Posted by Nancy on March 13, 2010
Handwritten Notes
I didn’t have a planned story for this morning, so I grabbed the box of pictures and started searching for something. I came across this picture of me in the driveway. Originally I was going to tell the story about my two brothers teaching me how to ride a bike by pushing me down the driveway, but when I turned it over to place it on the scanner I noticed this and something else came to mind….
My mother always referred to me as “Nancy Lynn”. Nine months old and I still didn’t have any hair!
Now, I’ve seen this picture a hundred times or more throughout my life, but I don’t ever remember seeing the note on the back of the picture. It’s a strange (but good) feeling to find a note from my mother who’s been passed on now for quite a few years. This has happened to me a few times while working with these pictures. My parents kept a pretty good record, I have a few notes from my dad written on the back of pictures as well.
It got me thinking about the way I keep my pictures, which someday my son and his children will be rummaging through. Right now, I put them in albums with a “note section” next to each picture. Quite honestly, by the time my son is sitting down with his children, I’m going to have 30 albums or more, in addition to my scrapbook albums. More than likely, he won’t have anywhere to keep all of them and they’ll end up in his attic. I’m wondering if I should start writing on the back of the pictures and keep them in picture boxes that hold 500-1000 photographs instead of albums that only hold 200. I’m not crazy about albums that hold 500 photos, they get ridiculously bulky. Plus, I like to hold the picture in my hand, I don’t necessarily need to “preserve” every single photograph. Some of my favorite photographs from my mother’s box are the faded ones with scratches and bent corners.
I like the idea of handwritten notes, even more so than digital scrapbook pages. I know how it feels to find little surprises like this, especially when the person who wrote it has passed on, it makes the memory that much more special.
Now as far as the note is concerned, it would seem that my mother was giving this picture to someone because she wrote, “You can keep this one.” I guess they didn’t want it, (bwahaha!) or she never sent it, because it was still in her box of pictures!!
Posted in Saturday Morning Memories | Tagged: baby, baby walker, handwritten notes, memories, Nancy Barton | 5 Comments »
Posted by Nancy on March 13, 2010
I was leaving work on Friday, and while I was waiting to turn left out of our parking lot, (which could very well take me 10 minutes sometimes) I noticed the colors from the traffic light at the corner and the cars travelling up and down the road. They were sparkling through my rain covered window. I got my camera out (because it’s always right next to me) sat there at the end of the driveway and fired off about 90 frames. I don’t know why I had to shoot 90, I’m sure 10 would have been sufficient, but I had the camera in continuous shoot and I wasn’t in a hurry to get home, so I just held the shutter button down. I thought it was a good choice for my 100 Photos project.
Posted in Photography | Tagged: 100 Photos, bokeh, canon digital rebel xti, color, depth of field, Nancy Barton, traffic lights, windows | 3 Comments »
Posted by Nancy on March 12, 2010
Somehow, in addition to all of the other projects that I have going, I managed to scrap something. (Don’t put your snow shovels away yet, it just might snow again.)
When we got home from vacation last July, I had started scrapping the pictures, but never finished. Imagine that, an unfinished project. That’s so unlike me. 
I was on Therese Rydstrom’s blog recently and saw that she had two new templates, downloadable for free, so I thought I would go for it and try to scrap some more vacation shots.
I’m not sure that I will ever get to all of the shots that I would like to, but using Therese’s templates sure helps. Check out her free offers here. She’s truly amazing.
Posted in Scrapbooking | Tagged: Nancy Barton, Scrapbooking, Summer, Therese Rydstrom | 3 Comments »
Posted by Nancy on March 10, 2010
I’m so glad Spring is around the corner. The sun is setting around 6:00 p.m., so finally, after a long, cold and snowy Winter, I can get outside after work for some shooting time. I had a free hour on Tuesday night and I found myself chasing the sunset (literally), I managed to catch a few minutes of it, but I was a little too late. Instead, I turned the other way and got this shot of a barn on the side of the road.
Texture – Les Brumes
Posted in 100 Photos | Tagged: 100 Photos, barn, canon digital rebel xti, farm, landscape, Nancy Barton, road, street, texture | 3 Comments »
Posted by Nancy on March 7, 2010
Searching through my files on the computer, because I haven’t had any time to actually take any photos, I came across these pictures from our family vacation at the Jersey Shore last Summer. This is my son and his four friends walking on the beach. (Vinny is front right in the first picture).
I used a Les Brumes texture on the photo, which I found through Flickr. If you work with texture I totally recommend checking out Les Brumes’ photostream. What a fabulous FREE collection! I had to stop myself from downloading all of them.
Speaking of the Jersey Shore, for those of you who have been tuning in to the television show “Jersey Shore“, and aren’t from around here, rest assured, not all Jersey folks….
tawk like dat.
Ah-ight?
Posted in Family, Photography | Tagged: beach, Jersey Shore, Nancy Barton, New Jersey, ocean, Summer, teenagers, texture, vacation | 5 Comments »
Posted by Nancy on March 6, 2010
Vinny and I are painting his room today, so I don’t have time for a Saturday Morning Memory story.
Not so sure I like it, however, I don’t think the picture does it justice, it’s more of a deeper blue than it looks here. I guess I should be glad, he originally picked out black. I talked him out of it. That would have been a nightmare, to say the least. He has a slanted ceiling that will be painted white, so only a portion of the walls will be this color. I always think that I like painting, until I start. I get halfway through the ceiling and then wonder why I didn’t hire a painter. That explains why I’m sitting here doing a blog post instead of painting.
Posted in 100 Photos | Tagged: 50mm, blue, canon digital rebel xti, Nancy Barton, paint | 3 Comments »
Posted by Nancy on March 4, 2010
I found out from a friend through the office that he was selling his Canon 300D. I told him I may be interested in it for my son, who has photography class this year in high school. He was selling the camera along with a 55-200mm lens, an 18-55mm lens, as well as the Canon Speedlite 420EX, the battery, battery charger and memory card. When he told me how much he wanted, I jumped on it. He dropped it off at my office on Tuesday, I didn’t even have to pick it up! There’s not a scratch on it, it’s in perfect condition.
Vinny was quite surprised. I’m hoping we can spend some shooting time together on the weekends. Maybe I can even come up with some kind of project for us to do together, since I don’t seem to have much in common with a 16 year old boy, unless it involves him driving the car. We’ll see how it goes. In any event, I get to add a 200mm lens to my collection, that’s one I didn’t have.
Posted in Photography | Tagged: camera, Photography, Nancy Barton, canon digital rebel, 18-55mm, 55-200mm, lenses, Canon Speedlite 420EX | 4 Comments »
Posted by Nancy on March 2, 2010
My Mother the Sun Goddess
I know, it’s not Saturday morning, but I thought I would post this photo today anyway. I did all of the editing on it this morning so I counted it as #55 of my 365 project. This is my mother on the beach in the 50’s. It’s one of my favorite pictures of her. The original photo is a 4×4 and it’s in bad shape, totally faded and really scratched up. I did the best I could with it and thought it came out pretty good.
My mother was a sun goddess, she would layout every day in the Summer for hours and her tan would last til Christmas. Not me, I didn’t get so lucky, I got my father’s fair skin, I burn, I tan, then it goes away.
Posted in Saturday Morning Memories | Tagged: beach, Family, Nancy Barton, Summer | 7 Comments »
