Worth a thousand words (or minutes)

You can easily determine the age of a photograph simply by the style in which it was taken.

The old tintype with the stoic poses at the turn of the century. The black and white portraits of babies dressed in white lace or sailor suits of the 40’s and 50’s. Even the Polaroid snapshots of the 70’s and 80’s with color smears from waving them in the air to dry.

The telltale sign that it’s a picture from the 00’s? A blurry, barely discernible, featureless image from a cell phone camera posted on Facebook.

I never have been particularly good with the camera. I was frequently known to forget it everywhere we went, and when I did remember, the pictures that would eventually emerge would be blurry, cut-off, eyes-closed and caught at the family’s most unflattering moments.

While the good news is I no longer have any undeveloped film canisters lying around the house, the bad news is if I ever lose my cell phone, all photographic record that my family exists will also be lost.

I know, I know, I know. That cell phone camera should only be used in extreme photographic emergencies like finding yourself sitting next to a reality-show celebrity on a plane or posting funny road signs on Twitter. But unfortunately, the cell phone camera has become our family’s primary picture-taker.

This might not be so bad if it actually produced decent shots of anything other than the dashboard when I go to answer the phone. But alas, it is literally a point and shoot--there are no features to zoom, focus or flash. No shutter speed adjustments, no red-eye reducer, not a single other option that I couldn’t figure out how to use on a real camera and yet suddenly I see the allure.

As a result, there are no photo albums lining the shelves after the year 2001. Our gilt frames hold SD chips. You want a nice 4X6 or 8X10? How about a thumbnail or 120X240 vertical web banner ad?

But I miss hard copy photos of my little cherubs without the digitally-forged halos from the vibration of an email alert. And so for perhaps the millionth time in my maternal career, I vow to take more pictures of my children. High resolution, wonderfully artistic, clear-eyed, bright smiling, clean-clothes, tear-free, jolly portraits that are printable, scrapbook-able, frame-able and most of all, tangible.

Anyone know if there’s an iPhone app for that?

-- Tracey Henry, Suburban Diva

Point, Shoot and Win

Plan on taking a lot of photos this summer? Be sure to select your best to enter Energizer and National Geographic’s second annual “Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest.” Professionals and amateurs alike are encouraged to enter in one of six categories-- animals/wildlife, nature, travel, people and cultures, weather and inspiration/Keep Going®.

Winners will win a trip to the Galapagos Islands and have their photos featured in National Geographic. Please visit this site for all of the details, and be sure to submit by June 30.

-- Tracey Henry, Suburban Diva

Long-distance updates ease the heartache

It's been more than two months since I left my husband and girls in Tampa to take a temporary job in Tallahassee, and keeping in touch has been really challenging. I call the girls every morning and night, but it's usually not much more than a "love you! miss you!" conversation. I mean, they're 8 and 3, so telephones aren't the best.

But most days, my husband sends a photograph documenting either the mundane or the essential. Either way, it makes my day, and I feel a little less like I'm missing absolutely everything by being away. From my 3-year-old's first scooter ride, to my 8-year-old's star hula-hooping turn in the school talent show, to the miracle of both girls asleep on a long car ride, it's the little things that count. 

-- Amy Hollyfield

Parents need playgrounds, too!

Can't we adults have a playground or jungle gym? Swings, slides and monkey bars? Ladders and rock climbing walls and rope bridges?

Sure, I play at the playground with my girls, but wouldn't it be a cool business, er bar, to have adult-size jumpy castles and all that? How much fun could we have swinging, sliding and grooving to some music?

Who's in?

-- Amy Hollyfield

[photos.com]

Update: "Spectacular" premieres on Monday!

UPDATE: While it's a Spectacular weekend on Nick, the premiere of the movie is Monday at 8 p.m., not Saturday as we reported below.

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Nickelodeon goes after the High School Musical franchise riches this weekend   with the debut of “Spectacular!” a network original movie clearly conceived with HSM in mind.

Think high school. Musical numbers. Competition. The talented group. The patch-work, rough-around-the-edges group. And in Nick’s version, a rock star wannabe who gets kicked out of his band for selfish, showboat behavior only to make good with the rag-tag crew led by a talented and beautiful love interest.

Nikko Alexander (Nolan Gerard Funk) is the rock star castoff and Courtney Lane (Tammin Sursok) is the perky leader of “Spectacular!,” a show choir at Lincoln High School. Courtney begs Nikko to fill the male lead hole left when her ex-boyfriend Royce Du Lac (Simon Curtis) bolted to join rival group “Ta-Da” and Sharpay wannabe Tammi Dyson (Victoria Justice from Zoey 101).

Nikko is a hard sell, you know, cuz rock stars and jazz hands don’t go together. But Courtney makes a secret deal to give him $5,000 in winnings if he joins and “Spectacular” wins nationals (against “Ta-Da”). Money that can help him make a demo and maybe get a record deal.

So bad boy Nikko becomes the foil for straight-laced Courtney and good things happen.

It’s not basketball or the country club. And certainly the characters aren’t as rich and lovable as Sharpay, Troy and Gabriella. But it’s entertaining and the music, co-written by Matthew Gerard and Robbie Nevil, is good, much less bubblegum than HSM. You can listen to a song on YouTube here.

