Not completely wordless, but close.
Looking over at my little one makes me think of how great it is to be a kid. When all it takes are little things like a pink hat or animal print sneakers to make you smile, to make you happy, to make you love life! There is no confusion, fuss, chaos, stress, worry, responsibility. Just SIMPLICITY! I wish it could always be like this for her.
You know when my bloggy life changed? The day I realized I should be using html to insert my images into posts.
I was having some major issues with the insertion of images into my posts. Whether I used my hosting server (Blogger) or blogging tool (Windows Live Writer), the image quality always suffered. It used to drive me absolutely bonkers! There is nothing worse than spending the time to process a beautiful image just to have it be compressed during insertion. The scary thing? I was even resizing my images and saving them as maximum quality .jpgs thinking it would make a difference! You would think resizing them would negate the servers necessity to decrease the image file. Unfortunately this is not the case and they were still being compressed. Do you know what happens to an image during compression? Pixellization (I promise, it’s a word). In a larger image, the pixels are difficult to see since there are more of them and they are smaller. With compression, you start to lose pixels and they become larger (and more visible). This usually results in a block type appearance which can be confused as an out of focus image. And let’s face it, there is nothing worse than a blurry/fuzzy image especially when your subject is a person. Is it too much to ask that my blog readers see the beautiful, crisp, un-pixelated (okay, I’m not sure if this one’s a word) images I see in my photo editing software? I don’t think so.
Are you looking for a quick and easy way to make eyes in your images pop? If so, I have a great video tutorial for you today!
Duration: 11 minutes
Software: Photoshop CS6
Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Touches on the following topics:
- duplicating layers
- dodge/burn tool
- layer opacity changes
- using filters (unsharp mask)
- creating layer masks
- inverting masks (to reveal effects)
- brush tool (using white to reveal)
As I sit here typing this post, my little one is using the Talking Tomcat 2 phone application. For those that aren’t familiar with this application, it is a freaking riot! It allows you to talk to an animated cat that will repeat everything you say in a munchkin type voice. I think my tot thinks she’s having a two sided conversation with it when all it’s really doing is just copying her. She keeps telling it everything she is doing. As funny as the application is, though, I wouldn’t recommend it to children of all ages.
With the touch of a button you can make a dog come into the room and, how can I say this nicely, release gas as the poor cat rolls his eyes and grabs his nose in disgust. If that’s not enough, it also promotes some serious violence. You can tap him on different parts of his body like you are hitting him. Sometimes, depending on how hard you tap the screen, he can be knocked out. Other buttons include having a dog hit the cat with a pillow and smashing a cake in his face! With all that said, this is NOT one of the applications I am recommending to the younger kiddies but for the older ones and adults out there that could use a laugh, you’ve got to download this immediately!
No problem. Since I’m always creating storyboards/collages for my readers, I thought it would be fun to share my knowledge so that you can create your very own! It’s actually pretty simple. My recommendations for viewing this video tutorial at its maximum quality are:
1. Make sure the volume is up on the video.
2. Make sure the volume is up on your computer.
3. Change the viewing quality to 720p HD (the first button/icon on the bottom right side of the video).
4. Use the large player on YouTube (the fourth button/icon on the bottom right side of the video). Viewing at full screen tends to look a little blurry/fuzzy.
I was doing the laundry the other day and Livi happened to spot a hat on the shelf above my washing machine and dryer. It was a hat shaped like a birthday cake with one candle sticking out of the top and read “fun to be 1”. Yeah, I had bought this for Livi’s first birthday. Of course, then, it was a tad BIG for her little noggin so she wasn’t really able to wear it. Now at the age of 2 1/2, it fits perfectly. Not even tight either. She absolutely loved it! When I tell you I couldn’t get her to take that hat off, that would be putting it mildly. She didn’t even want me to touch it. It didn’t matter if she had it on backwards or not. She walked around the house singing birthday songs, telling me it was her birthday, and that we were going to a party! That hat entertained her for the entire day. I’m lucky I got it off before I put her down for the night.
I’ve been away from my blog for so long I feel like I could easily write a book. A lot has been going on. Good things. Not so good things. Photography and blogging were put on the back burner. Every time I’d look at my camera collecting dust on the floor, I’d wonder if I still remembered how to take a picture. The thought was a little depressing. Just when I was starting to improve and feel comfortable with photographing, I had chose to put it aside. I’d like to say I had no choice so I wouldn’t feel so guilty about it, but it wouldn’t be true. I had to prioritize and let’s just say it fell to the bottom of the list. Along with blogging unfortunately. Without the two, I’ve been feeling a little lost. Don’t get me wrong, the break has been rather nice too. I know confusing right? I don’t get myself sometimes. My hiatus, though, gave me more time to confirm, yet again, that I am definitely not an extremist. Never have been. It may work for some people, just not me. I wasn’t happy dedicating every spare minute I had to photography and blogging, and I wasn’t happy removing these things completely from my life either. Yeah, I’m more of the happy medium type.
I can’t believe it’s that time again! That time to post your quarterly favorites for July, August, and September! This is such an incredibly difficult task for me. Fun, but difficult! I have so many favorites it’s hard to narrow it down to only five especially when it comes to my baby! Okay, so here I go…
Sorry I haven’t been posting as much! There have been BIG things happening over here! Hopefully I can share some of them with you after the dust settles a little!
