Wedding Gallery

Having more and more fun with editing. Ofcourse. For real real bad pictures there's not much *I* can do. Pro's maybe, but I'm just barely learning. And I like playing around with actions - by looking them up in the history or if youre even more ambitious, toggle the dialoguethingie on so you can see exactly every little adjustment and how it is done and even change them along the way to adjust them to your own pictures and at the same time learn more. It's somewhat boring though if you have a buncha pictures to edit so usually it's better off off & just readjust in the history in the end kinda before merging the layers. :p
(and yeah - the optimal would be to have the correct/desired exposure when shooting pics but often sometimes it'll be off when youre using manual settings & following your kids in&out the shadows in a sunny day..like this..)

Anyways.

Original picture, taken in the shadows:

Alright - adjusting curves only (did I mention how much I like how Adobe boosted this tool in CS3?). And some unsharp mask. Ignoring the somewhat overexposed area at the upper part of the picture (which could be fixed *if* I wanted to by using two layers of the same pic and adjusting the curves of one layer and then using the eraser with say, half opacity and erasing the dark part of the dark layer then merging both part kinda I think but that'll be too much hazzle and I'm getting a headache thinking about it already ;p) Besides. I like overexposed pictures. Have I mentioned? When taking pictures I usually overexpose them one or two steps intentionally. Sure yell at me, tell me it's wrong, it's not textbook blah blah blah but it's MY pictures so nyah!

Alright. Now that I'm happy about the picture it's about time to use an action to add a lil piazzah to it. In this case I wanted it more vivid and bright. (ofcourse..just dupe the layer and put it to hard layer or something else and adjust the opacity and eventually do another layer in screenmode but I often find I like the subtle and more pro hands of the actions much better for now)
So. This is what I kinda got when running it with minimal (none I think) individual adjustments. Too vivid and IMO somewhat fake.

So after some adjustments of the layers and even removal of some this is what I ended up with. Yeah. Me like.

Paige was a great subject for my lens. She slept almost her entire session. This is a peaceful shot of her dreaming in my studio.

Oprah and HPV
Wow. So I was watching Oprah and todays theme was about HPV and the new vaccine they've found against it. You know, the virus that's the cause of genitial warts and more importantly, cervical cancer at women. Now, this woman - a doc - claims that uhm, 80? or maybe it was as many as 90% of us would get in touch with this virus sooner or later - but that for the most of us - like 95% I believe - could deal with this virus. 5% of those 90% who got in touch with this virus however wouldn't be able to deal with it tho, and for a much less percentage of those again - it could be the beginning of cervical cancer. Now, this vaccine however, was quite effective - especially if given to young women who yet hadn't had any sexual contact and thus most likely wouldn't have the HPV-virus in their body already. Hence - the docs recommandation was that it should be given to girls aged 10-11 to make sure the vaccine really was at its most effective.

Ok? Follow me? Most of us grownups have this virus already, and for the majority of us it doesn't do any harm at all. For the very few unlucky ones though it's the cause of cervical cancer. And it can all be prevented with this vaccine - especially if taken early enough.

Now. Time for questions from the audience - and I kinda expected the questions to be about the price, about the possible and maybe unknown longterm sideeffects and so on. Nope. Most of the questions was about the fact that the mothers didn't want to give them to their young daughters because it could make them believe they were allowed to have sex. To them, giving this vaccine to their daughters was as if they were telling them yeah go wild now girl.

Hm. Excuse me?
Let's put on a blindfold and pretend the little ones have no idea about sex and sexual contact and stuff. Let's ignore the fact that the vaccine will be less effective if we wait a few more years until we *think* our children are ready to have sex (when will that ever be??). I mean, if they don't know the names of things, it means they aren't able do it. Right?

Well duh. The whole point of giving them the vaccine this young was simply to make sure they did get it when they supposedly were safe. To do your best as a parent and make sure the chance they would suffer (and even die!) from cervical cancer later in their life was as little as possible. Personally, I'd be more concerned about the unkown late-stage effects and stuff - seeing as this vaccine still is somewhat new. But no. It's all about sex and not giving out the wrong signals to your children. My fault. Stupid me.

Ps. I didn't get to watch the whole program - as it was time to cook dinner and stuff. So I only caught the four first questions from the audience. Which yeah, was about that.

TV shows
Personally I've never cared much about TVshows about hospitals and stuff (but Scrubs). But. This one. House M.D. Such a must-watch. Love Hugh Laurie - he's so brilliant and totally perfect as House. All the little facial expresses and the bodylanguage of his...brilliant. Just wrapped up watching the last season, hopefully we'll watch The Shield season 6 soon (although...season 5 was kinda weak compared to the earlier seasons kinda).

No post without picture..
...so here's one of Amalie. Here she spotted Adrian coming towards us.

