Passport Photo Renewals

Well, it’s almost time to renew our kids’ passport photos, which of course means new passport photos.  I thought I’d let you see what I go through to try to get one good shot of both kids! (we try to keep it fun!)

Gus - Faces of Brazil

   Another neighborhood friend of Johnathan's is eight-year-old Gus.  Though a few years older than Johnathan, they have a great time together!  Here's a picture of him in the middle of a game of "Connect-Four" with Johnathan in our back yard.

Paulo Victor - Faces of Brazil

   At eleven years old, Paulo Victor is one of our neighbors and one of our best friends here in our neighborhood!  He has been extremely helpful to us - always ready to assist in the littlest, or biggest, way possible!  Our kids really enjoy him and he enjoys making them laugh!  Even though he loves to have fun, he's always respectful toward us and our children!  We are so thankful to have many good friends here in Brazil!

Mahalia and Sarah - Faces of Brazil

   The other day I was scheduled to do a photoshoot for a couple twin 1-yr-old boys who have never had their picture taken with anything more than a cell phone, but unfortunately they had to cancel at the last minute.

   However, right at the scheduled time, a different neighbor family dropped in to visit us and so I got to do an impromptu photo shoot for them, just for the fun of it!  Their two daughters are really good friends with our kids and love to play together in our back yard.  Here's a picture of their 8-yr-old with Mahalia.

Two Boys - Faces of Brazil

These two are good friends of ours and good friends of each other - which is great since they are related!

Updated Portraits of the Kiddos

Well, I finally was able to take some updated headshot portraits of our kids!

Go Big Red!

It's Husker Football Season!

Buzzard on the Lookout - Postcard from Brazil

     I came across this Black Vulture as he was perched on his lookout just at the edge of our suburb.  He didn't seem to be at all afraid of me, but this was the closest I wanted to get to take his photo.

Diane - Faces of Brazil

       We enjoyed getting to talk to Diane again at Family Camp this year.  Her sweet, quiet spirit made it a joy to be around her.  

Praying Mantis - Postcard from Brazil

     This is actually a tiny baby Praying Mantis that we found here.  It's entire body was hardly half-an-inch in length and so I it was a challenge to get a macro portrait of him, but he finally looked into the camera - not sure if he's smiling or not, though!

The Jacaré

Here in the center of South America, we have plenty of Jacaré, a type of Caiman of the Crocodile family. (Wiki)  Although we don't necessarily have them here in our suburb of Cuiabá, you don't have to go far out of town to start seeing them!  They supposedly do not harm or interfere with humans, but I prefer to keep my distance just in case!

Cuiabá Arsenal - Football! (Futebol Americano)

   I was pleasantly surprised to find, after we arrived in Brazil, that there is an American Football league in Brazil, similar to the NFL of the United States.  While much younger, and smaller, than the NFL in the U.S., it is definitely growing in popularity.  With the formation of the Asociation of American Football of Brazil (AFAB - Assoçiation de Futebol Americano do Brasil) in the year 2000, the league has exploded into what it is today - a championship of thirty-four teams from all across the country.

   You can imagine how happy I was to find out that our city of Cuiabá, near the center of Brazil, is home of the "Cuiabá Arsenal" one of the winningest teams of this league and currently at the top of the rankings. 

    I was fortunate enough, recently, to be able to get a press pass to photograph a home game and had a great time!  You can see more of my photos on the Arsenal's facebook page.

The team is led by Coach Clayton Lovett (pictured below, in the white hat), a Nebraska native.  There are also a couple American players on the team, but the majority are Brazilians who have somehow fallen in love with the sport!

On this day, the Arsenal was challenged by the "Weilers" (short for Rottweilers), from São Jose do Rio Preto, SP, over 1,000km away.   Our city's large stadium is under construction for the 2014 World Cup, and so this match was held at the smaller "Dutrinha" stadium.

The game was packed with exciting plays, excellent runs, and great touchdowns!

TOUCHDOWN!

Ah, the joy of victory!   Our team won with the final score of 55-0!  You can read the full report of the game in our local newspaper FolhadoEstado here.

 

What a great game it was!  I am already looking forward to the next one!

Bulk Editing with Adobe Camera Raw

  Here are a couple screenshots with tips for using ACR more effectively - Especially batch processing.   (Notations done in Skitch)

And for batch noise removal:

To edit additional photos:

Be sure all the desired Raw files are selected in the left-hand column and click "Open Images" to open all of them in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Maria Eduarda - Faces of Brazil

  This little girl was a faithful visitor of this year's Vacation Bible School here in Brazil and seemed to greatly enjoy herself the entire week!
  The VBS had a Global Mission's theme and so on the last day there were prizes for people who dressed up as being from another country.  I would say this girl definitely deserved first place!


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Quote of the Day:
     We are immortal until our work is done."
                 - George Whitefield

Adalia - A Maine Girl

     We had the privilege of visiting some friends in Maine.  I was just going through some photos I took of their daughter and came across this gem.  She is a sweet girl from a great family. I wish I'd have a picture of the entire family to share here.

This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

Fusbol Girl - Faces of Brazil

    This shy, young lady seemed to really enjoy herself at youth camp this past summer.  Here she's enjoying some friendly competition at the fusbol table.

QuickTip - Batch Renaming in Mac OSX

    Batch renaming files should be one of the easiest operations to perform in the Mac file system, yet it is seemingly a non-existent feature.  Thankfully, there is an easy way to enable this service.

    It really is quite easy to do via Mac's "Automator" App that comes with every Mac.

    To start, open the Automator App and select "Service" on the initial pop-up choice list.

   After this, you can add any number of automated services.  For our project, in the left-hand column under "library" choose "Files and Folders."  Now a second column will appear with more choices.  From this list, drag and drop "Get selected Finder Items" to the main workspace.  Follow this with the "Rename Finder Items" option.
   
    Rather than try to walk you through each step, let me show you a screen shot of the options you should change:

    By clicking "Show this action when the workflow runs" you will be able to make any changes in a pop-up dialogue when you run the action.

    Hit "save" and enter the title, "rename."  

    That's all!

    Now, in finder, navigate to a folder of photos that you would like to batch-rename.  Select the desired photos and right click on them.  At the bottom of the context menu you will see a new option, "Rename"  select that, enter your new file name, and your finished!

    What about you, have you found an easier way to perform this action?

Stopping By . . .

   Here in Brasil, we have been treated to so many new birds of all kinds!  This Swallow-Tailed Hummingbird is just one of the many interesting birds whose visits we have been enjoying recently.

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Quote of the Day:
    "A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song."
        - Chinese Proverb

High Key Portrait from the Archives - Wordless Wednesday

Linking this WW with:

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Quote of the Day:
     Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.
             - Winston Churchill

Lucas - Faces of Brazil

     This boy is one of our neighbors here on our street.  Although he came to our Vacation Bible School, he does not usually attend our church and I don't believe that he regularly goes to any church.

     One of the blessings of living in where we do is that we are constantly surrounded by our mission-field.  The idea of communicating with our neighbors like Lucas, is a huge motivational force for me to learn the language quickly.