enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

on film.

Some of you may remember when I was taking a roll of film of a month of Ellerie. You can see all of these posts here. And here is a fun comparison post from a year of film photos.

I took a roll in October 2015. And then Piper was born in early November. I took some photos of the girls and then my camera got dropped and my favorite lens broke.

Somehow, November 2015 turned into August 2016 (!) and I decided it was time to get back into it. I took 36 photos in three days and this weekend finally got all three rolls developed.

I opened up those envelopes and ahhhhhh, I'd forgotten. I'd forgotten the magic of film.

I shared a few of these photos on Instagram but I wanted to share more here as well as answer some of the common questions I get whenever I talk about film. This might be a long post. Grab some coffee or your favorite Netflix series.

October 2015

FIRST, OH MY GOSH TODDLER ELLERIE! BUT SECOND, WHY FILM?

I think I like film because it's the exact opposite of digital. Digital = endless options, capabilities and so much data. Film = you get what you get, it is what it is and no room for overwhelm. I take probably 50-100 photos a day on my iPhone (most are very similar) and that's insane. But I do very little with all of those photos. About 3% I post to Instagram. Maybe 1 or 2 will make it into a digital photo book at some point. With film, if I commit to a roll a month I'm averaging about a photo a day. Of that roll probably 25 are worth saving. And those go into an album. There is no overwhelm (for me) with film.

Plus: the light and grain of film just cannot be replicated. I try, for sure. Every time I hit a digital photo with a filter or action I'm trying to get a piece of a magic that is already baked into film prints. It's crazy! Sure, I could update my digital camera and learn how to use Photoshop better and probably have some good results. But then I'd be spending my time dealing with endless .jpg data instead of just snapping and calling it good.

October 2015

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR COMPOSITION WISE?

The best part about film is that I know if I have my camera settings where I want them (more on this below) I should get a "technically" decent photo (meaning the light and focus will be okay). So I get to then play with composition. And basically, I'm just looking for the same stuff I'm always looking for...personality and details. These film photos are so different than the photos that I usually take during the day and it took me awhile to figure out why...

I take these photos during the "off-moments." It's not like the girls are doing something hilarious and so I think, "oh! Better get my film camera!" Usually in those cases I pull out the iPhone. And it's not like I think I'll be sharing these images on social media so I'm less interested in the backdrop or straight lines or if this image is too similar to the last one I just posted.

So often, for these photos, the activity IS the photo. I usually take them right after Ellerie (and now Piper) just got up from a nap. The mid-afternoon light is good, the mood is good. We're re-grouping for the day and the camera is out and it's nice and calm. When things are hectic, I'm not like "I think the film camera will really help me get a handle on this situation."

I guess what I am saying is I get my camera out and then for five minutes or so, I'm looking for the magic. I spend a lot of time looking through the lens before I grab the shot. I never take more than 4-6 photos in a sitting and usually it's closer to 1 or 2.

November 2015

WHAT SETTINGS DO YOU USE?

I have a fairly standard SLR camera that I bought in the early 2000s when I was in high school. It's a Canon, like my DSLR, so I am able to share lenses between the two, which is great. It has automatic focus and winds the film for me and it let's me mess around with the shutter speed and aperture.

After some trial and error, I have learned what I prefer for my (indoor) photos. I shoot almost 100% in AV mode with the aperture set to 1.8. If I am using a different lens, I'll just open it as wide as it can go. Opening the lens up all the way lets the most possible light into the camera with the fastest shutter speed. The fast shutter speed is key... my photographs are usually indoor of active kiddos and I don't want them blurry. It also creates a really short depth of field which means only one part of the image is in focus at a time. Personally, I love this look. I like to see a really soft background and a really clear focus on the subject. (It's not for everyone though.)

Sometimes it works perfectly. The bottom two photos of the four above I love: the focus is on baby Piper's 2-day-old face. The second from the top though is a little blurry. The light was a little low and the shutter didn't snap quite fast enough. It's still an image I cherish, but it's not perfectly crisp. In general, I want to keep the shutter speed above or at 1/90 on my indoor shots to reduce blur. (It's REALLY hard to keep your hands steady if the shutter speed isn't fast enough.)

November 2015

WHAT KIND OF FILM DO YOU USE?

Right now, in my camera, and for every photo shown in this post, I'm using Kodak Portra 160. It was recommended to me by the folks at my camera store. I told them that 99% of my photos would be of my kids and they said you want this film for skin tones. Indeed. My number one issue with my digital photos and trying to process them a bit with filters or Photoshop is that the skin color goes super wonky. Usually it gets red looking, especially if I try to boost other colors in the image. For sure this problem is user-error and I could learn to do better, but with film I don't have to! Perfect (accurate!) color right out of the camera. I can't complain.

