Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts

Sid, Sall, & Salt Water Taffy- 1914 postcard (Atlantic City NJ)

Atlantic City, New Jersey. The beach, the shore. In 1914, a little girl named, Sid (possibly Sidney) wrote this postcard to her friend Sally in Minneapolis.

The wicker rolling chair that she is posing in, is still a popular boardwalk pastime in Atlantic City to this day, and real photo postcards made a popular souvenir in the early Twentieth century. We can only guess who is pictured with Sidney. Her Mother?, Aunt?, Sister?, or the Betty mentioned in the postcard? With no last name it's almost impossible to trace them.

April 1914: Dear Sall, I got a box of salt water taffy and a Campbell kid like yours, only with a blue dress and Betty and I had a Easter hunt. I'm going to get some grape juice now. Lots of love, Sid.

The Campbell Kid mentioned in the postcard is of course, a Campbell Soup Kid! Campbells was founded in New Jersey back in 1869. Their Campbell Kid advertisements became incredibly popular in the early 1900's, & all sorts of merchandise, (including dolls) were sold.

I also love the mention of salt water taffy! Growing up in Philadelphia, my family always went down the shore every summer. (We frequented Ocean City, NJ). I always loved stopping at Shrivers and buying a box of their amazing salt water taffy, (or pistachio fudge!) You can even order it online. My husband and I ordered a box for Valentine's Day this year. 

To see more posts like this check out my HistoricalSeries category. 

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Little Miss Priss- 1860's CDV (Ottawa Illinois)

Even in early photography, there were times children didn't want to cooperate, as this little girls face reveals. She looks to be on the verge of a tantrum. It could sometimes take up to a minute for the exposure to take, so it was probably hard for her to hold her pose. I love her expression, it's priceless! It's rare to find such an expressive photograph from the early 19th century. I nicknamed her 'Little Miss Priss'. She looks to be around three to four years old. This carte de visite photograph is circa 1860-1870. It was taken in Ottawa, Illinois. 
I just had to make her into a meme, lol! ;) Feel free to share! 
I recently acquired this antique CDV photo album. The front cover is inscribed 1865. 

To see more posts like this check out my HistoricalSeries category. 
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Creating Curved Watermarks for Nail Polish Photos w/ Paintshop Pro X7.

I've been wanting to do this tutorial for a little while. I get asked a lot how I create my curved watermarks on my nail polish photos. I use Paintshop Pro X7 to create my watermarks. (I had been using PSP X1 for years, but I just upgraded this past weekend to X7). There's quite a few steps involved, but once you've got the hang of it you can create a curved watermark within seconds.

*Note: I'm not sure if this tutorial can be applied to Photoshop or Gimp, as I don't use those programs. If you happen to adapt the steps below to work for you with those programs, please let me know in the comments!  

This is a very picture heavy post- if you want to read more, please click below!

Updated DIY Lightbox.

I've made a few small changes to my DIY Light Box. (You can see the original post here). The biggest change was that I got some white contact paper from Dollar Tree and covered the back and bottom with it. I was getting too much cardboard in the background in some of my photos. I replaced the 2 pieces of paper over the contact paper.

The 2nd change was I now only have one light facing through the tissue paper. The left light stays in the same position. What I started doing with the right clamp lamp was pointing it diagonally inside the right corner of the box. Occasionally depending on how I want the lighting I also sometimes put it inside the left corner too. Or if I want to get really creative and I need just the right lighting, I sometimes balance the clamp lamp in the crook of my right elbow while taking photos of my right hand, lol!

Updated photos of my DIY light box currently:

I also position my lights like this:


What my DIY light box looked like before:

Since using the DIY lightbox I've stopped using the auto setting on my Sony Cybershot W690. I don't use a flash when I'm taking photos in the light box. I also set my white balance to something called setting 1 for florescent lighting. My photos were looking too red with the auto setting. (Sony camera's take warmer photos).

Out of camera photo before editing:

 Edited:

I edit all of my photos using PaintShop Pro Photo XI. What I normally do first is crop and sharpen my photo. Then I usually increase the brightness by 15, maybe more. I also increase the saturation to 5 to boost the color. Then I run it through the photo effect called Time Machine: Cross Process. Most all my photos go through this filter. (That's why you see a black and white frame around my photos). I usually set the effect to 2 or 3. (For pet photos I set the effect to 5.)

***Original DIY light box instructions were posted by The Daily Varnish*** 

Products I use and own:





(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

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Rat Kids!

Here's a few recent photos of some of my pets rats!

 Templeton!

 Teddy & Templeton stayed like this on my bed, after I pet them.

 Emile using Remy as a pillow!

 Emile and Teddy and um... rat balls... lol.

