365 Project: Days 10-19

I think the biggest challenge for me with this project is obviously going to be creativity. It's not too difficult to get a shot in every day, but to get a decent creative shot is another thing all together. Here are my latest.

Day 10
This park recently opened and this water feature is extremely popular.  As you can tell, she's easily entertained. I love the couple in the back shooting their infant daughter in the background.

Day 11
I actually tried to be creative on this day.  I get these ideas in my head and sometimes it takes me a few days to actually get around to shooting what I want.  This is an original 1869 Dottie Dimple book passed on down to me. It's amazing it has made it this long. Plus, in the background you can kind of make out a teacup that belonged to my grandmother.

Day 12
Her birthday dinner.  She chose Joe's Crab Shack.  Not one other child was in the playground.  It was a little sad, but it was a school night after all.

Day 13
Posing at soccer practice.

Day 14
Showing off her cool glow-in-the-dark Silly Bandz that Uncle Kyle and family gave her.

Day 15
I love these flowers (oleanders) and I remember putting them in J Bird's hair when she was younger so I could photograph her.  Good idea, right? Then, hubby tells me they're poisonous and dangerous for children.  Figures.

Day 16
I purchased these boots for J Bird's cowgirl themed party and I have been wondering ever since why I haven't owned these for 20 years already.  Love these!!!!

Day 17
Sunset in the backyard.  I almost missed my daily shot, but I squeezed one in and I loved the light coming in through the leaves (and fence.)

Day 18
After school ritual...throw shoes off, jump on couch and try to sneak in some tv time until mean old mom gets her busy doing something else. Time for some new shoes, huh?

Day 19
My personal favorite from the bunch.  I don't know if it's because it's her classic "Mona Lisa" smile, her messy hair, or the sidewalk chalk on her face. My little sidewalk chalk artist.

The Big Day

So, I finally got around to working on the birthday pics from my sweet baby's party.  I'm probably very lucky that I even got these photos taken at all.  I'm absolutely terrible at taking pics at birthday parties or any other event where I'm talking or soaking in the fun. But hey, I can't fire myself, can I? 

The night before the party it rained 3 inches in less than hour.  Really? 3 inches?  Come on! Needless to say, I was just little bit worried.  Then, a couple of hours before the shindig it decides to rain a little more.  Geez! Well, we put on our boots and got ready for a muddy mess anyway.  Surprisingly, we had a lot of little troopers out there all enjoying themselves and sweating up a storm due to the crazy humidity that evening.

We arrived early to set up our tables, food and decorations.  We had some extra time before our first guests arrived, so J Bird headed out for a ride. 

Saddled up and ready to go.  She is such a natural up there.

This is Moxie. She is a sweet, gentle horse and perfect for the kids. This was J Bird's horse.

Once J Bird's friends showed up, all she could think about was playing with them. It did give all the kiddos a chance to ride the horses, though. I have to admit, I thought she might want to hog up all the horse time.  Nope, all she wanted to do was bounce with friends.

She did get the last ride, though.  I was so proud watching her control this huge animal. Later that night, we discovered she hadn't eaten dinner because she was riding instead.

Whoa!!! She missed the obstacle here and was backing Moxie up to give it another try.  I didn't have my zoom lens on my camera, but if I did you would be able to see the focus on her face.  It really was unbelievable.

Uncle J.T. and Aunt Sister were in town for the party and apparently felt the party needed some clowns.

Paint The Pony (with washable paint, of course.)

She told me her birthday was so good that she didn't need to make a wish...but she did anyway. he,he,he.

Week One of My 365 Project

I know, I know...I'm already behind on posting this, but I have been really good about shooting something everyday.  Sometimes it's just an everyday moment and sometimes I actually take the time to be creative.  I can already tell this will be a challenge, but I am determined not to throw in the towel (at least not this early in the game anyway.)  So, here are my first nine days of Project 365.

I love this first shot and her little Mona Lisa smile.  I could have ended with this shot, but that throws my 365 project out the window doesn't it?

Day 2: Taken at a friend's birthday party for their 1 year old son.  This is big sister K.K. being tossed by her daddy.  Doesn't this look fun? 

Day 3: I loved the way the flowers looked with all the teeny water droplets after the sprinklers were finished.

Day 4: J Bird and I just having crazy fun at bathtime.  I almost missed my photo opportunity this day, but it turned out better than expected.

Day 5: J Bird's little mini-Bella.  I'm sure she's forgotten about it by now with all her birthday gifts. Our house is being taken over by Barbie.

Day 6: I tried to get a fence shot in last week, since I haven't been active in Flickr's Fence Friday group in so long.  My only opportunity was to stalk around my parent's backyard when I went over to pick up J Bird. They think nothing of me lying in their grass anymore.  I did learn some new processing methods with this one (even though it's a little out of focus.) Can I get a "woot woot"!? No? huh, what?

Day 7: A shot from J Bird's soccer practice.  These kids are hilarious.  How does anyone coach 5 year olds anything?  I love that it looks like they're doing something...like defense or who knows what.

Day 8:  Awwww, my sweet baby girl turned 5 this week.  We had a birthday party for her where the kiddos rode horses, painted a pony, and bounced and bounced and bounced and bounced.  I promise I will post something eventually....before she's 8.

Day 9:  Grandpa and Grandma, as always, must give the best birthday gift ever.  Little J Bird asked Grandpa for a pony and boy did he deliver.  He got her first Mustang..in pink, no less.  Driving lessons are going slower than expected, though (she drives like her Grandma.)

Fix It Friday

Every Friday over at iheartfaces.com they offer up an image so we can have our try at editing it our way. So, I have to begin by saying that I DID NOT take this photo, but I am responsible for the edit you see below (good or bad.)

My processing is usually all over the place depending on what the original image looks like and I love to use My Four Hens Photography Actions or Florabella Actions.  However,  I decided to process this one (using Photoshop CS5) without any actions and here are my basic changes:

• I added a levels layer set at screen to bring more light to their faces. I did use the layer mask to mask out those parts of the photo that were too bright.
• I applied a curves layer and did some cross processing with the red and green channels.
• Bumped up saturation and adjusted the hue just slightly towards blue
• I added another levels layer to darken
• Added a color balance layer to adjust for skin tone
• Finally, I added a gorgeous Jessica Drossin texture for little extra pop.

I know these are fairly generic instructions, but if you have any questions let me know. I am by no means a pro or expert, but I will be glad to help.  Here is my After version.

 So, there you go.  My first attempt at Fix-It Friday.