Foto Friday – Symmetry

 

I’ll admit, this photo is BAD.  I didn’t run it through Photoshop at all, even though I’m having a great time experimenting with PS.  It’s blurry, and the color is just not ‘wow’.

BUT, what it lacks in quality, it makes up for in character. I took a progression of shots while Jack was running his race cars down the track so I could see who the winner is.  Those cars go SO fast, that I usually can’t tell who wins.  My new-ish camera has a super fast shutter capture speed –type setting that captures up to 34 frames per second.  It’s FAST!

All week I couldn’t come up with a good symmetry photo, so this is what I decided on at the last minute. It won’t impress you with its quality, but it may bring a smile to your face with its character.

Have a great weekend! I’m off to our annual Mom Retreat.  Can’t wait!!!!

Purple is the winner!!

I’ve Been Playing With Photoshop

I’ve been playing around with using Photoshop recently. I sneak in time to play before Jack wakes up and after he goes to sleep. 

Anything I know how to do on Photoshop I learned from a Youtube tutorial.  there are a ton out there.  I just searched “photoshop tutorial” (I’m a search engine expert)

I wish I had bookmarked any of the tutorials I found, but I didn’t.  I just watched it, paused, worked on my photo, played some more, paused it, worked on my photo…you get the idea.

I do have The Pioneer Woman’s free actions.  I really love them.  They have me on the hunt for other free actions – Rick would never let me pay for anything like that.  I’m also always watching out for ‘win free actions’ on various blogs.  I haven’t won anything yet.  But then again, I haven’t won PW’s camera giveaways either.  Or her pans.  Or her Kitchen Aid Mixers.  Why do I even bother?

On with this post….

I thought I’d share some of my pictures that I’ve edited and see what you think.  Feel free to be honest.  I won’t ever learn if I only hear “oh, that’s so nice” and “I like it!”  While those are nice to hear, they don’t help me to grow as an amateur photographer. 

So, be honest.  If you hate something, let me know (but be nice, I’m still human a woman) If you think I should try something else with a certain photo, let me know.  It’s all about helping me out. And, if I get comments that help me, I’m sure they’ll help other readers who take the time to read through my comments.

Thanks! (Get ready for a TON of pictures with as many explanations as I can remember)

This was just PW’s “Vintage” action

 

This is my first attempt at trying out textures.  I probably used PWs “Warmer” action on both of these.

   

This one with the marble was just a matter of brightening it up.  I used curves and “Define and Sharpen” from PW to tweek this one.  

 

This darling baby came to visit us last week (she brought her whole family) and I couldn’t resist taking pictures of her.  Look at those eyes!! I used PWs “Warmer” (my favorite) “B&W Beauty”, “Quick Edge Burn,” and “Seventies” on these. 

 

This was a bad time and angle to shoot bird photos, but I tried to brighten it up with some auto adjustments and curves. I did the same thing with the plants. (Anyone know what those are?) 

  This was just the other night and I didn’t realize that Jack had food on his face when I took his picture.  So, I took that off, removed a stray eyelash on his cheek, and brightened his eyes.  This is why Rick says that Photoshop is unethical.  “It doesn’t truly represent what he looked like at that moment!”

This was the first dandelion that my son ever gave me.  It was just last week.  I used “Warmer”, “Seventies”, “Quick Edge Burn,” and some curve adjustments to try to bring out the dandelion that is half washed out by the sun.

This is the baby again with her big sister.  They match!!  I love their eyes.  I didn’t know how to fix this one, and I’m not sure I love the final results. 

 

So, do you notice anything I’m constantly doing that you think is not nice?  Do you see one of these pictures and think “Oh, I totally would have done this instead!” Do you have any corrections or thoughts you’d like to share?  I’m all ears!

Thanks for taking the time to look through my photos. It’s fun to use Photoshop, but not very easy. 

Click to Help

 

Have you ever read that blog?  Well, if you have, hop on over quick and read about her huge family crisis that just came up last week.

If you haven’t read her blog before….hop on over and check her out.  Today’s post is about how her husband lost his job last week.  With 8 or so kids (I lost count), that is going to cause a LOT of cutbacks in their family. She’s sharing her plan with us and it sounds like it will help, but there is something we can do.

All traffic on her blog helps earn her money from her advertisers. (I’m not sure how it works, since I’m not dealing with advertisers.)  Also, if you are planning to buy something from Amazon soon, you can click to Amazon from her page and she’ll earn some revenue. 

In a time of crisis like this, it’s the least we can do to click over and read a few posts to help them out.  That’s what being part of the Blogging Community is all about – being able to help others, even if it’s just with a click of a button.

So, hop on over, read a few posts, hop to Amazon and buy whatever you were going to buy anyway.  It’ll help a family out for a while.

Thanks!

Foto Friday - Family

Today’s theme is FAMILY.

I have one of those!

And I love them.  

Here are my recent favorites of my boys:

 

And I attempted to take a family photo this past weekend while we were visiting a covered bridge.  The sun was so bright, and the setting was just so that….well….it turned out awful. Not to mention the subjects aren”t all cooperating.  All my Photoshop skills were put to work and I still came out with a pretty bad picture.  But I thought I’d share.  Maybe after a few more hours (and a few more Youtube video tutorials) I could get it to be a decent photo, but I’m not too worried about it.  I’ll get another family photo eventually.

Feel free to hop on over to Mom Tried It and look at all the other Fotos fof families linked up today.