It's 2023! Time to turn those Negatives into Positives!

I seem to be making a habit of posting in January and then that's where it ends. I won't even promise to post more this year but maybe I'll surprise myself! Happy New Year to everyone (anyone?) who checks in!

If you are hoping this post offers some sage advise about turning around your attitude this year...sorry. But if you have made a resolution to do something with all those old negatives that have been haunting you for years, I have come up with a cheap and effective way to archive them on your computer. (Yes, someone else may have thought of this already.) All you need is a camera and a lightbox and basic photo editing software. I use Photo Studio. For the lightbox you can use an inexpensive commercial lightbox like the one sold by Stampin' Up or you can make one with some simple materials. Just do a search online for instructions.

Place your negative on the lightbox.

Take a photograph of the negative. I used my Android phone. (This isn't a great photograph to begin with but it was hard finding one that didn't have pictures of people in it).

 Send the photo to your computer. I just emailed mine and then saved it to my computer.

Open the photo file with your photo editing software and choose the 'Negative' option which will turn the file from a negative into a positive.

Crop as needed. Make any necessary adjustments to colour and balance.

Save the new positive to your computer.

For slides, just take a photograph of the slide on your lightbox and send it to your computer. Adjust image as necessary before saving.

60in60 Day Five

I spent a couple of hours with the hummingbirds this morning before getting down to work in my studio.

This isn't a perfect photo but it's pretty cool nonetheless.  I caught this one as it was dive bombing another hummingbird that was infringing on its territory.

Back in the studio, I made some sterling silver earrings out of an old bracelet that my sister found in some junk jewelry.  After annealing the bracelet to soften the silver, I rolled it through the mill and then cut out the earrings.  They are textured with a hammer.  On one pair I used vintage beads that I bought several years ago from a seller on Etsy.

.

Both are listed in my Etsy shop.  My goal was to have 100 listings in my shop by May 31st but I only made it to 42.  I tend to set lofty goals for myself that I have no hope of meeting.  Maybe by the time I reach 60 I'll know better!

60in60 Day Four

What a beautiful sunny afternoon to come home to on the start of my weekend!  I spent about 4 hours out on my beach trying out different settings on my camera, taking photos of hummingbirds.  I wanted to stop the wing action but the really fast shutter speed also made the photos grainy.  I'll have to work on finding the right balance.  I should probably get out the tripod, too.  And some good bug repellant.  The black flies were beastly!