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!

Tweens are springing up this Spring!

Another niece has joined the ranks of all other tweens out in the world! This tween's current loves include:

* Horses - any kind, any time, anywhere

* Country Music

* Her aunt - uh, that would be me

* Purple - lots of it

* Animals of all sorts, including animatronic varieties.

The party celebrating 11 years of her greatness commenced on a sunny Saturday in early May:

Here she is in all her glory!
The party theme was Wild West (at least that's how the kids were behaving) - Cowboy and Cowgirl hats were the accessory of the day:

The "Star"
The "Sheriff":
The "Stinker"
The "Pink lady"
even Grammy got in on the western wear! Go Grammy!
Soon enough however, the cowgirl shifted her focus from cowgirl hats, rounding up wild cousins and rustling candy to the ever important "grubbing for gifts":
...and she did very well! Apparently this cowgirl lives on a modern range - a range that requires some sort of "Nook" or "laptop" or "iPod":

Then this "horse lover" moved on to a horrifying display of what happens when horses are made of candy:


This was all that was left of the poor victim...sick!!!
After the kids recovered from beating a candy horse to death, it was time to settle down for some sugary goodness:

some people, I WON'T SAY WHO, were a little demanding where dessert was concerned:
While in the background, others were having a hair raising good time in the trampoline:
Here are some last portraits I took of the birthday girl: