The Ten Waterfalls of Silver Falls State Park

The sun has been shining in Portland! We've been trying to soak it up all we can, but the one day last week Tanner and I had off together, it rained. Of course.

Still, hiking in Portland is gorgeous no matter the weather. And rain makes everything so amazingly green. I can't get over it. My friend the other day was describing the beautifully mountainous corners of Oregon and said: "it's like 'effing Narnia!" It was hilarious at the time she said it, but I can't dispute that yes, there are parts of Oregon that feel like you just dunked your head in the center of a C.S. Lewis novel.

Now, the adventure we went on was more of an allusion to... erm... *cough* Twilight *cough* than Narnia, but hey, I guess that reference still does it justice. I mean, if I say Twilight you start thinking of giant mossy trees, misty meadows, raging waterfalls and sparkly vampires, right? Just subtract the vampires and you've basically got Silver Falls State Park. (Actually, I can't be absolutely sure there weren't sparkly vampires, so don't quote me on that.)

We did the Trail of Ten Waterfalls, which was eight miles and... you guessed it... ten waterfalls long. I brought my new 50mm lens and very quickly learned that a portrait lens was the incorrect choice for a waterfall hike. I had to keep backing up to try and get the entire waterfall into one shot, and there's only so much backing up you can do before you fall over a cliff. Whoops. But I still managed some nice close-up shots and a lot of the back of Tanner's head. (He's camera shy. Or... artistically pensive. It's a toss up.)

Without further ado, here are the adventure photos for today. Keep a sharp eye out for vampire photo bombs.

How to Go Digital with Your Drawings!

With orders tapering off (whew... it was a crazy final few days there with a lot of priority shipping going on) I spent my day off cleaning up my studio (which had taken over our living room as well as our dining room by this point) and now I'm working on giving my shop a facelift, one card at a time.

If you hadn't already guessed, trying to make prints of hand drawn cards is quite time intensive, so in my own interest I streamlined the process and went digital. After much trial and error (including a lot of swearing at my computer and my printer before I got it working correctly) I finally managed to make proper card templates in photoshop, make quality scans of my drawings, digitally color them (addictively fun!), and print off some final, more professional-looking cards.

In case you were curious, here's what the cards look like when they've been "digitized"... the before and after shots:

{Darth Vader + Luke + Leia}

Scanning my drawings into the computer and printing them gives me more freedom to make edits, as well. It's much easier to make the prints different sizes, add/change colors, add/change text, and most important: make custom cards for customers (I learned this the hard way! No more late nights drawing the 1,000th iteration of a card!)

I'm pretty excited about the new process, but the time it takes to do all my own work over again is substantial, so it's happening in bits and pieces. Check back soon to see the progress!

In the meantime, I drew up some brand new cards and put them in the shop ! I've been working on my astrology birthday cards -- the two new additions are Leo and Aries. I also have Pisces listed, but it isn't digital, yet. I also have a completed Aquarius card, but it didn't print to my high standards, so I need to take it back to the drawing board (as it were) and make a few edits. It will be up soon.

The Benefits of a 50mm Lens

Did I tell you guys that I got a new camera lens? Well... I GOT A NEW CAMERA LENS!

Honestly, I don't know what took me so long (besides the fact that lenses are pricey...) I hemmed and hawed over it for a while... I've had my zoom kit lens for almost four years now. Wow... that's a long time to not invest in a nicer lens, especially when I've been needing to expand my photography skills for some time.

I really wanted a wide angle lens since I adore taking landscape shots of the beautiful places I explore. Unfortunately, a wide angle is one of the more expensive lenses you can buy (starting prices range in the $1,000's...) so I was forced to put that hope on hold for a while. Instead, I looked into a fixed portrait lens, since taking shots of people out in beautiful places is my second favorite thing to shoot. That, and nice shallow depth of field close-ups. Doesn't bokeh just make everything prettier? :)

So after much research, I bought the Nikon 50mm 1.8G lens. I was super excited to finally buy it, but then ended up having to wait three months due to the flooding in Thailand holding up the production of units. But it is now safely in my possession, and though I am still learning its secrets, I absolutely adore it. (By the way, I realize I sound like a total rookie gushing over the #1 recommended lens for photographers... but though I've known for a long time that a 50mm should be part of my arsenal, I somehow convinced myself that my 18-105 zoom could do practically the same thing. A foolish delusion! Let it be noted that fixed lenses are infinitely superior to zooms!)

