Stretching my artistic muscle

In between the endless kid parties, various vintage film showings at the Stanford and the ever present work, I take a lot of general photos of the nieces and nephews. August was a particularly busy month, camera wise. It's also the month I finally took the time to learn how to utilize some of the photoshop effects available for my use in gussying up the photos.

We begin with a so-so photo shoot of the 3 year old and soon to be 2 year old. This is a HARD age to photograph, since they are completely mobile and completely uninterested in sitting still for any space of time longer than .8876987 of a second.

That said, I did get a few good shots. The girls are wearing dresses that are almost 100 years old:

A unscheduled harmonica jam session helped keep things fun:

Of course I had to reward the kids for their hard work with some fun play time with auntie:

(no, they are not playing naked - they actually did have pants on)

After they mercifully went home, I had some fun with photoshop. I learned how to layer and peel back to allow color in specific areas:

and I used some of the simple photo effects, like fading:

and a "fresco" paint effect:

This next shot represents what photographing toddlers really looks like:

Later on in the month, my cowgirl sister in law requested some photos of her cowpokes at the local ranch where they ride.

Here she is with her little cowpokes:

The kids did a great job posing for a ton of photos against the many natural backdrops available:

Our photo shoot was briefly interrupted by the arrival of a curious barn cat:

Three hours and almost three hundred photos later, it was time for me to play around in photoshop again:

I managed to sneak into one of the photos:

Using the color effects in photoshop was much easier than I anticipated - I think it's a great addition to a good photograph, and can vastly improve a "not so great" one. After these two photo shoots, I had a lot of requests for printouts - so I'd say they were a success!

Pet Peeve of the Day

This is a bookstore:

This is a library:

One is for purchasing books. One is for borrowing books.
KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!

I am sick and tired of going to my local Barnes and Noble and seeing this:

Excuse me, am I expected to now purchase that book at FULL PRICE once this finger gnawing, sandal wearing slacker re-shelves it and moves on? Here's what goes through my head when I see this going on:

Did she touch those pages with the finger she's gnawing on?
Is she sick? Has she sneezed on that book?
Did she touch those feet with her hands, then touch the book?

You want to simply read the book? Go here:

Pictured above is a reading room at a library. Look, they even give you desks, chairs and lamps to read the book by. You don't have to park your cheap, lazy ass on disgustingly dirty mall store carpet, whip out your fancy latte and take up half an aisle while you read Pride and Prejudice in aisle 14.

To make it even clearer...this is a checkout desk at a library. They ask you for your library card and let you take the book HOME WITH YOU to read for FREE:
This is what is asked of you when you see a book in a bookSTORE that you want to read:

Please note that she is taking MONEY out of her bag to PAY for the book PRIOR to reading it. This is because she wants to read a book without someone's grimy fingerprints, latte stains and god knows what else all over it.

Here's what bookstore books are supposed to look like:Please note:

- Unopened

- Clean

- Orderly

- Untouched by finger gnawing slackers

Here's what library books look like:

Please note:

- Used bindings

- Worn covers

- Number ID's on their spine denoting it as a library book (new books don't have these!)

- Suspicious page stains that you don't question because YOU DIDN'T PAY FOR THE BOOK

So please, remember this simple rule:

When books have Number ID's on the spine, you are in a library; When books have price tags on them, you are in a bookstore.

KNOW THE DIFFERENCE and ACT ACCORDINGLY!

Thank you.

There, I feel better now.