In the meantime, I thought I’d share a few pictures. The hubby and I took Alivia to the fair this past weekend! Despite the horrific stand still traffic, 3 1/2 hour car ride, crowded fair grounds, and cranky over tired children (Alivia and her friend Mackenzie), we had a good time! It’s amazing how expensive one day out can be! They really soak you at these fairs. Between admission tickets, carnival ride tickets, parking, food, etc., we have barely anything left in our pockets! The poor hubby’s going to have to do an overtime just to make up for the money we spent! No, I’m just kiddin’ sort of.
I watched this you tube video the other day about 5 edits made to every photo. It was quite informative. I love to learn how others are processing their photos. It made me think of the 5 things I do to every photo I process. I thought I’d share them here with you today (okay so I’ve shared six)! Maybe we have common editing styles? If not, maybe you can learn from me and me from you? What do you say?
I’d love to hear your editing recipes! Or maybe the one thing you can’t live without doing to every photo?
My editing process below is based on images of people.
I took some pictures of Alivia on Friday night and as I was checking the play back feature on my camera I noticed they were a little under exposed. I had forgotten that I set my ISO to a maximum of 800 which means that even if the ISO needed to be increased to create proper exposure, it wouldn’t. Although I had adjusted the ISO for the remainder of my images that night, I was disappointed thinking the images I had taken of her already would require more editing time that I actually had.
I’ve been using a pretty awesome action from Paint the Moon to brighten eyes in my photos but have since found a great little tutorial online to create the effect myself. Of course, wouldn’t you know, I can’t find it. I could have sworn that I pinned it to a board on my Pinterest page but apparently not so much. Thinking back, I don’t think I pinned it because it was so easy for me to remember. If I’d a known I was going to do a post on it, I would have saved it especially so that I could give credit.
Have you ever felt like something was missing from your life? Well, it could just be one of the links below. Hence my post title! You may ask yourself "Is she serious"? Well the answer is "No, I'm definitely NOT serious”. I'm just feeling silly. Seriously though, I thought I'd share some of my favorite links with you in an effort to spread the love. What's better is that I thought I'd make this post a weekly thang! No that isn't a typo. I told you I was feeling silly. So the links below may not complete your life, but I'm hoping they, in some way, add to it. I separated them into categories for easy navigation. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! I had quite an eventful one! The hubby and I took Alivia to York’s Wild Kingdom in York, ME with her Auntie Nancy, Uncle Erik, and friend Mackenzie on Saturday, Auntie Gina’s on Sunday, and Nana’s on Monday! By Monday afternoon, Livi* was asking for nothing more than to go home. I’ve noticed that as much as Livi enjoys getting out of the house and socializing that she gets over stimulated after awhile and wants to be left alone. Oh the tribulations of being an only child! Poor baby! I don’t blame her though, her mama is the same way! With that said, we took her home and she relaxed with Daddy for the rest of the day while I went to the mall with my mom and started Livi’s Fall shopping! I say started because I still have shoes, outwear, and some hair accessories to purchase. Lucky for me I love shopping (I sort of have a serious shopping problem addiction) or I might find this to be overwhelming!
Have you ever felt like something was missing from your life? Well, it could just be one of the links below. Hence my post title! You may ask yourself "Is she serious"? Well the answer is "No, I'm definitely NOT serious”. I'm just feeling silly. Seriously though, I thought I'd share some of my favorite links with you in an effort to spread the love. What's better is that I thought I'd make this post a weekly thang! No that isn't a typo. I told you I was feeling silly. So the links below may not complete your life, but I'm hoping they, in some way, add to it. I separated them into categories for easy navigation. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
Since I got a new laptop I also made the switch from Photoshop Elements (PSE) to Photoshop CS6 (PS). I was a little hesitant to make the transition because 1) Photoshop was very expensive and 2) I’d grown to love some actions that I had purchased strictly for PSE. Actions that I hadn’t yet learned how to create manually. I recently repurchased them on Paint the Moon and am so happy I did. They work so much better in PS (or I think so anyway). Not to mention the action selection has changed since I last purchased them and the bundles included actions like remove color cast and remove the wonky colors (love that word “wonky”)! Today, I thought I’d share some before and after images. I like to do this every now and then as I know it can be useful (or fun at the very least) to see how others are editing their images.
I am so excited today! It’s amazing how one little post can do that to me!
I’ve been extra cautious lately about protecting my images. I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about watermarking your images so that people can not steal your photos. Apparently stealing has become too much of a common occurrence! Although I’ve been watermarking for quite some time, I wasn’t watermarking my photos in the ideal place. I would always place my watermarks in the corner of an image so that it wouldn’t be a distraction to the subject. Nothing was worse to me than having a gorgeous picture with a logo/text across it! Now, however, I am watermarking right where I think it will be most difficult to crop out. In addition to changing the location of my watermark, I’ve looked into disabling a photo so that it can not be copied. I was lucky to come across this particular post over at Build a Better Blog! It’s crazy to think that all it takes is a little HTML code to rock my world! I realize that computer hackers can get around my little code, but at least I’m making it more difficult for them! Go me!
I hope you will consider protecting your images too!
I’m going to share a little secret with you, well for all the MacBook users out there! Apparently there is some type of glitch in the system that removes your desktop background every time you restart/shut down and log back onto your computer. I was a little disappointed to say the least especially seeing as I just bought the new MacBook Pro Retina and wanted to personalize my desktop with a picture of my baby girl! You figure you pay that much money for something that a simple thing like being able to customize your desktop background should work! After trying many different things to resolve the issue with Apple Support on the phone, something finally ended up working! So here’s the fix:
