300/365 Re-done Rocking horse and Studio practice

POST 300!


So here he is before and after. This is a very old rocking horse, my father in law says he thinks its for the early 1950's because of the size of the wood used -He says it's no longer available in that size. I rescued him from the garbage about a year ago. Well, really I saw it and I asked David to rescue it for me :)
After yanking hair out, stripping, sanding, staining and re-attaching mane and tail here he is. Good as new. It cost about $10.00 to redo.
David is such a trooper. Not only does he pick it out of the garbage for me but he helped along the way. He pulled the hair and sanded. My mother in law provided the eyes that are perfect. My father in law tighten it. So you see, it's a family project and I couldn't have done it with out you all. Thank you so much. I am blessed with a great family.

after looking at the before and after I realized he needs a haircut.

Speaking of blessings here is Isabella. At two, she still refuses to look at the camera but I was testing my studio lighting and set up. I think she was to close to the backdrop in one. I only used one light and a reflector. Any suggestions?


Pam suggested the set up - just wish she lived closer so she can see what I'm asking her all the time. LOL

299/365 Another Gary South Shore Rail Cats day

From the Rail Cats facebook page "The Gary SouthShore RailCats are an independent minor league franchise, associated with the Northern League, one of eight independent minor leagues in the country. Located in Gary, IN, the RailCats provide first-class baseball to first-class fans in the Northwest Indiana region."
RailCats Welcome All-Star Rob Marconi Back for 2009
GARY, Ind. - Fleet-footed Northern League All-Star Rob Marconi will be patrolling center field at U. S. Steel Yard again this summer, signing a contract to remain with the Gary ...
www.oursportscentral.com/se...

My favorite player and David arranged and took this picture today!

What a guy thanks Baby I really appreciate it!




















Isabella getting a (pink & grey) baseball signed by Rusty one of the Rail Cats mascots.
I'll make her a fan yet! She yells and claps and call the players names!

295-298 out of 365 days

Lets start with these little boogers!
We were cleaning the yard and Izzy was chopping wood, unaware that there was a nest of bees (Yellow Jackets) in the ground. He's chopping wood and all of a sudden one sting on his ankle and it continues to sting in the same spot then one on his knee, one on his thigh, on the other leg, next thing I know he's yelling for help and they are swarming on him. I turn the hose on him and he runs in the house - several items of clothing left behind. They chased him/us into the house and several got in.
That evening about sunset Dave fumigated these holes in the ground.
Well we found 3 of these hives buried in the ground. This was a pretty large one.

(Click on image to see more details)























This little piggy sits on my potting table.





















Just some awesome color in my Garden



























I was in the back checking on stuff back there - it has gotten pretty wild out there and I almost ran into this!!!
I shot with a 50mm and I cropped to show detail - Ewwwwwwwwwww




























I cannot remember if this is Chives or garlic. Either way they are very dainty looking and they smell awesome!

292 - 294 out of 365 Misc and Rail Cats BB Game

Sundays image is of my dog Twix just being Twix. She got ahold of some of my ribbon and tore the cardboard up to shreds then she started on the ribbon. This is how I found her. . .












This is a very old rocking horse I rescued from the garbage about a year ago. My father in law tighten him up for me and I started working on him. Right now he has no hair and he's completely stripped. I have to find new eyes for him, figure out how to give him nice new hair and finish the varnish off. I'll keep you posted on the progress.
















This is one of my indulgences. . . The Gary Rail Cats. They are a minor league baseball team and I just love going to the "Steel Yard" and watching them play. Today David & I took Isabella and my dad. He loves baseball but is not able to get out and around much so we thought we'd treat him.






Took a few snapshots of Isabella with the Mascot - Rusty. They were celebrating Christmas in August and the mascot was dressed like Santa Claus. Santa was also there in the park giving a few gifts away to the smaller kids.
When Isabella got home she told her mom "Mommy, I don't want to sit on the snowman's lap" LOL. Her mom told her she didn't have to sit on the snowman's lap or anyone Else's lap if she didn't want to. She didn't sit on Santa's lap but she still got a present.










































I will have to work a bit more on this picture but I really like the angle and the "feel" of the picture. I might frame it for him.

291 & 290/365 Family Shoot today

I did baby C's pictures when he was just a couple of weeks old and look . . .he will be 6 months on Tuesday. Wow!
This shoot was so much fun for David & I that we decided to have lunch together afterwards. We hung out for a while with them. We had a great time.
Seriously, isn't this the cutest family?
I haven't had a chance to go through all of the pictures but I wanted to post today so this is the first one I've edited. I'll share more later.



and. . . it's all in the angle/background, right?

289/365 Stopping the movement - water

It's an old fountain David made.
Both images are back lit by the sun setting.

On the first image you can actually see the separation of water from the background and the sun flare in the background.





The red on the bottom of the image is caused by a sun flare. The "dots" are water drops that are stopped by a SS of 1000. Interesting I thought.

