Notes in the Key of Life: photography

Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts

Friday, March 08, 2013

My life lately on Instagram

This past week was memorable mainly for the big almost-spring snowstorm we got here in Northwest Illinois. I captured some images on Instagram...enjoy! (And if you live in a warm climate, be glad you didn't have to shovel snow. Well, I didn't either...my awesome husband uses a snow blower...but I'm just saying! :))

The road to where I work (my husband was driving)

The view out the back door at work (and yes, people brave this to smoke cigarettes))

This is a "latergram"--a picture that you actually took earlier, but you post on Instagram. This was taken during my last visit to Texas. My little grandson Josiah was watching cartoons in my mom's bedroom. He was soooo sleepy and ready for a nap. :)

I had a lot of fun with an app called Sketch Guru, that can take a photo and turn it into a pencil sketch, a colored-pencil sketch, or even a watercolor--as in the pic of myself below. Above is another "latergram," this one of my oldest grandson, Payton.

This is the watercolor option in Sketch Guru. So much fun!

With St. Patrick's Day coming up, I've been tinkering around with Irish calligraphy. This is an Irish blessing I did. I love the look of the Celtic lettering.

A Loch Ness "snowman"? I saw this on my way home from work and just had to snap it. (It took some doing to take a pic that fits into Instagram's sizing parameters.)

Are you on Instagram? Do you enjoy it? Do you use it quite a bit? Let me know in my comments section!

I'm linking up with Home Sanctuary today for Company Girl Coffee!

Friday, February 08, 2013

My Life Lately on Instagram

Are you on Instagram? It's a fun way to share pictures with others...and I've found it's also a cool way just to visually chronicle what's going on in your life. Here are some of the pictures I've shared recently.

The Rock River is one of the sights I see when I'm going home from work. On this night, the fog hovering on the river looked absolutely eerie.

I'm adding more touches of white to my home decor lately...it's just so bright and clean. I spray-painted the vase in this picture.

A baby at church (Hope Whitehead) was sporting these adorable shoes, and I couldn't resist taking a picture.

My mom gave me this zebra top, which I love! Yesterday I decided to add some hot pink to the mix. (Yes, I'm ready for spring!)

What you call a GPOY (gratuituous picture of yourself). :)

For some reason, I like to mark the turning of a page on my Austin, TX calendar at work. This one boasts a nice shot of the Texas capitol.

This one tickled my funny bone. I imagined a gas station named in honor of road rage. Corny? Yep.

Another desk shot...showcasing some of the things that provide a nice little British vibe to my workspace.

Do you Instagram? Tell me about it!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm taking part in a bloghop I've never done before...it's called "What I'm Loving Wednesday," and it's hosted by Jamie at This Kind of Love. Looks like fun!

Here are some of the things I'm loving lately:

1) The amazing fall colors here in Northern Illinois. Sadly, many of the leaves have already departed, but there are still some to enjoy, and I've been madly snapping pictures to try to preserve the beauty. Above is a collage of some of the favorites I took.

Here's a larger view of one of my favorites, taken on Calvin Park Boulevard in Rockford, IL.

2) Autumn decorating. Below is an idea I got from Pinterest...I think it turned out pretty well!

3) The Nexus 7 mini-tablet that I won!

It's like a small iPad, basically. One of the things I'm loving most about it is that I've loaded the Kindle app on it, so I can use it as an e-reader. Yay!

I didn't even know I was "entered" to win this. I won it from our local newspaper, the Rockford Register Star, just because I followed them and re-tweeted them in September. What a happy surprise when I got an e-mail saying I had won it!

4) Modern Technology. Thanks to that, while my husband has been away on a trip that took him to see our children and granchildren in Texas, I immediately got to enjoy images like this:

and this...

5) MyFitnessPal.com Thanks to this wonderful site, I've been rejuvenated in my health and fitness efforts! It's keeping me accountable in a way I haven't been for a long time. I'm excited about my progress.

Go here to participate in What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

My Life Lately on Instagram

I've been loving Instagram lately. It satisfies the frustrated, uneducated photographer in me! When I see something I like, I just take a picture of it and put it on Instagram. I love the filter options that can make your picture look really cool.