At any rate, I haven't used it very extensively, and of course I'm still learning its intricacies. I find I have to change the settings much more often (especially in varying light conditions) as the lens is very sensitive. I took some shots on a Forest Park dayhike we went on this weekend and had a bunch of pictures that came out too dark or too light simply because I couldn't keep up with the changing light patterns as fast as we were walking. It was an interesting experiment, but I'm learning as I go.

Here are a few shots to share:

I've been very impressed with the color, tonal range, and crispness of the shots. Often the photos (if I've shot them with the right settings) need very little post-processing. Something I struggle with when using my 18-105 is overexposure and washed-out colors.

At home I tested out my lens in our low light interior. Once again, I was amazed by the 50mm's sensitivity to light. My 18-105 lens only has an f-stop of 3.5, so though it is very decent with low-light, the 500mm with its 1.8 f-stop is incredible. Even in a very dark room with very little filtered light (this is Portland, after all... the overcastness here has redefined my photo taking!) the shots came out completely bathed in natural light. Lovely.

Also, the shallow depth of field that is associated with a 1.8 creates some beautiful bokeh effects. This can be troublesome while taking close-ups of my cards, since it creates a very narrow range of what is actually in focus, but with portraits, it's quite stunning.

At any rate, I hope to share some more examples soon that truly show off the delightfulness of the lens. I've been very addicted to it lately. :)

Shop Madness!

I was prepared for an exciting all-out lazy long weekend complete with tromps in the woods and ice cream sundaes. Granted, I did treat myself to Fro Yo more than once this week (guilty), but I was anything but lazy. My shop totally blew up over the weekend with people wanting Father's Day cards, so I found myself scrambling to make prints and ship out packages every day.

Not to mention the custom orders... who would have guessed that I'd get so many requests for "personalized" versions of my original Star Wars card?

Everyone wanted a design that matched their family... one boy, one girl, two boys, three girls, etc. I was spending hours a day drawing and redrawing that card based on my buyer's suggestions. And though I got tired of drawing Darth Vader 1,000 times (and my black pencil is no more than a stub), it was actually a lot of fun to play around with the design. My favorite was the request to put in another "boy" character with Luke, so I drew Han Solo. I gotta say... putting a little Chewbacca in there with him was cracking me up. Too bad there's only one woman in the Star Wars galaxy. I had to keep drawing multiple Leias for those people who had more than one girl in their family. Damn you, George Lucas, for not putting more women in the future!

I know USPS like the back of my hand, now. Seriously. Me and the guy at the post office counter... we're tight. I've visited him every day for a week, now, with stacks of orders. He's seen me in everything from PJ pants to dress slacks (actually, that's a lie. I don't wear dress slacks.)

He calls my doodles on my packages "cute" and doesn't give me a hard time when I hand him big stacks of international customs forms and mailers. Rock on, post office. Rock on. And I'll most likely see you tomorrow, Bob. Maybe this time I'll bring you cookies.

I also managed to put up a few new listings in the shop (I've been busy!) I went with a more movie-inspired designs, including another Star Wars themed one (because I'm cool like that) and some calligraphy quotes because I just *heart* doing my own lettering. My personal favorite is the graduation card with Marty McFly on it... am I the only one who thinks it's hilarious?!

Anyway, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who made the month of May in my shop such an awesome one. You guys make me all giggly inside, and your little notes on your orders make me smile! It's so fun knowing that my cards are finding good homes, and that there are other people out there besides me who think nerdy jokes are funny. (I would start humming the Imperial March right now, but that might be over the top...)

P.S. - Last day to order cards for Father's Day is June 8.... jump on Etsy before it's too late! ;)