Foto Friday–On the Water

Last month, we took a trip down to Florida to visit Jack’s Grandparents.  While it did take 2 days to drive from Ohio to Florida, it was not a hardship at all.  We were on the Gulf side, between Sarasota and Ft. Meyers, FL.  The weather was PERFECT and BEAUTIFUL.  We spent a few days at the beach (where I got sunburned badly), one at the big aquarium in Sarasota and the rest of the time just enjoying the company.  I love that my In-laws are Snow Birds.  I think I may join them next year. 

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.  You can be sure there were a ton more than this, but I thought I’d pick my favorites for this post.  I did run them through Photoshop, but the only touch ups I did for any of them was auto levels/color/contrast.  I didn’t do anything fancy at all.  I didn’t feel that they needed anything.  Maybe I’ll play around with them another day.

The surf was exceptionally strong (high?) the first day we were at the beach.  This guy was taking advantage of the good surging conditions.

These are my in-laws.  I loved how they look as they’re taking a walk on the beach. Of these two very similar photos, I couldn’t decide which I liked better, so put them both on here.

After the grandparents finished their walk, they said they’d watch Jack while Rick and I went for a walk on the beach.  What a great time.  I want to remember what it feels like to walk in the surf and sand.   

This Egret looks so regal sitting on the pier waiting for his next meal – an accidental drop by a fisherman perhaps? The Herron was ready at a moments notice.  Or maybe he just enjoyed watching the fishermen on the pier like we did.

The last night of our vacation, we went to the beach to watch the sunset.  It was a cloudy night, so the sunset wasn’t all that impressive, but the subtle color in the clouds were still beautiful.  I’ll definitely miss the beach!

Foto Friday–Hands

I’ve been out of this Foto Friday thing for a while.  It’s fun to join in, but I just haven’t taken the time to do it in a long time.  This week’s theme is HANDS. 

This picture was from last month, but I took the same picture last year.  If I don’t lose that little front loader, I’m planning to take this picture every year. Here’s what we have so far:

Click on over to Lori’s blog to see other Foto Friday entries for this week.  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday to You

I have a few pictures for you today. 

This week’s theme for Foto Friday is “silhouette”.  (which I never spell correctly the first time!)  I was going to take a new picture of Jack this week for this prompt, but I was too lazy  decided to pick one from my archives instead.  This is one of my favorites.  Jack was 6 months here. My little virtuoso. 

A friend of mine (and her friend) started a new photo challenge. This one has prizes, so I thought I’d get over my fear of submitting photos alongside REAL photographers and submit one this week. I like to support my friends, so I’m only partially in it for the prizes.  Here is my best photo from this week.

Since we live very close to a military airport, we see a LOT of KC135s and C5s.  They routinely do “touch and go’s”, which is when they come in for a landing, but just touch down, then go back up in the air again.  They’ll circle around and do that over and over again.  Each time, this is the view that we get. (This is a C5 –the largest airplane in operation)

 

And here is a picture “just because.”  Last weekend, we went to Gramma’s to watch the OSU game.  (they lost in OT)  At one point, Jack and Gramma both had on their Ohio State scarves and were reading a book together (during commercials I’m sure – Gramma’s a big Buckeye fan).  I thought the image was super sweet and wanted to share it with you today.

Have a great Friday!  And a really great weekend. 

Foto Friday–Kids & Fall

I didn’t take any new pictures this week for this prompt, so I had to go back into my archives.  In truth, I didn’t actually TRY to take new pictures this week.  I immediately thought about these pictures that I love, so that’s what I’m sharing.

*Picture Overload*

Jack’s first Halloween.  9 1/2 months old. Our LIttle Jack-O-Lantern.

Jack’s first fall. Oct 2009. 9 months old.

One of my all-time favorites of Jack.  9 months. Oct. 2009

Fall 2010.  21 months

I like to call this one “mom of a boy.” This (like all of these pictures) was before I got a new camera.  My little 5 year old Sony Cybershot was a pretty good camera-I didn’t do any editing to this one. 

Jack’s 2nd Halloween.  Same Costume.  That’s called “getting your money’s worth!” Oct 2010.

Last year we went to a pumpkin farm that had a corn sand box.  Jack loved it.  This editing is pretty funky for me, but I like how it makes the corn look soft and fluffy.

Foto Friday–Orange

Oops, I missed last week. I’m sure I’m the only one who noticed, but I’m still sorry about it.

This week’s theme is Orange.  I walked around my house and found orange things to take pictures of, since our leaves turn yellow in our backyard, and I’m without a vehicle to even go out and look for orange.

So here they are, unedited and simple. 

This is Jack’s new dump truck.  You can tell that it’s not actually NEW.  It’s just new to him.  His cousins played with this truck 10 years ago, my sister and I played with it 30 some years ago, and my dad played with it (its original owner) 60 years ago.  Like most hand-me down toys, Jack broke it within a week –I’m not sure how these toys can last years and years, but then when they get to Jack, they break or get lost in 2 days.  *sigh* Anyway, Rick fixed it and it’s like ‘new’ again.  Maybe Jack’s kids will play with it someday.

This pumpkin is new to me.  I just bought it from a craft fair last weekend.  I never go to craft fairs, and when I do, I rarely buy anything for myself, but this weekend I went a bit crazy.  It didn’t help that my best friend’s mom made it and I love her like my own mother, so I HAD to buy it. 