Ps. Don't forget the RAK :)

Ahh.
Alt det en skal bekymre seg for. Så på Operah der de snakket om HPV-vaksinen - den mot livmorhalskreft som skal være ganske så effektiv - forutsatt at jentene som får denne vaksinen får den før de debuterer seksuelt. Den funker på oss gamle også - men jo eldre jo mindre effektiv er den. Livmorhalskreft er den andre mest vanlige krefttypen blant jenter altså, og viruset ganske så utbredt at de aller fleste av oss faktisk har det viruset i kroppen - men det er kun hos et fåtall der viruset utvikler seg til å bli kreft.

Anyways. Da det var på tide med publikumsspørsmål så ventet jeg nesten å få se spørsmål sånn som "hva er sideeffektene" "hva er prisen" og "hva med langsiktige konsekvenser" og sånne greier - men neida -- alle spørsmålene (vel, de fire første jeg fikk med meg før jeg måtte lage middag) var om at damene var redde for at de, ved å gi denne vaksinen til sine ti-elleveåringer dermed signaliserte til de at "jada nå kan du bare gå og ha sex altså, for nå er du trygg". Hallo...?? Og dette var hovedgrunnen til at de var svært skeptiske til denne vaksinen....?? Riiight. No comments ellerno. *rulle med øynene*

Jaja. Ikke glem RAK'en ! :)

First came..
Love? This weeks dare at the Effer blog was about love at first sight. Now. The whole "love at first sight" thing is a bit of a cliche and stuff and I blush and get embarrassed when it comes to such sugarysweetiesweetiepiestuff. I'm not used to talk about such stuff I guess. Anyways. Figured I'd do an attempt on documenting the our story. Me and Simen. How it all started. At least how we met.

Our story
I knew who he was - in the game. Final Realms MUD that is. You know, way back then when the internet was still young and people used modems (14.4k was the hottest thing - but I even had a 6400baud one for a while in the beginning. Boy those phonebills sure was fun then!) and most of the people you met on the net usually was a student having access from their college or university or a real nerd owning their own modem from home. When Powertech was the biggest Inetprovider in Oslo and you could always find it's founders on IRC. MUD was ..well, mostly a student thing I guess. A textbased multiusergame. Hm. Getting carried away here. Right. I kinda knew who he was before I met him but as I was dating someone I wasn't really interested so it was like more yeah I know what character he plays. Moved to a new city & shared a flat with another gamer, invited a bunch of gamers to our moveinparty, and once he entered the party then yes, I did notice him and yes, I did become interested. Things was a bit swanky because of the aforementioned dating of mine and Simen leaving to study in England (which meant we only got like two months being 100% together before he left for his first year), but we quickly realized we needed to stick together and have been so ever since. Pretty much :p You know. A LDR ain't that bad when both have their minds set at it. Anyways..fast forward nine years later, in our second house, our second car, a marriage and two kids.... I guess you could call that love at first sight. Except I didn't know that back then..I just knew that this was one damn cute guy and that I really, really wanted to know him better. :p

Your turn. And a RAK.
Now. I have a set of brand new Making Memories foamstamps - LOVE here (see picture above). Want it? Share your story - either about how you met your significant other or the best memory of yours when it comes to love and relationships. I'd love to know! :) Share your story and I'll do a random drawing by the end of the week - sometime this sunday. I'm curious and a sucker for cute (and not so cute) stories ;)

More photoshop lovin'
Ooh the possibilities! Alright, I've been to the Adobe site before and occassionally snapped a tip or two there, but now that I've got a whole new program I'm really trying to make the best of it - hence me hogging the site. Look at this little teaser about the wonders it can do (more easily) these days. Interesting - although ofc I assume the pictures they use in that vid are like, perfect match to what they're showing off. Will need to find some uhm, real life pictures and put the program to test!

Oh yes!
Min tur å ha en liten RAK på bloggen min! ;)
LO'en her ble laget til Dare #69 - "love at first sight". Måtte liksom lage en LO om Simen jeg da, og det var vel litt sånn på høy tid å dokumentere hvordan vi først møttes. Kan hende ungene vil vite og vi da er demente eller noe sånt på den tiden...liksom.. da er det greit å bare vise de LO'en. Tror jeg. Anyways. Tenkte denne MM foamstampspakka med LOVE theme passet til denne RAK'en - skriv en kommentar her og fortell om hvordan du møtte din kjære eller en søt historie mht kjæreste eller familie. Det må ikke være en søt historie heller. Bare skriv noe som har med kjærlighet å gjøre! :) Dere har til slutten av uken - i løpet av søndag kveld trekker jeg den heldige vinneren av stempelsettet :)

Happiness
Oh yes!
Happiness is a new software. How nerdy isn't that! But right now; oh so true!
In this case. Photoshop CS3. Yay! And a number of other programs aswell, like InDesign. Cool! (well *cough* I don't know the rest of the programs). Only missing Lightroom - if it's working like I think it does then I have BIG plans for my photos and stuff. Only if it'll do what I think it'll do (did someone say read the reviews/manuals?).