In the past I have also used Fujifilm Superia Xtra 400 (looks like this is discontinued?) and Kodak Portra 400. I buy a few rolls at once because it's usually cheaper.

WHERE DO YOU BUY YOUR FILM?

My local camera store or amazon. Amazon usually has what I need, but I want to support my local mom and pop shop as much as possible.

August 2016

WHERE DO YOU DEVELOP YOUR PHOTOS?

Remember the good old days where you could drop-off your film at any drugstore and walk out an hour later with a package of perfect prints? I am so sad that those days are gone forever. Many places have gotten rid of their machines OR they have stopped properly training folks how to use them and so that is very far from the case. It's tougher to find places that will develop and print film and even if you find somewhere, there is no guarantee that whoever is working the machine that day knows what they are doing.

I develop my film and print 4x6 photos through a local shop called Nelson's Photo Supplies. This shop also puts all the scans on a CD for me (which is how you are seeing the digital images in this post.) They were in Little Italy for years but just moved to the Point Loma area. They know what they are doing and I never have to worry about botched negatives or prints. That said...I am certain we will move someday and when that happens I'll google "film developing INSERT OUR NEW CITY HERE" or "camera store INSERT OUR NEW CITY HERE." I'll also check yelp for our area to see if there is a local camera shop that does the job. If I find one, I'll give them a test roll first (a.k.a, not Ellerie's wedding photos) and see how things turn out. If I can't find a local shop then I will send the film to be developed somewhere else. I personally haven't used them, but I've heard great things about Goodman Photo Lab.

All of this to say...don't let how to develop be the reason you are not taking film. There are many reasons to not shoot film. Not knowing where to process isn't one of them. ;)

August 2016

WHAT KIND OF CAMERA DO YOU USE?

I have this camera. But I bought it in 2000 when film cameras were not "rare" and it wasn't that expensive. You can most likely get a decent film camera body used (here are some) for a much better price. You can also play with a point and shoot film camera! Or borrow one from someone you know! I do not use the lens that came with my camera originally and instead shoot mostly with this 50mm or sometimes with this 35mm.

HOW DO YOU GET GOOD LIGHT?

We are beyond lucky that our house is well lit for a decent part of the day. Paul and I lived in a dark apartment our first couple years together and I remember saying that decent light was going to be deal-breaker for future homes. ;) I never take for granted the light that we do have but I also know how to chase the good light. Maybe there is one window in your home that lets in good light from 5-6pm or 7-8am. Experiment! Find the good spot and go there often. You'll notice so many of these photos (especially if you look back) are in the girls' room in the afternoon. That's not chance, that's light. Use your digital camera to figure out where the light is good. It's the same concept, just less expensive to practice.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE PHOTOS?

Once the photos are developed I tear open the package in the car and hold my breath. Usually the first pass through only one will jump out at me as "good" and I hate the rest. It's an odd habit I have. But after I look through them again and again and then watch Paul look through them, I'm enamored. I recycle all the ones that just didn't turn out (it happens! No big deal!) and the remaining 25 or so go into an album. I use and love these Hudson 2-ups by Kolo. Ellerie's years on film filled two of them. I just got two more in the yellow that will hold Ellerie and Piper. I also have a photo framing project planned that will hopefully turn out so I can have more on display. (I store all the negatives and CDs with the images in a box. If the house is ever on fire, I hope I remember to grab the box.)

August 2016

YEAH, BUT WHY FILM?

I've been working on this blog post on and off all day long. And I keep coming back to this question that no one actually asked but I do wonder. Why do I love this project? Why am I so excited to get back into it this fall? And the answer is that it's truly a project just for me. It's a hobby that will always be a hobby. I'm not trying to "get better" at this or make a business from this. I just want to do it. The girls are changing! So much every day! This is a fun way for me to capture their growth without the overwhelm that comes with many options. Instead of scrolling through thousands of photos from a month to pick a few upload to a book, I flip through 36 and stick my favorites in an album. This project will never replace or even slow-down how many photos I take with my phone but it's different enough to be enjoyable. It's also the exact opposite of the "instant-ness" that comes with social media sharing which is nice. I'm not worried that I "skipped" 10 months of this project. I'm just grateful that the enthusiasm to pick it back up has arrived.

WANT MORE FILM PHOTOS?

