New Blog

Why a new blog now? Well, I need to protect my kids lives a little better, and I needed to be able to make some posts private. However, I don't mind people reading some other things. In the course of going and making a new blog, which has been an almost 2 year process, I had originally planned to debut it when we'd had Katie for a year. That obviously didn't happen. Then, I thought, 18 months...that has passed as well.

The penny story, and the ER doctor, and such NEED a little protection. I'm still feeling a little too vulnerable about them. So, here is the link to the new blog...I will be leaving this blog up for awhile longer.

http://somebodyneedsanap.wordpress.com/

I know I have extended family who read the blog and friends who don't comment, if you send me an email (which I'll get if you leave a comment here) and let me know you need the passwords I'll be happy to send them on.

There are several passwords, and I think if you enter them once then until the cookies are cleared on your computer you won't have to re-enter them.

One set is for photos of the kids, and daily life with the kids.

Each child has their own specific code, and that is for family only as I talk specifically about the kids activities and where we live. Many of those posts will be duplicated but with less photos, or such. I suspect there will be few of them...very few, but things like Samuel's Kindergarten graduation photo with his certificate...KWIM? Or first day of school with the school sign...that kind of thing.

Adoption related posts that have info specifically about how Katie is doing, those are under a separate code.

Our Disney vacation is under a code for Disney.

Then any photography/photoshop post has it's own code IF it has a photo of my children in it. These will be mostly for past history ones.

I mainly did all the codes like that because I have watermarks of this blog name on those photos in the posts. I'm working hard to clear out those and replace them as I don't want people directed back to here....except eventually this blog will become "private" so only I have access. I expect that will take a few months though.

Any questions?

OH, if you leave a comment with an email I promise NOT to post that comment!

New Blog is almost ready....

I'm going to be moving my postings to a new blog soon. I'm working on the importing of this blog, making all 2008 and before posts private, changing the kids names to nicknames, etc. :) Long process...but almost done! FINALLY...then I'll talk about the doctor's comment.

Katie's bday invitation

I've been working on Katie's birthday party invitations today, and I used some photos from a recent "session" with her...if you can call it a session. She gives me literally 5-10 minutes and poses, faces, etc. MUST be her idea. I get whatever she decides to give me. In this particular session I got maybe 2-3 that I would give to grandparents/family, but as we have one we just did for all the family I'm not worrying about fully editing them.

Here are 2 I particularly liked as they show a little bit of Katie's personality:




I will definitely have to show you all the final photo invite when I figure it out. I'll also show you a few others from this particular session.

*details - canon5d 24-105 lens, 100% natural light - window to the left of Katie and white reflector to the right of Katie. This is shot in my dining room with the dining room table removed. ;)

Sorry I've been MIA

I've had an interesting week, well, actually just a really wild and crazy Monday followed by a few days of recovering! Suffice it to say that Katie really really really keeps us on our toes. The up side to her latest adventure is that she let me cradle her for 30 minutes in the rocking chair while she looked into my eyes and patted my cheek or played with my hair. Yeah, I melted. The down side is that she completely and totally regressed in the potty training, we had her TRAINED and she slid backward completely. We're slowly getting there again.

I also have a major VENT/RANT with a question of what I could have said to a doctor. I'm still upset about the comment. I love Katie's response though, and it was that response that made me realize she DOES hear and understand what is being said around her.

Lots and lots and lots going on...

I promise that I'll have fireworks and 4th of July photos up soon! ;)

Happy Birthday America!

I hope each of you in the United States have an AWESOME 4th of July! Lots of family time, summer cookouts, swimming, fireworks...mosquitos, cranky kids, sensory overloaded kids...ah...the stuff of awesome summer memories.

Looking forward to seeing and sharing photos next week!!!!

Photoshop - tutorial on grunge brushes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrcFJSdg6Pg

That's Sam Puc's tutorial on the Quarantine Collection. :) VERY awesome to watch someone go through the steps. However, I wonder if those who aren't familiar with photoshop will get as much as I did. IF you get lost at any point of it, please let me know through comments and I will do a post on that step.

You will need to full size that, but I didn't catch her actions very well on some of them (like creating a new layer). In a previous photoshop post I've mentioned how to make a new layer, and add layer masks. I can update this post with those steps as well if you like.