I'm sharing some of the pics I've taken lately. The fall colors are starting to come out in their glory here in Northwest Illinois...above is a pic I snapped on a beautiful street in our town called Calvin Park Boulevard.

I turned a new page in my Shelly Reeves Smith planner yesterday and thought it was so pretty, I took a pic.

Sitting waiting for a table at a restaurant after church on Sunday, I looked up at my husband and thought, "How handsome!"

This is me on the same day. I'm wearing the Soft Surroundings top that I'm giving away...more on that in a moment!

A group of my former co-workers from the radio station that was sold to a big corporation got together for lunch recently. It was so much fun!

Yes, I take pictures of mundane things around my house! I'm obsessed with all things Paris, and I think this is the prettiest bottle of handsoap ever! (I got it at TJMaxx). Beside it is a mini Eiffel Tower I got at Hobby Lobby. One of my bathrooms is all pink and black, all France.

There's something I just love about old-fashioned lamp posts. This is one on Calvin Park Boulevard.

Do you like Instagram? Do you use it often? Let me know!

Just four days left to get in on my give-away of this beautiful top from Soft Surroundings! Go here to enter!

Friday, July 27, 2012

My Life Lately (in Instagram)

My daughter Elizabeth and me

I'll just admit it. So far, this hasn't been my favorite summer. But there have been some definite highlights, like the one I'm experiencing right now...my daughter Elizabeth spending a week with us.

She just lives a couple of hours south of us, but between her job as a Clinique salesperson and her studies at Illinois State University, she doesn't get home nearly enough for my liking.

Anyway, since I've been somewhat lax about posting lately, I thought I'd share some phone pics with you!

I love to listen to my daughter play the piano!

The two of us had lunch at Chipotle today...she's thinking about trying a gluten-free diet, and we found at that Chipotle is amazingly gluten-diet friendly!

Elizabeth won a door prize at a radio event. It was mostly stuff for our dog!

A shot of the Rock River, which runs through our town

My handsome hubby at the wheel

In front of a mic at the radio station where I work

Friday, May 04, 2012

So is anyone else obsessed with Instagram?

Well, I finally got a smart phone. It's not an iPhone, but it is at least capable of being connected to the Internet, and more importantly...Instagram!

I do radio commercials for a beautiful shop called Crimson Ridge, and they gave me a bunch of tulips today!

Here's what Instagram is all about (from their website):

It’s a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your photos with friends and family.
Snap a picture, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram. Share to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr too – it's as easy as pie. It's photo sharing, reinvented.
Oh yeah, did we mention it’s free?

I've been going a little nutso experimenting with Instagram. But here's an apology upfront: I'm sorry a lot of these pictures are of me. I'm really not that vain. It's just that I've pretty much been all alone for most of this week and I'm, like, the only subject around.

I do plan to remedy that, and take cool pictures that other people might actually enjoy seeing.

So here we go:

Here's one I snapped of hubby so his picture would show up when he calls me.

Here's one I snapped of me, so my picture will show up when I call him.

Sorry if this one's kinda lame. I had literally just installed Instagram, and was looking around for anything to take a picture of. This happens to be a bookcase in my home.

This is what my hair looks like basically in its natural state, albeit helped along with some product. If you'd like to know what I do when I wear my hair curly (which is about 25 to 30 per cent of the time), and what products I use, go here.

Here's another idea. I don't have a scanner, but I decided to take a picture of a picture that's never been put on line. These are my boys, Jonathan and Justin, at the ages of about 5 and 2. (They are now 32 and 29. WHERE did that time go?!?)

Another pic with the flowers--this one taken with a cool, glowy, filtered light effect. By the way, women of a certain age like myself? Instagram effects can be quite kind to us.

Now I'm even more excited about Instagram, because I found out how to put my Instagram photos directly into an album on Facebook. It's called instafb. Cool!

OK, now some questions for YOU:

Do you have Instagram?

Do you use it a lot?

Anything you particularly like about it?

Any suggestions or tips for me?

PLEASE let me know in my comments section!