Stop

... and smell, no eat the roses, er...um... flowers.

On days when your life is gloomy, stressful, and down right blah, take a minute to enjoy Mother Nature/God's handiwork.

(But maybe not as much as Ya, because some things just shouldn't be tasted.)

Disclaimer: Mommy made sure to toss -- or rather -- gingerly set the camera down and sweep out Ya's mouth of all vegetation immediately following this picture. No flowers were actually ingested (and she managed to wrestle away the grass, rocks, and bark away from him too).

photographed Thursday, July 16, 2009

Day 12: Photo Editing (storyboard)

This lesson is all about preparing a triptych of images into a wordless story... here's mine:

Constant Climb

If I needed a metaphor for the stage of life I am in right now, Ya has provided it. My life is a constant climb. I'm not on a ladder, because that would imply I could see the top rungs and the trip was straight (up or down) on a carefully designed architectural contraption.

Nope.

Instead, my ascent is reminiscent of the gospel song "Rough Side of the Mountain." I remember when they used to sing that in church and I couldn't help but think, Why not walk over to the smooth side if the rough side is too much? How naive I was then.
So anyway, I'm on this mountain climbing trek without the convenience of pulleys or perfectly fitted spiky climbing shoes.

You might say I have a safety belt on, it's connected on one end to my family and to my faith, and it provides a gentle assurance that even if I slip my footing a little, I'll have some help to get me firmly planted again.

And as Ya has proven, somewhere at the top of this climb, just past the peak is something so enticing that I'll keep on reaching toward it.

Now, if those clouds covering the peak would part just a little so I had an idea of just how far I have to get...

A Little Fun Never Hurt Anybody

And what fun we can have at this lavish playground! Clemyjontri: It's free, it's huge, and it's well kept. Awesome.

We've been to this lovely escape twice now and each time has been fabulous. It's a bit of a trek from the house, but Chi L-O-V-E-S to play on all the equipment, take a ride on the carousel, and soak in the summer heat. And Ya? He's giving it mixed reviews, but he's still too young for the park thing.

What's there to do?

First, begrudgingly sit on the "nice horse" for Mommy while she takes a cheesy photo before the carousel begins to move... ...and quickly dismount to claim the spinning seat that Mommy is (amazingly) too tall to join you in.

Second, race with Oma on the drag strip a half dozen times until she wheezes, sputters, and says something like "I'm going to pay for this tomorrow."Third, don't "Taste the rainbow," climb the rainbow.Then finally, run around the playground sampling everything until Mommy gives up trying to take pictures of the moving target and instead settles on the temporarily stationary (or at least slower on the on-four-travel-system) Ya as her photo subject.

Face Painting Fun

Chi loves to create. She loves history. The two combined the other day when Mommy brought home a face painting kit. Her new persona? A runaway slave on the underground railroad. Now Mommy didn't know this would be the character of choice when she was painting Chi's face. Otherwise she wouldn't have opted for the bright butterfly-esque effect. But a fleeing slave she became once the scarf was wrapped around her hair and the pretty new dress was donned.

The story as best as I can recollect is that Chi was working hard for "the boss" but he was mean.
So she ran away and traveled in rivers and streams toward safety. She could see freedomland in the distance, but the boss was on her trail. Now, of course, her version was much more colorful, as was her term for Underground Railroad. And though I wrote that term down somewhere, the scrap of paper has eluded me.

Now I can only imagine that this newly shared "history" was a lesson in school at some point in the last two years. Chi missed the finer points of the history of enslavement in the United States, though she knew that the "really tall president on the money" said something that stopped it. She's six and there is plenty of time to refine her understanding of what occurred, why it occurred, and why it is still so important to learn about.

Playing Footsies

SkatingAfter the Pool

I ♥ Faces: Foot Fetish...

Okay, so that's not really what this week's contest is called, but I couldn't resist :)

The focus is on feet. I'm telling you, though I don't readily admit it, I have a lot of photos of feet... just not ones that seemed to say "hello." This is probably because feet can't talk and though they are expressive, the vibe they share isn't always one that is... well wow.

Ultimately, I chose this shot because it's sort of a play on a self portrait. These shoes make me happy. No, I can't stand comfortably in them all day while teaching my lovely teenagers, but when I strut, saunter, no, shuffle down the hall between classes, look out now ::wink:: There's just something about a high heel that completes any outfit.

