birdhouse watercolor

Birdhouses - Wet on Dry Wash & Opaques

A Fathers Day Greeting to All!

Happy Father's Day everyone.  My Father is the best in the world, no contest.  I also love my grandfather, even though he is not with us anymore.  As well as all of my ancestors in my life as well.  Couldn't ask for anyone better.  Hope you enjoy your time with your father today.

Favorite Snack

I love chocolate.  Tastiness.

So, what is your favorite snack?
 

Do you want to be featured on my blog with some of these questions?  Go to these interview questions and fill them out, answer as many as you want or do not want to.  I will more than likely edit them down anyways. Then send them to me at thevicagirl, and I will go ahead and post your interview.  I will be intermixing interviews with other posts, so your interview may not appear for a while, do not get upset at this please.

Eco-Tip

Ride a bike to short distance trips.

Dance Center Watercolor

Dance Center - Calligraphy

Green Ricky -from brickfish

Original post date: 12 May 2009 

I would like to nominate my friend Ricky. Sure, he does the normal stuff that everyone should be doing anyways, like recycling paper, after is it used for scratch paper. Or, using a reusable shopping bag, which can actually be hard to do sometimes. Or a metal water bottle for all drinking needs. He is also studying how to make architecture more sustainable, come to find out that is just good design. He does all that, and more, but what is the most profound thing is his bike riding.

He is normally the one to point out how pretty the sunset is, so pretty because of the smog, which then makes it horrible. "That's why I rode my bike today."

I think he is anti-car, as am I, he just has the guts to not take his car places. It took me two months to even realize he owned a car.

He travels all over on his bike, even if we are all traveling by car to someplace, like the cemetery, or downtown to a site visit. He even took his bike to a wedding, a 45 minute drive (by car) away. He assured me that it was okay because he would take Trax, our public transit train, out there. I stared at him knowing the end of the line was still a 20 minute drive away. His story was funny, about how it was pouring rain, and so windy he kept falling off his bike. He had to go up a hill, got stuck by some police, then had to turn around and find a different route up a different hill. But would he do it again? Yes.

If he wasn't known for his singing, he would totally be known for the one who rides his bike. A lot of people at school ride bikes when the weather gets nicer, but he has been riding his bike the whole winter. I don't think I've ever seen him drive to school. I have seen his car, so it does exist. It was during the horrible snowstorm that I didn’t even want to drive in. He brought his car up because it would be hard to carry a large building model on his bike. I wanted a picture of him on his bike riding around in the snow, because he does that a lot.

He also rides that thing around in the oddest outfits. Because he is in choirs, he has to dress nicely for things. But he wears them on the bike.

I look up to him because of it. Sure, I may give him a hard time, but I would love to be able to do it as well. I have tried, and it didn’t work. I'm impressed with how he has the guts to do it. He doesn't care that people give him a hard time. He does it anyways.

Disclaimer:  This post was originally made on the website Brickfish.  It was entered into a contest, got lots of views, votes and comments.  Brickfish has changed, even got removed altogether, since I originally posted.  However, I didn't want to loose these again, I put a lot of time into them.  So, now you can enjoy them here on my blog as well.

A Mothers Day wish to you

The best gift a girl could receive is a wonderful mother.  I have been lucky enough to receive one of them.  She is loving and kind and cares about me so much.  I love her, and don't know what I would do without her.  Here's to my mother!

Two simple photography tips

White balance.  Ah dear, some good white balance.  Light comes in different colors.  There is cool light, and warm light.  In theater design they use it a lot.  Next time you go to a show, and I mean with real people, not a movie, watch the lights.  If it is a good lighting designer, they will use the different temperate of lights to create different effects on the stage.  A lot of buildings do it as well, the lights going up the side of the building, looking like columns, are sometimes every other color.  Sometimes the person replacing them has no idea, and puts the wrong color in.  We have tons of different types of light, you know that.  Outdoor light, aka: the sun, is one color.  The moon is actually another, which is interesting.  Then incandescent, or florescent also looks different.  All a different temperate, all a different color.  So, what is one to do?  Well, for starters, only use one color.  Whenever I buy new bulbs, I get a pack.  I will confess, I use three different types, but never, ever at the same time.  If you don't have multiples, use white board to reflect the light back.  Mirrors work as well. So then once you have all the same color, set up your camera to see the pure white.  My camera will automatically change, but I always, always like to set it myself just to make sure.  Set a piece of pure white paper, or anything really, in the frame, and set it.  Then that will always be white, and the rest of the colors will fall into place.  Works wonders, even with crappy light.

The macro.  It unfortunately took me a long time to learn this.  I have pictures of things long since gone that if only I had the macro on would have been perfect.  It is a little flower typically, and focuses on tiny things.  It is also a lot of fun to play with the depth of field on your own, focusing on things and blurring out other things.  But typically that is when you really get into photography, and my current camera I don't know how to do that with if it even does.  The one I learned it on was a loaner, it had film... ah, scary, I know.

So, what are your tips for good photography?

Do you want to be featured on my blog with some of these questions?  Go to these interview questions and fill them out, answer as many as you want or do not want to.  I will more than likely edit them down anyways. Then send them to me at thevicagirl, and I will go ahead and post your interview.  I will be intermixing interviews with other posts, so your interview may not appear for a while, do not get upset at this please.

Eco-Tip

Don’t print off emails, most will be around as long as you don’t delete them.

top 10 blog ideas for bloggers

I know as bloggers we are always on the hunt for new blog ideas.  I have a friend who rarely blogs because she doesn't know what to blog about.  Here is a list I have come up with of 10 things to blog about.  In theory you should be able to do multiple blogs on each idea.  Have fun and happy blogging!

1- Holiday posts, post about how you spent your holiday.
2- Gratitude posts, post what you are thankful for, I have a friend who does this at the end of every blog.
3- New tips you have just learned, share the knowledge.
4- Pictures of what you are doing.  If you have done something fun or new, people like to see.
5- Free graphics, or other downloadable things.  People love free things.
6- Top 10 lists of any kind...
7- Exciting things you have done during the week.  And by exciting, they can be plain, like climbing a tree.  If you are passionate about it, it makes for an interesting blog.
8- Something you recently read about.  Do some reading on other blogs and see what they have to say. Don't just copy, make it your own by using it as a starting off point.
9- Top tweets.  I have a friend who always makes a blog at the end of the month on his most popular tweets. 10- Answer a question, either from someone that asked on your blog, twitter, or an email.  People have questions, find them and answer.   

So, what are 10 blog post ideas for bloggers?


Do you want to be featured on my blog with some of these questions?  Go to these interview questions and fill them out, answer as many as you want or do not want to.  I will more than likely edit them down anyways. Then send them to me at thevicagirl, and I will go ahead and post your interview.  I will be intermixing interviews with other posts, so your interview may not appear for a while, do not get upset at this please.