1 - not sure where to get the overlays, and what they are doing with those. Will need to research that. I've never done much at all with grunge brushes and overlays period, I just have never tended to like the look. High school seniors though? They love the look.

2 - I am purchasing these, and will do a post of my working with these grunge brushes soon.

Remember, here is where you can purchase the brushes...

Nemo and friends

Yes, we have Nemo and friends vinyl clings gracing the windows of our van. Katie loves them. Me? Not so much. Do I even have to mention how many time I go to look back to my left to see if there is a car there and I see NEMO out of the corner of my eye?! Yeah.

These photos could also be explained by the phrase, "what happens when you give Samuel the camera." At least I'm shielding you all from the horrors of my van. Or maybe I shouldn't? It would earn me a spot in 3Channels blog.



*quick click away if messy disorganized vehicles cause your OCD to kick in, as obviously I don't suffer from that particular problem*






Explanation - pink swimming bag with swim stuff like sunscreen, Katie's diaper bag, a towel from said swimming, a box for the pool toys (which you thankfully can not see here), a Karate bo, a bible from church that must not have made it inside (okay it stays in the van so we always have it), water bottles from the pool, a wiffle ball from the baseball going days, a capri sun pouch (from when we went to karate), umbrella, paper from the summer camp science classes, pencils, cup from dinner out recently...

Please tell me I'm not the only one whose van looks like this! LOL It's not nearly so bad at the moment, but only because I cleaned it out when we went to my parents for the week. Sometimes though, I feel like we LIVE in that van we're on the go so much.

Just trust me when I say, I spared you from MORE of the same! Exactly the same, I think he took 5 photos of the mess on the floor.

Wordless Wednesday

Low points in my life

God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way. - C.S. Lewis

I truly believe this is true. I can think of so many "low" points in my life, that ended up benefiting me in that it shaped me for the better. Just like every time I ask G*d for patience, I am given opportunities to LEARN patience. Now, that doesn't mean I appreciate those times while living them, but I do eventually appreciate them after they are done.

One such low point was when we were skipped over for LOA. We didn't know what was going on, we didn't find out exactly what happened, and no one could tell us how it would end up affecting us. We just had to be patient. We just had to wait and see. I'm so not good at wait and see. I saw the days go by, I saw those who got LOA when we should have get TA...I saw them make plans, all while still waiting on on our own LOA. I questioned it. I really did. I questioned if we would ever be able to travel to get Katie. I questioned if we were really supposed to adopt her. I wondered if I should I tell our agency to give her file to another family so she could be adopted by a family. I truly started wondering if we would EVER get to her. It was rough. I learned how to wait. I learned how to be still, to be quiet, to TRUST that it would work out and be great.

So, really, that is just ONE story behind a "low" point in my life. I have a few others. I have some "low" points that I fear will never be figured out what I was supposed to learn. But I do know, I have to keep re-learning the whole patience thing.

What have you learned during a low point in your life?

This is what Summer is all about

Photography/Photoshop that can help Orphans!

Sandy Puc, a truly awesome photographer, is currently quarantined in China. She has some amazing charity drives through her photography business, and founded a personal favorite Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep which helps parents of stillborn children capture photographic memories (100% donated services from local photographers). If you click on Quarantined in China you will be taken her blog, which links to the Denver Post article that has a link to her Facebook photos (which are public). :)

Anyway, while quarantined in China (Shanghai to be exact) she has taken photos of the "grunge" in her hotel room and created "Grunge textures" to be used as layers in photoshop for grunging up photos. Click here for direct link to the grunge brushes BTW, the samples of the grunge brushes in action on that site are of her daughter in Quarantine. The session was a challenge for the Mom I've heard without all the extra equipment she typically has on hand for taking indoor photos.

100% of proceeds from the sell of this set of brushes is going to help Chinese orphans through a charity that works with them. I have asked which one, and will update when I know.

If you don't know how to use these brushes, please let me know and I will do a quick photoshop tutorial on them. It's super easy, and many photographers use them in a layer above the image and play with opacity and such. It's really easy. :)

Thankful Thursday

I PASSED!!!!! I passed the exam and the 20 image review by peers. I'm one of a very small percentage of photographers out there that has this, that took the time, and the effort to become certified.

