POTD [ Tuesday ]

Wow. That's all I can say. To see more of Sabone's fotos...visit her lovely stream.

[potd] monday....again.

good morning maternal lens readers! hope you all had a fantastic weekend - it sure flew by. and we are having a rainy monday morning [again] in the northeast. i am convinced we are going to float away. is the sun shining in your part of the country?

i love going through the photos in our flickr pool - and this morning i just kept coming back to this shot by tea&brie - i just love it! thanks for the inspiration.

photo of the day {friday}

.........here she is. love the focus, love the color, love the shot.
thanks, sarah for submitting it into the flickr pool!


have a wonderful friday!!

photo of the day [thursday]

I loved the feel of this photo, taken by Aileen, who has a beautiful photostream on Flickr.

photo of the day {Wednesday}

Such a sweet slice-of-life shot by pink.goldfish . It is a good reminder that you don't have to get your kids to pose to capture those special times in life, like birthdays. Learn to work with your camera and light to capture the special moments as they are, which is the best way anyway. :)

Check out the other fantastic photos in our TML flickr pool!

and the custom portrait pendant winner is....................

Entry #11 (chosen by random.org) - Donachricha Photography

Congrats!!!! Email me at jlpinkerton@yahoo.com to claim your prize!


You can find these awesome pendants and more great stuff in the Eclisse Creazioni etsy shop!

POTD [Tuesday style]

Maybe it's partly because my daughter is in the throws of potty training, but I LOVE this image from Kelli H. I also love and appreciate a good clothesline. She has an ever inspiring and lovely outlook on life, as you can see if you visit her photo stream.

This photo just screams maternal and color and love. Yummy.

Don't forget : Portrait Pendant GIVEAWAY!

I've gotten some feedback from people who are having trouble leaving comments. I'm not sure what the problem is or how to fix it, but we apologize for the trouble! Sometimes if you sign in as "Anonymous" or use an OpenID, you can get around the error. Just be sure to tell us who you are in the body of your comment!

Sign up to win the fab portrait pendant HERE.

[kodachrome] thanks for the memories.

kodak has just announced they will retire kodachrome film. for 74 years kodachrome captured the brilliant colors of life and it's sad that it will no longer be available. i always remember my dad loading his camera with kodachrome on our summer vacations, on our holidays, on our lifes achievements. yes, all good things must come to an end - how true that saying is. please see the gorgeous slideshow below of some incredible images captured with kodachrome. thanks for the memories.


Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away [p. simon]



view slideshow here.

It's GIVEAWAY time!!!! Custom Portrait Tile Pendant!

Aurora from Eclisse Creazioni Art & Photography has graciously donated one of her gorgeous portrait tile pendants for us to give to one lucky winner!

The lucky winner will get to choose a white or black pendant and it will be custom made with whatever picture, quote, handprint, or image you want on it! How cool is that?!! What a great way to keep your favorite photo with you! These would also make awesome gifts for just about anyone!

Aurora says "all "Portrait Tile" items are strong and lightweight.Each piece is anti-tarnish treated before your images are applied. We use a non-acrylic, acid free mixture to permanently seal your image onto the piece. Your images are not glued onto the tile, they are part of the tile. They are waterproof, scratch resistant, ultra hard,and assembled with only the finest .925 Sterling Silver components."

You can find more great stuff in the Eclisse Creazioni etsy shop!

Here's how to win:

Leave us a "love note" (comment) with your e-mail or contact info (blog, etc.) That's it! It's that easy!

But wait!!
To get an additional entry, leave us ANOTHER love note that says you have clicked to become a follower of the blog or if you already are a follower. (We will check!)

THEN, you can get another entry if you grab our button (at the bottom of our blog) and put it on your blog...you need to leave us another comment with the blog URL of where the button is...

{all 3 entries must be in separate comments or else they will be counted as one}

ONLY 3 TOTAL ENTRIES PER PERSON ALLOWED!!! ANY ADDITIONAL ENTRIES WILL NOT BE COUNTED!!!

contest will end Wednesday, June 24th at 9am central time. winner will be chosen at random by random.org

Good luck!

