Editing and Learning

I'm up to my eyeballs in photos of the Nutcracker but for me that's just not enough, I have to learn new Photoshopping skills to what I think some of them should look.

Since the Nutcracker is a very old play some of the photos would look cool in a vintage look, don't you think? So here's my take on Vintage Nutcracker. Colors are muted and photo looks old.....

Since I had to have my ISO so high because the only light were the stage lights and the movement was so fast I have some noise in the photos. Using the vintage look makes this noise look like I put it there on purpose. When I first started taking pictures I was using my external flash and the AV guy asked me if my colors were as bright with the flash vs. without a flash. I said I didn't think I could get my shutter speed that fast to not use a flash. He was satisfied but I wasn't, I kept experimenting until I took most of the photos without a flash.... yeah I did it, and he's right the colors were more vibrant without flash.

Nutcracker Ballet

I took pictures at the Nutcracker Ballet today, this picture sums up those poor girls (and one boy), they had to be very tired after 6 hours of twirling on their toes. I took 1,746 pictures. Now comes the hard part, editing them!! About 100 of them will be deleted due to blur from them moving so fast, by the end of my time there I could shoot in continuous frames and if you view them on the computer fast enough you can watch them spin around.

Photoshop today

No time today to take a picture but I did photoshop this one so that counts right? You can see with this picture how much El loves her little brother, we'll see once he starts pulling her hair and taking her toys.... oh wait she doesn't play with toys... okay when he takes away her #2 pencil, that won't go over very well with her.

Candlelight

There's something about candlelight that warms up a room and with our cold weather today I needed all the help I could get. The picture of El behind it looks like she's standing right there

Dad's birdhouse

Snow is starting to cover the garden, with the cold weather, we may not see the ground again for awhile. My dad made this birdhouse many, many years ago. It's sat in the same spot for years, it's even housed a bluebird's family one summer. I had to paint the "Bait Shop" sign for the front of all his houses. Mom gave everyone a handmade house for Christmas, she was known for giving everyone the same gift. Once someone opened theirs we all knew what we got, the son-in-laws would tease so bad about who should open their gift first. Everyone got gloves, socks or ice scrapers. Mom bought in bulk, she really liked it when dad made items to give us!!

I have to tell you a story about a family Christmas, we have many and I'll try to get some of them into the blog.

I have to go back and give you some history first - So my dad had heart trouble long before my mom got sick. He had a heart attack, I don't really remember how bad it was, when it was or how it happened but it scared all of us. I still remember where I was at work and the phone conversation I had with mom, she never called me at work and to hear her voice I knew it wasn't good. He was fine but mom worried about him and dad let her. He was kinda hard to shake of sickness so he pouted until mom had enough and stopped babying him.

Back to the story.... on Christmas Day we always went to Mom and Dad's for dinner and the guys always snuck off with dad to open the bar after dinner was done and gifts were opened... this year dad wasn't going to open the bar since he was still recovering, the guys were so upset, that was tradition ever since they came into this family, and the wives didn't get mad at them since they were with dad. As creative as our guys are and as determined as they were to sneak out without us knowing they all slowly ventured outside sneaking a coat from mom and dad's closet right next to the door. So here they are sitting at Sport's Page enjoying their drink and John puts his hand into the pocket of the jacket he was wearing.... pulls out a prescription bottle with Dad's nitro pills in. He panicked and tried to get the rest of the guys to go back, they didn't fall for it. One beer lead to another and another as they usually do but John was ready to go, he could only think of dad back at home with the girls and kids, getting a chest pain and needing his nitro, going to his coat as he's grasping his chest and there's no coat, no pills.... he was never so happy to leave a bar than that day. Don't worry dad was fine and still is and John learned to check the pockets before taking someones coat as he sneaks out the door.

Layers

Fall/Winter weather is all about dressing in layers. I am a cold person in the summer time and in the winter it's 24/7 shivering. I can't wait for hot flashes, just to shake the ice from my chilly bones!! This last weekend I bought a new fun scarf that will match just about everything, I added it to my many other scarfs that I had to have.

As we were shopping there were so many girls with scarfs on and they were all tied in a fun big knot. You may already know how to tie this big fun knot but I didn't. We're in the store that I am going to buy this scarf at and I am staring at these girls and trying to tie my big fun knot with no luck. Starla says "what are you doing". I told her and she says "oh that's easy".... she tries to tie it on my neck, on her neck and on Gayle's neck but no such luck.... Now Gayle says "You guys this is sooooo easy" hummmmmm I give her the scarf and she walks right over to a girl wearing one and ask her how she does it, comes back over by us and ties it on my neck. Smart ass sister!! But I don't care now I know how and if she wouldn't of asked I think I'd still be trying to figure it out.

Dress in layers.... it's warm and it's in style!! Us girls are all about style, right?

For those of you that don't know how to tie a fun big knot - below and the instructions, if you already knew please don't tell me.

The most sought-after knot is also one of the most universal. Here’s how to tie a scarf in a Parisian knot: Take the scarf in both hands and fold it over lengthwise; drape it around your neck; insert the loose ends through the loop hanging in front of you and pull them through. Now go buy yourself a scarf or two or three or four.... and have fun with them.

1 month old

Garrett is 1 month old today. Shannon brought the kids over for Garrett's 1 month. She didn't have any ideas so of course it's my job to think of something to do besides the usual. Well this picture cracks me up, I guess I need to get a bigger truck.