Isn't She Lovely?

This is Rachel. And I just LOVE her. This is no exaggeration... she's one of my closest buddies whose relationship we've actually cultivated online.

I have been having a very difficult time this summer dealing with miscarriage, exhaustion and loneliness... Rachel helped me through this. All the way from Ohio, she made sure I was taken care of with a massive and scrumptious ice cream sundae delivered via Alynn (what a night! Best surprise EVER!!!!)

We all have been inspired by Rach in our photography, but more than that, Rachel has inspired me to listen more closely to my heart and the Spirit. To be a better friend. To value those who truly lift us up. I cannot express how grateful I am to her and for her friendship.

Rachel, you're one of the very best out there and I look forward to many more years of great conversations and fun with you!!!

I'm Cyber-Hugging you.... and you can't breathe very well.... cuz I've got really really strong arms....

ps. don't you dare not like this picture... I know I shoulda/woulda/coulda got consent... but this is what I love about you... your laughter!

Caution! Monkey!

I'm baaaaaaaack (creepy little kid voice)
Sorry, this summer has been nuts (especially now that we've been trying to jam everything we've wanted to do into the last few days!) We went to the Zoo and this little nugget was staring me down.... we were gonna fight, but I decided to exploit him on this challenge instead.

CAUTION, not all monkey's are Curious George... some are Leering Leo's. Back off my grill, Leo!

'Till I'm Blue in the Face...

We've got BLUE,

Yes we DO!
We've got BLUE,
How 'bout YOU?!

I'm sorry for being a total PUNK lately and not posting anything at all (I HATE not commenting... makes me feel icky inside... I donotlikeit, Sam-I-am). I'm recommitting right now!

ps. this is our track... just like stating the obvious!

Tuesday Tutorial-- Composition?

I titled this post "COMPOSITION?" because I really don't know what that means... so I'm hoping one or two of you can comment and tell me if I'm WAY OFF BASE here.

Instead of doing any sort of TUTORIAL-- I wanted to "wave my freak flag" all around and tell you what I've learned FROM YOU-- but in my own terms. Here goes Nuttin'.

As a newbie picture-taker, I've never heard of a lot of these new-fangled, snazzy terms like "bokeh" and "framing". (please, refrain from laughing till the end of the post). But here's MY take on some of the things I've learned from all of you "big-kid photographers".

FRAMING

This one seems pretty self-explainatory, but sort of changed my world when I saw it in action.
For instance, on our last challenge the picture "Summer Sunset" (haven't revealed the photographer on this one yet) but I LOVED the way that photo was FRAMED.


(sorry, these are all pictures I chose from my vacation last year to France-- everything else was... well, either bland or you've seen them all in the challenges!)

RULE OF THIRDS

I know this is basic Photography for Big-Fat-Tards 101 here, but I love that people have mentioned this one. It's basic-- yet essential. Like that LBD (that's short for "Little Black Dress", Blake, alright? Got it?)

"The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections."

Thank you, Mr. Wik E. Pedia.

(I made Hubs do way too many of these OSOM 'optical illusion' pictures. Let me just tell you, he was NOT a willing participant. It was like pulling teeth.)

Um. Not sure this one really fits into this catergory.
But I figured I took A LOT of time doing those dang lines...

Changing Perspective

It ain't too hard to change the perspective... why, OH WHY, do I always think people wanna see everything from a stubby 5' 3" straight-on angle??? Well, that's no longer the case... I kneel, stand on things, lay down and climb a ga-BILLION stairs to get a new Perspective on life. Refreshing.

I just wanted to throw in my Optical Illusion Artwork...
no one appreciates good old fashioned "holdingtheEiffelTowerinmyhand" art anymore.
It's a pity.
Does he look slightly disgusted to you? Or just peeved? Ashamed. That's what it is. Shame for his loser wife.