Why certification

This is a big deal, but not huge like graduating from college. KWIM? :) But if you are in the Nashville area next January, I will be attending Imaging USA and walking across that stage to receive the recognition of this in front of my photography peers (it's Tuesday night of that week)! But from what I've seen of the vendor fair/EXPO, I will most definitely need to leave my credit cards at home! *drool*

So very very thankful to have passed.

We've been on vacation

Sorry for not posting much this week...like at all. We've been on vacation at Grandma's house. We dropped JM off at summer camp on Father's Day, and came back to Grandma's for a few fun filled days with my Mom, my sister, and her kids.

We're so incredibly tired. Worn out exhausted...but the kids have had fun.

I've also been checking stalking the camp's website for updated photos of my kid. So far this week, JM has been camping without a tent and fought a water balloon battle using cardboard "subs" they designed as a shield.

He has been in precisely 6 photos out of over 500-600, there are 227 BOYS from grades 2-10 at this camp. Of those 6 photos, only 3 were non-posed...and all were in the lake where he was swimming! LOL

He is signed up for various "skills" that he will go through and learn while there each day, 3 hours each morning with alternating skills on each day.

Canoeing, Swimming lessons, Target Sports (archery and riflery), crafts, rocketry (he'll build and shoot a model rocket), and geocaching.

He's also probably playing A LOT of 4-square games.

I miss my son. I really do. But I also know that he is having a truly AWESOME time!!!

Aunt Nay is sick

That's what Katie said to me last Friday as we were packing to leave for Grandma's house, and to take JM to summer camp. "Aunt Nay is sick," Katie said. "Sick with what?" I replied as I knew Aunt Nay was not indeed sick unless my daughter was suddenly clairvoyant or something. "Sick of cleaning." was her reply. Ah yes, I bet Aunt Nay is sick of cleaning. LOL I giggled and asked Katie, "Why is she sick of cleaning?" Katie replied, "'cause Deean and Mi-shell don't help."

After I finished laughing, I had to call Aunt Nay and tell her that Katie thought she was sick...of cleaning! LOL

Photography Friday

Faces. It seems everyone loves faces, and quite frankly so do I! I love serious faces, silly faces, and happy faces. But mostly I love those BIG eyes. Not so easy to get in Katie, but doable when she's older.

I've talked about how your camera has an in camera meter. In a dSLR, especially those Canons, you have 3 choices for the in camera meter - spot, center weighted, and evaluative. Each are good in their own way, and I think the default is evaluative. But I can't remember for sure and I don't feel like looking for my manual to see. Forgive me?

Anyhow, here are what those 3 in camera meters do.

Spot - the spot, the circle in the camera viewfinder? That's what is metered to 18% grey if the image is turned to B&W and "averaged" overall. So, if what is in the spot is black, the camera will overexpose that to where that spot would be 18% grey. If it is all white, then it will underexpose to 18% grey. Spot metering is GREAT if you are looking to meter something that is far off and you can't get close and the rest of the scene could be too bright or too dark. Say, oh a child on a snow bank. ;) You probably don't want to use it for close up because one spot on the face might be more in the shadows or brighter sunlight...and the rest of your exposure could be off.

Center weighted - this will evaluate the entire scene in the view finder but "weight" the results to what is in the center...and again, bring the exposure to 18% grey. If you have 3 kids in dark snowsuits sitting in the snow and they are centered, then the camera will set the exposure with the subject matter in the center more "weighed" and it might actually come out close to correct. But, what if, you are following the rule of thirds and a snow scene and had a child in the top 1/3 on the left (that point) in a dark snowsuit. The entire image, weighted for the center of bright snow, will be underexposed. (hint, spot might work better here)

Evaluative - this one considers the ENTIRE scene and brings the entire scene to 18% grey. So, a snow scene is going to be underexposed and a scene shooting in the dark shadows is going to be overexposed.

So, why does this matter with FACES? It pertains to it a little, but mostly, to get a good exposure in a non-direct lighting situation, the best way to meter using your in camera meter is to get really really really close to the face and meter. Set the manual exposure to the most correct when filling the frame full of the face. Then, after getting the correct exposure reading you can back off, recompose, and take the photo knowing that the FACE will be in correct exposure regardless of the rest of the scene.

