Tagxedo.com.... Love this site....

If you haven't heard of it, check out Tagxedo. If you have, but haven't visited in a while, go play around for a few minutes. I cannot remember how I came across it, but I am a word girl and I love collages, so these are right up my alley. Sometimes I have a lot going on in my mind and it helps if I get the words out. If I can't sort them out in sentences (yes, this happens!), I love to make these "word clouds". So, I made one about photography today - my class wraps up tomorrow (*tear*), but this is just the beginning. I have learned a lot over the past few months and am very excited to keep practicing and learn more.

And here are some other "clouds" I have made. Fun and therapeutic..... :)

More Me Than You Can Handle....

One of me is a handful.... How about 5 of me?! I got an email a few days ago from Photojojo! in regards to cloning yourself in photos and I just had to try it. So, without much (or any) real thought into it, I set up my camera on the tripod and ran around my room, posing in different positions before the 10 second self timer went off! Then, after collecting a number of shots, I imported them into Photoshop and got to work layering, erasing, layering, erasing..... To see the tutorial that I followed, click here.

I cannot wait to do this again with more elaborate poses and interesting subject/background - this was just fun to see if I could do it. And I did! :)

Note: if you are going to try this, do it in a place that the light will remain the same. Duh, right.... Well, I chose my living room... At 7pm.... Which happened to be when the sun was setting, so my light and colors from the first pics were quite different from the last (which is why the pic of me standing, talking on the phone is a little dark compared to the rest).

You've gotta love a baby....

The world just seems like a better place when you watch a precious little baby sleeping..... Thank-you to our friends Ila and Ryan for letting me "play" with their adorable little baby Henry yesterday. He is not quite a month old and was such a sweet little model! :) I can't wait to take more pics of him as he gets older - maybe next time we can get his big brothers in there with him too!

The Conservatory at the Mendel

 Flowers, greenery, humidity.... Oh my.... I  cannot wait for summer, or spring.... Or just a lot less snow!! I was informed by a very wise 6-year-old this morning that Spring doesn't start until March 20th, so I guess I have a few days to go. :) In the meantime, my little Lily-bean and I took a trip to the Mendel Art Gallery and Conservatory and took pictures of their lovely flowers and plants. Being in the conservatory was like being in a tiny little piece of summer heaven... :)

Some people don't like lens flares.... I am not one of them!

I gave Lily her own camera, so she took some great pics as well. After about half an hour, so was bored though.... :)

Fun times... I think I am going to have some future photographers on my hands (Owen loves it too)! :) Thanks for looking!

Love, Marriage, Baby

I saw this idea on Pinterest and just had to do it! I took my pics, then in Picasa added text. I think this is such a sweet idea.

The Biology Building @ the U of S

 Last week at my class, our prof had a few stations set up in class so that we could play with lighting, etc., but the building that our class is in is connected to the Biology Building on the U of S campus and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to photograph the subjects down there. It was evening, so there were nice shadows to work with. Here are some of  my results.

I LOVE waterfalls! Even teeny-weenie ones. :) I didn't have my tripod with me, so for this shot, I leaned up against a pillar and stayed as still as possible with my shutter open for 1sec. I will try it again with a tripod, but all-in-all, nit bad for a handheld shot.

I like the looks of the bones, but to give them some artistic edge, in Picasa, I added the "Cinamascope" effect. Makes them look even older than they are (and yellows the pic a bit).

 

The most fun part of this evening was playing with perspectives. Taking pictures from different angles, or focusing on something that may not have been considered the focal point of an object was my goal.

Playing with a 1second shutter speed, I zoomed back after pressing the shutter which left these cool light lines.