Rachel Greig

Workshops | 2012 Stamping Cruise sets sail!

Well folks, today is the day we set sail for the 2012 Australian / South Pacific Stamping Cruise! To say we're excited is an understatement!! The past few weeks have been crazy here in the studio and warehouse, packing boxes, ticking things off our packing list, making sure we have everything we need for the workshops. (I always feel like we'll forget something, even though I've gone over things a thousand times!) But now... we're ready to set sail!

The ship will leave Sydney Harbour today and we'll sail for two days before arriving to our first stop at Isle of Pines, New Caledonia. Throughout the cruise I'll be teaching 6 workshops. I know many of you are wondering what I'll be teaching... so I'll share the projects once we return. Our group consists of 50 ladies, plus partners, friends and children. The stampers will also have 24 hour access to the stamping room, so I'm sure there's going to be some fun nights ahead!

As we leave the harbour I'll be updating on Twitter and Facebook, so be sure to follow me there!

I'm really looking forward to spending the next 12 days out at sea... stamping, snorkelling and swimming! Let the journey begin...

- Rachel

Workshops | Pour l'Amour du Scrap, France

In February I will be teaching workshops at the Pour l'Amour du Scrap show in Lille, France! I will be teaching two different workshops:

I'm so excited to be teaching at the show - I know we have many Darkroom Door followers in Europe so I hope to meet many of you there! Of course I'll be bringing goodies with me to give away during the workshops and every person in the Stamping Techniques class will receive a Darkroom Door Word Block Stamp in their kit! Woo hoo!

If you are interested in attending the show or booking into the workshops, please visit the Pour l'Amour du Scrap website.

You can also follow Pour l'Amour du Scrap on Facebook. Please help spread the word :)

Hope to see you there!

- Rachel

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year! For new years eve we went to the local beach to watch the fireworks, have a little picnic and watch the kids run around with their glow sticks and sparklers. It's always a lot of fun and I'm always up for a bit of sparkler photography!!

These shots were fun to make, especially as their glow sticks also created some colourful effects too!

I didn't use a tripod for these shots. These were all just hand held (or sitting down with the camera on my knees for support). Generally the exposures are around 1 second, using a fairly wide aperture (f2) and a high ISO. Of course if you wanted to create less grainy images, you'd shoot with a lower ISO (between 100 - 400) and use a longer shutter speed which would create a different effect again - the sparklers would be more continuous. That's why I love long exposure photography, there's so many options and ways to capture the light. 

We all had so much fun creating different shapes... of course as the night went on, the crazier and more random they became!

Here's to a new year and wonderful times ahead!

- Rachel