 Buttercup!

 Pumpkin!

The Fur Kids!

It's been a little while since I posted pictures of the fur kids. Everyone is doing okay. Aspen turned 3 years old this month. He's my little frail old man. His back legs don't work well anymore but he still gets around pretty well.

Teddy bear turned 1 year last month, and he started with a preputial abscess.... blah. I hate abscesses. He's been on antibiotics and a scab is just starting, so it will have to be cleaned & drained soon. He takes his meds in Strawberry Ensure because he screams when I try to give him the meds in an oral syringe, lol. 

Belle, one of my dumbo girls, is getting a mammary tumor. It's in a bad spot too, right near her shoulder, so it's kind of under her neck. :-(

Some recent pictures of everyone, from my camera & Instagram:

Buttercup, Violet & Sweet Pea. Making a heart shape in their heart hammock! ♥

Cherry, Belle & Pumpkin. Everyone got new hammocks recently from
Dakota's Sweet Dreams on Etsy.

 Pumpkin & Cherry

 Pumpkin licking off a plate that had a cinnamon bun on it.

 Buttercup & I cuddling the other morning, while I was home sick with a yucky head cold. (Still getting over it).

Templeton looking uncomfortable & offended while my husband gives him a quick wet wipe bath, his expression is so funny!

My Teddy Bear!

 Remy, Templeton & Emile hanging out.

Emile! He is just a little drama king. You'll usually find him pinned on his back while one of the other rats groom him, and he makes pitiful sounding cries, lol. He's very affectionate & playful. Emile LOVES using his wheel, I have yet to get video of him doing it though!

Don't let this photo fool you. Remy is a total troublemaker. He is always antagonizing the other boys in the cage & then they end up chasing each other, boxing or fighting.

Aspen, my frail little old man now.

 Templeton, out cold during a nap on my bed.

Pumpkin, my chubby monkey.

Buttercup, doing her signature "peeking", I love her little paw.

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Weekend Getaway!

F.B. & I decided to have a little "staycation" getaway. Saturday into Sunday we checked into the Hyatt at the Bellevue in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square section. The hotel was just two blocks down from the Academy of Music. I found a nice rate on our room on Agoda.com

Check in was at 3pm on Saturday. We took the train down to Suburban Station. We got downtown around 2pm, so we decided to walk around a little bit. We checked out The Shops at Liberty Place. It's a small mall right near City Hall.

Glass dome roof inside Liberty Place

City Hall
Our Hotel


There was a Starbucks downstairs inside the hotel! They also had a Tiffany & Co, Williams & Sonoma and some other shops downstairs.

Our room!
We headed to dinner after checking in. We ate at Ruby Tuesday at Liberty Place. Then walked around a little after dinner. And I got some Starbucks when we got back to the hotel, hehe.


Sirloin steak, broccoli & mashed cauliflower
Top shelf long island iced tea
Mojito
F.B. with our chocolate lava cake for dessert. 


Art school across the street from the hotel. We could see ballerina's practicing in the studio from the sidewalk. :)
Academy of Music was 2 blocks from the hotel.
Light outside the Academy of Music.
Starbucks & Chocolate back at the hotel!

Courtyard out our hotel window

 Check out was at 12pm. I forgot to take pictures of us when we came back to the hotel after dinner, I was tired. lol. So that's why my hair is wet here.


We checked out shops on Chestnut Street & Walnut Street after checking out. Walnut Street has a bunch of high end shops. The one I really wanted to stop at was L'Occitane!

My loot from L'Occitane! Almond soap, Verbena soap, Almond oil body wash, Verbena hand lotion, Almond lotion, Rose solid perfume.

We decided to head to 30th Street Station to take the train back home. It was sunny, but very cold and windy out! We walked from Broad St all the way to 30th Street Station.

Comcast Center
Church on 17th Street, I liked the red door.

Bridge near Schuylkill Ave.
Oh hi work... see you Tuesday...
30th Street Station, Amtrack building in the back.
Bridge near Schuylkill Ave.
30th Street Station
I got a cute Philadelphia tote bag for work and a metal city souvenir from the book shop inside 30th Street Station. Yeah... playing tourist in my own city again, lol. Ever since my office moved downtown back in December 2010 and I've been riding the trains. I've definitely been checking out more of downtown Philadelphia than ever before.

F.B. tired on the train home.
Me waiting in the car, while F.B. get Wendy's for dinner!
We had a really nice weekend. But boy with all that walking, we are exhausted!

P.S. This was the note F.B. left on my coffee cup and I found when I got to work Thursday morning. (I make my coffee at home in the morning and my travel tumbler goes into my work bag until I get to work).


Other Philadelphia Adventures:
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