according.to.kim

PI 37/52: Texture love

This week in Picture Inspiration, Tracey encouraged us to explore using textures on photos, and Kim Klassen provided three textures and a how-to video. I used her KK_LinenLook texture on this photo of a pumpkin blossom I took in September. (To see the texture better, click the photo above to enlarge it.) The original photo is below. I like how the textured photo turned out. The difference is subtle. I tend to be more attracted to colour and clarity in photos so highly-textured photos don't appeal to me, but I've seen some beautiful and artful applications of texture this week.

First five Instagram pics

1. We'll have fresh sauce soon.
2. Our gazania are still blooming nicely.
3. Big Green Egg.
4. Looking north from my office building.
5. Happy day for S!

It's a bit awkward to take photos with an iPad, but I love how easy it is to share photos with Instagram. I will share them on Facebook and Twitter mostly. To share them here, I used Instaport to download the photos to my computer.

I just noticed that these five pictures, presented in the order I took them, are almost a rainbow of colour. It was totally unintentional!

I've already been to the dentist this morning. I can only eat soft cold foods for the rest of the day, which is a bummer because we're going to Fuddruckers for dinner. (I'll have to have a milk shake or something like that.) And no hot coffee all day today! :( I'm thankful I had a full cup before I went to the dentist. You can bet I'll be looking for iced coffee later.

Okay, I must get back to packing now.

Piecing it all together

Backyard rainbow. :) All shot and pieced together before work this morning (my only chance to do this today). It was like a race; no time for second guessing! I could have tried to select pictures from the computer or made a collage from my Picture Color photos, but both would have taken longer than shooting new ones. I really enjoyed Picture Color and I think this is a suitable ending to this project! (Also, many thanks to OFF Skintastic; I couldn't have done it without you!)

School's out for summer! The girls' last day was yesterday. Both Sophia and Madeline brought home spectacular report cards (all 4s, Es, and Ms -- these are good; trust me!) They're great students and I'm super proud of them! The girls have had a lot of fun with year-end activities this week: bowling, spray pad, swimming, and a movie for Madeline; and bowling, swimming, and a movie for Sophia. Sophia was a little miffed that Grade 4 is too old to go to the spray pad, but I'm sure she'll have several opportunities this summer.

Also, Neil's Grandma Louise fell and cracked her hip yesterday. She's just three weeks from turning 96, so this is very worrisome, of course. I think she's awaiting surgery but I don't know her status right now.

Going back in time

I walked around my block this evening looking for a suitable subject. I thought this fence and peonies could be from any decade, and I added the Pioneer Woman Sunshine action to give it the look of some older film photos. For this prompt, I couldn't resist adding a second photo pulled from my archives (as many of my classmates have done). I took the following picture last September, and today, added the Pioneer Woman Seventies action and Edge Burn at 80%.

Don't leave home without it

Do you ever leave your phone at home? It's such a bummer when you realize you don't have it, isn't it!? This is where my phone sat while I was at work all day today. I was SO tempted to call Neil and ask him to bring it to me, but I didn't -- and I survived! I've only had a smartphone for about 15 months, but I think it's safe to say I'm hooked. (And my phone doesn't even have a camera! Just wait 'til I get one of those.)

I hit this photo with a double shot of the Pioneer Woman Lovely and Ethereal action in PSE. Much better!

Picture the seasons

Just thought it would be fun to see all of the photos together that I took during four of Tracey Clark's Picture classes at BPC. These are simply screenshots of the photos inside iPhoto, with text added in PSE.

My latest desktop image

April 10: Catch lights

Picture Spring: Today's prompt was to look for light in the eyes of a loved one. In other words, capture some catch lights. I was excited to try this. By pure chance, I have captured a few great catch lights in the past (here's one example), but I've never tried to get them intentionally. This afternoon, when I was cleaning our master bedroom, this dear child of mine came in and sat on the bed facing the window. Shazam! Perfect light. I ran for my camera and then managed to get eight photos before she took off. This was the last one (just part of it, actually), and I love it! I love those eyes.

Also, I thought it might be fun to dip my toe into the world of Photoshop actions today. I recently read that Pioneer Woman was now offering her fabulous free Pioneer Woman Actions for Photoshop Elements (previously only available for Photoshop), so I downloaded and installed them this afternoon. The actions are really cool and I tried every single one of them (23). In the end, I only used a couple of the most subtle actions on this photo: Slight Lighten and Slight Sharpen. I try not to spend too much time on photo editing and processing as it is very time consuming, but I will definitely have to experiment with actions a little more in the future! (Having said that, I should clarify that the vast majority of photos that I post on this blog have been tweaked slightly in iPhoto or PSE.)

Fabulous free tutorial

After posting my June 12-of-12 photo grid, a comment from Maureen had me thinking perhaps I ought to write some instructions for creating a photo grid. Hence, I was absolutely delighted to see a fantastic video tutorial by Cathy Zielske on creating multi-photo grids, posted just yesterday on Ali Edwards' website! Not only that, CZ provides a downloadable PDF of step-by-step instructions as well as some free graphics for monthly snapshot pages on her own website. Awesome! Check it out if you're interested in creating photo grids now or in the future. I adore them, as you know. Can't wait to whip up my 12-of-12 grid for July!

P.S. There is another method of creating a 12-photo grid using a png template, also by CZ (which is what I've been using), but the method explained in the tutorial video (and pdf) is more versatile than using the template, so I'll leave it at that.

Sweet Williams

Check out the delicate details on this Sweet William in our garden (click photo to enlarge). Aren't they pretty? Also, I was playing with a grunge edge on the photo and wanted to share!

Five going on sixteen?

I took this photo of Sophia in November 2006, two months before her sixth birthday. At the time, I really wished it would have been crystal clear. And, of course, there are no second chances with a five-year old. I could not try to take this photo again; the moment was gone for good. Bummer.

But as much as I disliked the blurriness, I could not bring myself to throw this photo away. Sophia just looked so much older than she was in this photo. Don't you agree? Is this the face of a five-year old? Maybe it's just me.

I came across this photo today, and was again struck by how much older Sophia appears to be. I think it's because she looks confident in this photo. So... because I really like this image and because it's so blurry, I was inspired to play around with it. Here's what I ended up with...

Photo time!

Just a few from the past week...

Madeline fell asleep wearing the ballerina costume my mom made for me when I was eight or nine.

Sophia wearing the hat I bought for her.

Every week, Georgia wore a swimming suit to watch her sisters' swimming lessons from the viewing gallery.

Goldy #2. (I didn't even get a photo of Goldy #1.)

Georgia's painted toenails -- with a quick and easy photo effect. Instructions here.

Madeline on skates

I was playing around with the exposure and most of the ice background vanished. Just thought it was kind of neat.

My nephew and photo fun

This is my nephew, Rian. He's eight months old. Shauna (Neil's sister), Cole, and Rian were in Regina this week, and we went to over to Laurel and Bronwyn's house last evening to visit again before they leave. It was nice to have them at the girls' party on Sunday too! We hadn't seen them since October.

This first photo is straight out of the camera. I had set the camera to ISO 1600 so I could capture Rian without a flash in the middle of the house in the evening (i.e., with no natural light at all). It's a bit grainy because that's what ISO 1600 does, but I quite like it. How else could you get a photo that's not either totally washed out from the flash or quite blurry under those conditions? And without red eyes? I wouldn't want a flash to go off in a baby's eyes at that close range anyway.

You know I can't leave well enough alone. That green ball behind Rian's head bugged me, so I removed it. A bit finnicky to do, but worth it. I also applied Auto Levels (in PSE 4) and bumped up the exposure just a touch. Not bad, huh?

And then, just for fun, I applied a filter called Poster Edges. (It' s easier to see the effect if you click the photo to enlarge.)

By the way, this is not the "project" I referred to on Thursday. That will be later -- sometime after dance and skating lessons!

Georgia's candle

We didn't have cake on Georgia's birthday (we'll do that later), but we decided to light candles and sing happy birthday to her anyway. Unfortunately, I couldn't find two candles. I guess I was lucky to find one! She didn't mind. The candle was in her ice cream and we lit it several times for her. It was a big hit!

(I didn't like the cluttered background and foreground in this photo, so I played around with a "grunged photo edge" I picked up a few weeks ago at www.twopeasinabucket.com. Edge by Rhonna Farrer. I get a kick out doing stuff like this.)

Added, Jan 9th: Thanks Kathie. I'm glad you like the effect. I think this picture (see original) could be quite a bit better though, so I'm going to make some changes and post a new one tonight (done; posted above; I think it's a little better). Also, I think this particular edge may look better on an older photo where an aged or vintage look seems appropriate, and/or on a photo with a lighter background.

Color accent

Just wanted to show you this nifty feature on my new camera. "Color accent" allows you to: choose an accent colour by pointing the camera at something and pressing a button to select the colour of that object, and then when you take a photograph, only things the colour you selected will be in colour and the rest of the photo in black and white (except items with similar hues, such those blue bits in the upper right corner of this photo -- which would be very easy to change to b&w later). I took this photo to show some coworkers this morning and then thought I'd share with you too.

There is another way to achieve this effect, of course. It just takes a little more work (and the right software) on your computer. I explained how to do it in this post: Fun with boots. The photo editing method allows you to reveal multiple colours, while you can't do that with the camera, but the "color accent" feature on the camera is certainly quick and easy. I had no idea my new camera had this feature until I started playing around with the settings a couple days ago. What fun! 

Doing it Digi! Lesson 4, Page 1

The entire 4th lesson was about making layered backgrounds using filters and blending modes. It's amazing what you can do. The result was an entire 6x6 "patterned paper" and you can see some of it on this layout. I also used the "diffuse glow" filter on the bottom right photo.

I enjoyed this BPS Doing it Digi! class very much and I learned a lot too. I should've created additional layouts, but didn't have time during the four-week workshop. I completed all four lessons though and I'm satisfied with the five pages I did make (to see them all, click on the "scrapbooking" category at the bottom of this post). I hope I'll find time to use all of this new knowledge in the not-too-distant future!

Flower girl

Brushworks Lesson 2

This is the page I created for the second lesson of the BPS Brushworks class I was taking (see Lesson 1). Again, I learned so much about the cool things you can do with brushes in Photoshop/Elements. Since creating this page was more about learning techniques, it's probably not what I would've done if I had been thinking specifically about creating a page using this particular picture and story. When the lesson said to use a closeup of someone's face, I just picked a picture from the limited library of photos I happened to have on the laptop, and then I created the page without having any idea of what I wanted the end result to be. Still, I think it turned out okay.

Brushworks Lesson 1

In June, I signed up for a two-week online class called Brushworks from Big Picture Scrapbooking (there's another one coming soon if anyone's interested). In June, however, I had NO time to do it, so I downloaded the lessons and resources for later use. This weekend, I finally found the opportunity to start the class and complete the first lesson. I'm glad I decided to take this class -- I learned so much doing this one page! I've been using Adobe Photoshop Elements and Photoshop (at work) for many years now and I can do several basic things quite well, but I knew I hadn't even scratched the surface. This class certainly confirmed that. Those programs are amazing!

I hope to do the second lesson of Brushworks within the next two weeks, and then I'm taking another BPS online class by Renee Pearson called Doing it Digi which runs for four weeks starting September 6. I can't wait! I suspect I'll be a little extra sleep deprived in September, but I don't care.

I had sort of resisted the idea of digital scrapbooking because I love playing with paper, scissors, glue, stamps, stickers, brads, ribbons, punches... SO much and I love the true texture of those things, but I've been drawn to the digital form lately. I don't think it takes any less time to put a page together, but it's very convenient. All I need is my computer and a few minutes (well, lots of minutes) here and there. And I do love "playing" on my computer anyway, so that's not a stretch for me. I'd also like to try hybrid scrapbooking which involves combining traditional and digital elements on a scrapbook page. After all, I do have a lovely stash of scrapbooking products I'd like to use someday.