[is green really better?]

much controversy over photography studios being certified "green" - but is there really a demand and is "green" necessarily better? this reminds me of when my husband and i owned our tea house. many customers would come in asking for "organic" tea. but honestly, all our tea was "organic" - we imported directly from tea gardens all over the world with very reputable suppliers, no pesticides, how much more organic could you get than direct from the garden. the majority of our tea didn't have the "certified organic" label and that would be a turn-off to those who were uneducated. poor struggling tea gardens who couldn't afford the certification [ you wouldn't believe how expensive it is] would be left by the wayside because their label didn't say "organic". if a future photography client turns their nose up at me because the word "green" isn't in my bio, i too may be left by the wayside. i feel all us digital photographers are in fact green. we all have our clients proofs online, [of course we shoot digitally], we outsource our printing - i'm sure we encourage clients to print only the shots they want. there are many album companies that offer "green" albums, environmentally friendly "paper". offer images on cd/dvd's, the list goes on.

is this a fad? how do we incorporate good practices in our businesses without jumping on a big green bandwagon? don't get me wrong, i too like to consider my environment. i recycle, reuse, and repurpose daily. i just don't want to get lost in the green revolution.

what are your thoughts? we'd love to hear them. let's get some dialogue going here!

check out the dwf blog for article details.

[potd] monday.

here we are again. monday. i hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and all the daddy's out there had a wonderful father's day. my own dad is on his way to a new life down in florida - leaving our connecticut home of 46 years behind. life changes, nothing remains the same. but we are all grateful for family, for our memories and for hearts full of love. like most of us, my father was my first hero - my super hero. the man i would compare all others to, the man i sought constant approval from. a smile, a nod, a kiss on the forehead, a wink - anything that would tell me he was looking.
when i saw this photo by tab.itha it immediately tugged on my heartstrings. it reminded me of my dad. but it also reminded me of all the little boys out there that will someday grow into dad's and become hero's to their daughters and sons. a sweet reminder to keep that dream alive. happy father's day [the day after].

please visit tab.itha's flickr stream here and send her some love. you will find some beautiful inspiration.

photo of the day {friday}

it's a cloudy, rainy, dreary day here today and this shot brought a little sunshine to me this morning.
it's beautiful, huh?! taken by the very talented teresa.
i hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful weekend.
make sure you tell all those fathers out there how special they are....
what an amazing gift dads are!

photo of the day [thursday]

I went through all of the photos and this one spoke to me, so I grabbed the URL and realized it too is by jeanphotographs Then I realized a different photo of hers had been chosen earlier this week, but this was my pick. I guess we really just love your work : )

photo of the day {Wednesday}

I am finally home after a week away, and I couldn't wait to take a swim in the maternal lens flickr pool! So refreshing!

LOVE this shot by Aaryn with a Y. Great flare, gorgeous gal, what's not to love?!

Happy Tuesday! {POTD}

I love this image from {Emily} . I love the blue, and the silhouette is grand. I also love that you can see the birdie's breakfast if you look close!

Enjoy!

{POTD} - monday

hello maternal lens readers. it's monday again. time for another fabulous week of encouragement, inspiration, great photography, motherhood and friendship. this is my little one's first week home after a very successful first year at school. summer has begun. although with the chilly temps and rain we have been having you would never know it. i look forward to a wonderful summer.
and speaking of wonderful - check out this shot from rebecca lily. i heart this. the processing is fantastic but i mostly love the feel of this shot - it can be anywhere usa and i guess that is why i love it so much. it feels like summertime to me, but it also feels familiar. i love when a photograph can do that to me. please visit rebecca lily's stream - some really wonderful shots!!

from the {idea file} : fathers day

Father's Day is just a week away (June 21st) so we thought we'd share some of our favorite ideas for daddy gifts!

- Dress your kiddo in dad's work clothes or uniform and have a little photo shoot! You can use the images to create scrapbook pages or you can create great wall collages with the prints.

- Create a photobook or scrapbook using photos and/or drawings made by your children. Help them write about great times they've had with dad. You can even have your kiddo hold a sign with the title of your book and take a pic for the cover page! If you put your book together yourself, be sure to laminate the pages so they last longer.

- Decorate your child with a temporary tattoo declaring daddy love. Little girls are precious as princesses and little boys look super cool when dressed like little James Deans.

- Use some of dad's favorite things as props for pictures. Dress your child in his fishing gear or sports uniform. Even use dad's special coffee cup as a prop if you want! The possibilities are endless! You could also use his favorite truck or boat as the setting.

Get those creative wheels turning and get busy! If you have other great ideas to share with us, please leave us a note so we can share with our readers.

