A walk in a spring park

Nothing special today:) Just several pictures of our spring :)

Well... In our place, it's always spring comes after fall :) I know there is winter by calender, but it's not a real winter with snow and cold as I got used to in my mother country :)

Fall berries on the bushes are still hanging while new flowers are beginning to bloom.

Chain maille bracelet with pearls

My first wire work! Not so long time ago, I was surfing the Internet, and found many interesting tutorials how to make jewelries of wire. One bracelet tutorial made in chain maille technique seemed to be easy to make even for beginners like me :)

Dahlia Flowers Show in San Francisco

Last Sunday, my husband and I almost accidentally got to dahlia show that was taken place in Golden Gate park in San Francisco :). The show is usually conducted by Dahlia Society of California once in a year if I remember correctly. Well... I'm writing a little today because there is no words to explain how beautiful these dahlias:) I'm simply sharing pictures of dahlia flowers with small comments :)

How to enhance pictures with online photo editor

It's not a tutorial; it's just a way to share "how I did it". All started when I was helping my Etsy teammate to enhance a little bit pictures of her items. I know that not everyone has Photoshop, and I found a convenient free tool for online photo editing http://pixlr.com/editor/ . Graphic user interface is pretty much intuitive and convenient to use. I'm going to use a picture of wedding flower from BelleBlooms shop on Etsy to show photo editing in action. Again, it's just one way to make your pictures look a little bit better. I'll show how I got the result (left picture) from the original (right picture).

Breakfast idea for Valentine

It's just a little bit more than 2 weeks before Valentine's day, and almost everything is running around this holiday. We are preparing gifts, making decorations, probably, getting ready some special outfit, and so on. So I also want to share some idea for Valentine's day, and show how usual ingredients can make Valentine's day (and any other day) breakfast special.

Beaded fresh water pearl bracelet tutorial

Once, I found a great tutorial how to make an adorable beaded bracelet. The DIY tutorial was published on EtsyRussianTeam blog and it inspired me to make one for myself. It took me a while to make the bracelet for myself. Honestly, I have a lot of different tutorials that I keeping, but not making anything. But this one... I simply had to make it! Why?... I don't know :) Maybe, because it's made of pearl that I like very much! Anyhow, here we go. The bracelet!

Christmas gift exchange

Do you like to receive gifts? :) Well... who doesn't... It's third time in Russian team on Etsy when we have Secret Santa gift exchange. Initially, it was Albina's idea to play that game, and this year, it's third time we are playing the game.

Every time it's a little bit challenging for me. :) What to gift? What the person like? How my gift would suit the addressee life style? Also, I'd like to gift something hand made to share a piece of my warmth.

This year, I'm a secret Santa for one lady, and I'm not sharing her name. :) It'll be surprise for her. I made two small gifts for her: a calendar and a necklace. Well... Ladies like jewelry, and I hope that this part of the gift will fit her lifestyle :). I made it of pearls and clear crystals, that's why it should be OK with any outfit because I don't know her preferences in colors.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I wish you a lot of luck! :)

I always love the idea to take a greeting image (digital or printed note card ) on my own. I like to challenge myself especially with occasions like Patrick's day because not much attributes I can find around in my home :) So... in this case, it's shamrock (or something looks like it... I really don't know) from my backyard and a mug of beer (which was consumed by my husband later :)... He was happy... )

Hope you like the idea I came up with :)

Jewelry product photography. Albina's creations

Albina is my fellow team mate in Russians on Etsy team. Recently, she asked me to work on good pictures of her jewelries. You know why... her article is going to be issued in a magazine! I was excited to get this challenge - to take really good looking pictures for the magazine. :)


I hope I fulfilled the order :) Also, just a little secret... I'm really proud of myself because I really improved my skills in product photography. If you'd look at my first pictures, gosh... they are really unacceptable :( I know, that I need practice more and more to get them better, but I feel that I've made pretty much big step in this field :)


Look at the gorgeous jewelries! Albina is a great wire sculpture artist. Her creations are really unique.


Honestly, I'm not a big fan of copper jewelries. I prefer silver or gold, but these one make me to think about my preferences. :)



I wish I could make something like this... *sigh*

More Lovely soaps

Yay! I have them again! I've got more great soaps from Cindy (SudzNBubbles) for product photography. And I'm keeping them!!! Cindy, thank you for them. They are really amazing.
These are just three of them. Honestly, I don't know how Cindy will title them; I'm just sharing my experience. :)

This one... I call it "Exotic cocktail". When I unwrapped it, great yet tender scent of tropic fruits filled my room


This one really reminds me fresh ocean breeze. So call it this way - "Ocean Breeze" :)

And this one smells like very jucy lemon... or lime :) My favorite scent. :0 Yes, I love citrus scents. :)


Cindy, thank you very much! I love your soaps. :)

Soap Object Photography

How to push myself to be more organized? Does anyone know the answer?

So many times I promised myself to blog often, and what? Still the same... :( I'm sorry I didn't wright down so many things which happened to me... Yes, there were something good and bad in my life.... Anyway, I'd like to leave it in the past and look forward to the future. :) So many interesting things is awaiting for me!

Today I'd like to share my first experience with object photography. Cindy (SudsNBubbles) and I have arranged to trade: she sends her products to me, and I take pictures of them. So I believe this is a win-win arrangement since she gets good pictures of her products, and I get her adorable soaps and other things. Well... yes it was just once but I look forward to keep the partnership.

So... at first, the project was challenging for me. The big problem, that I didn't have special equipment for object photography. I took the pictures with 2 desk lamps. It was challenging. The main problem was with color balancing because one lamp has tiny tiny tiny rose tint, and second one - yellow. So the color balance was completely ruined. I had to edit that pictures a lot. Anyway, that's are results of my work. :) Some of them... :)





Well... it's just two of them. Probably, I'll post more later. :)

I guess it's pretty obvious that I like to take pictures of nature and still life. All my photos are about them.-) But recently I discovered that portrait photography is exciting, too.




HERE MORE

ZOO!!!

I've been in Oakland Zoo. The pictures are nothing special... just animals. LOL

I like to go to a zoo. When I was a kid, I lived in a city where was't a zoo. I remember I really wanted to go to see animals. And when we went to other cities where were zoos, it was really fun for me to go there. Unfortunately, zoos in my country that time and zoos in America are very very different. In my country, they lived in cages... they were really unhappy. I had different thoughts... I really liked to visit a zoo. On the other hand I was sad about their unhappiness.

In America, I don't feel sad.:) Animals look pretty good, and I like it. So visiting a zoo is exciting. :)







And more here