Counter Balance

Okay, this was new (and slightly advanced for my brain to wrap around) but here goes. In THIS GEM of a reference, Brandon, one of the tutorial authors, says about Counter Balance, "Position your subject in the camera veiwer to arrange the shapes in the scene to either harmonize or contrast with the rectangular frame".
I THINK it means...

all these lines make cool photos?


or maybe it means, if you crudely draw lines all over your picture, you look more professional?

ps. I decided I should never become a surgeon. I just barely decided that.
Just look at those crazy lines.

Visual Walkabout

I think it was Dave who mentioned "S curves" to add glimmer to a picture-- I loved that. I now LOOK for awesome curves to take pictures of!

Have you seen the movie "Australia" with Hunky Hugh? Well, they talk about the boy going on his "walkabout" to become a Man.
Well, after these Visual Walkabouts... dontcha just feel more mature and wise?

no?


oh.

Ok.

Well, thanks for humoring me anyway.

Sweet Land of Liberty...

The Veterans of our Country.
God Bless.

S'mores!!

"You're killing me Smalls! These are s'more's stuff! Alrite now pay attention. First you take the graham, you stick the chocolate on the graham. Then you roast the 'mallow. When the 'mallows flaming... you stick it on the chocolate. Then cover with the other end. Then you scarf. Kind of messy, but good"-- Ham Porter; Sandlot

Au Natural, Baby

I WAS going to snap a picture of my (not-so-silky-smooth) legs for this challenge (oh how I LOVE euphemisms). But Hubs slowly shook his head no and told me that would be inappropriate. And a little embarrassing (for me, of course). And not to mention gross. I think he even shuddered. Real nice, Mr. Wilson, real nice. So I settled on the next best thing... my stash of never-seen-the-light-of-day crappy disposable razors. While I snapped away, Hubs wondered aloud, "Why do you even buy razors in bulk?"

Hey, I (sort of) resent that! I claim my "Asian-ocity" allows for me to do minimal maintenance.

and I'm stickin' to it.

ps. I'm sorry for punkin' out on last challenge... i was having "a day".

Spin Cycle

So, I couldn't achieve "greatness" with the lighting and the shadows in our little closet that holds our washer/dryer but after some FUNK-IFICATION you can see the "circulation nation" going on in the washer. Yeah, stretching this one!

signin'

ARG. So Blake gave me this AWESOME idea... but in the hub-bub of things today, I didn't find any spare time to go out and take the shot I wanted.... and trust me, it was gonna be GOOD.

But yesterday (pre-hub-bub) I took some shots of Ava signing "More" and "Please"... yes, I know that we already have an ASL pic up but this is ALL I GOT... dang.

This shot was taken after a BIG handful of chocolate chip bribery. Can't go signing "MO?" and "Pweeze" for nuttin', huh AvaLou?

An Infinite Amount of A's

Well, not "INFINITE" amount... but a lot nonetheless!
Looka all dem A's, baby

Sweet tenderness

My emotions run pretty high when I see these two playing together. I'm not sure how well this FITS the challenge, but I really liked how you can't SEE any emotion... but if can imagine your loved ones or even yourself in this photo... this should invoke some tender emotions in you. (if not, you've got a stone cold heart of a ruthless soul!! hahah just messin!)

The Hubs

This is Taylor. He's fabulous. I'm lucky to have this guy for my very own. I love the tar outta him! I especially love those "happy-smile-eyes". If you want to see WHY he's such a Happy Boy in this photo: here's a link to my bloggy-blog of what we did today...

Sweet Kiss

I'm a non-shy lame-O. Here's why. While walking about, trying to find something SWEET... I found these two. A cute couple on a walk, holding hands and smiling- it was irresistibly sweet! So I wandered over, introduced myself and told them I'm not a creep, just wanting to get a shot of something SWEET. We had a laugh, but they happy to help me out. I asked them to kiss, hold hands and do some gazing-deep-into-each-other's-eyes. I had fun.

I think they did too.

one MORE year!

