Day 26

Words for today......CATCHING AIR! LOL! Okay so I didn't picture the words catching air but I did take a picture of my dog catching air.

Our dogs like playing with a rope, my boyfriend is 5'11" and was holding this rope over his head and my dog love to jump and catch it and then play tug a war with it, then steal it away and run under the trampoline and tear it up.

To be a dog, it's amazing what makes them happy.

Day 25

Yeah so I've missed two days.....no big deal I guess....I've been sick. I've had this cold now for about a week but these last few days have been really bad. I'm actually feeling better today.

Anyways....still on theme, WORDS.

This word is something I am looking forward to....all they have left to do is some touch ups and add all the appliances, I'm predicting a mid to late Feburary closing. Let's hope!

Day 22

Words.....today are words a seven year old must read. My son has a daily reading assignment everyday. Usually it consists of two books to read with me or to me and then I have to sign off on the paper to acknowledge that he did in fact do it. So tonight.....his words were my inspiration.

Day 21

So words.....well what better word...or words then the name of my most favorite drink in the whole wide world...Wild Cherry Pepsi.

I (heart) Wild Cherry Pepsi, just about as much as I love FROGS!

Day 20

OMG....YEP I MISSED A DANG DAY.....why? Ummm let's see...I spent the day with my honey.

Oh well....I have been doing good, it's okay to take a day off. BUT I am back on track today and on theme.

This is a photo of a word plaque that I have hanging along my stairs, it's one of four and they together have similar meanings but today I figured I'd start with the one I like the most. Something I hope to really achieve one day in my really hectic life.

Day 18

So I pulled up an old pic of me and my boyfriend (since he avoids me and I have no cute current pics) and just played around with it. I lightened the photo, mixed the background around to take away the distraction, cropped in some, smoothed my skin a little (it looked bad), added a warming filter and then made the photo kinda grainy (is that a word) and then added the vignette.

What do you think? I'll tell you what I think - not sure if I like the background, but I kinda "saved the photo" in other ways, by the way......this was taken with a point and shoot in my old suv with no flash, not with my dslr.

PS'd
Original

Day 17

So today was just an easy play...just played with the colors and cropped the photos. These pictures are of my two puppies, yes they are only 1 yr old. My boy Kaos (one on the left) is 80lbs and my girl Solae (one on the right) is 74lbs. They are BIG puppies. And yes they are pitbull, blue pitbulls actually. I'm advocate for pitbulls, they really do get a bad rap, but hey I won't get into that here, I'm sure there are some that do not agree.

After

Originals

Day 16

So I almost didn't post today....today was a bad day....I found out they are closing my department at the large bank I work for, well actually they are moving it to New York. I'm in Houston and moving to NY just is not an option for me. I have until I think April but the details are sketchy so I'm not real sure what is going to happen. I so upset 2007 was a bad year for me and I really thought 2008 would be better. The worst part is I'm in the middle of my house being built, actually it's almost done, so hopefully I can find a job soon.

I really wanted to post, this is actually something I look forward to doing and I am really trying to learn as much as I can and PLAY as much as I can....LOL!

So please take a look and see what you think and CC is always welcome and appreciated!

Thanks!

Original SOOC

The PS'd - Added a texture, played with the color curves (yes I learned about those now) and crop using a frame

Day 15

Again nothing too "Top Notch" just played around, CC always welcome, thanks! Hopefully on Friday night I can play a little more, I've been looking for tutorials and things to try in PSE 6, but during the week time just does not allow for it. This photo was taken in City Park in New Orleans, LA.

All your comments are so appreciated, I love reading them and looking at every ones blogs.



Original

Added some color saturation and a vignette.

Changed to B&W and added a slight vignette

Day 14

Before

After














So again on theme, I played with my self-portrait, didn't do too much just played around until I got a look that was different then the original. The orginal to me was off, the color was kinda orange, the lighting in my house right now is bad.

As you can see I am not stepping too far out of my box.....LOL!

