Studio{us} Mommy

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine,—Sellers Publishing is excited to announce the exclusive worldwide publishing agreement with internationally acclaimed photographers Tracy Raver and Kelley Ryden. Tracy and Kelley, who are also sisters, are quickly becoming leaders in the fastest growing new genre of studio photography: newborn baby portraiture. The public can now see for themselves with SLEEPING BEAUTIES: NEWBORNS IN DREAMLAND (Sellers Publishing; April 2010; Hardcover; $29.95)

“What makes Tracy and Kelley’s photography unique is that most of their subjects are only a few days old. In the past, studio portraits of babies usually weren’t taken until the babies were old enough to sit up by themselves. Now, more and more parents are opting to have professional portraits taken almost immediately after their children are born.

Another distinctive characteristic of their work is that most of the newborns they photograph are sleeping when their portraits are taken, and they use a minimum of props. This creates portraits that are as natural looking as they are profound, and this organic approach is one that is very much in sync with today’s trends.

Tracy and Kelley say the key to their technique is capturing the infants in the first month of their lives because after that they become more alert and outgoing. “Newborns are naturally very sleepy, and we ask the moms to get their bellies nice and full before arriving at the studio. We try to work towards natural, curly positions, like they are in the womb, and after the first hour or so when they get used to us positioning them, they are pretty easy to work with.” Their results are winning over the hearts of people everywhere.

My Review: This book is FANTASTIC. Its got so MANY delicious pictures of newborns sleeping. It is SO precious. And for almost every photo there is a saying or quote on the opposite page that goes along with babies and newborns. Its a perfect coffee table book and will get many awwwww’s from people looking at it. I can’t leave the book out because Aiden flocks right to it and he is a toddler tornado and will get excited when he sees the faces and may tear the pages. But he sure loves looking at the babies! Its a good sized book too, not small at all. My favorite parts? TWINS. This is absolute master of photographic perfection in the poses for these babies!

I am honored that I was able to view this wonderful book preview. Thanks so much Sellers Publishing for sending me this book. HUGE thumbs up!! Thank You Tracey and Kelley for taking such beautiful photographs!

Buy It: You can get more information on this book and order the calendar and accessories HERE

Get the book at Amazon!

Its finally here! My review of the Casio Exilim EX-Z33 Point and Shoot Camera! I will get to the exact technical specs a little later but first I want to touch on its features. Its a 10.1 mp camera with a 3X Zoom and a 2.5 inch LCD screen (nearly as big as my Nikon!). Its got not only a video mode but also a setting in camera to optimize it for YouTube and also comes with software to upload it directly to YouTube when you put the card into your computer! I tend to edit my videos so I upload mine directly from my Adobe Premier software but still its a neat feature. The best part of the video option? There is ONE BUTTON to press on the back to get it started!!Also the amazing thing that I think I love the most is the MANY options of scene modes to choose from, they call it Best Shot:

It really takes the guesswork on what settings to use so you can shoot faster and get that shot you want! I am dying to use the fireworks mode this summer!

Ok here are the specs of the camera that Casio sent me:

The EXILIM EX-Z33, a 10.1 megapixel digital camera with a 3X optical zoom lens. The EX-Z33 features a dedicated movie button that allows users to record widescreen movies with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Additionally, the EX-Z33 is compatible with commercially available SD memory cards.   This camera combines a stylish, slim body with high-powered features that allow families or anyone on-the-go with the ability to capture a memorable moment where ever they are.

• Easy Mode – Helps new comers become an expert with common settings – Using easy Mode, photo settings are restricted to just image size, flash on/off and self timer, and these are displayed on a simplified menu screen.
• Convenient Face Detection Function – The camera automatically detects people’s faces, allowing users to take well focused and beautifully exposed pictures of the faces of their intended subjects.
• Widescreen Movies – Simply by pressing the dedicated Movie button, users can record widescreen movies with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
• YouTube™ Capture Mode – Movies can be recorded and saved using the ideal size and quality settings for the world’s most popular video sharing site, YouTube™. Recorded movies can be uploaded to YouTube™ using the included compu ter software.

Advanced Technical Specs can be found HERE.

My Thoughts on the camera:

Firstly I needed something I could throw in my purse or diaper bag for quick photos. I find my kids seem super adorable when we go shopping and wish I had a camera for that. I am so glad I do because I got this one of Aiden a few days ago!

And this is one I took of my hubby and Aiden later that night-

And a couple of videos- First A video clip I took with the Casio-

Then a short video I took with my Nikon showing a couple features of the camera:

Its a pain to drag around the heavy camera bag and the dSLR so its nice to just whip out a camera really fast. It starts up very fast. There are just a few buttons on the back.

One for video (red dot), one for playback and taking pictures, then the wheel that helps you scroll through menus, then the menu and Best Shot button. The zoom is right at the shutter button. I love the simplicity of it. It takes SD cards and I use those already in my slr cameras so that was a huge bonus. Another bonus is never having to worry about the lens cap because the lens retracts into the camera.

For around $99, this camera is great for what it does. I would definitely recommend it to my friends and my father-in-law is already planning on buying one.

The Pros: Affordable, lightweight, very user friendly ( I didn’t even read the book!) and very handy. Hands down a HUGE plus is that it comes with a rechargeable battery and charger! No more buying AA batts!

