Abstracts & Textures Challenge

Abstracts and Textures - Challenge 

from JABlogspot

This week the challenge is to get up close 

and personal with some textures.

Went out shooting and found hedge balls to be a good target.
Turns out their also a good subject when you're talking texture.

A little Kansas wheat from a field next to our house.

This little batch of fungi along a trail in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

I like to shoot to get a different perspective on my photos.
I like the texture of the concrete leading right into the texture of the track.

I know I've used this shot before but I really like the way the pollen shows on his back!

If I Could Go Back - Thirty Word Thursday

Yarn, a big heart, and 39 grandchildren.  

If I could go back to my childhood,

I’d hug my Grandma

and tell her how much

the homemade mittens

meant to me.

Grandpa died when I was three and Grandma never had much.  But every year at Christmas she had something for everyone of her 39 grandchildren.  Mittens, pillow cases, hats, scarfs, and whatever else she could make.  I can only imagine that she felt somewhat sad that we didn't get as excited about our gifts as she wanted us to be.  It's too bad it takes growing older ourselves to understand and appreciate what she did for us.  Her sacrifice, our reward.  Wish she was here so I tell her that now I understand how nice those gifts really were.

Desaturation Photo Challenge

Photo Challenge #10 from JABlogspot we will be back to editing with the use of Desaturating!  The idea here is to subtly (or not so subtly) decrease the color in a photo for a more mellow effect.


This is a tricky challenge.  I usually spend my time trying to make colors pop instead of bringing them down a notch.

I like the way the lower saturation calls attention
to the statue on top of the Capital building.

I like how the desaturation changes the cars to an almost pastel color.

A Shining Star - More Than Thirty

I am shamelessly violating the entire premise of 30 Word Thursday.  More than one picture, over seventy words, but not near enough to really recognize the star that shines in our house.

Every star has its night to shine.

Our daughter had hers last Friday.

A second year player

she plays hard and smart

always giving her best.

A little recognition for

competing at state cross country last October

after a lot of miles and hard work to qualify.

A little more recognition for

recently competing at state debate.

She’s smart and she likes logical arguments.

Ending the evening as royalty

being selected as

Queen of Courts!

Winter Is Coming Photo Challenge

Photo Challenge #9: Winter Is Coming from Jack of all Brews

This week's challenge was to take advantage of our winter landscape and try to take some pictures relating to snow, ice, or frost.  Or for anyone living in a nicer clime, I just left it as "go take some pictures outside so we can with we were there!"

The photos I chose were from a couple of years back.

I like a good snow about once a year

and then I'm ready for springs return.

One advantage to a big snow is having your kids trapped at home!

I'm getting a little old for sledding but there were some great photo ops!!

I really liked the way the Superman logo came into focus on this shot!

Nothing like home sweet home in the middle of winter!

Franklin

Thirty Word Thursday challenge from http://treasures-found.blogspot.com/

The premise of 30 Words Thursdays is simple...
Take an image (preferably one you shot, or have permission to use).
Write 30 Words about it. No more. No less.
Post it each Thursday.

My wife found Franklin hiding behind a chair after Christmas.

He now sits in his chair in our living room reminding us that in today’s fast paced world; simplicity wins!

Burning Photo Challenge - San Antonio Missions

Photo Challenge #7 from JABlogspost

I'm Burning For You!  For this challenge we will be trying out the classic photography method of Burning In.  In the old days of film, this technique was used during developing to darken areas of the film selectively.  One would basically hold a tinted or opaque card with central clear area over the developing film--allowing more light to hit a specific area of the print and hence more exposure.  This resulted in a darker or "burned in" area where you want it.  Now with photo editing programs one can imitate this effect with much less trial and error.  So this week take a picture--preferably one where the contrast isn't as great as you would like it--and use this technique to add more contrast or shadow to select areas of the photo.  

I chose to use some photos from a winter trip to San Antonio where we visited some of the missions.  I took these shots with a Kodak Easyshare (not my preference but I left my Canon at home) so I didn't have the control I wanted when I took them.  All edits were done with Picasa.

This is the original and it seemed a bit washed out.

I added some basic shadow to the picture and think it creates a great contrast.

Again in this original it seemed to lack contrast.

I purposely over did it a bit on the shadow to make the cross stand out.

This original wasn't too bad but I wanted to see what adding some shadow would do.

Bringing in the shadow brought in just a bit more contrast
and I really liked thesilhouette result on the tree.