Tara Whitney's photos are my favorite. Makes me want to road-trip right this very second.

acrylic paint scripted canvas how-to.

Years ago, I made this giant scripted canvas. It is still one of my very favorite DIY projects and it's still hanging in our house. The lyrics are from a Rise Against song that was our first dance at our wedding. The inspiration for this project is from this pin. 

In that original post I shared a how-to of sorts but I clearly didn't do a great job because I still get emails with questions about this project often. Today I wanted to share a few more tips and figured I'd try to be a bit more specific this time.

I primed the canvas first. In the original, this meant I used a "wash" of white acrylic paint and water. The mix was about 50/50. I wanted the paint to just lightly cover the canvas so it looked a bit more broken in. It was drippy and a bit messy, but it worked well. For this second one I am sharing today, I painted over an old painting. Large canvases can be expensive so you might find it works better to paint over something you find second-hand or to paint over your own old work. When painting over I needed much more coverage and so I used white wall paint that I had in the garage. The type doesn't really matter - you just want a decent white base so the canvas doesn't scream, "hi! I'm brand new!"

I used acrylic paint and a round brush. You don't have to do this, but that's what worked for me. The black acrylic paint is from a big box craft store and the round brush came in an inexpensive pack. I used a round brush because (for me) this gives me the most universal letter shape. I'm not trying to get swoopy or fancy with my letters. That's a killer style and looks great, but I'm not good enough at it to make it work perfectly, so I just want my handwriting to look even. The size will vary depending on your canvas size. I would recommend getting a few brush options and then playing around on scratch paper to see what size you like your letters. For today's sample canvas I used a size 6 round brush. (When in doubt, go smaller than you think.)

I mix in a bit of water with my black paint. Just a bit. You don't need a lot. I think my ratio is about 80/20 but probably would have been better 90/10. I mix it with the paintbrush until I have a "runny-ish" consistency. I want the paint to go on smooth, but I don't want it to be like watercolor. This is sort of hard to describe so I just recommend starting with a tiny bit of water and then adding if you need it.

Practice on scratch paper. Try a few words to get comfortable with the brush and the paint mixture. Do you need a smaller brush? Less water? Fix your issues on the scratch paper, not the canvas.

Write out the whole saying on paper first. I didn't do this with either of my projects and botched it both times. The lyrics I had to adjust a bit and the quote today is completely wrong. The original is from J.B. Priestley and just beautiful: "I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning."  Mine gets the gist (and I do like it), but is not right AND I ran out of room. This quote needed a larger canvas or a smaller brush to fit the space. If you can be flexible with what you are writing that will really help!

Write complete words without worrying about paint distribution. I think this is the most important tip. Your handwriting is going to look the most natural if you write out the words fully and then go back and "fill in" where the paint got lighter. I use the same size brush for the fill in, but you could use something smaller and it might get an even cleaner edge.

Embrace your handwriting. The best thing about your handwriting is it's yours. If you want to do this project, DO IT. And embrace it. Don't try on a new lettering style. Don't lament that you don't have great cursive, just write how you write and love it for that. It's special because it's yours.

I let the words break off the side of the canvas. I found that not only is this easy, it's the best way to get the canvas to look full and that is my favorite part of the inspiration image. I love how the text runs directly off the side and, of course, it takes some of the guess work out of letter spacing. You just write until there is no space and then start on the next line. Easy day.

I did not "finish" the canvas in any way. A few folks have asked if I painted over it to seal or added a gloss and I did not. It's only been a few years, but it still looks good. No issues yet.

And those are my tips! This is a fun statement piece and a relatively simple project once you get over the fear of your handwriting and decide what to say. Worth a try FOR SURE!

super simple rainbow quilt.

Safe to say this is the EASIEST quilt I've ever completed. Highly recommend if you are new to quilting and looking for something high-impact and fun to start with. The hardest part was actually picking out the colored fabrics, but because I love a rainbow, that was the most fun part too.

I bought 1/3 yard of 36 different colors. This was not the most economical way to go about it, but I was very picky about my colors and so I couldn't just buy a bundle of rainbow fat quarters. I do, however, have enough fabric to make four rainbow quilts, so if you were going to make a bunch to give as gifts or something, this would be ideal. (I'm going to give away three of the stacks of fabric so three of you can make a similar quilt - details at the end of this post.)

I cut the fabric into squares that were 10x10 inches using a cutting mat, ruler and rotary trimmer. After a million triangle quilts, cutting squares (especially this large) was so easy and enjoyable.