And I'm so happy my fave actions are working perfectly well with it (well why shouldnt they?). And I absolutely adore the cool boost to Curves - v. neat graphic and I just discovered the presets - I can't recall if they were there in CS2, I guess they must have been but I've always had them at customs and I must say it's so cool and so easy to customize the presets too! (okay, bet they were there in CS2 but too lazy to check now and hey...looking for new feats made me discover them so they're new to me at least!)

And theres the cool (to me useless but cool nevertheless) stuff like counting and ruling. I don't know if they were available in CS2 but they're at least been brought up to the daylight now in CS3. Sometime when I'm more awake and have more time I'll go explore the Adobe site some more and check out the tips and reviews about CS3 and what's new and stuff - they got a number of nice and cool guides, like this how to make sure the colors stays supreme when printing out and stuff. And to learn more about CS ofc - I tend to stick to what I briefly know works and not bother messing around too much.

Go Cecilie!
Anyways. A number of you probably know by now that Cecilie is designing her own digital kits & stuff at Papirloftet. I bought her Grungy Frames and Borders and boy it's so cool! Here's a few samples along with some pictures I edited in CS3 trying to see how things worked etc. And to check that my actions still worked. Yay! :) Way to go Cecilie! :) The frames are gorgeous and totally cool and only 20NOK (3.40$)!

Sharing the wealth (and luck)
Alright. I've been very very lucky lately, winning some SB-stuff here and there. It makes me so happy! But! It would make me even more happy if I was able to pass on this happiness to others. Well, at least one person. I'll let you know more tomorrow (later today). If I'm able to finish this project that kinda goes with this little RAK by then. Next post most likely though. Promise!

Ahh!
Akkurat nå er jeg bare sååå veldig nerdy; jeg er happy fordi jeg har fått meg Photoshop CS3. Weee! Synd jeg er litt veldig trøtt akkurat nå (og har en syk og whiny Amalie som må taes vare på imorgen tidlig), ellers hadde jeg vel sittet oppe hele natta og bare redigert og testet og sånn :D Førsteinntrykket er iallefall kjempebra - veldig behagelig å bruke og jeg er happy for at ting & tang funker i den :) Nå er vel neste steg å virkelig lære seg mer om photoshop da...eller noe sånt.....*cough* :)

Hm.
Looks like I kinda made the Pencil Lines DT. (o.O)
I'm amazed. Kinda stunned. Definately surprised. Pleasantly surprised if I may add. Reeeeeally pleasantly surprised :D I had known about the DT-call for a while, but hadn't thought about entering until some days before the deadline..then I thought..hm why not have a look at the sketch and see if it's manageable. And then I sent in some layouts along the mail. When I read at their website that they had 166 applicants I was like, yeah right, no way. So I didn't understand much when Gyda sent me an SMS when I was at the summerhouse with a congratulation about the DT position. "Uh?" I replied. Ka-ching!

Wrapping up challenges
Trying to wrap up some challenges and stuff. I was challenged by Smultringunn to lift Karla Dudleys cool "Happiness before breakfast". Ended up with a much more simple version - "Gjøgleri". I'm a simple girl ;p LOVED her LO though - so cool and sassy.

The other layout - "shrimps" - is to the "pick me up" challenge at Papirprat.no - yes - I totally copycat'ed the scrapologie-thingie cause it was so cool ;) This challenge was - something brown, buttons, two hearts in diff shapes, three papermanufacturers and rubons. I really adore that picture of Adrian - it's pretty cute and I love his fascination for all things small and wiggly and squirmly (like most kids his age). I like going back to the romantic style once in a while. LOVE the green flower - it was in the superb RAK I got from Carol Wingert. I won a 7gypsies book (intriguing one I must add) plus a LOT of 7g stash - wow - thank you SO much Carol! Anyways...feels like something's missing in thay layout but I'm not quite sure *what*. Suggestions are welcome!

One more week..
..and we'll be invaded by swedes! No really! Well, there will be like four or six swedes heading over this way and two of them will stay at our house for like two weeks. Cool! Most of them have been here already - for the New Year Party - and amazingly enough they wanna experience little Askøy once again. (I could figure more exciting places to visit but hey I'm not complaining! :D). Anyways. It's fun to make new friends through the games we play (which for the moment being is WoW). Just as fun as it is making new friends through this hobby (scrapbooking that is :p) :)

And finally..
we got a fan! A fan in our ceiling! I gotta admit I think the fan is a ..uh... well, not really my taste lookwise...but it feels sooo good that I'm just gonna let that slide! Yeah baby! Bring on the heat! We also fixed the international driving license - we're gonna rent a car in Prague this summer - and apparently need this. Like 400nok for a proof of something we already have which is valid for one year only. Yay. Need to go abroad and rent more cars this year to utilize the costs!

