indoor action

to begin again in the New Year,

one thinks of special handmade gift.

after carefully wrapping,

a special card needs to be created.

for this special New Year gift.

Happy New Year to all!

If at first you don't succeed...

Here's the sequence of what I learned.

1.I brought the outdoors inside using a tungsten 3200K light with a white board fill. I shot a white paper to set the custom white balance for my camera but it didn't work--not sure why.

2. I then hoped to use the Adobe Camera Raw white balance tool but found that when I shot in Macro, I got JPEG images which don't open in Adobe Camera RAW.

3. That leaves Photoshop where I planned to adjust color on the white paper photo then drag the settings to the other photos. That worked but not successfully, probably because the white paper was not in the exact same place as the eggs & cones so the lighting was not the same.

4. Having maxed out my knowledge, I fell back on my improv skills and eyeballed the color using Photoshop desaturation and color balance tools to approximate reality: hold up the egg, compare with the image, adjust the color a bit more...

Green Fairy's new friend, Martini Mermaid

This wonderfully robust mermaid was part of a fun window display in a shop at the Minneapolis Airport (where I had a 3 hour layover). Of, course I had to get her photo so the Green Fairy would know she has a friend... a friend who obviously likes to enjoy herself too. Bottoms up!

Learning Adobe CS4

Paint & Brushes watercolored by Adobe CS4 and Next years Christmas Card!

She's at it again!

Flash and Flashlight

Happy New Year!

Chippewa River Trail

I made these photos in Wisconsin at New Years ... it was 21 degrees below zero, but gorgeous outside. This is frozen nose hair weather! It was a peaceful way to begin the New Year... fresh, clear, frozen air with Nature's frosting everywhere. Wishing everyone PEACE & JOY in 2010.

The Frosted Window

ARTIST TOOLS

A New Year of Possibility

Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Bring the Earth your love and happiness.
The Earth will be safe
when we feel safe in ourselves.

- Thich Nhat Hahn

Beth's Skateboarder - New background

After

Before

THE TRUE SANTA, My DAD

In the year 1999 when my Dad was quite ill, confined to a wheel chair on oxygen and 33 medications he saw this snow globe at COSTCO in Albuquerque. He insisted on buying it on his own so he held it in his lap and went through the check out. When he got home he called me and told me excitedly that he had purchased a gift (only one of two in my lifetime that he purchased on his own) and that I had to come to Albuquerque to get it. I booked a flight and spent Christmas with my Mom and Dad. Dad died the following November so this has always been a truly special gift. I placed white canvases in a cupboard and filled it with pillow batting to appear as clouds. I captured a wonderful memory thanks to photography!

Skateboarders from Beth

The Right Pear!

I added the wrong pear. Please delete the duplicate image of this picture. I tried taking the picture without a flash and I moved the camera so it is blurry. This is the one I meant to use. Thanks, Jeanne

FAVORITES

This month slipped away! I though I had at least one more and maybe two weeks to finish this project. All of my pictures were taken during Thanksgiving this year including my favorite of the train tracks from Gobel, Oregon. All of these desserts were made by my dear friends in Scappoose, Oregon where I spent Thanksgiving with them and my Son and family. Hope they will qualify since I didn't get my 25 per week in but I took 150 then!

All is Merry and Bright!

Sideshow Christmas!

I commissioned an artist from the Museum of Northwest Art Style show (I'm organizing the event) to paint a dog portrait as a Christmas gift for my husband. since he collects circus sideshow banners, I asked her to make a tiny banner of our dog, Blini. I think it turned out great and, just from the photos I took, she captured Blini's personality amazingly well! My sweetie will be thrilled.

winter choices...

I thought this was an interesting project.

to simply snap snap snap

I had a good time taking pics whereever I went

and in some cases returned to my roots

Blending

I visited Magnuson Park's wetlands again. The ponds are new and offer reflections as well as attracting more water birds. The wetlands are also convenient, just a couple of blocks from my house.

On these cold, clear days, I worked at catching the light at sunrise and sunset. It was difficult to capture the range of light values so I used a blending technique to overlay a photo metered for sky on another metered for the ponds.
In the second photo, I added geese from another photo to enliven this sunset shot of trees.

New photos

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! I was back in San Diego for the holiday and went to 2 of my favorite places: Maritime Museum and Balboa Park. I was playing with light a little... to see the differences in warmth between daylight, shade, and late afternoon sun. Top photo is the late afternoon shot (I upped the saturation for a little more pizzazz) of the HMS Surprise (with the Berkeley paddlewheeler in the background), the ship that was in the Russell Crowe movie Master and Commander. The other 2 photos are more architecture at Balboa Park. It was unusual to get them with few/no people in them 'cuz the park was really busy. I'm still really into shooting arches! The middle photo was taken in the shade. I made the bottom photo in a protected courtyard. I'd appreciate your comments when you have time. Thanks!

Another perspective

After a week of rain, I visited Magnuson Park's newly installed wetlands and got some playful shots of cottonwoods in the late afternoon as the moon was rising.