Excited to use my new tool – Lightroom 4

Recently Adobe released Lightroom 4 and I decided to take the plunge. So far I am glad I did. If you have used any photo editing software you will start to pick up the basics pretty quick. This software can be a powerful tool and I am excited to dig in deeper. In the meantime here are a few photos that I pulled from the archives to edit and post. And just to prove I bought this for more than just play I included a photo of my Mens Woodland Ring. Hope you like them!     UPDATE: Here are […]more

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Weekend Drive

Last weekend we decided to drive down to Payson to take the Nebo Loop Drive. It was so gorgeous! I couldn't believe all the different colors of leaves. It is things like this that make me love Utah. It is the nature enthusiasts dream. You could go somewhere different every weekend and still have new places to go for years!  

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Gimp Tutorial for Etsy Shop Photos

Because of the good response to my post on photo editing I thought I would post a very basic tutorial on how you can improve your Etsy Shop Photos with the free software Gimp. Please keep in mind that this is a very basic tutorial and there are a lot of other features that can help you improve your photos.   This technique will work much better if you do some planning beforehand when taking your pictures. This just adds that little extra and brightens up the photo. First you need to download Gimp and install it. Then choose the […]more

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Recharging the Creative Batteries

Do you ever have those days (or weeks for that matter) that you feel like your creative batteries are drained? Between the 9-5 grind and trying to keep up with the everyday things, some days I feel like I just have to take the time to recharge those batteries. Lucky for me I can travel about 30 minutes and get to places like this: After a day playing in the wilderness with my dogs I am always ready to get back to creating and get the ideas flowing again.  What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?

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Just waiting for Spring

This winter has been a little strange. We haven't gotten as much snow as usuall, and haven't gotten any sun either. It has just been a grey muddy mess for most of the winter. I am the kind of person that would rather there be snow in the yard if it is going to be so dang cold. Resigned to not getting the snow I have been craving, I am ready for Spring already! So in the spirit of Spring, I decided to touch up a few pictures I snaped in my yard last year to hold me over until […]more

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Etsy Labs – Photographing Jewelry

I just wanted to start out by giving a big thank you to Rhonda at Prolifiquejewelry for hosting this lab and sharing her secrets for getting her absolutely gorgeous photos (it doesn't hurt that she has some beautiful things to photograph either). This is just a quick recap for those of you who missed it, or maybe just need a refresher. Smile Handprinted Letterpress Poster by rollandtumblepress on Etsy Now, Lets get to the good stuff… What kind of Camera do you use? Lately I have been blaming my slightly blurry photos on the fact that all I have is […]more

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The Importance of Editing Item Photos for Etsy

It has been said over and over. You need good item photos to sell on Etsy. I can tell that I have gotten better at photographing my items over time, and while I still have a long way to go, I am getting better every time I take new photos. Lighting is always a struggle when you are photographing your items, and while it is important to start out with good lighting you can also get a little help from your photo editing software. I use Gimp and Photoshop to edit my photos depending on where I am. For those […]more

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