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Stop Telling Me You’ll Be Back

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Worn on 3 Dec 2010

Thoughts:  Okay, that was not enjoyable.  And I still keep intermittently getting the error messages.  Not fun.  I’m definitely going to consider moving my blog off tumblr.  

In other news, I think I’m ready to start replacing all of my tights with Spanx/Assets.  The waistbands of my HUE tights roll/slide down a lot and none of my Spanx do.  Getting to be more expensive though, I think they’re around $25 each.  Maybe I should try We Love Colors again?  I know a lot of bloggers love those.  

So glad to bring this scarf out for winter… even if it is 28 degrees.  I love the little buttons and bows sewed onto the one end.  The wool is also very soft.  I think I purchased it for €38 which wasn’t too bad at the time I got it and I really regret not buying more.  I don’t even want to think about the import taxes from Ireland!  

C&C shirt, J. Crew skirt, HUE tights, Avoca scarf, Frye boots.  

Help: Wide Angle Lens Distortion

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I don’t know about you, but wide angle lens distortion is a frequent issue for me.  In fact, it’s probably the #1 problem I have with photos and very difficult to see on an LCD.  So what is wide angle lens distortion?  It’s a form of perception distortion and I think Wikipedia does a better job explaining than me, but essentially it’s caused by the distance and angle at which an image is captured.  If you’re shooting with a normal lens (generally 50 mm for digital SLR) lens distortion will be a lot less of a problem.  I adore my 50 mm, it produces much sharper and better focused images… but it isn’t practical for my style blog photos because I have to be so far away from the camera to get a head-to-toe shot.  So I use my kit standard telephoto lens.  It’s not that good, I know, but I think most of us use these because better glass is so cost prohibitive.

The above photos have thankfully been corrected, but let’s see the original second photo (it’s been cropped and the exposure corrected (experiment with automatic settings gone wrong) but is otherwise untouched):

Whoaaaa.  Yikes.  See the distortion?  It’s my own fault really, I should be more careful not to place the camera badly.  Then I wouldn’t have a tiny little head and a huuuuuge body.  The lens was definitely tilting up toward me when I took this photo, accounting for the majority of of the tiny-head-huge-body problem.  And I was using the 18-55mm at 28 mm, which is definitely at the low end and also contributing to the distortion.

So how do we fix this?

I recently discovered PTLens after downloading and messing around with a bunch of other plugins I didn’t really like.  PTLens is a $25 standalone app (trial version for 10 photos is free!) and plugin for Aperture/Photoshop/iPhoto.  I’ve been using it with Aperture, it pops up nicely within the application.  It’s way worth the money for me, I take a lot of photos of buildings when I’m traveling and distortion is very evident on all those straight lines.  If you take photos indoors and your walls/windows/doors ever look crooked PTLens will save you there too.  PTLens has a database of lenses and their correction calibrations, all you have to do is select your lens and hit OK:

It’ll pick up the camera make and model, and the lens focal length for you.

Just a note: it’s better to work off an uncropped image.  I worked off the original but forgot to get a screenshot, so I reopened the cropped finished image in PTLens and fine-tuned the rotation, giving you the above screenshot.  The grid function in PTLens is far superior than Aperture’s straighten grid (at least to me), so that’s another point for PTLens.

So thankful for this app!  If you frequently have issues with distortion too then PTLens is way worth it!

Double Leopard

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Worn on 18 Nov 2010

Thoughts:  Is belting a scarf… totally over?  I’ve never actually belted a scarf, um… conventionally (remember this crazy idea?).  Not that only belting one side of a scarf is standard or anything.  And it’s not even a big fluffy scarf.  But I thought I’d try it since I’ve never really done a belted scarf although I frequently see it on the blogs.  

I also decided to match my scarf and shoes although I don’t really know how that came about.  I especially like these leopard shoes with my brown HUE tights, I think that’s actually where the whole look started.  Then I added some purples and some more leopard, and there you have it! 

You may have noticed those crazy little hearts to the left of my photos… they’re the Hypeed inspirations hearts (yes I’m trying out Hypeed, I never want to write any sites off before exploring them thoroughly).  You can just ignore them, I know most (if not all) of you are not on Hypeed.  

J. Crew shirt, LOFT skirt, Lauren by Ralph Lauren scarf, Target belt, HUE tights, Deena & Ozzy (Urban Outfitters) heels.  

Long Chain and Leopard Shoes

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11.6.10 – Saturday 

I love this necklace and always feel as if I don’t wear it enough for how much I love it.  For some reason I feel like copper jewelry is a little bit harder to wear though, am I being ridiculous?  Perhaps a little, I need to experiment more with my jewelry!  My jewelry collection is extensively made up of light, delicate pieces and this is one of my only more substantial ones.  If you can even call this one substantial.  

