Craftulous.com: {j'adore} capturing memories

New Portfolio at 500px

March 9th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

Any 500px users out there?

I know they’ve been around for awhile, but I only just recently discovered the photo community 500px. I love how their platform integrates just the right amount of social media capabilities, and there’s no end to the veritable plethora of amazing photographs you can discover in your “flow” — the sheer talent of your fellow photographers is purely inspirational!

I love the website’s layout and the effective but unobtrusive social aspect built into the photo community.

Note: The 500px community section is separate from the Portfolios— http://500px.com/KristinaQuinones takes you to my profile, while http://kristinaquinones.500px.com takes you to my portfolio. Only the former has the individual photo commenting and social media integration built in.

In addition to these features, users can also enable the store which allows the selling of all or some of your photos in the form of downloadable digital files and canvas prints. None of which I’m interested in, so I’m just going to move on now…

The portfolio feature is simply fantastic – even the free version gives you all the options you need for a clean, professional and sophisticated looking portfolio to display your photographs.

My 500px Portfolio Screenshot

500px portfolio pros (free accounts):

You choose the photos you want to display in your portfolio and 500px profile – not all photos you upload to your profile (like mine for example) have to show up in your portfolio and vice versa
Right-click is disabled by default
As of writing this, even members who have not upgraded to “Awesome” as they say have access to nine different equally themes for their portfolio
All portfolios have the option of being optimized for mobiles

I love it! I know the 20 image limit imposed on free accounts will bother some, but in all honesty, if you really, truly have more than twenty “best” photographs that are portfolio-crisp-n-ready in a single week, then it’s time to shell out for your website/online portfolio. IMHO, at least.

In the future, I do plan on either upgrading to AWESOME with 500px or, if the aforementioned can no longer meet my needs, signing up for a Zenfolio or another similar service to avail myself of more options, including SEO optimization and custom domain name usage. For now, my free though no less excellent portfolio is more than sufficient for my and many amateur photographers’ needs.

500px portfolio: kristinaquinones.500px.com

500px profile: 500px.kristinaquinones.com

I’m a Proud New Owner of the Nikon D7000

February 29th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

Since taking a black and white film photography class when I was a junior in high school, I’ve had an unbridled passion for taking photographs and capturing memories. However, it wasn’t until my first child was born that I truly plunged my heart into the art of photography, embracing all the nuances and stylistic freedom possible with this versatile art form.

On my very first Mother’s Day, I received my first DSLR – a Nikon D50. And now, nearly six years later, I’ve finally upgraded to the Nikon D7000.

My brand new baby!

Due to a combination of the hype surrounding this beautiful workhorse of a camera and mother nature’s devastating wrath, the D7000 has been on nearly constant backorder, but I got lucky when I called one of the Ritz Camera locations within driving distance to my home — they had one left in stock after receiving a shipment of just two D7000 bodies last week.

Dominican Cake Inspired Cupcakes With a Suspiro-Marshmallow-Buttercream Frosting

January 25th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

Over the weekend, we attended two parties where a born-and-bred in the Boogie Down Bronx Dominican Cake was served, and I fell head over heels in love! No matter that the cakes, though both gracefully sweet, creamy, moist and spongy, were completely different in flavor, filling and density, they were still both equally delectable and finger-lickin’ good!

Fast forward to Monday: I couldn’t get the cake out of my mind, so I set out to make my own. However, after watching a few instructional videos on YouTube, I realized I had neither the equipment, skill nor confidence to attempt a full, multi-layer “one pound” Dominican cake. FAIL.

But… I CAN do cupcakes!

And so, the following was created:

Dominican Cake cupcakes with Pastry Cream filling
Topped with a Suspiro- Marshmallow-Buttercream frosting

Dominican Cake Inspired Cupcakes

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Teddy Bears and Baby Blue! (Free Cutting File)

January 24th, 2012 § 4 comments § permalink

Initially when I purchased my Pazzles, it was for the purpose of creating a banner for my cousin’s baby shower… yes, yes, in retrospect it is clear that’s pretty unbalanced reasoning for a cutting machine that requires a decent little investment.

Well, last week I finally made the banner — though unfortunately I didn’t get a very good shot of it >_<

Baby Boy - Baby Shower Banners with Teddy Bears

Sorry for the lame-quality photo!

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Merry Christmas!

December 25th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Merry Christmas to all!

P.S. – I thoroughly enjoyed making my letterpress Christmas cards with my L Letterpress and custom plates from Boxcar Press, but somehow only four out of the twenty I created made it to the mailbox in time to be delivered before today. Such is the story of my life, lol.