Det har visst skjedd en del i løpet av helgen....som feks det at jeg plutselig havnet hos Pencil Lines DT. Pencil Lines er en skisseutfordringsblog med nye skisser hver uke. Vi nye (ja - vi er fire nye i teamet der) debuterer om en fire-fem uker. Yay! Spennende greier! :D

Ellers har jeg prøvd å rekke over en del utfordringer (som vanlig) - en personlig en jeg fikk fra Smultringen om å lifte Karla Dudley og en til "min egen" utfordring på Papirprat. Digger det bildet av Adrian - har scrappet det to ganger nå, en gang sammen med noen andre bilder og nå alene. Det han holder er reker - reker han har fanget på kaia på hytta vår. Han digger rekene. Tar de opp og "kjæler" med de og sier "hopp! hopp!" og hurra'er når de hopper tilbake til bøtta si ;) Hm. Dette burde jeg scrappe (teksten på LO'en er mer generic). Kanskje bildet skal få bli scrappet en tredje gang, haha.

Woke up this morning from Amalie bugging me, ran off to the hospital for a postop-check (265nok just for the doc to have a look and say Im fine - all done in 2mins :P) went home and was supposed to chill when I checked Minneriket and found this challenge from Kathrine for me only:

1. The shape of the LO must be non-square
2. Paint
3. Buttons
4. Ribbons
5. Brads
6. Eyelets
7. Have to be about something funny
8. Vivid colors
9. Include something digi
10. Butterfly
11. Something white
12. Thrifting
13. Chipboard
14. Sewing
15. Rubons
16. Frames
17. Plastic
18. Fabric
19. Different fonts
20. Handwriting
21. Tape
22. Have fun while making the layout

....and I'm liek, wtf I can't cuss and complain when making this layout?!?!? ;)
Needless to say I'm ...uhm...stunned...for one... but I'm such a GOOD sport so I'll so take that one. Sounds like fun no - the *real* challenge being to make it look GOOD and not chaotic. Hm. Quite a test. Ohwell - I've got two other layouts and a card to complete before I can hit this challenge. But I will do it! Really! And oh Kathrine? Uhm. Not sure what I've done to you to deserve this but. Thanks. I guess. ;D

I do have experience with such criterias - I recently did a lil challenge at Scrapologie and came up with this layout which I really adore atm (okok, I usually adore 80% of my recent LO's so that like, doesn't count for nothin kinda) That challenge? SO MUCH EASIER than Kathrines ;p

1. Fibre
2. Epoxy stickers
3. Buttons
4. Chipboard (but not alphas)
5. Flower but only ONE!

AND a word: "now"

Cool eh? :) Ohwell. Have a wonderful summer solstice everybody! Wish you lots of sun and fun! (oo that rhymed...I'm a poet!!)


Ooookay! Gjett hva som møtte meg imorges på Minneriket da. *faint* (snille...?) Kathrine tenkte det var på tide med en utfordring til meg. Yessir. Sjekk ut den lista da...

1. LOen skal ha et ikke-firkanta format
2. Maling
3. Knapper
4. Bånd
5. Brads
6. Eyelets
7. Handle om noe morsomt
8. Ha sterke farger
9. Digitale innslag
10. Sommerfugl
11. Noe hvitt
12. Ikke-scrappeprodukt skal være representert
13. Chipboard
14. Søm
15. Rubons
16. Ramme
17. Plast
18. Stoff
19. Flere fonter
20. Håndskrift
21. Tape
22. Du må ha det gøy når du lager den

Ehhhh ookay? *faint* *thud* *mia* Neida - synes den faktisk så ganske så artig ut og selve utfordringen blir jo å få dette til å se noenlunde stilig ut og da og ikke bare kaotisk...! Me fer sjå! Har nå et kort og to LO'er jeg må få unnagjort først bare!! Ønsker dere ellers en riktig god St.Hans med fint vær og hyggelig samkvem!

PS! Lyst på en lignende utfordring selv? Sjekk ut Bruk Meg Utfordringen jeg la ut på Papirprat - fristen er den 8. juli og det trekkes ut en liten overraskelse fra Papirloftet blant alle som prøver seg! :)

This little cutie pie has grown up behind my lens. What started as a baby shower gift turned into a priceless collection of images for the Gilles family. Here Gabe is laughing it up at Doty Park in Neenah. The Gilles' stopped by on the way to Milwaukee for a fly by photo session in the park. We were fortunate to have a beautiful day and a happy baby. To see more of this session see my photo stream on Flickr by clicking on the photo.