The cons: Shutter Speed. I am so used to fast shutter speeds and sharp, crisp images. Point and Shoots at this price range simply cannot keep up with dSLR for speed. I find the lag to be long and sometimes I miss a shot or it blurs. I think this camera performs really well outdoors but has a little more trouble in low light. It powers up super fast though and it would probably run even faster with the screen turned off in the back. Again I don’t like to use flash but had to in low light and it took longer than I liked but nothing horrible.

Bottom Line – I don’t have other cameras to compare it to so for now its taking the cake. I think its a great camera with great features for someone like me who needed something like this for the purse to catch moments on the go.

Thank You Casio for providing us with a camera for review purposes!

The people at Seagate wanted me to give away another hard drive. But this time they want to give more! This time they are giving away the 500gb FreeAgent Go AND the Dockstar!! The value of this giveaway is over $200!! Read more about the drive and Dockstar in my review HERE

♥ SHARE THE LOVE ♥

Hardware problems again so back to TELL ME YOUR FAVORITE COLOR for the Seagate! Sorry about the problems, our LAN cable is acting up! My Dockstar is OFFLINE so no more photo entries!

To see the album, click here! —>Share The Love

This contest has ended and the winner is comment number 448, Andrew! CONGRATS!

I have found my nirvana for storage and sharing my photos! Seagate has designed an external hard drive that goes seamlessly with whats called Dockstar, a device that hooks up to your computers router via LAN cable. What this does is make your files on your computer accessible anywhere, on the go! You could take your laptop to New York and log into your files at home that you forgot to transfer before the flight. And with large file sizes like 500 gig and even 1 Terabyte, you should not run out of room on the hard drive! This is absolutely ideal for photo storage.

Seagate sent me a 500 gig FreeAgent Go and Dockstar to review for this new blog! (It was promptly nicknamed Missy, short for mistress, because my husband sweet talks to me when he wants to borrow it and he treats it like its a woman!) It arrived the very day, in fact right before, we needed to back up files and photos to switch computers. This happened 2 more times before I finally was given the power laptop for my needs. Each time we were able to use the hard drive with no problems using just a USB. I was never more grateful for storage. We installed fresh versions of windows, office, and photo/video programs so we needed to make sure everything was safe. And it is!

After we worked on networks and settings for a few days (we had to hook up the PS3 through my laptop) we were able to go ahead and plug in the drive to the dock. The dock has its own power adapter. You just hook up your LAN cable to your computer and voila! Also it has three USB ports so it can also be used for a hub!

When you get your dockstar plugged in and ready to go, the first thing you need to do is go to a special site just for sharing and that is Pogoplug.com. Once you register you will be able to upload. Now because I am on a laptop that has to use the LAN connection for the PS3, I do not keep the dockstar online all the time. I only have one port for that. What I am going to do however is plug it into another computer than can stay on somehow. I wish I had a better router but we have SBC/ATT dsl and they have crappy routers with just one hole for LAN. Ok so anyway you go in it shows your folders on the hard drive. You can choose which ones to share and then even send emails to certain people you want to share with. Also you can have the other people be able to store their photos there too for you to download. You can make it as private or as public as you want.

This setup is perfect for families that live far apart. Also ideal for photographers as they can create very private online galleries for clients. What I love about it is the size, not too big or small. Also its very easy to get started sharing. I realize as I say this that there are some people that are still going to get confused but that’s ok, Seagate has good instructions right in the package. You can also email me if you need help setting up! The other thing I love about it is that besides sharing with family you can actually share items on Twitter and Facebook. The biggest draw for me is the hard drive. I needed a large drive to handle photos.

I do not use this hard drive for class. I would love to but firstly its being used as a safe keeping box and backup of files and photos. And secondly, my class at college is using Mac computers and you cannot use a hard drive formatted on windows in a mac machine. What I will have to do if I want to use one for school is get another one and have it formatted at my college and use it only for college and no sharing.

The only thing I don’t like is that it actually uses LAN. Most computers and older routers only have one input and output for LAN connections and all of ours are taken so I can’t hook up to share. Also the router its connected to (or computer) has to be on all the time if you are trying to access your files from somewhere else. But like I said if you have a nice router with more than one access port then it shouldn’t be a problem.

Buy It: FreeAgent Go hard drive retails for $139.99 and the dockstar retails for $99. You can get them right from the Seagate site!

(Thank You Readers!)

Seagate is giving away one 500 gig FreeAgent Go and a one year subscription to Roxio PhotoShow! With PhotoShow you can create really great one of a kind dazzling slideshows to share online or at home! This prize pack is worth $180!! (Please note this giveaway does NOT include the Dockstar, its the hard drive ONLY and the subscription to PhotoShow)

Mandatory Entry: Go to Seagate and tell me the name of your favorite color of FreeAgent Go hard drive AND tell me what you will use the drive for, storage or sharing with family and friends, etc!

Extra entries:

• Become a fan of Seagate on Facebook
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• Follow me on Twitter
• You can tweet about this giveaway once a day! Leave the link to your tweet. Example Below you can copy
  

RT @studiousmommy Seagate FreeAgent Go and Photoshow Giveaway at Studio{us} Mommy! http://is.gd/6xWX1

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This contest is closed. This is a video of me taken in the last hour, choosing the winner, and she has been notified and has 48 hours to claim her prize, winner is comment 633!