Heavily Edited

I don't usually do very extreme edits on photos, especially on photographs of people.  I prefer to leave people as they are, with the exception of basic touchups  and a bit of smoothing, if necessary.  But once in a while I feel like doing something a bit different, something fun.  I have been wanting to do a "vampire" type photoshoot, but I do not have a makeup artist available.  So I decided to have a go at it with photoshop. 

Some layers, textures, and some time I ended up with this.  Not amazing, but I did have fun with it.  Now I DO want to try it with a makeup artist and get it right in camera.

Light and Shadow

I was told by my photography mentor that photography is not really about light, it is more about shadow.  With too much light and the absence of shadows, photographs tend to look "flat" and dimensionless.  Properly using shadow is a bit of a mystery to me, but when I do achieve shadows, I really like the way that it looks.  Here a trio of eggs poses for me on my kitchen floor.  While they basked in the sunlight, I took their picture.  I neglected to apply sunscreen to the little guys, but I think they were ok.  I was more concerned about a 4 yr old boy and a rambunctious black kitten knocking them across the room!

White on White

More snow!  I find that it can be difficult to expose properly in the snow, especially when it is white on white.  I plopped an egg down in the snow to play.  While I am not certain that the egg enjoyed itself, I had fun and learned a bit.

 My friend and I have been talking about how fun it would be to go shoot in the snow.  We have been waiting all winter for snow, and not only that, but snow that is not horizontal.  Usually if and when it snows here in SE Colorado, there is a lot of wind involved.  Anyway, she had a snow day on Tuesday, and as luck would have it... it wasn't too bad outside.  So we put a pot of coffee on to warm us when we were done outside, dragged my flash outside, and had some fun!

If at first you don't succed...

I took pictures of the frosty tress the other day, and didn't care for the way they turned out.  Today I decided to revisit them. and played with it in Photoshop.  I ended up with this.  It is almost pretty now! 

As always, my son is the only full time person I have around to take pictures of.  He is such a good sport!  Oh, and the little rat dog was not impressed with being outside.

Playing... because I can!

I was playing with some free templates from The Album Cafe, and liked the way they turned out.  I must say, I sure do like freebies!

Winter has Arrived.... finally!

For pretty much the first time this winter, it actually feels like winter.  As I headed out the door to walk to the post office, I grabbed my camera.  All the trees are covered in spikey frost.  They look so pretty.  However, I did not like the way that they photographed.  Instead, I decided to spin my camera while shooting the frosty trees at a slowish shutter speed.  What I ended up with was a meaningless vortex.  It amused me, so here it is.  I do think with a bit of tweeking and maybe a slightly wider aperture, one could make a pretty cool portrait using this technique. 

When we got back to the  house, thoroughly chilled, Leo the Terrible was waiting in the window for us.

New to blogging

So, I am new to this whole blogging thing.  I think that it must be kind of like keeping a journal, which by the way, I am terrible at!  But we shall give it a go.

I am a stay at home mother, with a four year old son.  I enjoy photography and have a small photography business on the side.  I also enjoy gardening, flowers and other pretty things.  I like being outside, and I think that using a self propelled push mower is cheating!

I like cats better than I like dogs, and I have two of each.  I live in a tiny, and I mean tiny, town in southeast Colorado.  We have a population of 125.  When I was young, I declared I would never live here.  And yet, not only do we live here now, but we are also a part of the community. 

I love my small town now.  It is great to be able to let my son ride his bicycle up and down my alley and not have to worry about him.  We know just about everyone in town, by their first name.  When I popped the hood on my car to check the oil, my neighbor stopped by to see if I was having car trouble.  Yes, it feels good to be in a "safe" little town.

Below are some pictures of what you might see, should you happen to wander down Main St.

Afternoon Moon

 

I love the moon and stars.  I liked the way that the moon was framed in the bare sticks of the tree in this shot.  I think that I will eventually want to get a tele-convertor in order to get more detail than I am getting.