Surfin' around I stumbled upon this cool site: Shootsac - a site devoted to some kind of camerabag..or well, a bag for your lenses - so that you can have "3-6 lenses and other shooting accessories safely and conveniently at your fingertips." Now, I don't have that many lenses or a real need to drag the two I've got all around with me all the time or anything, but I totally fell in love with this superchic one: Baroque ....the B&W one displayed in the header or the Jessica Claire one w/pink&mustard....jeje....one can dream no :) The maker of the bags, Jessica Claire, is one superb photographer - you just have to admire her work at her blog here (am fairly sure I've linked to her before - check out her site for the ubercool collection of locks and stuff. Totally stealin' that idea!).

Not much else to share atm - a layout I did for the M-finale and two cute pictures of Amalie - she just got her very first pink sunglasses and totally loved it - hogged it all the way in the store & rest of the day. The next day she put it in one of the drawers in the kitchen and it's been there since. Ohwell. At least we know where it is when we'll need it =)

Ps. Did I mention? I fancy 6x12! :)
And oh. Sometimes I wonder if I should try start spending more time at each LO made. Maybe I'll learn to love them more. Maybe they'll be so much better qualitywise. Maybe I'll be able to find and add that little extra to every one of them. It's like, I'm going from LO to LO so fast at times that I feel like I'm not giving each LO the proper ...uh...respect or honor or acknowledgement or whatever...but then again - I'm weird cause...it's just LO's...?? Does the time spent on each LO measure how good or fine or whatever they are.....boggle...sometimes it does, sometimes it doesnt.......or?? Hm. Jeje. I've got funny thoughts sometimes I know...

Ikke så mye å fortelle, men her kommer det en post lell ;p
LO'en her lagde jeg egentlig til ALi E's 20-utfordring - og så så jeg at den passet bedre til M-finalen enn den LO'en jeg egentlig hadde laget til den - der var inspirasjonen veeeeldig tynn :p Havna vel på en 8. plass ellerno, men det var som ventet - LO'ene mine var litt rare og i beste fall average så - og det er helt greit. Scrappingen min går litt i bølger, og avogtil er jeg litt rar (sier noen iallefall *fnis*) - i perioder scrapper jeg masse og er passelig fornøyd og så plutselig sitter jeg og lurer - burde jeg ikke bruke litt mer tid på hver enkelt layout?? "Respekterer" jeg ikke LO'ene tilstrekkelig når jeg bare fyker fra LO til LO liksom?? Burde jeg lagt litt mer omtanke hos den enkelte LO....kanskje LO'ene ville blitt mye bedre og finere og penere bare jeg bruker litt mer tid på de....hmm..... (ja, jeg sa jeg er litt rar avogtil som tenker sånn :p) ...men egentlig lar jeg LO'ene ligge her lenge da....et par timer mellom hver gang jeg gjør noe på de liksom (sånn innimellom alt det andre) - så det drar litt ut sånn pr LO da liksom...hmm... jaja. Obsessed much og definitivt rar :)

Follow this image for more frames from my most recent wedding. I had a great time photographing Leslie and Mark's wedding on Saturday. This was my first wedding as a second shooter in this "photojournalistic" style of shooting. I worked two cameras at a time, shot over 1,300 frames, twisted one ankle and got some great shots.

Amalie sure loves her bigbro. She gets concerned when we leave him behind, like yesterday - we were visiting their cousins and as his aunt had a new house we tagged along aswell to check it out....so when we left without him she was like..."aian?? aian! aian??" ...lucky us she's easily bribed cheered up with icecream. I dunno how good that was tbh cause that in return caused us more cleaning up. She's one messy little girl when eating ;)

Anyways. Alonetime with the girlie? All the more work imo. Jeje :) Anyways. She was sitting in the livingroom watching Cartoon Network when Simen said "time to fetch Adrian" (the visit turned into a sleepover) she perked up, beamed and danced around singing "Aian aian aian" :) Obviously she was looking forward to see him again and wanted to join. Adrian's also quite taken with his sister - he borrowed my old camera yesterday and guess what he was taking photos of...yep...Amalie only :P One of them turned out pretty nice - this one.

Oh have I told? I love this little info I recently aquired at SIStv:
Before doing anything to your photo, adjust the sharpness by using Unsharp Mask and putting the values to 20, 60, 0 . Nice! Worked pretty with my pictures so far. Although -- I've read that *all* kind of sharpening needs to be done in the end - that is - when you've done all adjustments to the picture and is about ready to print/showcase it on the net. This tip however says to do it first before other adjustments. I dunno.

Hm right. The layouts....the first has pictures from the photosession with Ellen and Dinna. Yay. It was made after a pencillines sketch, and the other kinda so too..just not as recognizeable :p The pictures on the second one are from a recent trip to our summerhouse - and they turned out to be the kind of pictures (& memories) I'll prob go "ahh those were the days" in a few years - thus the title....even though it's like, recent pictures :)

Hihi er ikke Adrian fliiink? Han fikk låne det gamle kameraet mitt og digget det - alle bildene (og filmsnuttene) han tok var av Amalie....:D Amalie er ganske så glad i Adrian hun og - Adrian har overnattet hos fetterne og da Simen snakket om å hente ham idag så lyste hun opp og danset og sang "Aian Aian Aian" - og skulle selvfølgelig være med og hente ham.

Forresten, snappet opp et tips fra SIStv ang bilder - bruk Unsharp Mask verdiene 20, 60, 0 :) There ya go! :)

Haha. Yes, I'm in a good mood today. Even though my throat is sore and my ribs ache some I'm in a good mood. I just made my very first set of brushes you see! I snapped a thread about wings on SIStv, but the links provided there didn't have any real nice *angelic* wings....but lucky me swedish Lucy emailed me a picture of one and suggested I'd turn them into brushes. Hmm why not? I had stumbled upon a turtorial a few days prior, and bookmarked it for later use. Funny :) It was much easier than I thought so well, why not share the love? So. With permission by Lucy (who actually made the wing herself. Woah!) Here's the angelbrushes for Photoshop. And here's one for GIMP too! I'm sure there's plenty of similar brushes out there but I'm too lazy to look. And it's something fun about my very own ones ;p (well, technically Lucys but ;) ) I checked and they work in both CS2 and Elements 5.0 at least. You better use the preset sizes, making them bigger/smaller may cause them to be a bit blurry and stuff - hence I made 4 diff sizes - I assume it'll look much better resized if I vectorized them but I'm not quite sure how that works (and I guess I might need illustrator for that which I currently don't have) so blah blah blah.

Ohwell! A layout! I can't help but being inspired by One Little Word. So fun to play along! And I'm slightly in love with 6x12 atm..this is my third layout and second just yesterday soooo.....

Have a nice weekend y'all :)

EDIT: Added a GIMP version for Kathrine & a bigger sized brush to the PS-pack aswell along with a proper readme.txt file crediting the extremely kind and talentful Lucy :)

Haha. Takket være Lucy på SIStv fikk jeg tak i et fint engelvingebilde og hun foreslo at jeg kunne gjøre de om til brushes for lettere bruk på bilder mm. Så da måtte jeg prøve da og fikk lyst til å dele resultatet med dere. Om det er lov. Jeg antar det. Siifra om ikke mht copyright og greier....disse brushene funker for CS2 og Elements 5.0, for det har jeg sjekka så det så =) De kommer i tre forskjellige str og hvis du prøver å gjøre de større/mindre så vær obs på at de da blir littegranne blurry - så det er best å bruke en av de presetstr. Her finner du iallefall vingene zippet for PS og her for GIMP :) Enjoy!

Why do we always crave for better things.....things we cannot get right now?? At least me....all of a sudden I'm hit by a kinda depression...I want this....Nikkor 18-200mm.....why, you already do have a Sigma 18-200mm you might ask (the old one, not the new one with OS :( ). Yeah well. That I do. But ever since I got my beloved Nikkor 50mm f/1.4.....I realized how much lenses actually do for your pictures.....and I want more! This Nikkor 18-200mm does start at the same f/3.5 but ends at f/5.6 instead of my current f/6.3. And it's got SWM (tbh not sure if that makes any diff from my sigma....maybe a lil bit) BUT most important, a VR system - a stabilizator allowing you taking much much better pictures even though you handhold the camera....... *sighs heavily* I woudln't mind a fixed f/2.8 or whatever if there are one - for the whole zoomarea...*dream*, but chances are that the price for THAT one is way too high (17-55mm f/2.8 with NO VR is like, 12k nok...I *assume* it's fixed f/2.8 throughout the zoom but Im not sure :p) .

And while we're wishing for things we can't get (not atm anyways...).......I *so* want a D200 model.....I know...there's no automodes, just the manual ones...sok, I very very rarely use the auto ones these days anyway (and really, 3/4 of the manualmodes seem pretty much automatic to me)...but hey, I'll settle for a D80 too!! *sighs more*

And oh. I wanna know how to cleanse the lenses properly and throughout. GOsh I'm so needy tonight.

Ps. Yattayatta. I know. It's the photographer who makes the pictures, not the camera. Learn more, get back when you actually KNOW stuff. Blah blah blah. I still want the best I can get nevertheless. Don't we all? :p

Ohwell. I really hate to do posts without pictures, so here's two from todays Summercelebration at the kindergarten. Yeah. Amalie's a leghugger. And Adrian ain't missin' an opportunity to join in on the fun either (he's behind Amalie). And yes. That's my legs.