Buying this pumpkin was life changing for me.  Really.  When I got home, I realized I had nowhere to put it.  Every surface in my home is full of clutter.  So, in trying to find a spot for my new –and only- fall decoration, I de-cluttered my home.  I mean REALLY de-cluttered. Let’s just say that this dry sink was unable to have a big pumpkin sitting in it like this last week. In fact, I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen the inside of the sink like this in 5 years! Mostly I  just de-cluttered my kitchen, but MAN does it feel good!!  Maybe I’ll blog about it someday.  I didn’t take any ‘before’ pictures, but I can pull up just about any picture in my files and call it a before. 

Have a great weekend!

Foto Friday–Machines

This was my suggestion, and it was SO hard to narrow down my pictures to just one.  So I didn’t.  I like that I can do that with this prompt.

A few weeks ago, they repaved our road.  It was a great day for Jack!  We walked around the neighborhood and watched the truck pull the ‘box’ along behind it, laying down the ‘slurry’.  Real technical terms here.

They truck ran out of mix right in front of our house, which means they had to leave the box here and go fetch another truck that had more mix in it.  You know what that means….I ran over and started taking pictures of the box like it was a supermodel! The workers (who were still there waiting for the new truck to come) were a little confused about why I was taking pictures.  One even asked me, “what are the pictures for?”  I said “I just like to take pictures, and how often is one of these things in front of my house?”  He wasn’t seeing how it was a picture-moment. 

In all honesty, when I suggested the theme Machines, I was thinking more about the machines we have laying All.Over.My.House.  Jack has a few loves, the biggest being machines. 

I hope you have a great weekend.  Rick took off work today, and he doesn’t have to work on Monday, so it’s a four day weekend in our home!  I wonder what we’ll do (besides doing some laundry and grocery shopping)

(Don’t forget to click on the Foto Friday box to go see other pictures of machines.)

Foto Friday–Books

(It seems that all I’m coming up with these past few weeks has been Foto Friday posts.  I’ll get another post explosion soon I’m sure)

This theme made me think of my time spent at Mommy Retreats.  Every year, ladies from our old kinship (small group) from back in the day (like late 90’s, early 00’s) get together every spring for a Mommy Retreat.  I got to join the last two years and hope to attend every year that I’m not breastfeeding.  Since I’m not pregnant now, looks like I’m all ready to go next spring.

At this retreat, we bring whatever reading materials (and games and even recipe boxes to organize) we want to peruse during the weekend.  Last year’s retreat seemed to be a big reading weekend.  There were so many books that we had to get pictures of them all stacked up. 

I added a Kim Klassen texture called Ugglove (I think) and then a Paint the Moon black and white action that I added a bit of the color back to. I love how the color turned out in this, but I’m not sure if this texture was the best choice.  I do like it, but if I had more time (always the case), I could have tried out more textures to find maybe a better one.

Until next time……

 

Have a great weekend!

Foto Friday–S curve

I was stumped with this one!!! 

So I cheated. I used my son’s bath toy letter. It’s all I could think of! 

I added a Kim Klassen texture (Free!) and then The Pioneer Woman’s Vintage action (Free!) It’s not my best work, but it’s what I came up with this morning on the fly.

Have a good weekend!

P.S.  I’m going on a date with my hubby tonight!! I think this is April’s date night.  We’re a little behind.

Foto Friday–Pattern

It’s here again!  Foto Friday.  This week went by pretty quickly around here.  Not much to tell…except that my son is POTTY TRAINING!  And he’s doing a great job.  I can’t wait to tell you about it.  I’m a proud mama.

I couldn’t get a good “pattern” picture to save my life, so I went into the archives.  And these are OLD archives.  3 years old to be exact.  My mom, Rick, and I went to Alaska before Jack was born (I was 14 weeks pregnant at the time).  It was the best vacation.  I’ve been a lot of places, and besides Wales, Alaska is my number 1 spot to visit in the world.  I have two number 1’s.  It’s my blog, I can do that.

A few friends of mine have recently been to Alaska and they’ve been sharing their pictures.  It makes me want to go back!! So, I did…via my picture files.  It was a lot less expensive this way.

Here are the three pictures I found that I felt fit the “pattern” theme for this week.  I should put a disclaimer on here that I’m pretty sure my mother took these pictures.  Not me.  But I came from her womb, (and they’re on my computer) so I say that’s allowed. Enjoy!

(Skagway, AK) (Those were my initials before I was married)

(Fairbanks, AK)

(Talkeetna, AK)

Obviously, this doesn’t show you Alaska at all, but they’re cute pictures.  I wish my Alaska pictures had turned out better.  My camera at the time was unknowingly set on ‘email quality’ pictures, and the date was stamped on them all.  I blame that on being pregnant at the time.  I had already started losing brain cells by then.  Thank goodness my mom was camera-happy that trip!

Foto Friday–Fill the Frame

Last month, there was a free hot air balloon festival in our neighboring, small town’s, county airport. It was free to the public, so we jumped right on that event.  I have always loved hot air balloons since I was a little girl.  I used to wish upon a star that I’d get to ride in one someday.  Since Rick would rather jump out of an airplane than ride in a hot air balloon, my chances for going up in one look slim.  I’m okay with that. The older I get, the less brave I become.

As a hobby photographer, I was in photography heaven that night.  The balloons were so colorful, the weather was beautiful, and there were no restrictions on how close you were allowed to get to the balloons.  I couldn’t believe that I could get as close as I wanted to the balloons.  I could have touched them.  Oh man!  Why didn’t I touch one? I did stick my head inside a few to take some neat pictures. 

All of these pictures are my “fill the frame” photos for today’s prompt.  And all I did to edit them was (in Photoshop) add an overlay layer and either a hard mix or screen layer.  All levels were adjusted down to make the colors pop just right.

 

There were 10 balloons in all, but I could only get 8 in the frame at one time because one went up pretty early and left the scene for a while, and one was late in getting started.