Learning again!

I downloaded a 30 day free trial of the program "Lightroom". 
I feel like I am finally working past the frustration zone and heading into creative zone! 
Hmmmm, I sure hope I don't fall in love with it too strongly! 

Ohhh I do like some of the cool features I can tell you that! 

This is a before and after I used to grind my teeth through, learning the program!
Ughhhhh I hate new things!

Before...

 

After....

  

Romans 12

 

9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil ; cling to what is good. 
10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love ; give preference to one another in honor ;  
11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord ;  
12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,
13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. 
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.  
16 Be of the same mind toward one another ; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.  
17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.  
18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.
20 "BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK ; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD."
 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 

 Words to live by. 
Words that will make you and I different from the masses.
Words that work through the power of Christ!!

Sewing Bee

I want to super quickly tell you about that piece of fabric there???

 It used to hang in my daughters room.  It was the curtains that came with my new house and we of course, took them down immediately, seeing as how they didn't suit our more girlie pinkish taste!

It was scooped up quickly by a sweet lady from church who knew she could do "something, sometime" with it.
Well, now is the time.
A few folks from our church are making their way to Hannah's Hope Children's Home in Cambodia.

One of the sisters here decided it would be awesome to take a homemade blanket to every child in the home, so began this old curtains journey toward greatness!!

It was cut and paired with a coordinating deliciously soft piece of orange light weight fleece, then folded and set aside to await sewing.
A little group of us got together one day last week to stitch shirts, pants, and blankets for the upcoming trip.  I chose to do simple sided blankets, as my sewing skills are rusty at best!!
I unknowingly picked up this very fabric and it's partner piece and began my job of surging the sides together.

 It was then that my sweet lady friend reminded me where the fabric had come from. 
How wonderful that it could go through my hands again before being put to use for something special.

Here is me working.  I thought it only fair to put my picture up and not torture the other ladies present who had no desire to be in my camera sights!!!

 It shouldn't surprise you that I got distracted while surging and went too far, so my buddy here had to rip out those seams so the blanket could be turned right side out.  Aahhhh ahahaha!!! 

The next stop for this blanket is to yet another sister from the church who will put the name Daniel on it. 
I wonder what color thread she will use, and what Daniel's expression will be when he realizes that it is all his to keep for as long as he wants it.
I hope to be able to someday show you the final steps of the journey of this humble piece of fabric!












And that is my quick story for today!!  I hope it all made sense, cause I sure don't have time to edit it!!! 

later,
Me

growing

Still alive!

I have been soooooooo busy friends.  I have taken pictures everyday, but making time to get here and post them to keep you caught up is some trick!! 
Here is a recap though! 
I have continued to work on my infant shoot, editing the images for the final product.

I had the lovely pleasure of capturing an entire 4 year old Princess Birthday party, and my usual Saturday soccer game.

 

And now I must be off again for more things that have to be accomplished! 

I totally recognize the sleep deprived  but undeniably too deliriously happy to care look about this new daddy.

Big sigh!
Those days are long gone for us here but oh, how I do remember the amazing quality of that love when it first hit me 14 years ago. 
It is maybe as close to perfection as this world gets. 
Though I don't have grandchildren yet...I hear that is when you really learn about perfected love! 

every rose has a thorn

Yes.

Yes I am hard on myself.  Are my expectations to high?  Yeah, maybe so.
And yes my post yesterday probably seemed like I was over the top discontent.  However...
It is one thing to be hard on yourself and whine about it, but another completely to not like where you are and decide to push through and grow.
That was me yesterday. 




















That is me in so many aspects of my life right now, and I bet yours too....I just happen to talk about mine here for whoever happens to read it.
I don't want to settle for good enough!
Discontent either leads to mediocrity and acceptance or it propels you on to excellence through action.

I want to be action girl.






















We are studying Philippians on Sunday mornings and I have been thinking a lot about this section of
chapter 2:
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves ; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.

I feel the same way about my photography right now as I do about how I truly live out that passage.
Sure it is very different but also the very same in theory. 
I don't want to let up being hard on myself about acting more like Christ.  I don't ever want to feel like "Hey I have got this down!!". 
I want to always be discontent in that and be propelled to action because of it. 

I am going to push through and grow and struggle along the way....and in the meantime I will probably talk about that here.
It only means I am human, and I know you are too.
Let's encourage each other on to good works...and good work!! 

