Back to flowers

If I recall correctly this is one of the many little blooms on an Allium of some sort. I like the complimentary colors of yellow and purple and how they pop each other:



Doesn't this look like something from spring time, not shot in August?



And on a bittersweet note....C heads out first thing tomorrow. It'll be a long haul till winter break when we see him again, but I am looking forward to texts from him letting me how much he's enjoying being back in Michigan, and how he likes his first taste of living on his own and being "all grown up" (he and 4 others are renting instead of living in the dorms again this year). I'm going to miss him though, it's awfully quiet around here when he's gone.

And since I know he reads this, I'm not embarrassed to say I LOVE YOU COLIN, and am so pleased for you and proud of you! :)

So bizarre

Ok, so the other day I posted a head and shoulders photo of C in an orange tee-shirt. This morning I was editing this photo which was taken 1-1/2 minutes after the other one (down 2 blog entries) and about 6-8 feet away in the same alley. I cannot believe how different he looks in the two. To me, he looks a lot older in this one. What do you think? Is it just me, or do you see it too?

BTW, I promise, this is it with the C photos, I know it's been overkill the last few days!

A few more

Initially I didn't care for this in color which is why I posted it in B&W yesterday. Now that I've tweaked it a bit (it was very flat color-wise SOOC) I think it's growing on me. What do you think?



and a couple more:



what's funny on this one is that I was looking at Celeste's new promo postcards, and one of her pictures on it is from this exact same doorway. Cueing music: it's a small world after all.....



after working at Starbucks for the last 16 months, his last day was the 20th. He's been very happy for the experience of working there, but is ready to move on. So, when he gets back to school he's going to have to pound the pavement to find a new job. Oh, and this is the "Mom, you're amusing me and making a fool of yourself" look. Not sure what I did to deserve it this time, but I manage to do it several times a day *wink*



Three things I HAVE to work on are:

1. not blowing the reds on this skin. I need to play around with some in camera settings as they are getting blown 9 times out of 10 these days :(

2. Being quicker about shooting (C claims I'm too slow). A lot of it probably has to do with the fact that I shoot macros so much and I can take my time setting up the composition with them. DS says we lose spontaneity because I'm a little slow. I also need to work on posing, big time.

3. Seeing the light better!!! There is some seriously not so great light in these photos.

The boy

Do I still call him a boy? I suppose I ought to get used to calling him a man, eh? We headed downtown this morning for a little while to shoot. I've been VERY good and showed enormous self restraint and have kept the camera out of his face most of the summer :) for this I was rewarded with about an hour or so of shooting to my heart's content. I'll share more another day, but here are a couple I just needed to play with today.

He heads back to school on Tuesday. I'm going to miss him a lot (no surprise there), but I'm glad he's getting back to his college life. After being here for 4 months, he is more than ready to spend time doing what he loves!

a little drinkin'...a little dancin'...

So I'd forgotten, once you do something ONE TIME with a toddler, it becomes a ritual....LOL. When Miss H comes over now, she asks for "chocat mook"



then we turned on the Wiggles CD, and dance like a couple of very weird women :) Note: I only do this when no one else is around!



She got so excited when our phone rang. Her family only uses cell phones, so using a house phone was a treat for her! She's so funny, she just sat there and listed off all the things we had been doing to whoever her imaginary friend on the other end was:



And if you know me at all, you know that I can never resist a "headshot" or two:

Don't say you weren't warned...

...more dahlias, aren't the colors amazing?







this one makes me smile simply because of all the critters on it (too bad it wasn't composed better though...):

It's that time of year again...

...Dahlia season. So be prepared, you'll likely see lots of dahlia flowers for the next 6 weeks or so.

