Feeling blue...

Got lucky that I had some blueberries in the fridge on the day the "blue" challenge was issued. They were getting old, so I had to hunt for some that weren't shriveled. I do love doing these macro shots tho'...so much fun to see those little details close up.

Don't worry, bee happy!

I generally don't have my camera with me when I'm out, but was hoping to stop after a meeting at a park last week for my "in the distance" challenge. Imagine my delight when I happened on this fence covered in trumpet vines! I stopped for a few shots, but didn't realize till I downloaded to my computer that this bee had flown in the frame. How nice of him! BTW, he wasn't showing up too well because he was caught in the shade. But I had a go-round in PSE which I think worked really well. I selected the bee, then hit control J which put him into a new layer without the background. I experimented with different blending modes until he stood out. I'm pretty sure I used "overlay". I used the same technique on the flowers in the foreground to make them pop. It was simple and created sort of a backlight which I thought worked really well.

New shoes...

One day the challenge was "standing" and I just happened to be out with Jenny and Hannah picking out paint for Hannah's new big girl room. AND Hannah just happened to be sporting her new little sandals. We stopped by a little church on the way home for a few shots by their pretty fountain. TOO bright in the midday sun for that tho'...so we set Hannah on a stone bench in the shade. There's a reason we don't let her stand on benches....lol. Jenny was right there, ready to stop her tho'. No babies were harmed in the making of this photo.

Things remembered...

Shot for the challenge of "letters". Not a lot to say about this one. Instead, I'll let the image speak for itself. What kind of story does it make you imagine?

Quote by Seneca

Convincing fakes...

Shot for the challenge of "fake". I've probably posted a pic of these before, but they're just too good a fake to not use them again. lol. To make it extra fake, I added a texture and created my own texture of "lemon" text. Not sure I like that yet...I'm still thinkin' on it.

Espresso anyone?

Shot for the challenge of "set". My grandmother's antique Limoges demitasse cups. I never use them, just keep them displayed in a china cabinet, because we don't drink coffee. Still, I think they're lovely. I love how delicate the hand painting is and I love the light in this shot too.

Zoom...

This was shot for the Get Pushed group. I was challenged to experiment with rear curtain flash. I had never even heard of it before! Ordinarily, when you use flash, it goes off at the beginning of your exposure. If you're using a fast shutter speed, this won't make any difference. But at slow shutter speeds, if your flash goes off at the beginning, the flash "freezes" your moving subject into a crisp image which is basically "written over" by the motion blur from your slow exposure. I don't think I explained that well, but when you use rear curtain flash, the flash goes off at the end of the exposure. So, if you're using a slow shutter speed and your object is moving, you capture first the sensation of movement with a blur, which is then "written over" with a crisp image of your subject "frozen" by the flash. The articles I read, recommended leaving your camera settings on rear curtain flash all the time. Most of the time, we're shooting fast shutter speed anyway and it won't make any difference...but if you should happen to capture some movement, it would be better to have a clearer image of your subject superimposed over the blur, rather than covered up by it.

I wish I'd had a better subject for this challenge. I would have loved to capture someone dancing, for instance. This would be a perfect technique for that first dance of a bride and groom. But I was limited on time, and models, and had to settle for Hannah's adorable little car. Jenny was a good sport and zoomed the car repeatedly while I experimented! :) In spite of the lame subject matter, I really did think this turned out cool. Give it a try! My settings were f/2.8, 1/4 sec. exposure, ISO 200. Also, I learned that this works better with a dark background.
Once again, I forgot to post to the blog for the last 2 days. Someone actually contacted me to find out if she'd been left off the mailing list. Bless her! Nice to know someone noticed. :)