, but it's going really well so far.' No. Photographer's week is not even nearly over, it hasn't started. But I was trying to be all cool and on top of things, so I decided that I would make Iona's post scheduled. Funny that I forgot to schedule it. 
 Anyway, I'm sorry for any confusion. Iona's interview will be up on Saturday. But in the meantime, there will be something 'awesometastical' on Monday {it pains me not to tell you right here and now}, followed by a couple of interviews and the rest shall be a surprise!

Sunday.

 It's Sunday. On Sundays I am greeted with fresh bread and scrumptious pan au chocolat from the Jewish Bakery. On Sundays there are five or even six people instead of just us four in the house. On Sundays I can just relax. On Sundays it's just tradition, no new ideas, no nothing. Just our family tradition.
 On Sundays I can make myself comfortable at the desk and work away on essays, blogging or wander off to find a book. Sundays are easy going. Sundays are when we take a break before school or work the next morning.
 This Sunday is a time for new blog designs, this Sunday is a time when I will gladly inform you that 'Photographer's Week' is starting the next day.

Do you like my new blog design? I started on it yesterday or the day before and got it finished this afternoon (:. Do spread the love on photographer's week by clicking on 'grab my buttons' and taking the photographer's week one. It would be much appreciated.