I am having so much fun playing with processing lately:

Japanese Anenome

Buried Treasure

A (new to me) rose called Hot Cocoa. Love how deep the color is, and the foliage is a rich, subdued green. I've lucked out with a few overcast days in a row, and am enjoying shooting outside again!






f/5 @ 1/250s

Hydrangea

Love the little blooms and curled petals on these:

Chrome

Ok, I need to preface this post by saying that I am NOT a car girl. I mean, I drive a 1999 CRV. B drives a 1992 Accord. That is proof if there ever was. For me, a car is there to do a job, get me from point A to point B. Yes, I admire nice cars from time to time, but I don't need one. B would beg to differ, but he's come around over the years, and accepts that we drive what we drive in order to be able to do other things in our life.

Now, that said. I love looking at old cars. Not enough to go hunt down car shows or anything, but if I run across one of those get together things that people with old cars have, I like to stop and look. There is something about all that chrome, and shininess that draws me in.

I also look at the amazing paint colors and wonder how obsessive they are about picking that perfect color? It's an ongoing joke in the house how crazed I get when picking paint colors, but I don't think I have anything on the car people! The paint colors and undertones on some of them are like no other color I've ever seen and I'd imagine they agonize over it quite a bit.

Last month when B and I were driving back from the Olympic Peninsula we came across one of these car people gathering things (does anyone know what the official name for these things is), and we stopped to look. I'd guess that there were well over 100 cars, with more arriving continuously. What kills me, and I do mean KILLS me is seeing "vintage" cars that are the same cars that my friends drove in high school. GULP!

Of course, being me after all, I focused on details.....

This one has matching fuzzy dice, gotta love it!



check out the tail light on this one, it made me smile:



Just loved the GREEN of this car, and aren't the handles fabulous?



How about the handles of this car?





Love the hood ornaments:









Now, here's an odd coincidence. I had this post written yesterday, and scheduled to post this afternoon. Of all things to discuss with my uncle at lunch today, we discussed his vintage cars, including just how expensive it is to restore them, especially the chrome. Cue the eerie music.....

Blue Angels

They buzz our house when they come for Seafair, and we love it! Ok, C doesn't love it. but B and I do!

Love that you can see the yellow helmeted pilots in this one:



As I was editing this next one, I noticed that there were 2 number 7 planes in it. Does anyone else find this odd? With how fastidious the Blue Angels are....I was really surprised.





A couple of people asked yesterday what I did for the conversions. I used {Brenda's B&W2 Action} with some tweaking of course ;)

I've used it for a couple of years now, and love it for people shots.

Colin calls her his "replacement"

Just two of my favorite people in the world. H is still pretty shy around Colin (he was gone all school year and has hardly been home this summer), but when she saw the keyboard in his room, she kinda forgot about being coy and hopped right up on his lap to play (and play....and play...and play...)

He is so sweet with her, and totally understands why I've fallen under Miss H's spell ;)



Then every now and again she would remember that he was there, and then get all flirty, and forget how to speak. Seriously, it was the funniest thing, she'd start speaking baby babble.....and I swear she was doing the preteen boy/girl thing. Mom and Dad are going to have their hands full when she gets older, goofy girl!



And just because...

It's just not fair.....

That any one child can be as cute as this :)

Did my typical editing on this, then ran TRA summer faded at a low opacity, added a slight curve (thanks again Heather for that tid-bit of info), then added a couple of the Kaleidescope textures that I purchased a week or so ago.



....and another, with just my normal editing. There was a leg of a bright blue table just behind her hair to our right, hence the "different" crop. I couldn't remove the blue without messing up the wispiness of her hair....

Pretty much breaking all the rules

It FINALLY has cooled off enough that I was able to shoot for a few minutes last night as the sun was getting low in the sky. I've missed shooting outside, I love the background that nature provides!

Anyhow, I threw out all the photography rules, shot in the sun, slightly backlit for some, didn't worry about blow outs, and I kinda like the high contrast and intense colors for a change. I know they're out of gamut, but I'm going to try having one or two printed anyhow and see how they turn out.

I didn't save the nursery tag for these....Pat, do you happen to know what they are? It's a perennial that grows about 3'tall, the flowers are about 1 1/2" across, and it started blooming a couple of weeks ago.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


aperture between 3.2 and 3.8. shutter speed between 200-800. iso 200