Day 11: Photo Editing (spot color)

Just what this image needed!

Day 10: Photo Editing (project)

Day 10: Project Start to Finish combines the previous lessons into a completed art piece formally known as a photo. Here's mine:

Special Lady

My house feels like a prison. The insurmountable expenses have trapped me and I cannot escape the bars of my cell. And yet there is a little window where the sunlight always shines in and a little bird sweetly sings "there is hope, there is love, you'll be okay."

My little bird, her life my window where freedom lies.

Day 9: Photo Editing (Edge Burn)

Ya does not like to hear these lessons. I know this because every time Jessica starts talking, Ya comes over to pull the speaker cord out of the headphones slot. Now if I were more computer savvy, I'd figure out why the computer's internal speakers weren't functional. Honestly, though, I don't even know if this PC has internal speakers.

I jumped around a bit to get to day nine (partially because I know how to add text elements and because day 7 was a recap)... and then I scrapped Day 9 altogether. Oh well.

Day 8: Photo Editing (type)

If I'm being honest, which I try to be, I cheated today.

The objective for Day 8 is to use typography as a design element (think magazine page with headline over the image). I didn't do this. Instead, I played with textures again (day 5) and also with the burned edges (day 9) and then added the text (courtesy of Dafont.com) as a dating element rather than a focal point. So without more blah blah blah, here's my "type" photo:Yadon is 10.5 months old - 45 weeks new - and I am so very grateful God entrusted him to me.

Day 5: Photo Editing (textures)

Day 5 called for adding textures to your photos. I have seen this done beautifully on a few photos by my family's photographer (and friend) Lisa Julia. And though I tried to pick her brain about how exactly she achieved the look, I think it was a trade secret. I don't blame her one bit, because now that I've tried it, I can just envision hundreds of images I'd like to try to texturize. Here's day five's edit, which I call "little bubble"

Day 4: Photo Editing (clipping masks)

My baby cousin (all right, she's only four months younger, but that's enough to call her that) just gave birth to her first child. He's a precious 8lb 4oz gem and has completely stolen his parent's hearts. Yadon gave his approval of his future playmate with a big smile and tried really hard to "pet" him. We're excited to see how little AJ grows up and hopefully he'll be as much energy and all-boy like our Ya is.

Anyway, Miss Sprague's Day 4: Clipping Masks seemed like the perfect completion to this simple snap shot I took while visiting our newest family member:Ya and Chi have given me permission to say that he's a little cutie. And I promise AJ, we'll switch that classification to handsome soon enough for you.

Day 3: Photo Editing (vintage)

I'm on a roll (can you tell that ten month terror is asleep?)...

Day three and lesson three deals with "Create a Vintage, Hand-Tinted Look". This is a style of photography post processing that I will definately be using! Here's my modest attempt at vintage photography:I am ready to admit that I am in love with the layers method of editing photos. It's a bit late to learn sepia toning, but Sprague has a great formula for creating a brown tint...

Day 2: Photo Editing (brushes)

The second day's lesson deals with brushes... I'm familiar with these, because Lisa Julia told me to use those to "watermark" my photos for visible copyright purposes. So, since the Sprague brush set from House of 3 wasn't usable by my Photoshop 7 program, I played with brushes I had collected from before. I used quite a few in a flurry of stamps for this image:
What I like about the tutorial was the suggestion to create a new layer before fiddling with brushes. How many times have I had to trash an edited photo because I got stamp happy?

Day 1: Photo Editing (frames)

The assignment for Lesson One, Day One of Jessica Sprague's "Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects" (offered FREE here) was to frame up and word-ify a photo.

She provides the download for the frame and the word art (which said "sassy," so I erased the "y" to add masculinity to it). The sample kit was created by House of 3.

I'm a bit behind on my lessons, but better late than never, right? Ha. Tell that to my students, because late work is penalized...

So what's my excuse? This 10-month old wild child doesn't sit still long enough for Mommy to edit photos. In fact, he had a rather fun time yanking out the speaker cord as I tried to watch the tutorial for this lesson. No audio = no idea what I'm doing.

I ♥ Faces Week 27 - Sports in Action

July's contest vacation week is over, and so this week is another judging...

There are two categories and I'll leave it to the gals at I ♥ Faces to explain:

Kids and/or Adults Category - A child, children, adult or adults participating in a sport. (Basically a photo of any person participating in a sport.) Any sport is fine. Your entry must show "action" though. Posed shots will be ineligible to win this week's photo challenge.

