New York movers can move anything under the sun as long as it will fit into a truck, even the huge box of pictures you inherited from Aunt Sally. Here are a few tips though:

1. make sure that those photos are being stored in acid free boxes
2. don’t pack them too tightly
3. Once they get where they are going, keep them in the driest available storage spot.

If you take care of them, you’ll be able to pass them down to your descendants.

Sit down with my camera cards and my computer and do some serious organizing. I keep saying I need to do that, and I keep not doing it because I keep getting distracted by other stuff: kids to play with, food to cook, bills to pay, books to read, but no penny stocks to buy.

Soon though, because it aggravates me to not have my SPS badge up to date. Carly Simon was totally singing about me!

Do many of you take pictures of pictures? I’ve been doing some of that lately as I helped Mama with Grandmother’s house. But those are old portraits, and I am talking more about snapshots, when you have a good paper print that you want to share with your internet world. Do you use a scanner or just snap a shot of the shot?

Years ago, dh and I were in Missouri. We traveled through Branson Missouri, Joplin and on into St. Louis. I took scads of pictures, including some at zoos, and museums and even a quilt show. There are several share worthy photographs from that trip, if I can figure out the best way to do it.

I am sure I have mentioned this a time or two, but it bears mentioning again, because it’s a little overwhelming. I’m looking to upgrade my camera again, and this time, I think I want to upgrade 2 steps instead of one. I’m thinking if I get a camera that is more than I want/need right this minute it might be more than a month or so before I get camera envy again. You do know what camera envy is, right?

Anyway, my next “big event” is in September. I’d really like to have a new camera by then. One with all the bells and whistles I will need/want for at least 5 years. Quit laughing! In the past 4 years, I have had more digital cameras than most horses have saddles. I’m on my fourth one! If I had saved that money instead of rushing to get a new one NOW, then I could already have the wonder-cam I want.

So, I posted the other day about Picnik, and I wanted to give a little followup. I used it to prep the photos for this post on photocards, and the more I use it, the more I like. And I haven’t even upgraded to use the premium features, but I will be doing so soon. In addition to the manipulations I can do, I like that the processing takes place on thier servers, so it doesn’t slow down my laptop– I can continue to surf and email while the photos are uploading, processing and saving. Not that I have time to do anything while it’s processing, because it’s fast. Much faster than the software I have.

You don’t have to worry about the longevity of your film.

When I cleaned my dresser last month, I was reminded that I still have undeveloped film from our trip to Chicago. In 2000. Yeah, I should do something about that, but I keep forgetting about it. We all know regular film doesn’t keep forever, and as far as I know they don’t make a pill for that!

Now, why have I not developed them? Well, my motivation for developing film is scrapbooking, and I don’t have time and space to scrapbook right now. It’s as simple as that……

I totally need to check out digital scrapbooking, because I can do that without worrying that the children will “mess with my mess” if I step away to pee. Or! Oh! You know, when that baby finally moves out of my room………I can totally set up my scrap stuff in that corner! Oh! Oh! Oh!

*Cass looks agog at blooming vistas of free space*

Self Portrait Sunday is over on Midlife Musings now!

Ya’ll. Seriously. I just got through reading Pioneer Woman’s piece on Photoshop, and I want it. I guess I have seriously been living under a digital rock, wondering why everyone else had these wonderful, vibrant shots, and I never did. Well, eye is still the most important thing in photography, BUT, apparently, photo editing software is a very close second. I guess the most important thing that piece taught me is that you aren’t stuck with what you get when you snap the shutter. Sure, I’d seen other examples of effects in Photoshop, but never laid out quite like that, and with so many different examples.

Naturally Photoshop is out of the budget for me, so I am going to have to check out some less expensive alternatives. My friend Alli has been doing some nice stuff with Picnik, and I think I will spend some time playing with it. Soon. The price is just right. I mean, you can use most of it for free, and if you do want to upgrade, it’s just $24.95 a year. That would work for me, because I am cheap! Like the other day, I finally broke down and bought the watch I had been needing since I broke mine in Vegas in November. November, people! I didn’t even glance at the Blancpain watches. Instead I went to Wal-Mart, and thought I was splurging when I paid 8.97 instead of 6.97 to get a non stretch band. Also, seriously, can a person get any more off topic? This rabbit is dead, let’s get back to the point. With an example.

All I did to this photo was to adjust the color by picking a neutral and upping the saturation until the apple was red. Ok, wow. Time to buy a new toy tool.

Ok, yesterday when I posted that I would be posting “occasional articles”, I didn’t think I would be back quite so soon. But! Here I am, because I need to tell you about an online art gallery I looked at this morning. There is plenty of art for sale at UGallery, but I went straight to the photography section. Of course, LOL! I was amazed.

Being a fiber artist as heart, the fiber art was my next stop. Again, amazed.

Okay, enough blathering, let me cut to the chase. UGallery is a place where aspiring artists can list their works, sell them, and gain exposure. And that means it’s a place where you can buy art from emerging artists and support their endeavors. You can click on the pieces to see how they would look on your walls (yep, you can customize the wall and floor colors), so you can be sure what you buy is going to look “right” once you have it. And there’s a 7 day money boack guarantee.

So, after looking at the photography and the fiber art and even the sculpture, I think I’d like to have this. I’m not going to tell you what it is. Click over and see for yourself.

Well, I think it’s probably obvious by now that I won’t be catching up the PAD. I’m way behind, and then even when I was still taking pictures daily, but not sitting down to post them, I was thinking. I’ve been looking at my traffic patterns, and what I see is that ya’ll don’t come here daily to look at the PAD. You come about once a week, you look at several days worth of so-so pictures, and you leave. On Sundays, you come and check out the SPS, and that is another traffic surge. And that’s fine, I am glad of the traffic–whoever, whenever, however, whyever.

BUT! what about all those days I throw up any old picture? Just something I snapped so I could post a PAD? Something that is almost but not quite a good picture? Or something so off that it makes you think one of us needs drug rehab? That sorta cheats us both, doesn’t it? And so I thought: what if I used what I had learned over the past year plus to start adding more photos to my other blogs, photos that illustrate what I am talking about. Wouldn’t that be a better use of cyber-space? And I could keep this space for occasional articles on photography, or perhaps a series of pictures now and again when I am trying to learn a new thing. See?

So, that’s what I have started doing. You’ll be seeing more pictures on Midlife Musings and Cass Knits!, but you’ll be seeing fewer here. Oh, one more thing, the SPS: look for it over on Musings. That’s my blog that’s all about me, and what’s more “me” than my face? Please, please PLEASE come join us over there. I’ll be sure and post a reminder on Sunday.