Critiques from my online photography class.

Original Photo

Cropped Photo

The top photo is our first assignment. We were given the word blue and told to take a picture of anything that represented the word blue. Her suggestion was to crop the globe tight. She thought that the exposure was fine but would have liked to see better placement of the globe. The picture above has been sharpened and of course cropped. See my reflection in the globe?

This is the cropped one.

This picture was taken at Disney Animal Kingdom. I sent it into my online photography class for critique. She suggested cropping both the top and the bottom.

Original Photo taken with Nikon D60.

The Chosen One

These are the horses that pulled the carriage ride on the 4th of July. Aren't they grand? The owner of the horses said that they were very proud to be chosen for this ride. They held their heads high and pranced around. This is a two page layout I did for the online digital scrapbooking class that I am taking. This is the last week and I have learned so many new techniques.

Butterfly emerges

Remember the caterpillar that was my first photo of the day? I have included the catapiller nursery. Everyday Steve and I would count all our caterpillars, making sure we did not lose any. Aren't we good "Cater"parents? I am a proud "Cater"Mom of a butterfly, or is it the ButterMom. Probably ButterMom since I have been using many Paula Dean recipes.

In the second picture you can see the crystallises from which the butterfly emerged. ( My mother would be so happy I did not end with a dangling preposition) I was so excited that I was able to capture this with my camera. In fact the first flight was directly over my head. I think that must be very good luck. In fact, I am sure it is "huge" good luck. I ran all over the yard trying to capture pictures of my beautiful butterfly baby but only got pictures of the tops of tress. I guess the butterfly is a little camera shy.

Angels Among Us

This is our layout for Week 3 in my digital scrapbook online class. It was really, really hard. Look carefully for our special angel.

I see you

Molly is outside the French doors and is peeking in at me while I work on the computer. Does she look sad or what? Yes I let her in right after the photo.

Things that make me Happy

My assignment challenge today was to do a layout in 30 minutes from taking the pictures, to creating the layout. I spent 1 1/2 hours thinking about what things make me happy. The next hour I took 183 photos. The rest of the day I fretted about how I was going to do the layout. It took 30 minutes to create the layout. Do you think I won the assignment challenge?

Photo a Day Animals two by two

I decided to make the same layout using these parrots from the Disney Animal Kingdom. I had a great time taking these photos. Be sure to read the fine print in the little circle.

Photo a Day Day 13

This is my week 2 layout for Adobe Photoshop Elements. The pictures are from our trip to Disney World. This was quite a complicated layout but I just love this software.

Photo a Day Day 12

Molly is our son's chocolate lab who is 9 months old. Her favorite toys are stuffed animals. I have to go to garage sales to get her new ones ever so often. We call them her Mimzeys. She carries them around like they are her special babies.

Photo a day day 11

Today I was testing my ability to take closeups. This is a very large spoon, which of course had to be cleaned with sliver cleaner before the picture. The sugar is coarse sugar used on top of pies.

Blueberry Jam

Last week we went to the blueberry festival in Wellbourn, Florida. I bought 3 blueberry plants and a gallon of fresh picked blueberries. Today I made them into blueberry jam. Can't wait to try them on hot biscuits. Wish you could taste them.

Photo a Day Day 9

Today I set up the tripod and learned how to use the remote self timer button. First I had to change the lens, which was another major to do. After several tries of cutting my head off and taking pictures of the wall I finally got a shot that was decent. I then put this in "Neat Image" to sharpen it and then into Adobe Photoshop to use the magic extractor. Sheish...all of this just to make a picture.

Photo a day Day 8

I am taking my second class in Photoshop Elements. This week I learned how to recolorize among a dozen other things. This purple shamrock is in my garden. The first picture is the original. Then I had to turn it into a sepia print and then recolorize.

Photo a Day Day 7

This plant is growing on the side of the house. It is about 12 - 15 feet high and has both lilac and white blooms on it. It is so fragrant and the bees love it. I can see it from the upstairs bedroom. Last year cardinals built a nest in it.

Photo a Day Day 6

I took this photo at Disney Animal Kingdom when Stevie and his family were here. I have just spent the last four hours trying to do a recolor using the brush tool. I was using the wrong tool and nearly pulled all my hair out. I now know how to do this. Crisis over.

