Pee pee. Kindergarten. And Dance Class.

Yo.
Wassup.
What's crack-a-lackin?

My day today involved taking dry clothes to the school because a little 4 year old who I know quite well peed herself.
Twice.

This Kindergarten crap is stressful for her.
And me.
This little girl cried when I left.
And it took every little piece of my willpower to NOT scoop her up and steal her from the school....forever.

I am not dealing with this incredibly huge transition period very well.
And knowing that she is nervous/shy makes me question every single minute of parenting she has had in her short life.
Did I screw her up?
Has my fear and sadness over this full time school crap been so obvious that she is now fearing it herself?
Did I coddle her too much?
Ugh.

We will adjust.
Just as we have, to every other challenge thrown our way.
And, there is always Monday evenings to look forward to.

Dance class.


Photo Tip of the Week
-capture the "little things".  The subject's face doesn't always have to be in the photo.  I love her belly.......so I captured it.  I am so happy I did.  

Sweet Shot Tuesday

 

The Rule of Thirds

I am the first to admit that my photography skills are those of an amateur.
Actually a beginner amateur if that is even such a thing.
I have taken one course that told me how to use the controls on my DSLR, but I forgot everything the guy taught us.
I am a "hands on" learner and learn while playing around, rather than sitting in a classroom listening to a know-it-all tell us everything he has learned over 40+ years.

One thing that I learned on my own is the Rule of Thirds.  Honest to goodness, no one ever taught this to me.  I just took pictures and preferred the "look" over anything else.

Basically, you imagine a 9 square grid when taking your photograph.  Sometimes you can even display it on your camera but don't ask me how.
I am an amateur, remember?
Ahem.

Source

When taking your photograph you want the main "subject" to be positioned in a third of the photo or on the intersection points.
It could be the top/middle or bottom third.
Or the right/middle or left third.

Make sense?
It kinda looks like this.

Princess was the subject/focus of this photo.
I aligned her in the right third of the grid along the intersection points in my head as I snapped the picture.
If she was smack dab in the center of the photograph, it just wouldn't grab your attention.
It would just look like a "blob" in the center of the picture without telling a story, expressing an emotion or grabbing your attention.

I could give you the technical lingo about lighting and how the human eye is somehow drawn to the intersection points.....blah blah blah

....but I am not a technical kind of gal.
I like what looks good.
That's it.

Here are some other examples.

Once again the subject is in the right third along the intersection points.
I like the right side.
It just looks the best to me, but that doesnt mean it is for everyone.

And then this one....on the left side.
Maybe I like the left side .
I have never been good at making decisions.

Right side

Left side

Sometimes I change it up and place the subject/focus of my photograph in the top or bottom half of the picture just for shits and giggles.
It's fun.
Maybe even the middle.
Try it out.
That is the fun in photography.
Go with the flow.
Learn as you go.
And you will quickly learn what looks good...
...and not so good.

Try out The Rule of Thirds and get back to me.
Post your photos on my blog facebook page.
Then I can post them here for others to see.
It will be fun.

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The importance of cropping and editing your pictures

OK.  Lets just get to the point.
I cannot stand busy photos.If you want a photograph of your child's messy face, than get a picture of their messy face.  Not of the dusty coffee table and magazines in the background.
It is just noise that makes the memory unmemorable.
Make sense?

When people take pictures, it is because they experience a moment that creates some sort of emotion and they want to remember it forever.
But then they do nothing else with that emotion/memory and all is lost in a crappy picture.

This is where editing comes in.
Please, please, please spend some money on a simple editing program.  Please.
Pretty please.
I have Photoshop and Lightroom.
But I use this one 99.9% of the time because it is so much easier and faster.

And I edit every single photograph that I save for my photo albums/blog/frames/facebook.
Let me show you a few examples.

SOOC {straight out of camera}

Edited


That took approximately 5.2 seconds of my life and I am so much happier with it.  Sure, it isn't really a photo that stirred up an emotion but I just wanted to show you how a bit of cropping and colour enhancement changes the entire look of a picture.

Moving on......

SOOC

A photograph of myself and my boys all looking at the camera is a huge accomplishment but I don't really want to remember the coats beside us and I would love a closer view of our beautiful faces because that is what the picture is all about right?
Ahem.

Edited

Looking at this picture makes me smile.And cry.{look at my wrinkles}

And then there is this......

SOOC

An OK picture taken on our walk recently, but there is so much more that can be done to it to make it better.  You can brighten up the colours, crop some of the busy-ness out, sharpen it up to see more details.  But right now it just looks dull. 
Blech.