*lang klagepost fordi jeg ønsker meg bedre fotoutstyr*
Det er nå jeg skulle ønske jeg hadde en rik onkel i USA ellernoe sånt. Type monopol-onkel :) Eller en vinner-lottokupong. Men da må en begynne med lotto da liksom.
Jeje. Bildene er fra dagens besøk i barnehagen - sommeravslutningen der Adrian mottok medalje siden han slutter i bhg for å begynne på skolen til høsten. Joda, jeg tok de bildene også, men de obligatoriske bildene var litt kjedelige og sånn..viser heller de småartige =)

Ahh, a quick trip to the summerplace sure was what we all needed. I even think I got child's fare on the ferry on the way to the cottage. Hah! As usual I returned with like, zillion of pics (alright, just 378 - I really need to get movin' & buy a new memthingie...2gb x 2 or something like that :p)

I'll save you for pictures of children playing in the water and on the beach & pier & fishing & stuff like that - cause guess what - there's pictures of ME in there that I'm happy about too! Yay! Hi me! =)

So what's new? Nothing much really...got some deadlines I'm working on this week - most are done by now and hopefully the rest will be during tomorrow aswell.

Ps. Sharing some inspiration & love;

I'm so gonna try out this one once I find the right pictures :D
How fascinating! And look, here's the site too; Trash the dress! Too bad I prob wouldn't fit into my weddingdress nowadays......

Been watching this blog for so long I think I'm almost brainwashed now; I'm starting to crave such petty graphic stuff :p

Yay! Skikkelig deilig med en hyttetur - det var virkelig hva vi alle trengte akkurat nå :) Og så tror vi jeg fikk barnebillett på fergen over, hmmm.... Simen sa da vitterlig 2 voksne 1 barn men vi fikk 1 voksne 2 barn (Amalie går gratis). Hihi. Som vanlig kom jeg hjem med fullstappa minnekort, men skal spare dere for bilder av ungene overalt (stranda, kaia, båten, på fisketur etc) - for blant alle bildene var det også noen av meg som jeg faktisk ble fornøyd med! Yay!

Jobber for tiden med noen deadlines, er ferdig med de fleste og resten regner jeg med å bli ferdig med i løpet av morgenkvelden iallefall - og så er det noen artige utfordringer og konkurranser jeg vil prøve å bli med på og da (seff ;p).

Snakker om konkurranser - Papirloftet fyller et år i disse dager (hurrah!) og kliner til med masse tilbud i butikken, helt ny digital avdeling (Jippi Cecilie og Jiggy!!) og to kule konkurranser på forumet; i den ene kan du stikke av med en XXL rullegreie MED innhold som øker for hver deltaker det er i konkurransen!! WOW! Og alt du trenger å gjøre er å lage tre LO'er innen tre uker! Iiizziii! I den andre kan du vinne gavekort og digital kit - alt du trenger å gjøre er å prøve deg litt digitalt - enten ved å lage en digiLO eller en hybridLO :)

Selv kan jeg jo ikke være med i disse konkurransene så jeg tror jeg skal prøve å rekke Feriekolonien hos Minneriket jeg - premiene der er heller ikke så verst og oppgavene ganske så kule ;)

Yes, I'm home, I'm fine and much much better than last time. It's really nice to be able to do things in my own tempo with hubby and kids (well...maybe not so, but..) taking care of me :)
When I read this weeks dare it was so cool - and fit perfectly with Xtines challenge about doing a selfportrait. This is me at the hospitalbed in the middle of the night..*blush*

Since I got home I've scrapped three layouts - all quite different from each others when it comes to style - the above one being one of them. Sometimes I kinda feel a bit schizo. I wish I had one style as long as I like, excelled in it, but whatever. Jack of all trades ain't that bad either (or something like that - you know - be a bit of everything :)) I'm pondering about just doing another "fun" layout before I gotta work on the "serious" ones (I hit the finale in both M-game & Papirgleders liftcup!) - both deadlines aint until next week soooooooo..... :p

Talking about contests -- I WON!!!!!!!!! YAY! I actually won something! *dance* I've been attending LifetimeMoments DW2007-group, doing the calendarchallenges every month and stuff.... Every month I've also been picked as one of the finalists (ten best layouts each month) by the team behind the DW2007 book - and this month it was my turn to top that list! Yay! :D *very excited* I got to pick a prize - anything from Autumn Leaves - I settled for a set of stamps :) :)

Now. My scrappingroom! No, it's NOT finished...bleh..but..

