Mother/Son Endeavors: Photography

This past weekend, the Turtle Clan drove four hours north to visit my little brother and his family. Having two small and very active little boys meant finding an activity that would expend some of that energy. We headed to the lake.

While Baby Girl Precious Preteen and The Man Beast were wading in the water, The Boy and I played around on the beach with various objects and my iPhone.

The Boy grew animated in a way I had not seen for quite some time as he started talking about things he might want to do after high school. His interests are many, but they are all in the arts. For example, he loves to draw and as such, spends all of his spare time drawing. He's tech savvy like his father, and enjoys drawing on the computer, composing music and animating. His latest interest, it would seem, is photography.

So he and I played around a bit. I tried to convince him to ask for a camera for his birthday/Christmas but he refused. "I really want a new computer," he says. Spoken like a true computer geek.

With the exception of the first picture, The Boy meticulously and painstakingly set up every shot, attempting to get everything "perfect". Nothing is by accident; even the placement of the sand is purposeful!

Backyard leaf

Beach find

Mom's Toes

Mom's Toes, again

Mom's toes, again...

Mom's Toes, again!

Another Beach Find

The Boy's Toes

Rock in the sand

Enough with the toes already, Mom!

This post may contain affiliate links.

First Day of School

I realize the irony that it is actually going on the sixth week of school and I'm just getting First Day of School photos uploaded. Look at it this way - at least it's the current year. I'm doing better.

Pictures, Pictures Everywhere!

Well, soon.

I do have pictures to add that I plan on adding on Monday (after all, what else am I going to do? Sleep in? Spend time with the family? YES! But I'll spare a few minutes to add some pictures).

Baby Gurl's birthday was yesterday. She is now 7. I took some pictures of her opening up Granddad's presents (she loves them) but we're also going bowling, so I'll be sure to take pictures then, too. And I'll post them.

I have pictures of all of us (including the Man Beast and me) on the first day of school. I must upload those as well. I might actually get to those today, but first, I need to get off this machine and turn a few to dos into some ta das:

• Laundry
• Saturday Chores
• Get the oil in the car changed
• Get Baby Gurl's ears pierced (she's been asking for over a year - it's time. Yes, I'll be the dorky mom that brings a camera and takes a picture!)
• Grocery Shopping
• Prepare for tomorrow's Sunday School Lesson (tomorrow will be my first time teaching this group - pray HARD)

And with that...I must go.

Until next time...

I Got Sidetracked This Morning

It's so easy to do, actually. You begin your day with a mug of coffee and then sit down to check your email. You notice that you have a comment on your blog, so you check it out. While you're there, you check out that person's blog. Since you're checking blogs, you check your other friend's blogs. Then you get caught up in reading comments.

Ah, the comments. This is where the gravy truly lies in a blog. This is where your blog goes beyond you and becomes so much more.

And this is where I get distracted.

I was on a friend's photo blog, checking out her-world-in-pictures. I go to comment and notice that a friend of hers (who also has a photo blog) has fixed a picture for her. Wasn't that sweet? What's really sweet is that her friend did it online - for free! (Yes, she did it for her friend for free, but the photo editing program she used was free online)

So, of course I had to go check it out: Picnik

This program was made for people like me -- people who can't take pictures and whose photos are in serious need of editing. (Okay, so, people who do take really good pictures can use this, too. But for those of us who haven't quite figured out Paint Shop Pro, this program is for us.)

I was able -- without registering -- to use one of their photos to play and upload it to my Picasa Web Album (or Facebook, Photobucket, Flickr, MySpace...) for free.

The fact that they offer such a great service is awesome. The fact that they offer it for free - more awesome-er.

Just check out what I did with one of their photos:

Before:


After:


Pretty nifty, huh? I played around with every setting I could find, but I eventually settled for this - crop, tilt, colored only the face of the clock and left everything else black and white and then added text.

Thanks to picnik, I can look like a photo genius.