366: Day 70

Three good things... dinner out... a heating pad for the back... and... giggling over the first Harry Potter movie. 

366: Day 69

Rainy, grey, and the day got away from me and my camera. This is the best I got, on my iPhone... and no Fence Friday either. Oh well!

Art of Texture Secrets Class - Week 1

OK! I think I'm caught up now, and I've learned a ton! My head is spinning... blurring, curves, selective blurring for faces to match the texture tones... good stuff!

I've got versions and versions of this image. Can't pick a favorite. Can you?

Two versions of this one (this lesson overlapped with Beyond Layers):

And then I took Luke's face out of texture and kept the tone. Better! Before and After:

Beyond Layers Day 16: Whisper

OK, wow, when it comes together easy and wonderful... it's so much better when you just keep trying and tweaking and trying and it still doesn't work. I tried to use Kim's recipe for whisper on a couple of shots... but I just didn't like it for my close up shots... I think it works great on her photos where a lot of the image can be blurred out but I didn't love it on big florals which is all I have right now... and then I happened on this, and I feel it has the same whispery feeling, and I love it... so I'm stopping here and moving on. I think "whisper" is also one of the lessons in The Art of Texture Secrets class, so, two birds with one stone here. Yay!

Two layers of KK's Happy Heart, and one of Embrace, a pioneer woman's action "Soft and Ethereal", and that's really it, aside from shooting in RAW and tweaking it in there to get the colors to pop first. You can see the popping one in yesterday's blog post below. Thanks for looking!

366: Day 68

Today's image is one I've been trying.... not too hard, as I've had very little time today, but still, trying too hard... I like it better when it just comes together... to follow Kim Klassen's whisper recipe... and I still don't have it... but there's always tomorrow. I did, at least, catch the full moon again, I think I have it down. I should still pull out my remote and try that so that I can get it a little sharper. Another night. And one more that I love, some plants I bought today at the grocery store.

Art of Texture Class Day 1

I signed up for another of Kim Klassen's texture classes... I'm already behind... I think this is what we were supposed to do for day one? I'm not sure. I may need to go over the lesson again, and try a different kind of image.

This is my finished image:

 This is my original:

366: Day 67

One good thing: saving a chicken from Gape Worm. Another good thing: Seattle Sounders win! And also, Trader Joe's Mint Chocolate Covered Espresso beans. 

About this image: 3 hard boiled eggs, shot in RAW, two layers of Kim Klassen's textures, Happy Heart and Revolution, a Pioneer Woman B&W Beauty action... and a few other tweaks.

Texture Tuesday

I almost missed Texture Tuesday! A layer of Kim Klassen's Happy Heart and another of Revolution.

366: Day 66

300 Days to go. Huh. Who knew I was going to take it all this far in 66 days? I'm figuring out shooting in RAW now as well as shooting in Aperture mode. My brain hurts just a little bit.

I got a great moon shot tonight. I'm so happy.

And it was bright and sunny today. More happy.

Beyond Layers Class, Day 15

Resistance... and "Whisper"... that's what Beyond Layers was about in yesterday's class... getting past the resistance, what stops us from making art, from being... ourselves...whatever.. and a prompt to create around the word "whisper"... Well, I thought all day about "whisper, while telling myself that I was actually doing pretty well about getting past resistance... lately... and then, the moon came out, with wispy clouds... and I thought "Hey!" and went to shoot it... only to be disappointed once again about the stupid bright circle on black that I always get when trying to shoot the moon.

Duh. Why keep doing the same old thing, expecting different results? So I looked it up: How to Take a Great Picture of the Moon? and there it was... the thing I'd been resisting... learning to use the manual controls on my camera. So, I figured it out. Sort of. But then a cloud came through, bringing snow... and this was as good as I got. It's my "Whisper" image for class... Thursday Kim will have some new "whisper" recipe for us to try, I'm looking forward to it.

366: Day 65

hmn... interesting. I figured out perspective today... from watching this tutorial over the weekend: John Derry Tutorial on preparing an image in Photoshop for Painter - isn't it amazing what's available to learn on the Internet these days?

Our hawk was back and I snapped these shots from an odd angle... here is the first one before I realized I could "fix" it to make it look more like it's supposed to.

And then I had that "ah-ha!" moment... and tried to to what John had done with the building in his tutorial... and wow! Look! Isn't that better?!

Beyond Layers Class, Day 14

Last week's lesson was actually two lessons. The first was a video showing how to convert a photo to black and white and then add back in a pop of color. I did several. Of course.

The second lesson was how to make brushes... and how to save a set of them to share. I decided to make some brushes from some old vintage public domain images I've found. And I'm sharing: just click on this link to get them!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65470702/PamShareVintageBrushes.abr

and then there was this image, I made a brush for this too, but then lost it before I saved it. Oh well!