1. My paperholders are split in 3 locations atm - 2 boxes at the shelf on the wall, couple boxes at the Expedit and another couple at the end of the table. I can't decide which location is better - TBH I prefer to reach DOWN to my papers - aka having the boxes on the floor....but that'd be too messy and stuff... the cardstock at the Expedit is fine...I don't use cardstock that much these days anyways...so they can stay there...but my patterned paper....hmmm.....I kinda predict that by the end of the week all my pp-boxes are either on the floor or on the table.....cause although the shelves are nice for storing these paperboxes it's too high for me to reach for them all the time :p Suggestions? I'm all ears :)
2. I NEED a better solution for my stamppads...need...need...need! I thought I wanted the Tim Holtz storagebins but I'm not quite sure anymore, I want something prettier..maybe vintage.....woodvintagey.... like..it needs to have little room for all of the stamppads! Same with my acrylpaint!! (If you've got Scrapbooks Etc for May/June, look at page 54! Very cool!)
3. I need to replace the tablelamp & get a walllamp instead.... and get the cool minilamps installed under the shelves....think it'll be much better!
4. I have no clue what to store under the cornershelves.....ideas anyone?

But...all in all I'm happy.....and best of all...it was Simens suggestion that I'd use half the table/room for just ME! :D I'll whip up new pictures when I'm more settled....and know what I'll have where..cause atm it's a bit random :p



Hihi..har du lest helt ned hit så får jeg skrive litt norsk her og gitt :)
Joda - er hjemme igjen nå - og det har vært utrolig DEILIG! SLapper av og gjør ting i mitt eget tempo - og legger meg ned med god samvittighet om jeg må. Formen er mye bedre enn sist gang - men joda, dette er jo postop still. Har kost meg med å scrappe litt "for fun" sånn før jeg "må" scrappe finaleLO'ene - har vært så heldig å havne i finalene både til M-game på Minneriket og Liftecup'en på Papirgleder. Yay! Finale betyr finaleoppgaver dog, men de skal ikke leveres inn før neste uke såååååå *drøyer'n* :p

Ellers har jeg vært så heldig - vant faktisk LifetimeMoments DW2007 for mai!!! YAY!!! Fikk velge min egen premie - så jeg valgte et stempelsett fra Autumn Leaves. Håper de er kjappe - gleder meg sånn til å sjekke ut alfabetet jeg valgte meg!!

Og ja - så har jeg lagt til noen bilder fra scrapperommet mitt - jeg har faktisk hele 50% av rommet - helt uten å be om det!! *snill mann* :) Jeg har PC'n min i midten, og så scrappebord resten av veien..... mannen min sitter i det andre hjørnet (ved siden av min PC :) ) og guttungens plass er på den andre enden der igjen :)

Ikke helt ferdig og blabla enda, bl.a funderer jeg på noen oppbevaringsløsninger og det at jeg egentlig foretrekker å se/bla i arkene mine ovenfra og ned liksom - feks ved å ha arkboksene på gulvet... noe som egentlig ikke er noe særlig pent eller noe da sånn etterhvert....menmen.....har dere forslag etc så kom med de!! :) Synes at selv om det meste er ferdig så er det fortsatt en ganske så halvveis løsning jeg har nå - feks plassen på bordhyllene i hjørnet - både over og under - aner ikke hva jeg skal ha der liksom...hmhm...kommer til å rote det stort til snart uansett så...:p MEN! PLASSEN! Den er iallefall ferdig! :)

I love the subtlety of his smile in this photo. This was taken when he was about 6 months old.

So i was hoping for a cheeseburger from mcdonalds and wondering when i'd see him next and waddayaknow he brought me sushi!

Ps. It was a 18piece sushiplate from our fave sushiplace downtown and we ate most of it downstairs and then he had to jet to fetch the kids from the kindergarten and I brought the rest with me to my room to take photos cause I forgot about it when he came here. Documentation! :p

-Ania mobil

Edit: Bah. So much for a busy doc. Who forgot when I was gonna go home and said he did a mistake. But who also said he'd doublecheck on me tomorrow and maybe just maybe I can go home then afterall. But that originally I'm gonna stay to weds.

This photo was taken last year. I love the innocence of Eion smelling the flowers. I wanted to post it because I am getting excited for summer, especially since I will spend it this year with my own son!

Happy Summer Everyone!

This beautiful prego momma is a bride from the 2006 wedding season. I was honored to do her maternity photos. This is Jessica at 34 weeks. Can't wait until her little one is here to do some newborn shots.

I did a self portrait session the other night. I needed some updated photos of myself for a new bio page. I was accepted as an associate photographer with company out of Chicago/Milwaukee. I will be getting assignments in and around the Milwaukee area. This will allow me the opportunity to photograph weddings in new locations as well as work side-by-side with other photographers. I'm very excited.