Photo a Day Day 5

I tried to shoot this with the auto setting and only got blurry pictures. I changed to the action setting and was able to capture the hummingbird better.

Photo a Day: Day 4

It sure is hard to decide what photo to show for the day. I took many shots of this butterfly and I guess this is the best. I like the detail of the legs and the antennae. I also took some shots of our Rose of Sharon which has it's first bloom. The caterpillar that was in the first shot has now formed a chrysalis and is attached to the basil plants on the upstairs porch. I am keeping a photo log of that and will share when the butterfly emerges.

Day 3 Photo a day Steve on the tractor

I was not very happy with the way this photo came out so I thought I would convert it to black and white. I like the contrast.

Day 2 Photo a Day

This is our first year to have a real garden with a fence and sprinkler system. Today we picked all these vegetables. Wow eggplant! That is a first as my father never grew eggplant. Looks like I will need to find new recipes for using all this eggplant. Let's see...eggplant parmesan, casserole, souffle, ratatouille. Yikes I better get cooking.

This photo was taken with my Cannon PowerShot which is a point and shoot camera.

Katelyn makes an altered book and soldered necklace

Brother and Sister

Photo a Day Day 1

I recieveda DSLR Nikon D60 camera for Mother's Day. I will be taking an online class in photography starting in July. I have decided to post a photo a day for 365 days. For the next 30 days the photos will be in the post section of my blog. After that I will post them on the right side in a slide show. This is the photo for day one. Look at his cute little face with two eyes and a mouth.

Michael and the Mollynator

Sisters Samantha and Katelyn

Samantha our Granddaughter comes for a visit.

Festus is sporting a new hair cut.

Jeffrey and Katie

Art Challenge for May

Each person was to choose a word that is their word for the year. Some projects are still works in progress.

Mother Goose Tea in High Springs

Mother Goose held a tea in High Springs today May 17, 2008 at the Woman's Club. Shari King played Mother Goose. This was a fundraiser for the High Springs Community Theater. she was joined by Miss Muffett, played by her mother and Mary Queen of Hearts. Miss Manners, Celeste Beck gave etiquette tips and information about tea. All the children wore hats and answered questions about Nursery Rhymes.

Click on the pictures on the right to see a slide show. All the children were so well behaved and introduced their mothers, grand mothers and great aunts. A fun time was had by all.

My grandson Jeffrey

This is my grandson Jeffrey. He is majoring in chemistry at Austin Peay University. He plays the guitar and works full time at Cracker Barrel. He is going to be a Dad in September. That means that I am going to be a Great Grandma. Cool!!!

AnotherWay, Inc. Tea

On Saturday May 10 a tea was held for AnotherWay, Inc. This is a home for abused women that serves several counties here in north Florida. The tea was sold out with 60 ladies attending. Everyone enjoyed savories, scones and sweets while watching a fashion show put on by Belk's of Lake City. Mattie Moore, Merri McKenzie and Celeste Beck were the committe that planned this event. This is the first annual event.

Happy Birthday to Steve

Today is Steve's birthday. He celebrated by moving dirt and rocks around the yard. Then we had a lovely dinner at Stonewood. Most appropriate place after the day's work.

Supply List for Domino Art Project

Supply List for Domino Art Project
I will supply two dominos per person and 2 bamboo tiles. If you think you want to make more pins or books you can get a very inexpensive set of dominos (28) at the Lake City Flea market. I think I paid 2.00 or something like that. They are inside the building where the Oriental people have their shop with big cardboard boxes of goodies.

Bring the following:
1. Regular scrapbook supplies
2. Ruler, scissors, paper cutter and bone folder, glue
3. I will bring ink pads and stamps but you might have something special you want to bring. You do not have to use small stamps as you can isolate a portion of a bigger stamp on the domino.
4. Bring some cord to use to close your book. You may even want to bring some small beads.
5. I will have the paper for the inside of the book.
I have used a theme for my little domino book. You might want to bring some small pictures that you can use in your little book. Check out this web site to see what I mean.
http://www.artdolls.info/domino_book.html
This web site has some examples of pins and necklaces.
http://www.rubberstampsclub.com/tips/monthly-projects/july02/july02.html