Sunrise Creations Blog

The shops are awash with red, white and pink. TV commercials are telling us to make it a gift ‘they’ll never forget’.  There’s a distinct increase in the availability of heart shaped chocolates.  It seems we must be getting close to Valentine’s Day!  Before you fall victim to the clichéd expressions of love for your special person, throw the commercialised expectations out the window and make your Valentine’s Day special according to your own personal relationship.

The definition of romantic in its simple elegance is the displaying or expressing of love or strong affection.  Nothing mentioned about hand delivered flowers, candlelit dinners or expensive jewellery.  While these things are lovely ways to express how you feel and will no doubt receive a warm welcome, you can have a truly romantic Valentine’s Day just by thinking about your own personal relationship; knowing your partner, what they love (besides you – of course) and expressing this understanding in a way that you know will connect and resonate with them.

As we know with any gift or gesture, it’s always the thought that counts.  True romance on Valentine’s Day is putting thought into your own individual relationship and doing something which you know is meaningful and personal to you both.  It can be as simple as taking them to their favourite place to tell them how you feel.  But we can’t tell you exactly what you need to do this Valentine’s Day – you already have the answer with you.  Just think about it.

Valentine’s Day is on the 14th February and this year falls on a Tuesday.

(Heart petal image by Jody Stuart)

Our blog is so chock full of useful tips about how to take a great photo, ideas for photography subjects, uses for your photos and much more.  Sometimes it can be hard to find the information you are looking for. One of the most important topics we have covered is how to manage all of those precious photos so we thought we'd make it a little easier to sort through by listing some of the best posts here.

So, here are our 5 top posts that will help you sort, organise and store your precious photographic memories.

1. Storing your photos online.  One of our more recent posts which talks about backing up your images by storing them in online photo storage sites.

2. Ahhh - I can't find my photos!   Just how many photos do you have on your computer?  If you had to find one specific photo, how long would it take you?

3. How to choose photos for your album.  You can't save them all so here are some tips to help you work out what to keep and what to include in your album or photobook.

4. Do you have a corporate record?  Not all photos are personal.  Don't forget about your corporate photos.  They tell the story of your business so make sure you protect them.

5. Turn them into canvas.  We all have one favourite photo of our children that we want to preserve.  Turn it into a canvas print to hang on your wall.  That gives you 2 formats of your favourite photo.

We hope these ideas help you easily get sorted and organised.

Isn’t it funny how easily we can let something slip from our minds when it’s not there right in front of us? In our defence, life does get the better of us; one minute it’s Monday, the next it’s Sunday, and you find yourself getting ready to start another week all over again.

The human brain usually works best when we get a reminder about things. A little trigger here or there – a fragrance, a song, a place – can flood your mind with sensations. So what better to be reminded of than your memories or feelings for someone, something or some place you love?  That’s often why we enjoy having photos around us at home and at work.  They are a visual reminder about what we love and enjoy which we can then share with everyone else.

Very often, behind the photo is a story.  A great way to tell the story further without even saying a word is compiling a series of photos of what was happening that special day.  Your child’s first day of school, for example, would have been a process of getting ready, making the lunch, packing the bag and then leaving home to start their exciting new journey.

I always take photos throughout the day because you never know what you’re likely to capture or what particular part of the day will be the one that moves you most.  Seeing my child in uniform for the first time brought tears to my eyes but, unexpectedly, so did the moment when I watched him walk out of school with a big smile and a new friend. 

By taking the photos of each moment and putting them together in a photobook or in a series on your wall, they form something like a visual story, to be shared, admired and reflected upon for years to come. You don’t always have to limit yourself to one photo for a memory – your own story board with a collection of photos can say a thousand words.

With the advent of the internet came a whole host of applications that meant our lives got so much simpler.  These days, photos, for example, can be downloaded from our digital cameras and stored directly onto different sites.  There are so many plusses to this kind of storage, but safety has to be the main one.

How many people have lost their memories from flood, fire or theft?  Too many, that’s for sure.  However, by uploading images onto sites like Flickr, all this worry about our beloved photos will be gone forever.  Here are some of the best and the prices they charge, if any.

