Here, There & Everywhere

I have to say that I love playing with Photoshop. It reminds me a bit of when I was young and coloring in coloring books. It was fun to shade certain areas of the picture, outline some things to make them stand out, etc. So, many of my photos have been “photoshopped”. But I am not good enough at using the program to be able to take things out or put things in that weren’t really there.

When Amanda and Evan returned from China I asked her to send me some of their pictures (I had seen them in her album on Snapfish) so I could play with them. After doing so, she suggested that I do a “Before & After” post, so here it is!

On this photo I increased the contrast some, brought out some of the red color of the building and then cropped it so that the building wasn’t smack in the middle.

I went with a more extreme processing on this one as I thought it would be fun to see lots more detail in all those eggs. I also increased the highlights so certain parts jumped out at you–look at the scale in the top right corner.

I then pulled up one of my shots from yesterday–taken between the rain storms.

I’ve read/heard comments about everything being “photoshopped” these days. I think that many people aren’t aware or have forgotten that in the film days many photos were adjusted in the dark room. Photoshop to the digital photographer is very much the dark room. And, it’s so much fun! :)

Spring has been coming in bits and spurts around here. It seems some years everything blooms at the same time. This year we’ve had things bloom and then when they are fading away something else starts to bloom. Right now I can see dogwoods, redbuds, blueberries, columbines, lenten roses and still some daffodils. Such a beautiful time of year!

Our photography club’s competition this month was Landmarks. I submitted four of my photos and received an Honorable Mention on the above photo. Tommy and I found this old abandoned church on the side of Interstate 80 in Nebraska. Unfortunately I had to shoot this from the opposite side of 80.

While not a landmark, today was the first day of my last year in my 50’s. I told Tommy to start saving up for something special for my birthday next year. :)

I’m always so excited to see the peony plants start poking their heads up in the Spring. They are my favorite flowers…..until the cone flowers start blooming….or the gerbera daisies start blooming….until the sunflowers start blooming……

The pear trees have been very pretty as well:

Not to be outdone by the pear trees, the red maples are putting out as well:

A friend and I went to the zoo on Tuesday. She had recently purchased a new Nikon D7000 and wanted to get out and practice taking some pictures with it. So we decided to go to the zoo.

I swear the gorillas knew I was there taking their pictures. Don’t they look like they’re posing for me?

Here are some of the less entertaining animals that we saw:

I went with Sara and Hall to Albany on Friday so they could run the Snickers’ Marathon on Saturday. Before I share the pictures I took during the race, I’ll share one other.

Did you know that Ray Charles was from Albany, Georgia? There is a life size statue of him sitting at a piano. The statue actually turns very slowly and his music is played. It was really cool!

And on to the race. Start time was scheduled for 7:00 a.m. I was told that we were to be leaving our hotel (which was 6-7 miles away from the start line) by 5:30. Ugh! But we did and you can’t tell from this picture that Sara and Hall were nervous, can you?

Here’s the Kenney cheering squad. It was so much fun for Stephanie and Shelby to not only come down from Lexington and Athens, but also to make these signs!

These pictures were taken at the 13 mile mark–they were still going strong.

Between mile 13 and 18 Sara and Hall ran into some rain. They both said it felt pretty good except for their feet getting wet.

Their first sight of the Finish Line. Think they look relieved?

DONE! Yay!!

I just can’t tell you how proud of Sara and Hall that I am. I’m so glad they asked me to be part of this experience (although I think it was really so I could drive them home afterwards). It was a pretty exciting/interesting to see all of the emotions from the people as they came to the finish. Congratulations to Sara and Hall and all the others!

Spring flowers are beginning to bloom around here. Wonder how long it will be before we get kicked in the rear end with cold weather again?

My Purple Cone Flowers photo placed second in the Flowers category at the Southeastern Flower Show photography competition. After having three of my images accepted into the competition, I said that I would be pleased if I just got an Honorable Mention. So you can probably imagine my excitement when I got word that I placed second with this shot. Tommy and I went to the show yesterday to see all of the other images and there were some gorgeous ones. I was very pleased to see that for all of the photos that placed the judges’ comments were placed next to that image along with the ribbon. This was what was said about the Cone Flowers:

“A soft comfortable aesthetic like an old pair of jeans. Masterful use of selected focus tells the story of the image.”

On another note, Tommy and I celebrated 33 years of marriage yesterday. :)

Tommy came in a while ago, while I was cleaning bathrooms, and asked if I’d seen the tiny yellow flowers that were blooming out front. Well, I tell you that was the quickest I’ve ever gotten done cleaning bathrooms. Because flowers are probably my most favorite subject to photograph I gathered up my gear and headed outside. Here’s what I found:

These itty bitty flowers look very much like crocus, but are no bigger around than my thumbnail. I wanted to share with you all so you can get as excited about Spring arriving as I am.