We are working for the master anyway, so it may as well be the best we can give!  Col. 3:23

I am in a growth spurt

Well friends I have been avoiding you today and I am just gonna go ahead and admit that up front.
I am right in the big middle of a self confidence crisis and almost just couldn't even open up the old blog post area, but then I was taken aback for a moment by this photo that I took today.























You are probably thinking, well big deal that is just a picture of a camera lens. 
Yeah, I thought that too!  But then I thought, hey...I took that picture.
It wasn't too many months ago that a shot like that would have given me fits!
It would have take a whole lot of time to figure out the light, the camera settings, the spacing with the background and the object...and oh so many more things.
I set it up today and took it in no time flat, had it loaded and sat there grinning at it.

There is so much that I cannot yet do.  So very much that I don't know or can't figure out yet.
So much frustration at wanting my pictures to look a certain way but even after working hard, not having them turn out how I imagine them.
I took a set of newborn shots yesterday and came home feeling defeated after looking through them.
It wasn't the perfect tiny baby, or his gorgeous mom, or his feisty little brother...we all got along great!  It was my relationship with my camera and how the communication isn't seeming to get from my eyes to my heart, to my lens, to the shot.

I want my pictures to be more than just a snap here and there to blandly record time.  I want them to cry out loudly of joy and love and amazing things.  I know it is possible, I see it in others work.

So, instead of wallowing in my "despair" and frustration I said a little prayer to push through this growth spurt and enrolled in a class.  I think there is only so far a person can go working from scratch, sometimes intervention of a teacher with experience is just what is needed.
It is an online course which unfortunately doesn't begin until November 5th.  So, I will continue to muddle through until then.

All that said...this official newborn session yesterday was my first. It was everything I thought it would be, but nothing like I thought it would be!  I learned so much and am so very thankful for an amazingly patient momma who was willing to try anything with her new baby!! 
We worked around lots of diaper changes, strange weather, a constant sound of "the vacuum" as big brother cleaned up around us and plenty of uncertainty on my part. My creative juices were flowing though and I just kept on snapping!
Doesn't it just do your spirit good to have someone believe in you enough to take a chance on you?  This family did that for me.  I won't ever have another first newborn session, ever.


deep sigh!
My business model, (which I have not revealed yet cause I am just not ready) says that I will present the client with a smattering of images for them to choose their favorites from.  Those that they choose will then be edited and made ready for printing.
I am supposed to wait for them to tell me what they like best before using my limited time for editing, but I just can't keep my hands off of some from this session.
Besides, finishing them out gives me a boost, as I work what is "just an image" into a little piece of art.
Here are a few.

Oh yes working on those and shaping them up really makes me feel good!
You know, I am a crazy artist...you know that right!
My vision and my talent and my desire might all just meet up one day...I hope that is the day my kids let me take their picture and not scatter like roaches as usual.
Ahhhh ha ha!!

Oh, I can't wait to see what this Mommy chooses as her favorites, then giving me the green light on working the final magic on each image!!
  I am not sure why she hasn't gotten back to me yet, she can't possibly be busy!
Ohhh ho, don't I know better!

Pictures have been taken.
Work is being done.

Now, where is that extra time in the day to get all I want to do done??  I am off to look for that.

yup, that is all I've got

Yes, I am "that" person who pulls over to take pictures late at night!

Week 40 edit

It is Thursday which means in order to keep up, I simply must put my SOOC to WOW edit up! 


I am pretty sure you might not have seen my sooc, so here it is!
A leaf suspended by an old spider's web.



I tried several things once again this week! 
The first being to get rid of the additional distractions.








Crop it out a bit and...
  A little sharpen here, a little color change there!

 Hmmmm, not sure that I am thrilled with any of it!  I don't have a program setting which would allow me to have a cool back ground and a warm leaf, that is what I really want.


I know what my problem is...it doesn't have any eyes!!  I am craving some eyeballs to capture and need the practice! 
I have my very first bridal portrait session this Saturday, and you know that can kind of stress can do a number on ya!!
Well, maybe you don't know, but I am sure you can imagine the jitters and excitement!!
Eeeeeek! 

There were some truly lovely shots this week with the leaf theme, if you get a chance go take a look!

Whoa, sorry for the mess!!!  this new blogger is NOT intuitive!!!  will be spiffing this up as I can today!

And I am back, wondering just how many versions of this catastrophe you had to witness!!
I am not one of those people who changes things up very often.  I get things how I like 'em and then enjoy them for a long time, so this has been tough!!
What happened is that I decided to try a change and then couldn't figure out how to get back, which forced me to keep working on the change.
Ugghhhh! 
I am not totally happy with this, but it will do until I do some more research!
Actually, I should just leave it alone and let it grow on me a bit.
Okay...off to conquer more stuff! 
I will be back later today with...who knows what!!