So I’ve definitely worn this before.  I guess this is just the fall version, and that one was spring.  Although I’d love to pair a jacket with it this season… maybe I could do a black velvet blazer sometime… 

Buttons (Francesca’s Collections) shirt, Odille (Anthropologie) skirt, A. C. Moore leather ribbon thing as belt, HUE tights, Deena & Ozzy (Urban Outfitters) shoes, ken and dana necklace. 

Sunday Fall Outing… from a week ago (oops)

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10.31.10 – Halloween – Parade

Aaaaaaaand this is what happens when I have fifty minutes to be showered, hair washed, and out the door.  Forgot my lipstick, hair sort of flying… My friend texted me asking if I wanted to go to the parade at 1:30… and it was 12:40.  I barely made it and I have no photos without the coat — I was just wearing a boring aubergine shirt anyway.  But in other news, I’m appropriately dressed for the first time this season!  It was the first wool coat day of the season as well, and I would have worn gloves but I hate taking photos while wearing them, some weird thing about not being able to feel the camera or something.  

J. Crew coat, Burberry scarf, J. Crew shirt (no photos, oops), Odille (Anthropologie) skirt, HUE tights, Mossimo for Target boots.  

The parade actually occurred on Halloween this year!  It was the first time I’d gone in years.  

Serious commitment: some of the people in this band danced to Thriller while some played.  

I ate some very delicious Irish shortbread. 

I very secretly and blindly took this photo.  I’m glad I got it because I loved this woman’s coat.  Where have I seen it before?  I’ve seen it somewhere but I can’t remember.  

She was also wearing very cool cowboy boots (right).  Another sneaky photo.  

Left the parade behind the Red Hat Society.  I didn’t get a photo of the red sequin beanie though.  

My friends and I once walked through this cemetery to creepily peer in the windows of a house we wanted to rent (it was totally empty anyway so maybe not that creepy).  It was a lot bigger than we thought — we’re talking $3000+/month kind of bigger so that was a no.  Fall seems to be going so fast now, half the leaves are already on the ground…

Mismatched Black

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10.15.10 – Friday

I went to Pottery Barn wearing this and I’m pretty sure they thought I was a crazy in my black leather and leopard shoes, mingling with the khaki set over pillows.  Pottery Barn is actually one of my favorite stores, I always want to buy everything and redecorate!  I think maybe I should overdye my skirt black again, it looks like it’s faded.  I’m always so sad when colors fade, I try to wash everything gently but I always have trouble with dark colors becoming not so dark after a few washes.  

I haven’t worn these shoes since the spring!  I’ve missed them, but I definitely haven’t missed them hurting my feet!  

LNA jacket, LOFT double wrap belt, American Apparel dolman sleeve shirt, Express circle skirt, HUE ultimate opaque tights (lies! you can totally see through them), Deena & Ozzy (Urban Outfitters) shoes.  

Gloom and Doom

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8.22.10 ~ Sunday

My shirt is totally crooked — oops!  Fall was in the air last week, the temperature plummeted and it rained for days.  This week’s projected forecast is the mid-90s and while that’s getting a bit hot I will be happy go through my favorite summer dresses for what will probably be the last time for the season.  I’m not looking forward to pants (I never look forward to pants) but I will be glad to break out the boots!

Free People shirt, HUE skinny jeanz, Frye boots.  

Fun With Antique Filters

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4.28.2010 Wednesday

Sadly this yellow dress kept sticking to my tights throughout the day — despite the lining!  I guess this is a no tights kind of dress so luckily it’s becoming warmer.  I feel as if spring was very cold again this year.  I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but I do know that last year spring was legitimately cold.  It snowed the last week in April of 2009.  I’m not sure that I’ll find spring warm again until… maybe sometime in the next few years?  After spending spring in Japan I feel as if the temperatures should go up into the 60s during March… and that just doesn’t happen this far north! 

According to the second photo it’s currently Halloween.  I wonder how long that pumpkin has been there.  Since Halloween?  Maybe even Halloween 2008! 

Grey leopard print cardigan (Old Navy), yellow dress (Velvet), gold belt (Shimamura (Japan)), grey tights (HUE), navy and white shoes (Lela Rose for Payless).