My 8-year-old squealed during many scenes and thought it was a great movie -- so it seems the folks at Nick have hit their target. Soon enough she may beg me to download the soundtrack to her iPod. And, it looks like some tracks might be available for download on Rock Band. For me, though, HSM is the standard and Spectacular! barely cracks the formula.

Nickelodeon is making this a Spectacular! weekend, with the first showing Saturday at  8 p.m. The big premiere is scheduled for Presidents Day, Monday, at 8 p.m.

Oh, and don’t count out a sequel.

-- Amy Hollyfield

[Photo: Michael Courtney/Nickelodeon of from left, Nolan Gerard Funk (Nikko), Tammin Sursok (Courtney), Victoria Justice (Tammi), Simon Curtis (Royce)]

Picture Day (Again)

I say it every year. I swear that I am only going to order the minimum number of school pictures offered. I will NOT go for the Super-Duper Deluxe Premiere Platinum Jumbo package of 785 of the same pose and simply order 1 or 2 school pictures for my wallet and then rely on the thousands of other pictures we take to chronicle the year in photography.

But I never listen to my own advice. Inevitably, I end up with a drawer full of all of the extra photos from that so-called “value.”

It is not a particular fondness for over-priced passport photos that has me ordering in bulk -- so what causes this perpetual lack of sense and ordering restraint every picture day?

Perhaps, I naively believe that somehow I can distribute virtually the same picture of each child in the same uniform in the same pose (cheesy headshot after a plastic comb brush-through making it impossible to even tell if it’s my kid) twice a year (can’t forget the Spring photo session) to every relative, friend, and casual acquaintance in 1 8x10, 2 5x7’s, and 12 wallets. And just in case that portfolio of identical photographs was not sufficient, I can always order the accompanying bookmarks, buttons, magnets, key chains and billboard posters that are now available for an additional "modest" fee.

Maybe it’s eternal optimism. Maybe this is the year Lifetouch has resurrected Ansel Adams to photograph our children, and I’ll miss out on some poignant still life captured in the school cafeteria.

Or maybe it’s just good, old-fashioned guilt -- something I can find without a telescopic lens. There is just something about those school pictures that sends me huffing on the maternal redemption inhaler every time.

Because I can say “no” to one little face, but saying it to 412 pleading toothless smiles is a bit more difficult for me.

-- Suburban Diva

[photos.com]

Say cheese!

Depending upon whom you ask, I am failing as a 21st century mom. My detractors’ biggest complaint? I do not keep a digital camera tethered to my wrist to capture every giggle, grin and totally charming thing my baby girl does. When I do take pictures, I generally keep them stored in the camera for my own personal enjoyment. And carry around a brag book? Puh-lease. Who has the time or the space in an already overloaded baby bag? Alas, among the picture-demanding set, this cavalier attitude is, apparently, taboo.

Recently I discovered a new Web site that will help me keep the critics -- mostly far flung family members -- at bay. At www.totsites.com, users can choose from several decorative backgrounds and upload photos, fun facts about your child and interactive polls. There is also a guestbook, journal and auto-alert feature to let loved ones know when new updates have been made.

The Web site is free, unless of course you do what I did in a moment of euphoria and pay the $40 annual fee to upload video. Of course, one could also order prints of photos or a keepsake CD. And those things, I suppose, are the catch. Once you get started, it’s addictive.  I’m reasoning that if my critics want pictures of my little girl, I’ll provide them in spades or at the very least in a cutesy slideshow. My favorite feature is the site’s security mechanism, which allows me to protect my daughter’s pages with a password. Only those people with whom I share my secret code will be able to visit her site.

Don’t like totsites.com? Get clicking. There are dozens of baby Web sites out there, including babyjellybeans.com, babyhomepages.net and babysfirstsite.com.

-- Sherri Day

Baby bling -- fab or fug?

As the newbie mom of our blogging crew, it often falls to me to share my parenting firsts or discuss my insecurities or questions. I am always willing to take one for the team. (Doubt this? Check out my blogs on living with pets and a baby or on breastfeeding.)

Next up: Product trials a la Teething Bling. It’s moldable, bendable jewelry that’s safe for babies to chew. Made from the same stuff as teething toys, it is dishwasher safe and affordably priced at $12 to $15 per piece.

My bling arrived last week. My first thought? It’s not my style, a little big for a sophisticate and a tad bland for a would-be fashionista. But what would baby think? We put Teething Bling to the test on a recent Saturday as my daughter, a friend and I headed out to the Fancy Pants consignment sale in St. Petersburg.

Though the Smart Moms who created Teething Bling also market a key chain and a bracelet, the pendant is the company’s staple. When I donned the necklace, a black fabric cord anchored by a brown pendant, my 6 month old went straight for the cord. It took her more than an hour to discover the brown paisley pendant, which I suspect is actually the part she is supposed to chew. Once she got it, she gnawed away in complete, if temporary, bliss.

The little teether totally ignored the bracelet. And I’m glad. Once on my wrist, it was a major lint and dust attractor. So, consignment sale: Score one for Teething Bling. In church on Sunday: Zero. She ignored the necklace, preferring to babble at the top of her lungs during the sermon.

I also put Teething Bling to the test with friends. Zero compliments even when I fished for them. But there was fascination. One friend said it was not attractive, but it was worth it for the baby. Others said my pairing of colors did little to present the bling in its best light. A seasoned mom questioned whether it is a good idea to encourage babies to chew jewelry.

Somehow, I’ve got to believe you have an opinion.

-- Sherri Day