Thirsty...

Yes, we had rain, but we're still more than 30 inches behind in rainfall for the year. I had to simulate raindrops with a squirt bottle for our "wet" challenge. I think this Gerbera was thankful! Isn't it gorgeous! Thanks to my friend Karen for the use of her garden!

Bee is for Balance...

We're so thankful for the little bit of rain we received last week. It revived my friend's garden and I was happy to play with my macro again. Loved this guy's balancing act. And the flowers are gorgeous in macro too, right?

BTW...hand held...yay me!

Surrender...

"We are being asked to trust, to leave the planning to God. God's ultimate plan is as far beyond our imaginings as the oak tree is from the acorn's imaginings.The acorn does what it was made to do, without pestering its maker with questions about when and how and why. We who have been given intelligence and a will and a wide range of wants that can be set against the divine Pattern for Good are asked to believe Him. We are given the chance to trust Him when He says to us, ' ...If any man will let himself be lost for my sake, he will find his true self."

“When will we find it?” we ask.
The answer is “TRUST ME”.
“How will we find it?”
The answer again is, “TRUST ME”.
“Why must I let myself be lost?” we persist.
The answer is:
“LOOK AT THE ACORN AND TRUST ME”.
(Catherine Marshall)

Time flies on gossamer wings...

Every day has been so short, every hour so fleeting, every minute so filled with the life I love that time for me has fled on too swift a wing." Aga Khan

It seems not so long ago that I was sitting there, waiting for hugs from my two little girls. And now, I'm the Grammy. Where did the time go??? Hannah had a blast for this shoot! I stood just outside the frame on the right with my remote shutter release and we let her walk back and forth between us, sharing hugs on each end. She loved it and so did we!!!

Arrr....Talk like a pirate....

I was surprised a few days ago when our challenge was "pirate". Seriously? That's a lot more specific than usual. Apparently, it was "Talk Like a Pirate Day". Who knew? Thankfully, my student Seth is crazy about pirates. He had all the gear and was a great model.

Remember?

Shot for the challenge of "begin". Remember what it felt like to open a brand new box of crayons...all sharp, with no broken pieces. Imagine the possibilities!

Up and down...

She did enjoy sliding, but what she REALLY enjoyed was going up and down the stairs. I'll bet she did it at least 50 times....still saying "up" no matter which way she was going.

More Labor Day fun...

I don't remember what she was telling them, but clearly it was important! lol

Home...

News flash...love hurts...

Shot for the challenge of "arrow". It took me a while to come up with something that day, but this was fun in the end. Good thing Bob still had arrows from his hunting days. That is a SERIOUSLY sharp point on that thing...of course, I guess it needs to be if it's going to take down a deer or javelina. Yikes!

Vintage golden hour...

One more shot with the little brownie....Thanks to Caroline for posing again. LOVE that golden light. Also love the movement of her hair in the wind.

Funny hair day...

We took Hannah to the school playground on Labor Day too. What a blast! She's so adorable. More pics to follow as soon as I can get them processed. BTW, Hannah is still growing her mullet...lol. We decided to try putting her hair in pigtails and it actually worked...so cute...till the wind did a number on it. Still...how can you not love that face? And doesn't it make her look grown up? (sniff)

Jenny and Nathan (pt. 1)

I'm behind on my processing, but here are 2 I've finished from Labor Day. More to follow at some point.

Belly bokeh...

Jenny and Nathan let me practice some portraits on Labor Day...more to follow. But for today, my first belly shot. Such a cliche....but I still like it. I think this will look better when her belly's a little bigger tho'. :)
Quote by Sophocles. In case you can't read it, it says "When they asked me what I loved most about life, I smiled and said 'you'". :)

Milk can...

Also shot for the theme of carry...the milk can we were given from Bob's family. I'm pretty sure this came from their original home in Iowa. I love adding texture for this kind of photo. Loving the light too...shot in my front hallway with the storm door open. I'm thinking about possibly printing some of these for wall art...maybe a canvas print.

Apples for the teacher...

Caroline was sweet enough to pose for me again. What a gorgeous smile! This was shot for the challenge of "carry". I love how this turned out...particularly the light.

Break time...

My challenge on the paint day was "tall" and Nathan was good enough to indulge me for a photo op. He took Hannah outside for a break and zoomed around the yard like an airplane with her on his shoulders. She looks serious here, but she had plenty of fun...lots of giggles. I just wasn't lucky enough to capture any of those. What a blessing that Nathan is healthy enough to play with Hannah like that!

Little helper...

We painted Hannah's new room last weekend...a cute pale shade of pink. Hannah was VERY interested in what we were doing and really wanted to come in the room. Jenny sat in the hallway as a barricade and we sang songs with Hannah to keep her occupied. I was tickled when she picked up an empty paint roller and started "painting" the floor. She was happy with that for quite a while, chanting "pain...pain". So cute! I know the tongue helped! :)

Come to me...

When I explained to my Get Pushed partner about the difficulty I was having with the freelensing assignment, he was kind enough to issue a different challenge...a levitation shot. I'd been wanting to try one anyway. Thanks to Caroline for modeling! Check out my new vintage camera! The brownie cameras were manufactured in the 40's and sold for app. 2 dollars...some of the first truly affordable cameras for the average consumer. I have no idea how to work it or even if you can buy film for it, but it makes a great prop, no?


The levitation shot was easy. I took 2 shots of Caroline, using a tripod and asking her to stay as still as possible. In the first shot, I had the camera setting on a stool in front of her. In the second shot, I removed the stool and camera and shot Caroline standing in the same pose as in the original shot. In software, I layered the shot with the camera on top of the shot without. Then I used a layer mask to "erase" the stool from the top layer and reveal that portion of the photo beneath. Once I had the camera "floating", I created a subtle drop shadow to the camera.

What do you think? Does it look believable?

Freelensing...

I was recently issued an interesting challenge for Get Pushed. It's called freelensing. Let me tell you....it is not for the faint of heart! I have no idea who thought it up, but he/she was nuts! The technique is to shoot with your lens unattached to your camera, holding the lens close to the camera body. You're supposed to tilt the lens back and forth and up and down to create some interesting illusions in the focal plane. It is harder than it sounds!

1. There is a risk of dropping your lens, since you're trying to hold it, tilt it, AND manually focus with one hand.

2. There's a risk of getting dust or moisture on your sensor.

3. There's no way to meter, because your camera body can't communicate to the lens when the lens isn't attached.

4. I was advised to shoot in aperture priority mode, but Nikon won't release the shutter in anything but manual when the lens isn't attached.

5. My aperature blades closed down automatically every time the lens was unattached and I had to find a way to hold them open while balancing the lens, WHILE trying to focus manually, while trying not to drop everything. I found a discussion page that suggested using sticky tack to hold the blades open. It did work, but remember...temps are still above 100 here. Within just a few minutes, the sticky tack was a sticky MESS and it was getting all over my lens. At this point...I declared this little experiment "over". So this was my best shot.

It my opinion, it was more trouble than it was worth...but if you're feeling adventuresome...try it. Maybe you'll like it. I think it's an acquired taste. Theoretically, you're shooting with a zero aperture so you can get an even shallower dof. I don't think this looks all that different than my f/1.4 tho'....so I'm not about to try it again.

I ♥ Freckles...

Shot for the challenge of "spotted". I could have shot my hands, covered in age spots, but who wants to see that? Much better to use KC's adorable freckles. I think she looks a little like a lion in this shot.

Chillin' with Bob...

You thought it was going to be a picture with G-Pa, right? Nope. She's chillin' with Bob the Tomato. She loves him!

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. :)