***Somebody mentioned the dad's who are firefighters and I just so happened to have taken portraits twice for dad's who are firefighters.***

photo of the day {friday}--oops!

sorry...this is late! things have been crazy, busy in my world and it slipped my mind to post the potd on friday. so....i present to you the photo of the day for friday/saturday/sunday :)

when i went to the flickr pool, this was the first shot my eye went to and it made me smile, so that was the one for me! taken by the wonderful jean.

photo of the day [thursday]

I had to pick two, I wanted to pick five, but I compromised with myself and chose two and justified it since there was not a photo of the day posted on Wednesday.

Photo #1 taken by rebecca lily

Photo #2 taken by **{Dana}**

Tuesday's POTD

Here's to lazy, hazy, barefoot and sunny summer days!! Hope all of you out there are having a great one.

Today's photo of the day belongs to Kelly Beach. Go check out her beautiful stream.

If you would dig seeing your photo featured on our blog, go to our Flickr Group to see what it's all about!

do you shoot in the RAW??

i think this is a question asked a lot among photographers. do you shoot in raw or jpeg? is there a difference? is one better than the other?
i, personally, made the switch to raw a little less than a year ago and i can't ever imagine not shooting is raw. it kinda seems silly to me. on the flip side, i know many great photographers that shoot in jpeg and it works amazing for them.

i found a great article about shooting in raw and i thought i would share it.
i'm interested to know. do you shoot in raw? do you shoot in jpeg? what questions/concerns do you have either way?

this article is by john santoro of lexar digital photography.

We'll take a look at the big three file types: jpeg, tiff and raw. Each file type as advantages and disadvantages and it's important that you know enough about these issues in order to choose the right file format for your individual type of photography.

RAW Files
The concept of a "raw" camera file is really not complicated at all. Remember that the imaging chip in your digital camera records only one color per pixel and then uses algorithms to construct the missing two-thirds of the color data. A "raw" file simply consists of the individual 12-bit numbers corresponding to the single color that each pixel captured when the shutter was released. Along with that raw data are separate areas in the file that contain full color thumbnails for the photo and the camera's metadata for that photo.

You should now be questioning whether your "raw" file actually contains a photograph as each recorded pixel contains only one color of the Red, Green and Blue that is required to generate a correctly colored pixel. The answer would be "no". A "raw" file cannot be displayed as a photo unless the algorithms that your camera uses to create jpeg and tiff files are applied to the "raw" data to create the missing information.

You now see the small drawback to shooting in "raw" which is the necessity of converting the "raw" data into a useable picture. This conversion, which is done in your camera for jpeg and tiff files, is done in your computer using the "raw" conversion software for your particular camera or in a program like Photoshop CS or Camera One from Phase One. However, this conversion process is actually the advantage of shooting in "raw".

With a "raw" file the process of applying the required algorithms is now given to your computer rather than to your camera. This means that the conversion process can take advantage of the more powerful processor in your computer as opposed to the processor in your camera. And, because your computer's more powerful processor is being used, camera manufacturers have the option of using more powerful algorithms to process your photograph than could be used in the camera. This can have the effect of giving you richer, sharper pictures. Each camera manufacturer's strategy for deploying the "raw" conversion algorithms is different but you can easily see that using your computer rather than your camera to create your photo is an advantage.

There is an even more powerful reason for shooting your photographs in the "raw" format and that is the ability to make exposure, white balance and other edits to your photo before you even create the photo. Photo editing applications such as Photoshop handle most exposure and white balance editing on jpeg, tiff and Photoshop files by actually removing data from the photo. To test this out just launch a photo in Photoshop, open the Levels panel (Image>Adjustments>Levels) where you'll see a histogram for your photo. At the bottom of the histogram are three diamond shaped sliders. Move in the left and right sliders toward the center. In most photos this action will have the effect of increasing the contrast of your photo. Click on the "OK" button, which accepts your levels changes. Then reopen the Levels panel and you'll most likely see the histogram with open vertical lines. These open vertical lines indicate missing information or data that has been removed from the photo in order to achieve the effect you saw on your monitor.