Week 40 in a rush!!

I want to catch you up a bit VERY QUICKLY!! 

I went to visit the fish the other day and man, have they grown!!! 
Their bodies are now about the size of a flat english pea!

And...they doing wonderfully at posing now that they aren't so frightened or hungry.

























 I took this picture the other day in my shower stall.

















I had seen a blog post about using a seamless bathtub as a backdrop for ebay selling and it gave me the idea that I could do the same for simple plain backdrop shots! 

Of course I must work on getting the color right!! 

This was how I transformed it.

















This one was taken in the bathtub...ahhhh hahaha!! 

  This one was taken on my front porch.  The jury is still out on if it is dangerous or not.  It doesn't really matter though since it lies dead in the yard.





















This is my new screensaver. I took it in a series of shots on Monday as a part of the SOOC to wow challenge of "leaves".  It is week 40 over there.  I think I may go ahead and link up this crazy post, so I won't be too far behind on that.

 Whew...only 3 minutes gone and I am done except for loading those pictures which you have now already seen!!


Oops wait, I didn't include my SOOC shot! 
Hold on, it is here somewhere.

Ahhh yes there we go!
 It is a crispy leaf tangled in an old spider web. Looks like it is floating in an odd way, right?
 I have to rush, 4 piles of laundry await me!
If you are like me right now, you are thinking why did she choose that old dead leaf instead of the nice green ones?  That my friends will remain a mystery to us all.
Oh my!!
Oh BTW...I may play around with a new layout and design here.
One that gives me more space for the larger photographs I am having trouble getting to fit in this format.  Just, well...don't be upset if you come back and things are all changed up! 
I am making no promises, just pondering outloud!

1st October Scavenge

I am a day late again!
But here it is none the less!!







1.Landscape

 















2. Triadic color scheme

3. Black and White

4. Food














5. Blank

rain

It rained today.
For the first time in MONTHS we got rain for hours.
So, while this image is not crisp and perfect, the heavy drops of water are what I wanted you to notice today.
Thank you God for the rain.

soccer funny

Who needs words when the story is told in the image!

Happy Friday

not so wow afterall

 Original SOOC
















Faststone...otherwise known as what I usually use!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, playing around with Picassa and its premium features a bit.

Maybe a bit too much, don't ya think!!

I am really not sure that I got the WOW accomplished for any of them at all.  Blech and ho hum!

Oh, but I have a feeling someone was sure to.  I am going to head over to the edit day results and see for myself!!  You can too by going here!!  That Ashley Sisk does an awesome job each week keeping us hopping!!  Thanks Ashley!

I went to the dentist today.
It was almost 3 hours of ridiculous, too close to my brain torture.

I won't be touching my camera, but did work for a few minutes today on designing some business cards!! 

Moving forward in some way is good right? 

I am going to open my photo storage, close my eyes and give you the image that is randomly chosen. 

And here it is...
Ahhhh haha, it is one from my trip to an underground cavern from 2 or 3 years ago.


Off to bed for some recoup!

My God and I

 It was another gorgeous morning today.
The weather was cool but couldn't be described as crisp just yet.
The humidity showed itself on the leaves of the plants as the sun continued its slow sneak up over the top of the fence to dry the dew.

 Droplets so small that should they all come together, they would surely not fill even the smallest spoon.
Yet they might whet the tongue of one of God's small creatures should he dare to try.

I wandered about this morning a bit downcast because of a turn the day had made, not knowing that it was mild in comparison to another to come later. 
I captured this image, not knowing that it would visually describe how my heart can tend to feel when I forget to "let" God be in control.       

It was nice to read along with the story of Esther tonight and see her faith and feel her courage and also to be reminded that despite any small thing that I will do, or not do...God's purpose will be accomplished.












He is the masterful creator who can even give life to what once appeared dead.

The all knowing God who knows each sparrow... and when it falls.  I bet that includes cardinals too, don't you??

 
Yes, this walk about my back yard was a good thing to help remind me that my faith and my trust will be tested.  My heart will ache for some and grieve with others but yet I must remember that my God never changes.

I really can't say any more today. 

Wait, yes I will. 
I believe...with all my heart, that God's way is right.  All the time. Despite our emotions or feelings or wants or desires.
God's word is supreme and I believe it.  Without doubt.
And that is all I will say.