Here's a snap from one of the flag football games Chi cheered for in the Spring... can't you see just how serious the boys are about getting the flag?

Pets Category - "Anything Goes" theme (even though we call this special category "Pets", we really don't care if the animal is an actual pet or not.)

I thought this shot of two retired (rescued) Greyhounds luring was a great show of "sport" and "pets," as their new families only let them race for pleasure and lavish them with love all the rest of the time. They are no longer working, and instead live a plush retirement. As an owner of two iggies, this shot of their full sized cousins was a happy capture. You can see the "lure" at the bottom of the shot.

1771... and back to the future

If I could plan the perfect summer, it would be one filled with day trips with my kids and my mom (who's also my best friend).

Today we traveled back in time to 1771 and visited a colonial farm family. We arrived right after they finished their lunch and were just in time to watch the clean up.Chi was excited to go initially, but as usually happens, she quickly became bored with the setting and didn't perk up until she could participate in the era reenactment. Here she was picking off radish seeds to dry for planting. "Radishes look just like green beans, but they taste different," she said. Honestly, I don't think she's every seen a radish full grown.One young woman showed off her garden, but admitted that the weather had created havoc for much of her small crop.Ya is still experiencing everything anew, so the animals elicited peals of laughter and big five-tooth smiles (that's right, the fifth tooth is no longer just under the gum line, but is now every-so-slightly peeking out at us).
He liked looking at the honking geese...
And though he didn't want to get too close to the turkeys, their warbling called for a chuckle too.
I'm a bit surprised that he thought looking at this snorting guy was funny...And I loved getting a few pictures of our day at the farm before venturing back to the future (and to an awesome public park/playground happened upon as I made a wrong turn).

Constructive Feedback?

So I sort of cut close to Ya's back trying to get his attention and keep him on the staircase.

I'd like some comments on what could take this "look he's 45 weeks old" shot from okay to wow. After all, at this point every photo looks the same...

This is the SOOC image, taken around 9:20 a.m. with a Nikon D50. Lens was my 18-50mm F3.5-5.6. Available light only, with camera set on its "portrait" auto control. [Technical data: 1/800 exposure, F4.8, 32mm focal length.] Notice that the shot is flat and he is incredibly funny colored. I also don't like that his beautiful bright eyes seem all black and lifeless. I'd like to try something with frames (which I have no earthly idea how to do). So I thought maybe I should tint the photo, but aside from desaturating the image, there's not much talent on my part in that arena. Besides, when I desaturate the image and use "variations" in Photoshop, I get weird highlights I didn't see in the original image and end up loosing the scene's details (I burned where the weird highlights were distracting). See?

I was thinking about perhaps darkening the background above his head to help him "pop" out the image... but I didn't like the "fake" look I achieved when I used PhotoShop's burn tool. And that shadow in the lower left side is bothering me something terrible. My original solution was to blacken the edges slightly after cropping, but the right side's crop I created with the original shot won't allow me to make this adjustment effectively. Here's where I stopped:

What I liked about the photo itself is that he isn't looking at me... the downward glance is typical of his attitude of late. He is independent, doesn't answer to his name unless he feels like it, and he is always on the move. This photo seems to show that. And I eyed this setting awhile back and couldn't wait until Ya could sit up well enough to be put in it. I waited too long, because now he climbs and turns or eats whatever he sees around him. But that's a 10-month-old for you, right?

Here's hoping someone out there with a little more knowledge has a way I can improve my image...

Paparazzo, That's Me

I was watching my favorite show (nope, not ashamed to admit I'm obsessed with America's Next Top Model) the other day, and Tyra mentioned that Paparazzo is the Italian word for mosquito. You know, those little blood sucking sneak attackers that settle on your skin when you least expect them and then leave their puffy mark? I think it's fitting.

Although I would never want anyone finding me a pest with a camera, I operate in much the same way as the little bugger. I carry my Nikon with me whenever I can. I keep spare batteries charged. I have multiple SD cards just in case the opportunity for thousands of shots presents itself. I "see in pictures" and mentally frame everything with my eyes as I consider what kind of shot what I'm seeing would make.

My family jokes (behind my back and to my face) that I have photos of everything... and I do. You'll never catch my kids asking "what did I look like when I was..." insert age or event at the elipse. No one can ever say that they don't remember what ... looked like when ... if I was at the event.

Of course this means that I get invited to functions because the hosts hope for pictures. Can you believe I actually had someone get mad because I didn't have my camera once?

I enjoy being the "Nutty Photographer". I take it as a compliment that my uncle said I have "surgically attached [my] camera to [my] forehead." And I'm taking this phototherapy serious. I think I see improvement from the photos I took with my first point and shoot digital camera purchased in 2003 when Chi was three months old. I am steadily progressing in my style and my skill with every photo. So though I hear the snickers and comments about my photo OCD, I also know that those same people have "borrowed" my images for their own use countless times (and I'm working on not being offended by the inadvertent failure to acknowledge "Nice photo" comments with "Thanks, my Sister/Cousin/Neice took it."

I am the family mosquito... if I buzz by, I leave you with a memory in the form of a photograph. I stop time with my camera. Someday, you'll be grateful you got stung.

My Story In Photos: The Patriotic Edition

The folk at I ♥ Faces are making this a vacation week. No contests, just sharing the "My Story In Photos: The Patriotic Edition".
I suppose this means that words should be minimal and images plenty? Below is our very literal interpretation of celebrating the Fourth of July... waving flags and setting of fireworks.
Here goes:

Now, that was a celebration.

Of course, we're also mindful of the men and women who gave us our independence and who continue to protect and preserve it. I come from a large military family. My father served in the Marine Corps for most of my childhood and we spent many an Independence Day on various military bases with sparklers in our hands. Uncles, cousins served and continue to do so (some have done several tours in Iraq, Vietnam, and the Gulf War). And my grandfather "Poppy" was a Tuskegee Airman that received countless awards for service, was a prisoner of war in Germany, is mentioned in several historical references, received a Purple Heart, and sacrificed himself for our country. As a military brat, crisp uniforms, freshly shined shoes, and salutes were a part of life. So was the relocation from state to state. One thing remained the same, however, sparklers were always readily available for us in whatever neighborhood we were residing - even if fireworks weren't available or were not allowed. It was a constant that this brat appreciated.

While we may only hold our flags, pinwheels and sparklers on this day, we know that we are blessed to be in the USA. To our servicemen: thank you for serving your country and giving us a reason to celebrate the USA.

A Visit

When parents are no longer together, the kids they share are often without one or the other for long periods of time [feel free to say "duh" now]. Chi's dad lives across the country, but you might as well say he's both culturally and physically from another world. We've worked hard to remain some odd semblance of friends in order to give our daughter knowledge of just how many people in this world love and cherish her. But it's been three long years since her Dad has hugged or kissed her - - three years of our toddler becoming a young lady that remembers only what she sees in her scrapbook photos. Honestly, the phone call parenting had long since ceased to be enough to satisfy a little girl who desperately wants a Daddy in her life.

Then we got an unexpected call: Daddy was flying into the area just for Chi. It was a much needed, but much too short visit for the two... but plans are in the works to ensure that the years don't become more prevalent than the visits.


Quote of the weekend: "Mommy, he has my same face, huh?"

@ the Pool

We finally got our pool passes about a week ago and have been to the pool a half dozen times already. It has been awesome to get Ya into the water (which he loves almost as much as his fishy sister, Chi). The giggles he let loose the first time I held him in the water were infectious. He squealed and kicked and splashed his hands: sure signs that I, the non-swimming, non-floating, don't go past 3.6 feet deep cause I'm too short to stand, mother has yet another water baby. Wow.
I think the life guard thinks I am nuts (as do the folk who've seen me out during my 15-20 minute obsessive-compulsive photography shoot each visit). What is wrong with the woman trying to convince her ten-month-old to stay put while she stands in the water with her camera and tries to take a picture? Trust me, ya'll, I wonder the same thing sometimes... but it really is the only way to get the best angle in my shots.

Meanwhile Chi stays completely covered in her essentials: Speedo swim cap, bright orange life preserver suit, and goggles. This is probably good, as she ♥s her itty-bitty-teeny-wienie bikini... and I think it is a bit too grown for her.

And I know my baby girl isn't the little adult that her intelligence and inquisitive perceptiveness might make her out to be, so I'd really like the rest of the world to see her as the kid wearing child-appropriate clothes for as long as possible. (Of course, the pose she picked for the shot below without the cover gear doesn't help, does it?)