With a "raw" photo you can make these levels and other adjustments before you use the conversion algorithms. In Photoshop CS this is done when you double click on a "raw" photo. Photoshop will present you with a panel with various exposure, white balance, contrast, saturation, shadow and other adjustment options in addition to a very large thumbnail of your photo. You can play with these adjustments and Photoshop will adjust the thumbnail photo to give you a very good representation of what the final photo will look like if you accept these settings. When you click "OK" your editing adjustments are made to the algorithms that convert your "raw" data to reflect the changes you want to make in the photo. The most important thing to remember here is that your adjustments are being applied while your photo is being created. This means that no data is lost and your photo will have all the tonal characteristics that are possible with that file. Because no data is lost when you adjust a "raw" file this gives you the ability to make exposure changes to your photo that are as wide as two f-stops or more. This is the reason many commercial photographers shoot in "raw" and it is the reason many photojournalists use the "Raw + jpeg" setting on newer pro-level digital cameras.

Once your "raw" file is converted to a photograph in Photoshop CS, the raw conversion software for your camera or another application you will be able to save the photo as a Photoshop, tiff, jpeg or other common file format. Some programs like Nikon Capture have a batch conversion function that allows you to convert an entire folder of photos with one setting.

All you really need to remember about "raw" file formats is that they allow you to produce the best photos with the data that was captured at the time you clicked the shutter.

JPEG Files
The common language of digital photography today is "jpeg" (jay-peg). Jpeg stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group which is the organization that created the "jpeg" standard. And that is what "jpeg" actually is, a published standard that is used by all photo hardware devices and software applications that want to work with jpeg files. Having a published standard ensures that media files will work across the product lines of different vendors. So the photo you take with your Nikon camera will be recognized by your Adobe photo editing software, your Kodak print kiosk and any other device or software that wants to support jpeg files.

In the early days of digital media, hard drives, memory cards and random access memory were very small by today's standards. A typical hard drive in a computer manufactured around 1990 would be only 20 to 40 megabytes as opposed to today's hard drives of 40 to 80 gigabytes. One of the primary reasons jpeg exists is to provide the computer industry a standardized way of reducing photo and media file sizes so that they use less space on your hard drive and computer's Random Access Memory.

In our last article we calculated that a photo made with a two megapixel camera has 1200 x 1600 or 1,920,000 pixels. With one byte used for each color (R,G, B) on each pixel (or three bytes) that would make the size of the file from this little chip 1.92 million times 3 bytes or 5,760,000 bytes or 5.7 megabytes of information. That's a lot of information being produced by a little imaging chip. This is the reason jpeg exists, to reduce the amount of that information so it takes less space on your computer's hard drive.

The jpeg standard specifies how the file will be reduced in size. There are multiple steps to the process but the most important step from the photographer's point of view is the implementation of the Discrete Cosine Transformation (DCT). This is the point where your photograph is divided up into 8 pixel by 8 pixel blocks. Then the DCT is applied to each of these blocks in order to find data that can be eliminated from the block. This is where much of jpeg data loss happens. When you choose a high compression ratio for your jpeg files this is the step at which it is applied. Because your data loss happens by eliminating rounding errors resulting from the DCT, the data loss is permanent because the numbers lost to round cannot be recovered.

Further degradation is inflicted on your file where the edges of the 8 by 8 boxes meet each other. At higher compression ratios formerly smooth tones can become distorted at these edges because the averaging effect of one 8 by 8 box next to another averaged 8 by 8 box can result in a visibly large step.

The most important thing to remember about jpeg is that the entire jpeg specification is performed each time you save your photograph. Therefore it is possible to keep losing data from your valuable photographs time after time until you have a quite unpleasing photo. That's why if you are going to be working with one of your jpeg files in a photo editing program like Photoshop you should make sure that you save the file in some other format such as tiff or Photoshop's own format .psd. These formats are lossless formats that do not use compression and therefore will preserve your photo over time. By converting to another format you leave your original jpeg untouched and ready for use another time.

TIFF files
Tiff (Tagged Image File Format) files are full data files where each pixel contains the full numerical information for each of the three colors Red, Green and Blue. This is the reason tiff files are huge and it's the reason why you can fit so few images on your Lexar memory card. Our web survey at Lexar is showing that 67% of the survey takes are using six megapixel or larger cameras. If you do a little math and realize that each pixel requires one byte for each color or three bytes per pixel and then multiply that by six million you are looking at very large files.

The advantage to tiff is each file contains all of the information for the final photograph. Many photographers prefer working with tiff files when they are editing photographs because there is no data loss.

