Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day in the United States has been celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday of November since 1863, although many say that it has its origins from much further back. Like the Spanish “Thanksgiving Day” celebrated on the 8th of September in Florida since 1565 or the celebration that occurred at the Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts in 1621 is generally regarded as the traditional origin of modern day Thanksgiving in the United States.

Thanksgiving is modelled on the many harvest festivals that were common in Europe at the time and as more emigrants came to America from Germany, Ireland and Scotland, they each added their own bit of culture to the holiday. What ever its origins or how ever each of us celebrate Thanksgiving Day it is a time for family both near and far and to be thankful for what we have.

Happy Thanksgiving Day everyone.

Veterans Day 11th November

Veterans Day or Remembrance Day as it is know in Europe and the commonwealth, is the day for us to show our respect and gratitude to the men and women of the armed forces both past and present. The work that they do in peacetime and during conflicts around the world so that we can enjoy our way of life back home.

This day was set out to mark the end of the great war at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, a war to end all wars. Nearly one hundred years on and with many conflicts past and present we still need our armed forces so take a moment to think of our armed forces and the work that they do and lets hope that we will not need them in the future.

Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and I am sure that you are all far ahead with your costumes and party ideas, if not below are some Halloween cards to give you some ideas and if you have forgotten to send someone special a card then the people at Greeting Card Universe will let you add your personal massage to the card and they will post it directly to the person, to save you time.





Happy Halloween, good luck trick or treating and stay safe.

Fathers Day

As Fathers Day is fast approaching, I thought that I would drop a hint to my daughter by posting some of the great cards from Greeting Card Universe any one of which I would be very happy to receive. I know that I am at a disadvantage because your birthday is a week before Fathers Day but if you would like to get me a present as well just ask your mother for the money.









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Flowers are coming out

Taking a break from my virtual trip around the world by greeting cards as I have been distracted by the arrival of spring. With flowers starting to show their beauty, I thought I would talk about how to photograph them for best results.



Now you do not need an expensive DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera, you can do a lot with a point and shoot compact camera. With photography, it is about the person being able to visualize the image and how well they know the equipment they have. The photo below was taken with a point and shoot.



The most natural looking viewpoint for photographing flowers will often be from a low parallel position. This will mean that you will have to get down on the ground, so it might be a good idea not to wear your best clothes or you could take something to lie down on.



Now when you find a flower that you want to take a photo of you need to think if you want to show the flower in its environment or if you want to show the flower on its own. If it is the latter, you can do this in two ways, you can get in close and show the detail of the flower, or you can use a long focal lens with a shallow depth of field to through out of focus everything but the flower.



The light that you have will make or break any photo; photographers often talk about the quality of the light and will try to stay away from the midday sun. Apart from the angle of the light, you will also get softer shadows and the temperature of the light will give a warmer feel to the photo. To reduce the shadows further and to show more detail you can use a reflector to bounce light back on to the flower. If you do not have a reflector, you can make one from white card with aluminium foil on one side, this will give you a two strength reflector. If you have any brightly coloured clothing on this can bounce light on to the flower giving it a colour cast of your clothing.



Ok you now have that great photo in the bag so what now? Well have fun, move around the flower taking photos from different angles and view points, how about photographing the flower with the light coming from behind it so you can see the translucency of the flower.

Greece

This week I am in Greece, the birthplace of modern democracy. With a rich history going back thousands of years, Greece was the defender of Europe from eastern invasion many times, not lest in the famous battle in which just 300 Spartans held back a huge army of tens of thousands. Today Greece is invaded every year by hundreds of thousands of tourists, as it is a very popular holiday destination in the Mediterranean.



For me the only problem with Greece is that it has so much history and so many beautiful islands and villages that I am not likely to see them all. With a two week vacation each year it is going to take me a very long time. So I am happy that Greetings Cards Universe gives me the chance to see parts of Greece that I have not had time to visit my self.