Edited

My main concern was the sign because, my eyes automatically focused on it and that makes me sad.  I edited it out, cropped it and changed to a simple black and white pic.  Just like that, it becomes a completely different picture and one that I actually like instead of delete.

Editing is excellent.

SOOC

This picture is the perfect example of editing to create emotion and freeze a moment I want to remember.
My big boy was taking a quiet moment with his thoughts.  He wasn't paying attention to his brother howling like a wolf or his sister whining because she had to wear pants.  He was just one with himself looking over the bridge and I loved watching it.  So I snapped.  And then edited.

Edited

And just like that, I have the moment saved, the emotion remembered.

And a happy Momma.

How to Take a Good Picture of a Cow

Yes, you read that right.
The famdamily went to a country fair this weekend and I learned another lil' thing about myself.
I enjoy cows.
Bulls.
Anything bovine.
I think I took about 72 pictures and 65 of them were of cows.
I am sure the cow people thought I was odd, but that's OK because everyone else does.
I knelt down in manure.
Stepped in manure.
Made funny noises to get their attention.
And I showed them some love.
That is all they want. Just a little bit of lovin will get you far with a cow.Think outside of the box. Stall. Whatever. You don't always have to take a picture of your subject's face to capture an interesting picture.
DO NOT piss off your subject because they could give you the evil eye, break free from their rope and stomp on you. Safety first people.
Capture what catches your attention. I liked the "hairdo" on this beauty and felt the need to snap away just because. In the end, I captured what I wanted to and it made me happy.  And, afterwards I realized that I snapped a photograph that sets off an emotion. Capturing an emotion is my number one goal when I photograph anything.
Capturing an emotion makes Momma happy.
Do whatever it takes to get your subject interested. If you succeed, you cant go wrong.
Composition. Focus. I didn't want a picture of the farmer dude eating poutine or the many other bovine bums close by. I wanted a picture of this beauty and that is all. So many people screw up photographs by capturing "stuff" that has no value to the picture. Know what you want and then snap away or don't snap at all. Or at least know how to edit so you can eventually end up with a half decent photo.
Same goes for this one.  When you look at this photograph there is no doubt in what is in it.  Your eye immediately goes to this big...very big animal.  There aren't people, piles of poop, food platters or anything else to take your eye away from the subject.
I wanted a picture of him and him only.  So that is what I got.
Sometimes a moment happens when you least expect it. Like this one. A moment that is full of emotion is what I love to capture. Just because.

Love Momma

Preserving Your Precious Memories

OK...I had this brilliant idea back in the fall to get all of you to do something with your pictures.
Then life got in the way.
And I forgot.
So sue me.

Like I said, there is nothing worse than people taking fabulous pictures of cherished moments and never doing anything with them.

They take the pictures.
Then lose their photo card.
Or delete them.
Or upload them to their computer only to have their computer die and the memories destroyed with it.

It makes me want to drink.
So does listening to my kids argue.

But anyways, we left off at uploading your pictures from your camera to your computer.  I forgot to tell you that you could upload these pictures right into a photo editing program on your computer but if you have an editing program, you probably already knew that.

Please tell me you have gotten that far.
You have uploaded them and saved them into a special file titled "whateveryouwanttonameyourfile"
Right?

Now, if you have a photo editing program you need to transfer these pictures from your file into your program.

I use Memory Manager. Because it is easy, fast, cheap and...well....what other reason do you need?
I tried Photoshop and learned that I need to go back to school to figure it out, so I stuck to MM and it is working for me.

You can also use Picnik. It is free...or you can pay a yearly fee to do more advanced editing.

Move the pictures you want to your editing program and go nuts.
The most important editing feature is cropping.
This is where you remove all of the unwanted stuff in your picture so it allows you to just focus on the important parts....not Aunt Bertha in the background eating chips.

Change your pics to black and white or sepia.
Play around until you are happy with the changes you have made.
Make sure you save them.

And let me know when you're ready to go to the next step.

You Capture

Animals. One of my favourite subjects to photograph. If people would pay me $$$ to take pictures of animals, I just might think I won the lottery.

Well, almost.

If there is one thing I have learned while photographing creatures, it is to think "outside of the box". Sure, it is nice to have the posed picture of your pet's face, but the little details can be so much more fun.

When I think of Studley my dog, I think of his adorable wet nose, his grey beard and his floppy, velvety ears.
Not just his handsome, perfectly adorable, old dog face.

So now when I have the opportunity to capture the "stuff" I love so much, I make sure I change up my angle and click on the "little things" that I want to remember.

Like our 20 pound adorable, very fat bunny.  And her adorable body parts that I love so much.



Now click away my friends and see what you can capture.