Photography

Happy Halloween….A Million Days Late

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Life….am I right?! I took these photos on the Wednesday before Halloween and it has taken me that long to just to get them edited and a looking nice! Yikes! It took that long because the wind and the sun were just not allowing me to take pictures that were worth a crap. On top of that…….well life happens! Things have been busy and with some attitudes here that needed adjusting, and lots of fun stuff going on, it just hasn’t happened! But I know that you my fellow humans of our insane world, will understand and not think its totally nuts to post these a million days late! I took alot of pics of our homeschool group for Halloween and they were all just adorable all dressed up! But I will spare you the hundred pictures of everyone…….wait…….no I wont! 😉 You know me better then that right?! Well I will start with my own girls so you see then first before you get board……lol Bunny was Nancy Clancy (in case you are unaware of who that is, it is Fancy Nancy all grown up. Click here to see). Pup was Strawberry Shortcake! We made all the costumes and had fun doing it! I think that the wigs really make it all work! So……I proudly unveil…….Halloween pictures:

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Hobbies Meet Real Life

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Have you ever had that realization that your hobby is just really hard to fit into real life? I love to be creative, to take pictures, to make cool stuff. But things like teaching kids, cooking food, and cleaning messes seem to take a lot of time! 😉 So much that sometimes it feels like I don’t have those stretches of time to devote to my random things. So I try do what every busy mom knows how to do really well…..multi-task! Photography is one of my fun things that is a little easier to work with! Its all about capturing a moment and telling a story with that! So I set up my tripod and my camera exposure. Then I took pictures of us working on our school work together. I was sitting on our couch reading and doing some lessons and, with my remote, I would take pictures! So I got to work on my fun stuff while teaching really usful subjects to my kids! The results were interesting and it is a good way to hold onto the daily realisty here! I don’t have pictures of us doing school work and since this is something that is a huge part of our lives it seems silly to not have some! The more I think about taking pictures, the more I realize that the pictures that speak the most to me, both that I take and that I see of others, are always the ones that are real. Where the family or the subject is engaged in something that is real and meaningful to them. Portraits are nice and look good on a wall, but the photos that invoke true feeling in someone are the unstaged ones. I guess that means my style of photography is leaning toward lifestyle photography. Here are my pictures from our lesson. I did some edits on them, just in case you are wondering!

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What do you think? Do you have a hobby that you try to fit into the daily business of mommy life?

PS……I haven’t forgotten Halloween pics! I will post them next! 🙂

Its Just Us…..

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Things have been really busy here! In fact I have been so busy I almost have no time to really think and come up with fun posts to share. However, I have been taking pictures with the girls and I thought you many want to see a huge blob of photos that we have been taking! Most of these are on my Instagram account, but some are just fun that we have taken! The girls are LOVING my “new” inherited smart phone that allows us to take pictures whenever and wherever! I love memories…..don’t you?

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Some First Edits

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Well as I promised, I have been working on some photo editing. I have a long way to go, but I had fun working on making these photos look more like I wanted them to. Here are the first batch from the park. I have included the before and after so you can see what I did. I don’t know if you care about all of that, but here it is anyway! 🙂 I for one am pretty proud of them……even if there is a lot left to be desired! I used Photoshop Elements 12 for editing and since I have a really crapping understanding of how to work with layer masks, most of my edits were done using adjustment layers, and some actions for the eyes. If you have some feedback on my technical skill, please share! If you don’t know technical stuff, feel free to comment anyway…..I love to hear from you! <3

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My Photo Discoveries

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Well we have been a bit under the weather here and that has made our days less then energetic! So this afternoon, with a moments time, I thought I would practice taking pictures from different angles using my zoom and the portrait setting on my camera. With my kiddos sick and sitting (fairly) still, I tried some new techniques out on them! 🙂 I was interested to see the results. I think that I am getting some interesting shots and I look forward to doing more, but maybe when they are feeling better! Poor Babies. Here are some of the pictures I took. None of these have been retouched or fixed in anyway. And also the girls are not looking their best. I swear that hair got brushed and faces got washed even though it doesn’t look like it! Here are the pictures:

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I still have some work to do as you can see! 🙂 But I am hoping to be able to figure out the camera and all the amazing thing its supposed to do! As I took these pictures, I realized something that was just so amazing. Our eyes. We see things in crystal clear, vivid color. And when light, shadows, or objects, get in the way, all we need to do is move and everything come back into perfect focus. When we are taking pictures, we are doing nothing but trying to capture this play of light and color forever!  However, to capture the same image as the eye, a good photographer has a camera, several lens, and YEARS of experience! While our eyes just see it! Wow! What a gift and something that is something to pay attention to! How many times do we take the time to see? To see the sparkle in their eyes, the snow on a tree, or the bright colors of the flowers? What sadness to miss these things while being busy with all the random things we make so important! What do you think? Do you take the time to see?