Thanks for looking and thanks for all the great comments!

Day 13

So this weeks theme is Photoshop....well I've only had PSE 6 for a couple of weeks and I am really just learning....Here is my attempt at a before and after......I just played around until I made some changes. I really am not sure what all I did but have a look, I'm not too happy with the edges, I thought when I erased them it would take away the corners, guess I was wrong, still got plenty of learning to do with PSE 6.

Before

After

Day 12

And now the last thing to focus on for 008....for me to RELAX more. Even if at times it seems as though it is impossible for me to relax and just put my feet up, I need to make time to do it. I have so many things to do on a daily basis...my day starts so early....I get up at 4:50am to be at the gym by 5am....workout until 6:30am then I shower and get ready for work. I leave the gym by 7:15am to catch the park and ride into downtown Houston. Where I work for a large national bank in the investment banking and trading area from 8am to 5pm. Then I catch the bus back out to the park and ride, get home by 5:45pm, cook dinner, make sure homework is done, make sure baths are taken, school lunches are made and clothes for the next day are laid out....try to relax a little and then try in be in bed no later then 10pm so I can get up and do it all over again the next day.

Where do I find time to PEA.....oh at work and usually while dinner is one the stove I can PEA...and update by blog with the POTD. I got to squeeze it in some how.

So I plan to find more time in 2008 to relax and put my feet up......where am I going to find the time? Who knows....any suggestions...LOL!

Day 11

I'd like to focus on improving my photography skills. I want to read as many books as I can....these are the ones I've read so far and there are so many on my list.

Now the other picture is of my manual that came with my camera, as you can see there are flags through out and the pages are all sticking up. This manual stays in my bag, so it gets used a lot.

So in 2008 the quest for better pictures.

Day 10

So today is a simple minded focus but one a lot of people tend to over look...and that is FAMILY TIME. A focus for 2008 - more family time. Some people think with a big family you can't do much to have fun, but that is not at all the truth. You just have to be inventive.

We play board games, but we really like the other type of a family game....

The other type of family time we have and it may sound "wierd" to some is combat......yep I typed that correctly combat. We each have a nerf dart gun that shoots these little styrofoam bullets with either a suction cup or a velcro patch at the end. So to to play we dress in all black or another dark color....turn off all the lights in the house and go to war. Now some people may think it's not a game we should play but it's no different then contact football. We have so much fun doing this, the boys especially think it is the best thing ever. Justin, my boyfriend, even went so far as to get that under the eye black make-up and ski masks, the kids get a real kick out of it. The boys have gotten really good at hiding and sneaking up on us and just have a blast when they "shoot" us.

Day 9

Well today I decided to take a picture of something that I so need to focus on......organizing my scrapbooking supplies. Right now we are renting a home while our home is under construction, so I have no room for my scrapbooking supplies. I have not done a page in so long, I want to but man having to drag all that stuff out to the dining room table then put it all back is a pain. The new house will have an upstairs gameroom that I have already designed in my home. It will truely be the family room. A large 73in TV (I already picked it out) with a large sectional sofa with three ottomans, yes three, I want it to be a place we can as the family lounge together for movies. Then behind the couch will be my tables in an L-shape, I've already picked them out from Ikea (the build your own tables section), then across the landing will be the computer room for the family. See....told you I had it all dreamed up, I've got the colors picked out too...along with my Mac (shhhh!) that is my secret no one else knows, it's in the new house furniture budget, I made sure. So here is the closet I have right now...see how UN-ORGANIZED it is.

Feel free to CC me.... but this time today I am soooo tired, I really didn't try to hard on composition, focus or creativity, sorry!

Day 8

So my 13 year old daughter spend about 80% of her free time on her cell phone, either texting or actually talking. It's a good thing her dad pays for it. LOL! He got wise and bought her a cricket...unlimited minutes and texting for one low price. Now that he is gone his sister and his dad pay for it for her. So she gets to enjoy her self talking her life away.

