Girlfriends, Giving Back, Gardening

OK, this past weekend was full of adventure.  Friday night the Harps had us over for Friday Night BBQ.  Lots of good conversation, sitting by the fire, chillin' with my gal pals while the guys were hanging in the garage (where all guys SHOULD be) and the kids watched TV on the couch.  Saturday was hard to get started after a long night our on Friday, but after donuts, and a mini-nap, I headed to Optimist Field for Trav's baseball game.  GREAT GAME, Trav played pitcher and assisted with a couple outs at first.  This was on top of his single and double base hits - YAY Trav.  He is certainly NOT the best player on the field, but he has the the most heart for the game, and always play with enthusiasm!  He makes me and Steve so proud!  GO METS!

Saturday night, I was honored to attend the Santa Fe Christian Schools annual fund raising event.  Legendary World and I partnered with Sea Dream Yacht Club to offer a couple of cruises for the SFCF Live Auction.  The overall event raised close to $500,000 for SFCS and the Sea Dream Voyages were a hot item which created quite a bidding war!!!  I was pleasently surprised to bump into a few of my clients at the event too, so overall an amazing evening.   Thanks so much to Loraine Dyson for inviting me to the event and to participate!



Sunday was a day of Nascar and gardening.  We planted a Mexican Lime tree, some boysenberries, blackberries, squash, cucumbers and flowers.  Last weekend was the tomatoes and peppers in the back yard.  I bought the pumpkin seeds, but have not started to germinate them yet.  Maybe tonight we'll prep for germination, and they'll be ready to go in the ground in a week or so.  Now I just need to keep the snails and rabbits away.  For some twisted reason, I get the biggest kick out of eating food grown from my own yard.  Come on baby plants - grow, grow, grow!!!

Looking forward to a GREAT week of Baseball (of course!), Bunco, PTA Events, Networking Events - wheeeee..  New Week, Here I Come!!!

Quick & Easy Tips for Better Vacation Photos

From time to time, I am pleased to call on my friends for Guest Blogging.  Today, I have asked my good friends Nikkie and Stephanie from BlueFlair Photography to give us some tips for better vacation photos.  


I must say, Nikkie and Steph are the VERY TALENTED photographers.  I hired them a few months ago to re-do my professional head shots.  They are patient, fun, and were able to make me laugh during the shoot.  I think they captured the real ME in this photo!


There were also selected among hundreds of other local business to shoot all of the photos for "NBC Throws a Wedding on the Prado" last fall. Click HERE for the all the details, and check out the AMAZING work they do!

Now, on to the Tips...

So you've spent months planning the perfect vacation, in the most beautiful setting, and you want to come home without great photos to remember it all.  Unfortunately, too many people return with disappointing vacation photos.  So we've put together a few tips that will dramatically improve the quality of your pictures, so they're every bit as good as you remember! 

Tip #1: The quickest and easiest way to improve your photos is to invest in a polarizer.  These are generally less than $50, and come in a variety of sizes, for a variety of cameras - from point-n-shoots to "fancy" DSLR's.  You'll need to know the size of your lens, or just take your camera with you when you go to purchase.  Polarizers work a little like sunglasses for your lens, by eliminating glare from reflective surfaces, and making the colors rich and saturated.  The polarizer screws onto the lens, and then you rotate it for the desired effect - don't forget to rotate it!  

Tip #2:  Be aware of distractions in the background.  If you're taking a photo of your travel mate near an interesting site, look for distracting signs, trash cans, and other items.  Often, simply moving YOURSELF a couple feet in either direction will give you a great angle without unwanted distractions.  

Tip #3:  Pay attention to the light.  Most people have been taught to stand facing the sun so the full light is on their face.  But what happens?  You get squinty eyes, and dark shadows under the eyes and nose.  If you're in daylight, try having your subject stand with their BACK to the sun.  This can create a nice rim light around their body.  Then the face can be brightened with "fill flash" from your camera's pop-up.  This can be the trickiest skill to master, especially if your camera has limited manual control.  If you're standing too close, and the flash "washes out" your subject, try standing further back.  You want enough light from the flash to brighten, without overdoing it.  Conversely, if your subject's face is still dark, get a little closer.  

If all else fails, we have suitcases, and love to travel! :-)  

- Stefanie Blue

Photographer/Co-Owner of BlueFlair Photography

Thanks Steph for the useful information!!!

Spring Break 2010

Steve had to work, so I decided to take some mother/son alone time, and Travis and I headed to Hidden Shores, Yuma, AZ for the first week of Spring Break.  While en-route, we stopped at Ogilby Rd off of the I-8 to do a little Geocaching, and Travis went deep in the bush to find this well-hidden cache. We ended the week finding over 25 caches.  Some we were able to get to on paved roads, and others required the Jeep or quads and definitely 4WD.   If you don't know what geocaching is, basically, it is an adult treasure hunt, with the fun being in deciphering the clues and actually finding the cache.  There are over a million caches hidden worldwide, each given specific GPS coordinates.  You log on to the website, download the location to your GPS or GPS enables phone, and start searching.  Keep in mind, some of these little buggars are super well hidden or camouflaged.  We spent the week riding the quads, practicing baseball, finding caches, going jeeping, generally hanging out and had a BLAST!  Steve joined us on Thursday and spent the weekend.  On Sunday, we headed to La Quinta to visit Steve's mom and felt the shaking of the big quake.