I laid it all out to be sure I had the order right. I wanted to go red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple horizontally and then have it fade from darkest to lightest vertically. I sewed each rainbow together so I had six strips of six squares each and then ironed my creases open and pinned it together. Because there were so few corners to line up, this one actually came together pretty neatly.

I screwed up a bit and cut my backing fabric too small. I went with a white extra wide cotton backing but didn't quite give myself enough wiggle room and over the course of sewing all those lines, it shifted a bit which meant I had to lose some of the front to even it out (you'll notice that the darkest red square in particular is smaller than the others). This sort of thing always bothers me at the time, but I know from experience that months (or even days) from now when we're actually using the quilt, it's not the sort of thing I'll notice or worry about.

To give it a bit of dimension, I quilted tons of horizontal lines across the surface. The thread on the top is white and then I alternated the color in the bobbin so the thread on the backing was multi-colored in a rainbow. It's VERY subtle. Too subtle to be worth it, I'd say. In photos it looks particularly lame. In person you can kind of see, but you really have to look for the color change. If I did it again I would probably just use all one color or even just white.

The finished quilt is about 55x55 inches though it will shrink a bit when I wash it. I bound it in gray stripe but black and white stripe would have looked awesome too.

Overall - it's one of my top ten favorite projects. I'm taking Ellerie to the park tonight for a picnic to break it in.

And now! The giveaway! As mentioned, I have enough fabric for four quilt tops and I only made one. So I have THREE stacks of rainbow squares that are already cut to 10x10 inches. You'd need your own batting, binding and backing fabric but you'd be at least partway there if you won. Please leave a comment if you're interested. I'll draw three winners by the weekend and will ship anywhere.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED, drawing winners now and will announce Saturday AM.

striped knit cowl tutorial.

"Let's!" "Get!" "Crafty!"

Back in the day I had grand plans for my own craft channel TV show. Today, I present to you, episode one. (Just kidding. Though six points if you remembered without clicking that link what I'm talking about.)

BUT! I did film, edit, voice-over, produce and upload a short video (you can click below to enlarge) that shows how to knit a striped cowl from start to finish. It's going to take you more than 10 minutes to knit but only 10.5 minutes to watch (plus, probably some start, stop, rewind, wonder what the hell I am trying to demonstrate time).

striped knit cowl tutorial from elise blaha on Vimeo.

I have shared my go-to cowl tutorial before but this one is a bit different because it's smaller (tighter to the neck) and uses two colors which makes it look much more impressive than it is. The secret to a two-color cowl is keeping both colors attached the whole way through (which I demonstrate in the video). The video also covers how to long tail cast on, how to knit both the English and Continental styles, how to cast off, how to weave in your tails and what I do when I am not sure why something looks odd (spoiler alert - push through!).

I love a small cowl so this finished project is only about 12 inches wide and 15 inches tall when laid flat. (Yours could be bigger if you cast on more stitches and kept going for more rows.) I used US size 7 (4.5mm) circular needles that were 16 inches long and two different skeins of Patons Classic Wool Roving.

If you know what you're doing and don't want to watch a video, pattern instructions are below.

Long-tail cast on 64 stitches with starting color. Join the round, taking care to make sure there are no twists in your yarn. Knit all the way around with the second color. Switch back to the first color. Continue this alternating pattern for 54 rows total. Cast off with the same color you started with. Weave in ends.

TA-DA! Pull a gray sweater out of the hamper to match, pretend it's not 80 degrees in November and wear with pride!

let's save valuable blogging time.

It's quite likely this "tutorial" is already known by most photo-savvy folks, but I had NO idea that this technology existed until a few months ago. I re-size every photo on my blog (and every photo on my website) to properly fit the column/size needed. Part of this is making them "web-friendly" or reducing the resolution to 72dpi so load times are not too long. These photos are NOT printer-friendly, but they look great on screens.

Before I learned this "process multiple files" trick I was re-sizing each image on it's own and it took minutes instead of seconds, which over the course of a month really adds up. I dreaded photo-heavy posts because they were so time intensive to prepare. Now I'm like, "bring it." (And I have brought it here, here and here.)

processing mulitple images for the web from elise blaha on Vimeo.

The above three minute video (click here to view full-size and be sure to let it load fully before starting) shows you how I used to process my image files one at a time and then shares my time-saving tip. I use PSE9 (I know, I know, upgrade already!) but I imagine the idea is similar no matter what version of PSE or PS you have.

I hope this helps! It was a gamechanger and time-saver for me, FOR SURE.