{potd} monday.

i love the retro feel of this photo from becomingsarah - please visit her stream and check out her photos and also her delightful views on her pregnancy on her blog as well. wishing you much happiness with your new babe to be!!

And the winner is................................................

♥erin♥ !!! Random.org chose entry #54, which is ♥erin♥ ! Congrats!!! Email me at jlpinkerton@yahoo.com to claim your prize!

Thanks again to HomeSpun Threads! If you'd like to have a custom silhouette made, you can find them in her etsy shop.

photo of the day {friday}

today's photo of the day comes from ashley whitmoyer. what a gorgeous portrait, huh?!
HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

contemporary and classic...a custom silhouette GIVEAWAY!

I've seen silhouette art in so many of my favorite decor magazines, in classic and contemporary settings...and now you can have your very own custom work of silhouette art!

Our friend Aimee at HomeSpun Threads is going to create a custom digital silhouette of up to FOUR children for one lucky winner! It's such an awesome and creative way to capture your sweet babies! They look great in any setting and make awesome gifts for grandparents and even Dad for Father's day! You can check out her other awesome creations in the HomeSpun Threads etsy shop.

The winner will recieve a custom silhouette of up to 4 children, ready to print as an 8x10 image. Great for framing or working into your scrapbooking or craft projects!

Here's how to win:

Leave us a "love note" (comment) with your e-mail or contact info (blog, etc.) That's it! It's that easy!

But wait!!
To get an additional entry, leave us ANOTHER love note that says you have clicked to become a follower of the blog or if you already are a follower. (We will check!) This = 2 entries.

THEN, you can get another entry if you grab our button (at the bottom of our blog) and put it on your blog...you need to leave us another comment with the blog URL of where the button is... this = 3 entries.

{all 3 entries must be in separate comments or else they will be counted as one}

contest will end FRIDAY, June 5th at 10pm central time. winner will be chosen at random by random.org

photo of the day [thursday]

Who can resist a good tire swing photo? I know I can't! Taken by sarahafield, check out her photostream for more fun tire swing action. This image is beautiful eye candy and inspiring as well, if you think so too, go vote for us here. Cheers!

photo of the day {Wednesday}

Such a lovely shot with lovely processing, by the talented flickrer thePhotoZoo. The composition is the best part, turning a flower shot into something really intriguing.

Don't forget to VOTE!

We have been nominated for the BlogLuxe Award!

The Maternal Lens has been nominated for the BlogLuxe Awards in two different categories!

Most Inspiring Blog and

Best Eye Candy Blog

Now all we need are votes, and lots of them. Voting has been going on since late May and we were just added today so already at a disadvantage. Everyone one is allowed to vote once a day in each category, until July 6th. So we'd much appreciate your votes, and once a day if you remember. Here I'll make it simple with some suggestions on how to remember. How about in the morning you wake up all blurry eyed, stumble out of bed, you don't even have to brush you teeth yet, stumble over to the computer and of course check The Maternal Lens to see what's new, and then think to yourself, wow they really are the most inspiring blog around, oh yeah I had better go cast a vote for them here.

Or you're sitting at work, when you glance out the window and see the young construction workers outside sipping a Coke, you think to yourself now there is some eye candy, hey speaking of eye candy, I had better go vote for The Maternal Lens in the Best Eye Candy Blog category, here. See it's simple!

POTD { Tuesday Style }

Maybe it is because I am a hippie...perhaps it's because I am a wannabe hippie....maybe it's because I am in love with the color palette. Or maybe it is the birds adding depth and mystery to this shot, or the stunning eye contact... or movement of this photo...

I didn't choose it, it chose me.

Congrats to Ashley Whitmoyer of ANWPHOTOGRAPHY.

If you haven't checked out our Flickr Group yet, what are you waiting for?? Ü

{POTD} - mOnDAy!!

it's monday morning..... i have a nice cup of hot coffee in my hand - i settle down at my laptop. i open up the maternal lens pool and hit "slideshow" - as i sip the caffeine that will help me start my day i am mesmorized by the beauty of the photos that flash before me. i recommend this highly - what a great way to start the day. so much talent surrounds me, it makes it hard to choose just one shot. but this photo caught my attention, i love so much about it. of course the flare, but the joy of the children on the ride and the ever attentive father standing there watching for his child (or children) to come around again. it makes my heart super happy!

to see more of kristen's {mainemomma} gorgeousness visit her here!