February 26, 2009
February 25, 2009
Sugar and more sugar...
So first we took the boys to the beach for some run around and some hot chocolate with marshmallows...
And, just in case they weren't sugared up enough, Big Dude (who likes to be unpredictable) swung by a candy shop on the way home and told the dudes they could each pick a little something...
When we got home, we made french toast for dinner.
Yes, as a matter of fact, the eldest two dudes were still buzzing quite late at night. Youngest Dude, surprisingly, and despite all the sugar, conked out early. Good times in Keller-land.
And, just in case they weren't sugared up enough, Big Dude (who likes to be unpredictable) swung by a candy shop on the way home and told the dudes they could each pick a little something...
When we got home, we made french toast for dinner.
Yes, as a matter of fact, the eldest two dudes were still buzzing quite late at night. Youngest Dude, surprisingly, and despite all the sugar, conked out early. Good times in Keller-land.
February 24, 2009
The View from my Room...
Panorama Style!
FxMixer did a fantastic panorama tutorial a couple weeks ago. He made it simple enough that even I could understand it. So following his simple instructions (did I mention that I really appreciate keeping it simple?!?!), I set my white balance for "Sun", fired off four overlapping pictures (without a tripod - gasp!), opened them all in Photoshop and "stitched" them together. Even without a tripod, or any amount of meticulous shooting on my part, Photoshop easily stitched these together. I soooooooo wish I'd known about this little trick last month when we were at the Grand Canyon. sigh.
So, anyway, this was just my simple, quick practice image. To see some gorgeous panoramic landscapes, head over to FxMixer's blog.
FxMixer did a fantastic panorama tutorial a couple weeks ago. He made it simple enough that even I could understand it. So following his simple instructions (did I mention that I really appreciate keeping it simple?!?!), I set my white balance for "Sun", fired off four overlapping pictures (without a tripod - gasp!), opened them all in Photoshop and "stitched" them together. Even without a tripod, or any amount of meticulous shooting on my part, Photoshop easily stitched these together. I soooooooo wish I'd known about this little trick last month when we were at the Grand Canyon. sigh.
So, anyway, this was just my simple, quick practice image. To see some gorgeous panoramic landscapes, head over to FxMixer's blog.
February 23, 2009
Wii Rock!
Please take note of the Dudes' awesome Spiderman impersonations. ;-)
Pretty much weekly we head to the local YMCA so the boys can burn off some energy at the Rock Wall. It's been a great place to go for fun exercise. And the boys have always wanted to go just for the sake of the wall. Until recently. The Y decided to "new & improve" itself by making the Rock Wall room into a "Kid Zone" room, complete with a large screen tv and Wii. Gag, cough, cough, sputter with indignation. A gym. Adding a tv. And video games. Can you hear the expletives I'm thinking?!? Now, when we go, these are the words we say first: "Climb to the top 5x BEFORE you play the Wii." sigh.
February 22, 2009
Rivers shall flow...
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying
"If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said,
'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'"
John 7:37-38
February 20, 2009
Fix It Fridays at I Heart Faces
This Friday Fix-it at I Heart Faces was too much fun. A gorgeous girl + a beautiful dreamy background made for fabulous editing possibilities.
Head on over to see the edits, read the "how-tos" (mini Photoshop lessons in and of themselves!), and try your own hand at editing this image.
Head on over to see the edits, read the "how-tos" (mini Photoshop lessons in and of themselves!), and try your own hand at editing this image.
February 19, 2009
Wishes...
Gosh I wish this dear family lived around the corner (or even next door!), just so we could hang out more often and enjoy each other. Alas, they live on the other side of the world. sigh.
February 18, 2009
What to do with all those digital pictures you've taken...
Print them in a book. And the good news: this is WAY cheaper & faster than scrapbooking.
Here are a few pages from our 2007 book. Just so you know ... these are all pictures from before I had the magic of Lightroom at my beck and call. So these are SOOC or converted to b&w or sepia with iPhoto and the printer does a terrific job with them as is.
So here is my family. My dear ol' Daddy with his favored Lemondrop. My cousins and the beautiful girls they married. My Uncle. My Grammy. Unfortunately my Aunt is hiding on the folded-over portion, and my Mom and I don't show up til the next page.
And here's our whole Washington family. And the white Christmas we got to share. Too much fun. Oh yeah. And Lightroom had officially rocked my photographic world on this trip.
Enter 2008 ...
So here's the 4-1-1. I used MyPublisher.com. I think they do a terrific job for a reasonable price. If you use them, be sure and look online for coupons. Costco offers a 20% discount. Often MyPublisher runs a buy one book, get the 2nd free. Or 40% off orders over $100. To give you an idea: each of these books was about 100 pages (the max number they'll allow in one book). I got 40-50% off each order. Each page ended up costing about $.50!!!
edited to add: each of these pages, except the floral pages, are just standard lay-outs (drag & drop) from MyPublisher. The floral pages I designed first in my Lumapix software and then "dragged" them in as a single .jpg photo.
Here are a few pages from our 2007 book. Just so you know ... these are all pictures from before I had the magic of Lightroom at my beck and call. So these are SOOC or converted to b&w or sepia with iPhoto and the printer does a terrific job with them as is.
So here is my family. My dear ol' Daddy with his favored Lemondrop. My cousins and the beautiful girls they married. My Uncle. My Grammy. Unfortunately my Aunt is hiding on the folded-over portion, and my Mom and I don't show up til the next page.
And here's our whole Washington family. And the white Christmas we got to share. Too much fun. Oh yeah. And Lightroom had officially rocked my photographic world on this trip.