I was Thrilled about today's challenge word! We threw Ava's 2nd Birthday Pool Party Bonanza today and I was SURE it would be full of MORE, MORE, MORE situations.... and I was right! More ice cream, More cupcakes, More presents, More FUN- I was in "MORE-Utopia"!!!

But this was the picture I decided on... just the simple cake shot (with WAY MORE candles than a two year old requires). This little personal cake for Ava-Lou was "more" than she wanted, only a couple of dainty-ish bites taken out- but then again, she was probably full from the three candles she ate. Completely. Gobbled. Down.

all KEYED up

**SIGH**

I'll admit. I cheated. Totally and utterly cheated. I had a word in mind (rough) since I didn't post a picture for that word and also because I had something in mind. Well, my ideas were better (much better) than the reality, so I sat at the computer feeling sad and dejected.... just hours away from deadline. What, oh WHAT, was I to do???? I really wanted to do something I had previously missed out on... so as I STARED at my computer, pressing the "Question Mark" key over and over again... it dawned on me. KEY!! I enhanced the "?" mark because that's the one that inspired me. HA!

Fluid Motion

Everybody has done amazing water shots and I just couldn't figure out the buttons and doo-hickeys on my brand new camera (you read that right, folks, BRAND SPANKIN' NEW clicker!!! happy jigs all round!) anywhoo... I have yet to fine-tune my settings to make water look awesome-possum so I opted for another element.
FI-YAHHHH... (that's "fire" in a weird accent... don't tell me you don't know what I'm talking about). I used my Fireworks setting (sigh, I love that I have SETTINGS now) and holed myself in the bathroom all morning to get some crazy shots. Then I Boosted and Define/Sharpened it.

Weather's-a-Changin'

Melinda and I sort of had the same train-O-thought here on this one... but NOT being from beautiful Wisconsin, we Idahoans have ANOTHER definition of "season change". Holla if you hear me on this one, fellow photogs, if you don't like the weather here in southeast Idaho... just wait 5 minutes and you'll get whole other picture!

This picture was taken out in the fields past the temple. It was a beautiful/crappy day... five minutes on, five minutes off... you get it. I used the dodge/burn tool to darken parts of the clouds to really enhance their OMINOUS nature, added a border and boosted the whole thing in the end.

We Be Balancin'

Here's our uber-talented buddy, Mr. Hurst, pulling some hat tricks out of his.... well, hat? I had a blast shooting Riley. He's a good sport.
I played around with some sexy actions (oh sweet Actions, how I love thee). SuperHappyFun, Dirtbag, Troy and Boost were all included (say that five times fast... superhappyfundirtbagtroyboost... whew!)

Burn Baby Burn

Today is COLD outside... so the whole "HOT" theme was escaping me. Until Hubs wanted to grill up some dogs. HELL-O inspiration! I Boosted and Defined/Sharpened from PW's actions. I also burned off all my knuckle hair getting this shot. Not that I had hairy hands to begin with... um... awkward.

Some Sage Advice

A wise woman once said, "Katy, get your bottom inside that house RIGHT NOW and put some sunscreen on this instant".

Thanks, Mom.

But now, turns out I'm a little bit of a SPF-aholic. My sweet Hubs (whom I lovingly call Pale-Face) thinks it's crazy for a dark-skinned Asian to be so concerned about sun damage... but like I always say, "Tis far, far better to have a face.... than NOT to have a face at all". Ok, I really don't always say that, but I should.

Honestly, I'm not too proud of this picture. It's cloudy out today (surprise, surprise) so my "genius" ideas are all miffed by our finicky Idaho weather. Yesterday, I walked around parks and stores to hopefully stumble upon a Wise Old Indian Woman or an Owl or maybe if I'm really lucky an Elephant who is wise beyond its years. Turns out Elephants don't frequent the Rexburg Wal-Mart like I think they ought to. O Well! Happy Sunday