Have any of you ever had the dilemma of shopping for a new camera? Ugh. Seriously, how do you choose when there are SO many great cameras out there? Today I’m gonna look back at my search and explore why I finally decided on my FABO Canon G9!

To be quite honest, I just wanted a camera with a great macro setting (or the ability to take EXTREMELY close shots) so I could finally get the tiny toe shots of my little babies. I’d always seen such adorable pictures and I wanted to be able to recreate them myself. So that was a must on my list. I was also interested in the optical zoom. I wanted a big one! I had learned that the optical zoom was the true zoom, and that all digital zoom does is make the pixels bigger, so not such a great thing. So I was looking for macro and optical zoom. (In the back of my mind was also the megapixels. Although not top of my list, because after 5 or 6, it’s all just frosting! After all, I wasn’t planning to make any poster size prints!)

My next concern was price. How much camera did I want, or need, and how much was I willing to pay for it? I’m NO WHERE near a professional, so I almost automatically decided against a Digital SLR. It is not only WAY too much camera for what I’m comfortable with, but it was also a HUGE jump in price. So I ruled out spending a lot of time looking at them. Now I knew what type of camera I was looking for.

Where to from there? My brother. He’s a photographer so I went to him for suggestions on what to look for in a camera. One of the first things he mentioned was the size of the sensor. Um, what? That’s what I said. Apparently the sensor is where the image is captured within the camera (or something along those lines) and I learned that it is one of the most important things to look for when you want a good photo. So the larger the sensor size, the better! So I jotted that down on my list.

He also mentioned shutter speed and focus range. Great! I have a list of all of the things I’m looking for, but what do I do with it? How do I make a good comparison of all these different things? Impossible you say? Nope. And I didn’t even have to go to a million different sites and write down all this info for a million different cameras. There is a site he told me about that does all the work for you! Yippee!! The website is www.dpreview.com.

I was able to click on a bunch of different cameras and the site “compared” them for me! It included all the specifications I was looking for and a million more that I hadn’t even thought about. For me it was a great tool to narrow down my choice. It was also a great way to read all the customer reviews. It’s so helpful to hear from people who have actually USED the cameras you’re considering.

In the end I decided on the Canon G9 because it had the best of what I was looking for, and a price I could live with. And I have to say, I adore it! It really is one of the best cameras I’ve owned (of course, it’s just a point and shoot, but for capturing those crazy moments with my kids, it’s been fantastic!).

So if you are faced with replacing a camera, make sure you take the time to really look into all the options that are out there. You might be surprised about what you find (or don’t find) in the camera you thought you wanted. You may even find out everything you want is in a camera that is less expensive! So happy hunting… for cameras and eggs! Happy Easter everyone!!

Hey Everyone! Dacia here with your Theory Thursday (and a mini-challenge)! This is my first entry on the official ScrapMatters blog, so hopefully I’ll be able to teach you something helpful and fun to use on future layouts (and not bore you in the process!)

I wanted to talk about Color Theory. I am a HUGE fan of color and thought it would be fun to share some of the tried-and-true color theories/combinations.

Have you ever looked at the colors on a scrapbook page and just thought “Wow, that works!” or “Whoops…that doesn’t work.” Well, there is a method to the color madness and the colors you choose will make a difference in the mood or emotions you’re trying to express.

Let’s begin with a basic color wheel. The primary (base) colors are red, yellow and blue. By mixing 2 of your primary colors you get your secondary colors, orange, green, and purple.  Then to make it even more complicated, we’ll add the tertiary colors, which you get by mixing a primary color with a neighboring secondary color.  As far as black and white go–they are on the value scale. The farther from the center you get, the more white is in a color, or the lighter it is (like a pastel yellow would towards the outside of the circle). The closer you get to tht center of the circle, the more black gets added, or the darker it gets (like a navy blue or brown-which is a relative of orange).

So with that foundation, let me share some of my favorite color combinations that I think everyone should know. 

Monochromatic Colors. A monochromatic color scheme uses one color, but 3 different shades of that color. Example: Light, Medium, and Dark Blue. 

Triadic Colors. A triadic color combination comes from using 3 colors that are equally spaced (3 spaces) apart on the color wheel. This could be purple, green and orange or it could be blue, yellow and red etc.

Analogous Colors. You get an analogous grouping when you use three colors that are all next to each other on the color wheel. For example, blue, teal and green or green, yellow-green and yellow etc. This example was done using blue, green and teal-all colors next to each other on the color wheel.

The above example is another analagous color combination – green, light green and yellow – done by Stacy (shutch) I think those colors look so great with her sepia toned photo!

Complementary Colors. Here is another analagous color combination done by Kristie (krisser12). She used blue, green and yellow. She skipped every other color on the cool wheel, which is just another variation of analagous. The colors look great with her black and white photo and all the squares.

Next are Complementary colors, which use different shades across from each other on the color wheel, such as red and green, or yellow and purple or blue and orange (like this example using Britt-ish Designs Dreams Do come true kit).

Split-Complementary Colors: This is a grouping of colors that uses a color and it’s complement’s neighbors. So instead of using red and green, you would use red and yellow-green and teal. This example was done using Ellie Lash’s Ladybug Picnic kit- blue, green and red-orange.

Note* Here is another helpful tip for color combinations that consist of three colors: The 60-30-10 rule. Choose a dominant color and use it for 60% of your layout.  Then pick your 2^nd color (not necessarily a “secondary” color) and use it for 30% of the layout. Lastly, choose your 3^rd color (your accent color) and use it for the remaining 10% of your layout. It helps keep things on your layout more balanced.

Hope that helps and wasn’t too long and boring. Try joining in on the mini-challenge by making a page or two using one of the color combinations. Submit your entries in the gallery, describing how you chose your colors and leave your link in the comments here on the blog. Next week I’ll pick my favorite and also randomly choose a winner to receive one of Britt-ish Designs fabulous kits! Good luck and happy Scrapping!