Day 7

ISO 800 F/4 SS 1/6 Focal Length 25mm

ISO 800 F/4 SS 1/10 Focal Length 28mm (played with this one is PSE 6 - Not sure if I really like the conversion or not)

My middle daughter Sonja or a/k/a NaeNae (actually only I can call her that) loves to read, she is a very inteligent 10 yr old. She has always made A's and B's and just loves school. In fact she let me sign her up this year to go to school on Saturday morning.....yeah go figure. What kids would do that? Not many. So my FOCUS today was to capture her doing some the loves to do, READ.

Day 6

Focus...Hmm, I think in a big family like mine...my three kids and then my boyfriend's son, the kids still need to have their own individual time. They each need to focus on what they like, each one deserves their own quality time, so this week I will focus on each person in my family and something they like to do.

So today was my son, besides his playstation, spiderman is a important part of him. He loves spiderman, he has spiderman clothes, backpack, blankets, toys, games and he has even had at least three birthday parties where the theme and cake had to be spiderman. He loves Spiderman, like I love frogs actually probably more.

ISO 800 F/6.3 SS 1/125
Focal Length 24mm














ISO 800 F/6.3 SS 1/60 Focal Length 47mm

Day 5

ISO 100 F/5.6 SS 1/50 Focal Length 55mm





So this picture is funny to me, I was over helping my mom move and my brother came over with this FRESH KISSER! He received it at the wonderful New Year's Eve party he went to, that's the kinda party favor you leave with, glad I missed it. LOL! He didn't want me to take the picture but I just couldn't help it. I cropped in a little more using PSE 6 and I added a vignette. I really like off the wall adstract pictures, it's just too hard to keep with the theme again today.

Thanks for looking and I loved reading all the comments from yesterday, this is so much fun, I'm so glad I got involved.

Day 4

ISO 800 F/8 SS 1/1600
Focal Length 25mm

So I walked around downtown Houston today on my lunch break and I saw so many "scenes" that I wanted to capture, but being the chicken that I am, I didn't take the picture. I am so scare some one will chase me down because they don't want their picture taken. Imagine the headlines...YOUNG WOMAN SNAPS PICTURE OF UNSUSPECTING HOMELESS MAN AND IS CHASED AND PUMMELED WITH HER OWN CAMERA. Yeah no so funny when I read that back. So until I make sure I am wearing my running shoes and can get away easy, I'll stick the the buildings and different things.

This picture today is of a park across the street from the Toyota Center, there are I think five of these different metal structures all together. I really liked this perspective so I decided this will be the shot to post today.

Day 3

So it's day three and I took another picture, can you believe it? As you can see I am really trying to keep with this. It makes me carry my camera around and I just keep looking for things to "shoot". I got lucky today, well kinda, I had to stay home from work to kid my two youngest children to the doctor so after the doctor we made a bit of a detour. This statue is part of a large fountain located near my house, it's actually in a shopping center and I just love the way it looks, I've always wanted to take pictures of it. This just gave me the opportunity.

I did a black and white conversion in PSE 6 and love the way it intensifies the look. The man just really looks like his is struggling, I slowed my shutter to get more of a flow of the water rather than freezing it. I like the way it "coats" the man.

ISO 800

F/36

SS 1/25 sec

Day 2

ISO 800 SS 1/5 (used a timer and the tripod) f/4

Okay, this is not with the theme but I really like the "motion" of this picture. My son Izaiah, just turned 7 on 12/26 and he loves his Playstation 2. He's had it for over a year now but plays it everyday. Maybe one day he'll grow up and design games, who knows. I'm not one of those parents that restricts things like this, I really don't mind him playing.

Day 1 - Hat's off to me

Okay here I am trying this blog thing......never thought I would. I'm only starting it as a way to keep up with the Photo A Day challenge. I'm hoping to improve on my skills and learn so much, this way it gives me the drive to take more photos and practice more.

ISO 800 SS 1/640 4.5

The picture is of my oldest daughter Alexis

So hat's off to me for beginning this!