288/365 Battered bud

We had severe weather today - We were under tornado warnings.
Thank God not tornadoes came by but we did get major rain and the sky continueally changed colors. In between one of the "breaks" when the sky cleared up and it stopped raining I ran outside to take this image. I didn't realize until much later that the focus was off, but here it is, my battered bud.

287/365 Front door floral decoration

Yeah
just trying to get creative with the photography.

286/365 Old Gary Train Depot

I didn't take today's picture . . .
David did. He shot it at about 3 a.m. with available light. Really creapy looking. He's providing the image for the website for his motorcycle club.
I did very little editing to the actual image but I did bump the contrast and levels a tad. I also added a scratchy texture.

285/286 out of 365 Sunrise and Michael Jacksons home

We went to beach at about 4:00 a.m. just to watch the sunrise. It was over cast for awhile. Camera on tri-pod, set the shutter speed for 10 - 15 seconds and walked in front of the camera. Love the colors here.


and just as we started to call it a morning and started putting everything away there it was. It started out as a hot pink color and finally burnt through the clouds. A little bit of yoga

and a little bit of meditation to get off to a great weekend.



Also, here is a picture of the house that the Jackson's were born in. A very small house . . . I've also attached the street sign that was named after them. Jackson Street was always Jackson Street - the other was added recently.

283 & 284/365 Flowers and OCF photo shoot

Flower from our garden, a very large flower.



Yes, it's been a long hard work week, but I cannot think of a better way of ending my week than doing a photo shoot of a very nice young man. This is Julian.

We did some reflector shots and lots of OCF. Just a quick edit to share here.
I'm having issues with resizing in blogger - it makes the images soft, these are actually nice and sharp.





Will post again on Sunday or Monday - we are going camping.

282/365 Sun flare and giant Black Eye Susie

I'm pretty sure it's not a black eye Susan because they are over 6 feet tall but I don't know what they are called.

Was going for a nice sun flare but again the mosquito's chased me away.

281/365 Today's comfort food!

Strawberry Margarita



'nuff said.

280/365 A Vintage Stork

These were used for my friends, mom's baby shower. My friend is 65, so these storks are at least 66 years old. She keeps them in perfect condition and she pulled them out of storage for her son and daughter-in-laws baby shower. I think they were simply amazing. Their head bobbles. Too cute. I ran a Coffee Shop Vintage action on this pictures - I wanted a vintage look to it.

278/279 of 365 Weekend with Miss Bella

Could it be a smile?


a closer crop just to make sure. . . . yeap it is.


She spent the weekend with us so we've been busy.
Today we took her to the Museum of Science and Industry.
There's David and Khalila.


This is Isabella and I
in the Thermal Imaging - detects heat energy.

277/365 Practice practice practice

In the studio, lights off except for the red filtered light behind the book.
I was going for a dark, dramatic look, with a heart shape in the middle. It didn't work. It's getting late so I just threw one of Christina's blends right over it to hide the flop. It does, however, look like a floating book.





and stop the presses . . . there's been a theft. My youngest daughter, has stolen my images. Right off of my blog! I resize them pretty small too and still look at the clarity with which she can steal my images!
LOL
but look at the work of art that she's created. She's been out of town and I've missed her "art" so I was pleased to see these.



Thanks Khalila.

276/365 Mushrooms

Mushrooms using Topaz.

275/365 Just a lonely Rose

It was hard getting the Rose to jump out in the picture because of the monochromatic color scheme - but I loved the bokeh background.

274/365 Once in a lifetime or Century Plant

I saw an article in the local News Paper "The Times" regarding a once in a lifetime event about a plant believed to bloom once every 100 years - and it's 100 years old now. It's blooming and it's in a green house in East Chicago, Indiana. I had to go see for myself.

This plant is native to Mexico and it's believed to have resided at this humble green house in East Chicago, Indiana for the past 60 years or so.



This plant started changing in March and it went through a growth spurt. I was told that the E.C. Police Department was called in to remove a couple of window panes so that the plant could grow as much as it needed to.

It looks like a large aloe.


The sad part is that it blooms once at 100 years old then dies. This one has a couple of babies to take it's place.
I wanted to show a close up of the base of this plant - look at that amazing texture!


It was worth the ride there.

273/365 My baby

This is my youngest
He's a senior this year, just got himself a car and he has been hitting the pavement, looking for a job for the past 2 years. Well today that persistence paid off. He got a job. Sigh, time sure does fly by.
I am so proud of him!

This picture was a quick play in the studio.

272/365 She wanted her picture taken!

She wanted her play "dress up" clothes on, grabbed her gloves and her buggy and said, "come on Nani, lets go take pictures" What?! Geeze, I never get time to set up lights with her.





These are a couple of "out takes" with her mom, because of coarse she only wanted one picture of herself taken.
She told me that she's more comfortable behind the camera, on my side of it.
Her mom is just gorgeous!
This is the only picture that I've played with. I used a free coffee action called portraiture. All others are just unsharp mask and slight color curve.


and for this one, Isabella wanted to hold the reflector.