Compositionally speaking however, what is good for those close-ups? I prefer a horizontal crop with the head tilted at a an angle (so the eyes are not horizontal). If I'm going to include the shoulders in the shot, then I prefer a vertical shot with the eyes at an angle. With shoulders and head, I will also turn the subject at an angle to the camera as well. The 3/4 shot? again, at an angle and vertical. :)

I have different tricks to getting different looks. Did you know that a recent 4 year old that I was taking photos of looked to see if she could find Tinkerbell in my camera? ;) My camera also does tricks. If you smile REALLY good, then it will wink at you. But you have to be aware, that IF you ask a child to smile for you, and you get that cheese smile, then they do think they are smiling pretty. They really do. It's a forced smile they are giving you, not a true one, and they don't understand the difference. I never tell them, "Oh that's not a real smile, give me a prettier one." I will say, "OH what a BIG smile you have. Let's see if you can show me a small smile? How about no smile? I bet you can't be serious. Now, don't smile. Don't you dare smile....don't smile...." and guess what they do? They smile. They just can't help it.

Except there is always one or two out there that can hold a straight face forever. Those kids, they make me work for their smiles. They get to see some silly looks, hear some silly sounds, and oh if they are around 6 year old boys...they get really bad jokes told by me. ;)

thankful thursday

I'm really thankful that HE...


has grown out of THIS stage...



One down...2 to go. I also used up ONE of my alloted "portraits with a smile" from JM for this. I'll get ONE more this year sometime. *sigh*

No I'm NOT confused....

it's well, that I had blog posts ready to post at later dates, then forgot to change the dates on them, or the times...and I messed up when they post. When that happens, it's best to delete and re-post, only I didn't have time (or energy) to do that. Thus, I left them.

Which meant my Tuesday post, which had the WRONG time, was below the photo one...and I wanted it on top, so I made it a Wednesday post. *humph*

It will look "right" in the archives, but it's humorous for now. It's also more of a reflection of how I feel about the month of June. It's flying by and it seems like it should more than be over at this point! LOL

OH, and in order for this to be posted "on top" I have to post it today (Tuesday), then edit the date to be Wednesday. *roll eyes*

Thoughtful Tuesday - a day late...oh well

"The greatest gift my mother ever gave me was a messy house, and the knowledge that other things in life came before a tidy house."

What does MY house say about me? What do I place as important? If you look at my calendar, what is important in my life there? If you look at how I spend my days? What is important to me there?

I get so many of these kind of thoughts from quotes. Sometimes I have to stop myself and ask privately, in 20 years will I care that I did or did not do something? What will I remember? What will the kids remember?

Will they remember getting to eat a picnic in the floor for dinner while watching a movie? Or will they remember our dinners around the table more? Will they remember the day we went for ice cream just because then to the park to play? Or will they remember me always cleaning, cooking, and getting on to them? Hmmm?

Wordless Wednesday

One week ago

One week ago I took a test to see if knew enough about photography to pass or not. Sure, I know enough about photography to be able to talk about it intelligently, but this was a test that would ask questions about things like gel filters and lens filters, and the inverse square law for lighting and flashes. Oh the JOY.

1 week of waiting to find out the results. I was told I would be mailed results in 1-1.5 weeks. Well, supposedly, before they mail the results out they will post to the website if you have earned the certification or not IF you are waiting on the 2nd part of the certification process results...which I am. I've already passed image review. The website has not been updated yet, and I'm left to wonder...did I pass or fail the exam?

See, it was 100 questions. I knew most of them, and knew them without having to think about which of the answers best fit. However, I had to think and eliminate down to the "best" answer on 20 questions (or I flat out didn't know the answer which happened 2 times). That left me with 10 questions of the ones I KNEW that I could have made a mistake in marking the correct answer.

I'm a terrible test taker.

I have to make a 70 to pass. I thought after the test was over that I was close, that I most likely had it. Now? I'm beginning to wonder if I did okay or not.

Internets...I had to learn how to develop FILM, and transparencies (at least theoretically)! I had to learn about view cameras, different kinds of film, and so forth. I learned about the Zone system developed by some photography greats (that was actually very interesting!). There were even some photoshop questions on the exam.

*sigh*

I really do not want to have to take the test again, but I will if I have to.