366: Day 64

Three good things... a Northern Flicker in my tree... good coffee... and alone time to go melt glass - see ya!

366: Day 63

Three chickens, on guard... always looking out for that chicken hawk.

An old, old photo of mine, painted on in Corel Painter. 

366: Day 62

Good things: watching the kid happily take a bunch of photos, pick one, edit it, and post it on his own blog.

Here is mine, I think his was better, actually. Taken with my iPhone, and edited with some app to get tilt shift.

Happy Fence Friday!

and  here is a nice barn to go with it. 

366: Day 61

Three good things: cherry blossoms blooming across the street, a boy who is interested in learning more about photography with me, and discovering Pioneer Woman's Photoshop actions.

366: Day 60 ~ Happy Leap Day!

Three good things: cracking up with my kid over this photo shoot, beautiful snow falling all morning, and then, quickly melting before it makes a mess. 

366: Day 59

Three good things: a full day of school for the kid, an interesting show from this crow, who had stolen some kid's lunch and was dropping it on the pavement in front of me trying to open the container, and having time to read a few tips and tricks out of my photoshop book. 

Texture Tuesday: White

Time for Texture Tuesday! Kim's theme this week is "white". I wasn't sure I could "do" white... but then I had two photos after all. Or three, what the heck, the last one uses Kim's new "happy heart" texture.  They are mostly white. The first photo has one of Kim Klassen's textures on it - "shine" and the second one has "shine", "siena" and "finale". Thanks for looking! 

366: Day 58

Three good things: Sunshine. Saving Daisy the dog from getting run over and finding her owners. Sending the kid back to school again. 

Beyond Layers ~ Day 13: Simple Truths

Today, Kim asked us to list 10 Truths about ourselves, along with a picture. Here's the truth about me, I have trees in my hair. Oh, wait, that's not what she asked for. Truths, not fairy tales.

1. My favorite colors are jewel tones, the colors of the sky at sunset.

2. If I could live anywhere in the world, it would be somewhere with more sunshine than Seattle, but all the beauty of the Pacific Northwest on a sunny day. Plus, there would be water and a kayak with my name on it.

3. I homeschool my kid, which looks an awful lot like regular school half the week and unschooling the rest of the week. He's growing up to be an amazing person, but I worry about him getting into college. I try to tell myself that all mothers have the same worry, no matter what school they go to.

4. I'm kind of a geek. I like my gadgets, I like to code in HTML, I am so enjoying deconstructing layers in Photoshop, I spend way too much time on the internet. I've been known to have the laptop, the kindle fire and the iPhone all going on at one time. Sometimes you just need multiple screens!

5. I'm a craft supply hoarder. I have a whole studio in the backyard devoted to melting glass and jewelry making. I have a whole basement full of yarns, clay, fabric, paints, brushes, gel medium. I have a whole *basket full* of gel medium. And a wall full of beads. And another wall full of glass rods. I have two sewing machines that I don't know how to use. Also, I create more art in my head than ever sees the full light of day.

6. I bought myself a guitar, but I don't know how to play it. It sits in a stand in my living room mocking me.

7. I am a bit of a political junkie, a progressive dreamer, a feminist, equal rights, a free-choice, peace-loving, live and let live kind of person. I do not wear tie-dye.

8. I'm a food freak. I'm all about home-grown, local farmer grown, seasonal, humane, non-gmo, organic whole foods. Plus coffee. Espresso, really. I can't eat gluten anymore, and so I don't bake much anymore, something I've always loved. I have planted 6 fruit trees in my front yard and have 4 raised beds in my back yard. I love to pick lettuce right out of the garden for salad, and the strawberries? O.M.G. there are no better strawberries than the ones you grow yourself.

9. I love books. My guilty pleasure is vampire and werewolf and shape-shifter stories. I read history books for pleasure too, though admittedly, they help me to fall asleep. There are piles of books all over my house, art books, garden books, chicken-raising books, bird books, school books, cookbooks. And magazines. Way too many magazines.

10. I am blessed beyond belief with an amazing husband who spoils me, a beautiful child who makes me laugh and makes my heart ache with love, a big dopey happy dog, and a possessive cat, and a coop full of happy chickens who give us fresh eggs and a whole lot of entertainment.

366: Day 57

Three good things: 1. Getting your photo of the day in just before the deadline. 2. Being able to laugh at your own silly creations. 3. Having your son think it's really, really cool, anyway. "Look Mom! Ghost-sheep!!!" Love that boy of mine. (Three photos from today, a barn, some sheep sitting around telling each other stories, and an old tractor wheel.)

Oh, ok, here is something much better for today's shot. How easy it comes when you stop trying so hard.

More Birds from Yesterday

I decided the crow needed a crown after all.

and my favorite sweet little gull of the bunch:

and here is an older one that I never posted on here, there are several photos in this one, a sunset, the white line on a paved road, some scratches, the crow: