Enchanted Garden #3

and finally . . . .





Thanks for joining me on my little outing.

Enchanted garden part 2

209/365 My Mother in law's Enchanted Garden

Hi, these are yesterdays images. We went over to my in laws, and my brothers-in-laws were there too. We had a very nice evening. Except for the "normal" sibling rivalry between brothers and that was all in good fun too. We were only missing my sister in law. She lives a bit far so her visits have to be planned ahead of time.
The food was great.
I walked around the yard and took some pictures. Well, I took a lot of pictures.
I'll be sharing for the next three days post #209 because we are going camping and I won't have Internet access, but I'll still take my one a day image and catch up later.

My father in law built this. . . it's a wagon. Took some planning, but our guys are pretty handy.






I think her garden is pretty enchanted.

208/365 Another flower

Here is a color I don't remember from last year. I'm assuming I planted it there but I sure don't remember that color. Oh well, I like it.
I need to do some de-weeding in my flower beds really bad.

207/365 Finger painting

Look at those lashes . . .

Look at the concentration . . .

here's a new take on finger painting! I told her use your fingers and this is what she came up with.

205 & 206 out of 365

Just some beauties from my yard.




Khalila took 3 images from Isabella's photo shoot a couple of days ago and played her magic. She is so talented. She came up with this one.

204/365 Chicago

We spent a lovely day in Chicago, at Shedd aquarium then we took a water taxi to Navy Pier and went to the Children's Museum. Perfect weather too. Here a just a few images that I really like.
Isabella and her mom enjoying the Beluga Whales


Isabella hugging a penguin

203/365 Isabella

Sorry it's not 1 picture but 5! LOL
I had fun, what can I say? We went to the part this morning to take her picture and we had fun. She got her first "big girl" injury, a scraped knee. She pulled herself together quickly, and very pathetically told her mom, "Mommy, I no crying."




It was very sunny even at 10:00 a.m. Dave says the glasses remind him of Elton John - LOL

201 & 202/365 Lots of fun stuff

Migraine and exhaustion kept me away from the computer yesterday. It's all good today. I did take a picture yesterday. Here it is:

Isn't she a beauty. Honestly I don't know what it's called. My mom always calls them snow ball bushes.

Today's picture is this:

I found it in the garden. Hmm, it's very old.

And more plays with my "the photoshop elements 7 book" for digital photographers, by Scott Kelby & Matt Kloskowski.
I have really enjoyed this book. Today I learned an easy way to create this story board. They call it a "Multi-Photo look ..."
I also learned how to include my (actual)signature, and watermarking/copyrighting images. I learned a few more thing but I'll spare you the details as to not bore you.

200/365

WOW! 200TH POST.
Gladiolas

199/365 Photoshop Elements 7 book

Remember my mothers day present from Dave?
The photoshop elements 7 book for Digital photographers by Scott Kelby & Matt Kloskowski
I've been using it. I shot these images in RAW and was having some confusion with my OCF and the reflector wasn't picking up any light. So needless to say they turned out dark because of the back lighting.
So following some instructions from the book this is a before and after of the image.



This was just a quick play with the image. Luckily I took plenty of good images and only a few like these.

198/365 Finally . . .?

Well a few of you have asked about me taking pictures of my oldest. . .here she is!
Not the glamour shot I was expecting but none the less, it's pictures of her! YAY
In full uniform.
she's always laughing, until she puts that uniform on then she's all serious.
For the outdoor shots I used OFC, that's her with her dog Nyobi.


I was excited to use the backdrop Pam gave me again. I think it's approprate, don't you?

Just playing around with dramatic lighting. I know it's a bit blown, but she likes the effect.

Any suggestions on lighting?

197/365 A fun Saturday

Dave & I both caught up on house chores then we had some friends over and Dave cooked out. The we sat by the fire. A nice adult evening.
This bug image is my lame attempt at doing Macro photography. One day my macro images of bugs will be as great ad Eric's, but for now, this is as good as it gets. LOL

196/365 A tough cookie

First of all - I miscounted last week some time. So today's post makes 196!

Second of all I finished the wedding images (finally) and Alan & Tosha love them so I'm happy! Woohoo (they did turn out really nice). Now I have 2 sessions waiting to be edited.
Today's images are of Princess Isabella. Yeap she's a tough cookie. I'll say "Isabella, can I take your picture today?" she usually replies "No" and runs off. If I'm already taking pictures of something she'll yell and I'll say, "I'm not taking pictures of you!" So her new thing is saying "No, not you!" when she sees me with the camera.
However, once in awhile, she'll surprise me and let me take her picture. Today was one of those days and I really wasn't prepared. So I used flash and the curtains were opened and the backdrop didn't match and she had your p.j.'s on but oh well . .
Technically not a good image, but a great image for a grandma and mom and papa.





THANKS TO MY FRIEND PAM LOPEZ FOR THAT GREAT BACKDROP - she gave it to me! I'm really happy with it. I can't wait to see what kind of uses I can get out of it.

194/365 My mothers day present

It came in the mail today. It's from Dave. I cannot wait to start reading it! I'm gonna have to take a break from editing and enjoy...