Flickr – one of the most popular photo sharing sites on the internet.  For individuals, they allow up to 200mb of storage per month.  For the professional, the allowance is unlimited and it only costs $25 per year.

Smugmug – one for the professionals.  Charges range from forty dollars per year up to one hundred and fifty dollars so only serious photographers will be found here.

Photobucket – reliable storage for photos and videos.  

When choosing a photo storage site, check that you have the option to make some of your images private.  After all, you don’t want other people sharing your family images, do you?

Keeping your photos backed up online doesn't have to cost you anything but I'd pay a fortune just to keep my family memories safe, wouldn't you?

Christmas is over.  It’s time to put things back where they belong.

Cleaning up after the celebration is something that has to be done and in fact, it is part of the whole holiday experience so why not treat it that way?  While cleaning is never our first choice for fun it can actually become fun if you think ahead.  And we know that fun leads to good photos, doesn’t it?

Equip everyone with a bucket, rubber gloves if necessary, dusters and polish or disinfectant, depending on what they are cleaning, and then perhaps have a race to see who can finish their tasks properly in the shortest time.  Don’t let them get away with a quick flick of the duster though because this job has to be done well first time round! 

In fact, make it a competition with prizes for the best results.  This could be a bar of chocolate, or the right to pick the first family movies etc.  It really doesn’t have to be much because it’s all in the name of fun anyway. 

Now, while they are all busy cleaning, pull out your camera and take a few photos.  Yes, really!  These photos will complete the record of your holiday season and it is at times like this that you get the pictures that you treasure forever.  Can’t you just picture your child with rubber gloves up to his elbows and soap bubbles on his nose?

Photography doesn’t have to focus on the ‘pretty’ events.  Record the fun times, too, even if they aren’t ‘pretty’.

To me photos are captured memories.  They mean a lot to me. 

Sometimes it isn’t people that carry the memory, it might be an object.   There are lot of objects I remember fondly because of the person they are associated with in my memory.  But like people, objects don’t last forever.  I like to preserve them in a photo.

If you think about it, there will be things that are important to you.  You might never have told anyone else about them and perhaps they might even come as a surprise to you.  Nana's teacup. Your best friend’s fingers. Your neighbours rose.   These objects and images are connected to your emotions so they make wonderful subjects for your photos.

Here are some ideas of things to you might like to photograph.

• Your grandmother’s dressing table
• A perfume bottle
• Your wedding ring
• Your mother’s cream sponge
• The lace or embroidery of a table cloth
• Your child’s first sandals
• Your baby’s feet
• Your dog resting his head on your partners knee
• The first daffodil of the season
• Autumn leaves
• Sheet music
• Old piano keys
• The star on your Christmas tree
• Your child’s first school report.
• Your child’s face reflected in a window or mirror
• Raindrops
• Puddles
• The first blade of grass in your new lawn

Many of these things are fleeting.  If you don’t capture them straight away it will be too late.  Don’t think of your camera as a tool for photographing people.  Think of it as a way of recording the very special things in your life.

Most of us end up with dozens of photos from the holiday season and not all of them will be fantastic.   Sometimes when there are so many pictures to look through, we put it off and never actually get around to it.

One thing that I have learnt to do is to sort out my photos quite soon after the event.  That way I have things fresh in my mind and it’s much easier to sort out the photos I want to keep and those I will discard.   Believe me; you WILL want to delete some no matter how much memory your computer has.  Imagine never being able to find that special photo again?

Here are a few tips on how to pick the best of the bunch.

1. Make a folder every time you upload.  For example, this year I would have a folder called Christmas 2011.  That helps me quickly locate the images I am after.

2. Immediately delete all the photos that are out of focus or taken by accident.

3. Delete any duplicate photos.  Yes, you know they happen.

4. Photos tell a story so sort them into a timeline of the occasion.  That will help you identify what is missing or which photos you have too many of.

5. Look for photos that have captured facial expressions that you love and keep them.

6. I like to have a photo of everyone who was with me at the time and sometimes that means keeping a ‘less than great’ photo, but that it a choice I make because I value the memory more than the actual image.

7. Get into the habit of doing this after each event.

These tips will help you sort the good from the bad and you can apply it to digital images or printed photographs. 

Go and start your sorting and enjoy reliving the special occasions as you work.

Have you ever wondered where the tradition of leaving cookies and milk out for Santa came from?  I have, so I decided to do a little research. I found a couple of different explanations.

The first says that it began in the Great Depression, when parents wanted to teach their children the importance of sharing, no matter how difficult their life might have been.  The more likely answer is that it originated in Germany where the tradition was to decorate the tree with food items.  It seems logical that it would gradually extend to making a special gift of food to Santa.

This year, why not make your own cookies and let the kids make them really personal by adding a thumprint to them.  Yes, these are called Thumbprint Cookies.  They are simple to make and tasty to eat.  Santa will love them.

Thumbprint Cookies

Makes around 40 cookies.

Ingredients:

180g softened butter
½ cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup self-raising flour
additional castor sugar
your favourite jam.

Method:
Add the butter and sugar to a bowl and mix until it's creamy. Add the ½ cup caster sugar and the flours and combine until well blended. It will form a dough. Chill until firm enough to handle easily.

Roll dough into small balls and place onto a lightly buttered baking tray with a little distance between them. Press your thumb lightly into each biscuit to form a hollow. Add a teaspoon of jam to the hollow.

Bake in a preheated (180°C) oven for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden.  Cool them on wire racks.

Christmas provides so many opportunities to capture special memories of your family, but also to turn those photos into something equally special.

The photos don’t necessarily have to be Christmas related, nor a professional shot. It can be any photo that you love, including snapshots or photos the kids have taken themselves.

An obvious craft idea would be creating a photo Christmas card for grandparents and other close relatives. Some blank cards, or cardboard cut to size and folded, with the image stuck to the front is perfect. Add some Christmas stickers, or glue on some tinsel and stars and it’s ready to send.

Photo crafts can also make fantastic gifts. Have a photo enlarged to A4 size, or create a photo collage on A4 paper and laminate it for use as a place mat or play mat.

Cutting photos into Christmas themed shapes, such as trees or stars, make unique tree decorations. Laminate the photo, punch a hole in the top and thread through some ribbon or gold string to form a loop.

Creating photo collages, or even single photos on coloured paper cut into star, Christmas tree, candy cane or snowflake shapes can be hung on walls or from the ceiling, or even turned into a festive mobile.

A gorgeous, keepsake wreath for your front door can be produced, either by surrounding your favourite photo with tinsel, holly, berries and stars, or creating the circle of the wreath using a collection of your favourite snapshots from throughout the year.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Like many of our modern traditions, the Christmas tree has it's roots in pre-Christian times.   Throughout history different cultures have used trees, especially evergreens, in their celebrations.  In the cold and snowy climate, the evergreen was a symbol of life.

The Christmas Tree Farm Network says "Late in the Middle Ages, Germans and Scandinavians placed evergreen trees inside their homes or just outside their doors to show their hope in the forthcoming spring. Our modern Christmas tree evolved from these early traditions.

Legend has it that Martin Luther began the tradition of decorating trees to celebrate Christmas. One crisp Christmas Eve, about the year 1500, he was walking through snow-covered woods and was struck by the beauty of a group of small evergreens. Their branches, dusted with snow, shimmered in the moonlight. When he got home, he set up a little fir tree indoors so he could share this story with his children. He decorated it with candles, which he lighted in honor of Christ's birth."

From around 1700AD the Christmas tree as we know it began to evolve.  That's when we all got into the fun of decorating them.

Here is a little decoration that your kids will love to make.  Remember the paper chains you made at school?  Imagine how pretty they are when they are made of ribbon instead. This works best with wider ribbon.  The idea comes from Martha Stewart.

(image from Martha Stewart)

How to make a ribbon chain.

Cut your ribbons into 15 cm lengths.  Staple a piece of ribbon with the right sides together, 1cm in from the ends. Now fold the ends back against the ribbon with glue with a glue stick to cover the staple. Turn them back to right side. Now take another length of ribbon and pass it though this loop and repeat the process of stapling and gluing.