Enter 2008 ...
So here's the 4-1-1. I used MyPublisher.com. I think they do a terrific job for a reasonable price. If you use them, be sure and look online for coupons. Costco offers a 20% discount. Often MyPublisher runs a buy one book, get the 2nd free. Or 40% off orders over $100. To give you an idea: each of these books was about 100 pages (the max number they'll allow in one book). I got 40-50% off each order. Each page ended up costing about $.50!!!
edited to add: each of these pages, except the floral pages, are just standard lay-outs (drag & drop) from MyPublisher. The floral pages I designed first in my Lumapix software and then "dragged" them in as a single .jpg photo.
February 17, 2009
Mom's Birthday
While Mom and I ate Blackberry Gingerbread Cake and perused our way through her gift, Papa kept the dudes entertained with a little "friendly" game of Texas Hold 'Em.
February 16, 2009
I Heart Faces - Wonder
I love that my boys seem to love the River as much as I do. Here's my Middle Dude standing on the shore, seemingly lost and content in the moment.
As a fix-it Friday contributor, I'm not eligible to win the contests, but I enjoy playing along for the fun of it. Feel free to drop on by I Heart Faces for some fun and inspiration.
As a fix-it Friday contributor, I'm not eligible to win the contests, but I enjoy playing along for the fun of it. Feel free to drop on by I Heart Faces for some fun and inspiration.
February 15, 2009
Love.
For God So LoVed the world.
That He gAve
His onLy
BegottEn Son
That whosoever
Believeth In Him
Should Not perish,
But have Everlasting life.
John 3:16
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is from God;
and everyoe who loves is born of God and knows God.
The one who does not love does not know God,
for GOD IS LOVE.
By this the love of God was manifested in us,
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world
so that we might live through Him.
In this is love, not that we loved God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1John4: 7-11
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February 14, 2009
February 13, 2009
Change your perspective...
... specifically, hold your camera down near the ground.
*I* wasn't down on the ground. I just held the camera down there. I set it in program mode (similar to full-auto) just for the heck of it. And was so tickled with the result.
(again, these are all SOOC images. the contrast/sharpness/saturation is boosted in-camera).
*I* wasn't down on the ground. I just held the camera down there. I set it in program mode (similar to full-auto) just for the heck of it. And was so tickled with the result.
(again, these are all SOOC images. the contrast/sharpness/saturation is boosted in-camera).
February 12, 2009
Ultimate Frisbee ...
...Not because of the rules of the Frisbee game itself, but because of the awesome location -- the spectacular visual aesthetics. I didn't even mind that all of these photos came out blurry. (like last post, each of these images is SOOC).
February 11, 2009
Moss Cove: Hot Chocolate, Take 2
This time we remembered the matches, and no one (cough cough, Littlest Dude) had a melt-down.
Some evening particulars: the sunset was to die for; Littlest Dude was thrilled to wear his favorite new Dinosaur t-shirt (that was formerly the favorite of both his older siblings!); the hot chocolate was delicious; the weather was warm; and the tide level was back to normal (notice: all the rocks are covered this time - same beach 7 days later).
Some camera particulars: I toyed with the settings on my camera. I've now had my "big girl" camera for a year, and I still only know a small fraction of the many capabilities that it has. So I often play around with settings just to see what happens. This time I edited the "Picture Style" by bumping the Sharpening, Contrast and Color Saturation in the menu section. Each of the pictures on this post is totally, completely SOOC. Truth be told, I probably boosted the camera settings (sharpness, contrast, saturation) too high, but I LOVE the effect. And it was quite fun NOT to have to add anything to these.
The down side? I probably couldn't use these camera settings for portraits - at least not a sunset time (or probably in shadows). All our faces came out quite strongly orange. But hey, I can always do a quickie b&w conversion:
Which all leads to my photo tip for the day: Play with your camera settings. Just about any digital camera will let you adjust your settings. Read all about it in your camera manuals. Experiment. See what happens. Have fun!
Some evening particulars: the sunset was to die for; Littlest Dude was thrilled to wear his favorite new Dinosaur t-shirt (that was formerly the favorite of both his older siblings!); the hot chocolate was delicious; the weather was warm; and the tide level was back to normal (notice: all the rocks are covered this time - same beach 7 days later).
Some camera particulars: I toyed with the settings on my camera. I've now had my "big girl" camera for a year, and I still only know a small fraction of the many capabilities that it has. So I often play around with settings just to see what happens. This time I edited the "Picture Style" by bumping the Sharpening, Contrast and Color Saturation in the menu section. Each of the pictures on this post is totally, completely SOOC. Truth be told, I probably boosted the camera settings (sharpness, contrast, saturation) too high, but I LOVE the effect. And it was quite fun NOT to have to add anything to these.
The down side? I probably couldn't use these camera settings for portraits - at least not a sunset time (or probably in shadows). All our faces came out quite strongly orange. But hey, I can always do a quickie b&w conversion:
Which all leads to my photo tip for the day: Play with your camera settings. Just about any digital camera will let you adjust your settings. Read all about it in your camera manuals. Experiment. See what happens. Have fun!
February 9, 2009
I Heart Faces - Silly Week!
This was a hilarious morning. The boys had just discovered the camera/playback mode on the computer. All sorts of dramatic, silly theatrics ensued.
Even though, as a Friday Fix-it Contributor, I'm not eligible to win the contests over at I Heart Faces, I can't resist joining in the fun. Hop on over to be inspired. And I guarantee this week's theme and images will make you smile!
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