Untimely Knight

   This is a scheduled post.  It was written quite some time back, but I knew that with our move to Brazil, South America, my time for putting up new pictures would be quite limited.

   Many of the kids in our neighborhood in NC just got new "Swords" and so you can only imagine the fierce battles that have been taking place.  Here I got to capture one of the young "knights."

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Quote of the Day:

     If your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.
         -  Calvin (Bill Watterson)

Sincere - I Heart Faces

    This is the daughter of a close friend of mine.  We were talking about my camera and so I fired this "sample shot" and I loved the way it turned out.  Sometimes the best shots are those you're not prepared for.
     One thing I appreciate this young lady is her love for Christ and her simple transparency.

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Quote of the Day:
     “There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.”
           -  Marcel Proust

Looking In - Before and After

   This is a before and after of a recent photo of mine.  As shown in the graphic, I used three textures by Shadow House Creation.  I shoot RAW and then use Adobe Camera Raw with Photoshop Elements 9 for Mac.
   For this photo I also used a B/W gradient map, boosting contrast.  Then I used a slight warming gradient map on his skin, leaving the background a slightly cooler tone.

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Quote of the Day:

      “Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.”
          -  Louis L'Amour

Just Me and My Doll

Taking a Break - Playing Ball

Old Farm Windmill - Before/After

This is a photo of my Uncle John's windmill on his farm.  I remember climbing to the top of this windmill when.I was just a kid!  I recently visited them and was able to take a few pictures around the farm.

After:

Before:

Adjusted Saturation to around 50%
Adjusted Hue's to add warmth
ShadowHouse's Ruffed Up 10" - Multiply - 50%
Pareerica's Scratched Caramel Overlay Mode - 90%
Terry's Texture 3 - Multiply - 62% Opacity
Terry's Texture 3 - Darken Mode - 100% Opacity twice
and GhostBones' texture "Lost" - Overlay Mode - 57% Opacity

Textured Holly

      Textures Again! I was out enjoying the snow capped Holly bushes and thought this photo could use a little added texture!

      Roll-over the photo to see the original image!

"Texture 3" by Terry - Overlay Mode

"Tone Texture 9" by "ShadowHouse Creations" - Overlay Mode

Manual Tonal Boost

Some masking out and levels correction.

I Heart Faces - Texture

This week at "i heart faces" the theme is "texture." I love adding texture to my photos and this photo is one of my favorites! I know the frame is not filled with the little girl's face, but with the eye lashes so perfectly sharp, I feel the face is the center of the photo.


Texture is Paul Grand's, "Inverted Scratches."


Join the fun and see other photos at the "i heart faces" website!

Johnathan's First Snow!

      I don't know what possessed me to leave North Carolina to go to Omaha,NE in December!   Although I've really enjoyed our time with my in-laws, the weather has been so cold!  They had about six inches when we got here, and then have had an additional 12-18 inches, plus snow drifts!  Johnathan really enjoyed it though, as this was his first encounter with the cold white stuff!
      I'm also posting these pictures to prove to my sister in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Canada that we get snow here too!

Fog in the Cemetery

Last week we had a couple days of dense fog and so my sister-in-law and I got out and took some shots around town. I am not a morbid type of person, but I've always enjoyed the quiet and peacefulness of a nice cemetery. Here are a few photos in the fog.

In the first two I used textures from Jerry at ShadowHouse Creations as well as Haze by Pareeerica

In the Last I used CoffeeShop's PSE Action Honey Retro

The Power of Textures

I have recently come to appreciate using texture overlays on my photos. Rollover the following photo to see the before and after version of the following photo.






Thanks to ShadowHouse Creation's Texture "ToneTexture - 9"
and to lepiaf.geo's texture "Texture, Hammered Metal Heart" "Texture, Hammered Metal Heart"


I just placed both textures over the photo and changed the blending mode to "Soft Light" then adjusted opacity to taste. I also use layer masks to mask out the texture in select areas.