A Christmas Baby

My friend and neighbor had a little boy about a week ago, I have really been wanting to practice taking pictures of babies so I asked her if she would mind if I shot a few of her new little one. I had big plans for some sleepy shots since newborns usually are sleepy and its hard to catch them with their eyes open. He had something else in mind, and it was a lucky thing because he has such amazing blue eyes. I didn't get to use all the fun props I brought over but I got some fun shots anyway.

Here is one of my favorites. I added a few embellishments to make it even more Christmas like. Talk about baby blues!

I did manage to get 1 sleepy shot. He is so alert for a week old baby I couldn't believe it:

This is what he was doing most of the time. I thought it was cute anyway:

This is what he wanted is Binky and blankey. So I just decided to go with it and take a few more of his beautiful eyes.

One more he was almost asleep, but anytime I got that camera anywhere near him he would pop those eyes open:



Another one almost asleep, but he just couldn't let go and close those eyes. His mom said he slept for 4 hours strait after the photo shoot. He must have wore himself out trying to stay awake.

One more:

I took Sydnie Christmas shopping at the outlet malls last week. I dressed her up cute for a photo shoot I had to do for a challenge called window shopping. I really loved the way these turned out I think I am going to frame one for my wall. However they are not doing well in the challenge, not because they are bad pictures but because I cropped too much of the window out and it is hard to tell she is window shopping. Oh well that's a mother for you, I just couldn't help cropping it down to what I thought was the best part of the picture.

This is the one I entered. I wish I could get her to smile she did when the camera wasn't pointed at her but whenever I pulled the camera out she would get mad. Poor girl is going to have a camera phobia because of her mother.

Titled:

All done shopping.

Here are a few more. I love them all despite her grumpy looks.

Here is another challenge entry for a challenge called "from the ground up" This didn't turn out quite as well as I had imagined it. But sort of interesting anyway. It is doing fairly well but not exceptional.

Title:

And we all float on

Here is one I took for fun it was sort of an ordinary photo until I played around with it a bit. I really like it now and I can't even explain why.

I woke up to a spectacular sunrise about a week ago here is one of many great shots of that sunrise I took. I may enter it for my free study, I haven't decided yet. At any rate it needs a bit more editing if I do.

More Textures

I have had fun playing with textures this month. It is fun to play with them I think I might use one of the shots below on our Christmas card. I like using textures but they are not allowed in the challenges I enter, so that is why you will never see a texture on any of my challenge entries.

The pictures below I shot for a challenge these didn't work out because the lighting was bad. They are perfect candidates for textures. They hide most of the imperfections and highlight the good parts of the photo you want to show.

This was at the end of the photo shoot and Sydnie was getting tired of posing, so she started to play with her hat. I think they are really fun shots of her.

The goal of these pictures was to try and get some cute shots of Sydnie holding Lu Lu. The lighting was bad so they ended up a little blurry, but you can't tell with the overlay.

This one I just liked because of her cute smile and her eyelashes.

This weeks challenge entries

This one is for a challenge called "Faces in Houshold Objects". It took me a while to figure something out but I finally pulled our Wii out and saw that the disk opening looked a little like a mouth, but what to use for eyes. I looked through the basket of Wii stuff and found the numb chucks, perfect! This one is doing pretty well, it is just above a 6 and any time I get above a 6 I am really happy. A low 6 means you have mass appeal and most people like your photo. High (like a 6.8) and you are in ribbon territory.

Title:

Wii see you!

This one is my Free Study entry for the month of November. Generally you save one of your best shots from the month and enter it in the Free Study. This is the one I chose. It is doing pretty well. Currently it is at a 6.2 and for a Free Study with over 260 entries that is really good. So I am happy I won't win a metal, but my score means I am on the right track as far as my photography and editing skills go.

Title:

A Tranquil Autumn Lake.

This one hasn't gone into scoring yet it is for a challenge called "Horizons" I had a hard time finding a day when the mountains would give me a good horizon. Finally early one morning I looked out my back window and saw the sun reflecting on the fog over the lake. I ran out in freezing weather but managed to get some pretty great shots. I am going to start to try and predict my scores this one I predict will score around a 6.4 or higher, part of the reason I think it will do so well is because of the low number of entries around 70, when there is less competition your score tends to be higher.

Title:

A Misty Morning Horizon

Here is another shot from that morning, I am not using it for a challenge but liked it anyway.

This one is for a challenge called "celebrating life" I took my girls and some of their friend sledding to take some pictures. They started sledding down the hill with just their coats and so I laid down on the hill and waited for them to go zooming by. I just love their faces in these. My girls were right behind them and you couldn't see their faces so I had to cut them out. This one is harder to predict because the photo quality isn't as good, but it has a lot of emotion so that will get me points. I am predicting 5.8 or higher, but I am hoping it will surprise me and get me above a 6.

Titled:

Who Needs a Sled?

It Snowed!!!

The snow came over this Thanksgiving weekend, and while it was miserable to drive in, it was fun to take pictures of.

This is my latest challenge entry. The challenge is called "Orange", I thought it would be fun to take a picture in the snow, I think the white of the snow sets off the Orange nicely. I still don't know what I am going to title it or which one of the two photo's I am going to use. I am leaning toward the first one, the challenge deadline is in a few hours I better hurry up and choose.

I had to take these while it was snowing so they have sort of a grainy look. I wish I could have taken one without the snow but it hasn't stopped once since I took this picture.

This next one is for a challenge called "Clouds" I really didn't think this one would do that well, but it has surprised me with a pretty high score so far. I won't make the top 10 but I should finish in the top 20. I saw this out my back window and walked out on my deck to take it. I thought it was fun how the cloud was sitting on the mountain.

titled:

"At the end of a long day, even a cloud needs a rest"

This next challenge entry is a bit weird, so it requires an explanation. This challenge was entitled "Posthumous" he is a photographer with a very abstract style. His work is mostly in black and white and almost always a bit blurry. We were suppose to copy his style. This is what I came up with. It's doing okay, its hard to copy another persons work, especially when its not your favorite type of photography. I much prefer crisp clear images, to abstract blurry images. I did have fun making this and I think it turned out sort of cool in its own way.

title:

"A snow angel takes flight"

This was a runner up for the cloud challenge. I really liked it. I had a hard time choosing, but in the end I think I made the right decision.

Textures

I have been playing around a lot with textures lately. I have learned a lot from other members of DPC. Here are a few of my favorites:

In other news:

I have been doing quite well with some of my challenge entries lately. My Off centered finished 10th out of 170 entries and my reflection entry finished 19th out of 150 entries. We will see if I can keep up the pace on my entries this week.

Landscapes

I am learning there is an art to each type of photography and those who are really into photographing landscapes are really particular about it. After failing miserably on my free study challenge entry for October, I decided I needed a little more practice taking and editing landscapes. There really is an art to it, and I had fun practicing some techniques I learned this week.

It also happened that two of my challenge entries involved landscapes this week I will start out with those.

This first picture is my entry for the "reflections without a mirror" challenge. I was nervous about entering it, especially after bombing on my last landscape entry. But one of my mentors on DPC assured me that it would do well, and so far it has. Not as well as some of my other shots have done, but well enough to encourage me to do more.

Title:

Sunset Reflections

This next one is also a challenge entry. It is doing really well. For awhile there I thought I was going to break my record and get the highest score I have received so far. But it has dropped a little in the last few days. Oh well, it is still doing really well, and I should get a top 10 out of it, and if I am really lucky there is still a chance for a ribbon or an honorable mention.

This challenge was called "off centered subject" I had an idea to have one of my girls trying to catch snow with their tongue but it just never snowed hard enough this week to try it. So I went with this instead. I really love her look in this one. In case you are wondering what she is looking at, it is the cows in a pasture next to us.

Title:

"Winter is Coming..."

This is the version I almost entered. I really liked it but you can really get knocked down for over processing and I chickened out at the last minute.

The next few, are ones I am thinking of entering for my November Free Study entry. In case you are wondering what Free Study is, it is once a month and you can enter any picture you want that you took that month. Everybody saves their best photo's for it and the competition is fierce. Those who win free studies are the really accomplished seasoned photographers. So I really don't have a chance at winning, but I would like to try and get a good score.

This one I took when I was taking the photo's of Sydnie in the field. The sun decided to peak out of the clouds and I got some really neat shots:

This is one I took when I was by the lake getting my reflection shots. I was walking along the lake and stumbled across this cool old structure. The clouds really were doing some cool things behind it, and I got some great shots.

Here is another from my photo shoot with Sydnie. I decided to take some pictures of the cows in the Field across from us. I like this one, but it really isn't my favorite of the three.

My sister and her family came for the weekend. They have not ever had a family portrait taken. Her husband is anti family portrait. My brother is requesting a family picture of everyone this year for Christmas. So she talked him into going outside our house just before they went to church to just take a family "snapshot" We were so rushed I only got a few shots. I had to merge a few to get a decent smile on everyone.

Snapshot or not I just couldn't live with that background. So I decided to use my editing skills and give them a little better background. I used one of the shots I took with Sydnie that had a blank background and merged them together. I thought it turned out kind of fun. Who needs to go on location anymore? You can just find a picture of your favorite background and stick yourself in it, sounds like a good idea to me.

On a side note the results came in on two previous challenges I entered. The triptych the one with my three girls merged together was disqualified, which was actually a lucky break for me since it wasn't doing well.

The Orange and Blue Complimentary colors did really well. I got 7th place out of 100 entries! That means I was on the front page with all the ribbon winners. It's been exciting doing so well in the last few challenges I have entered. I'm sure it won't last, so I will enjoy it while I can.

Challenges

I have been having a lot of fun taking photos and entering them in challenges on the website DPC. I have had some photo's that have not done very well and others that have done better than expected. Its a fun learning experience. You just have to learn to never get your hopes up too much and learn to have a thick skin when your photos score poorly.

I am excited to announce that this photo got an Honorable mention in a challenge that finished up last night. I didn't get a ribbon but I get a little star and by my photo. I finished 5th overall and got my best score so far on a challenge. I was just tenths of a point away from getting 4th or even 3rd. So the scoring was very close. If you want to check out my profile page here is the link:http://www.dpchallenge.com/profile.php If you want to have some fun and vote on some photo's, you can sign up for a free account on their website.

Title:
"Hidden Valley Ranch"

Homemade Landscapes

This next one is currently in scoring right now. But it is doing really well! I don't think I will win a ribbon with it but I think I might get in the top 10, which is a coveted spot because your picture appears on the front page with the winners. This challenge was called "complimentary colors" we could use any of the complimentary colors as the main subject in our photograph. For those of you who didn't take art class: complimentary colors are opposite of each other on the color wheel, Red/Green, Purple/Yellow or the one I chose Orange/Blue.

Title:

Orange and Oh! Those Blues.

This next one is another challenge I entered called "portrait tryptic". This mean you take a series of three photos and present them in a way that tells a story. I am not scoring well with it. I still like it, and it is very interesting to see my girls merged together like this. But there are a couple problems with it. First it doesn't necisarrily tell a story, I guess in a way it does but I could see how people wouldn't think so. Also, Sydnie would not smile with her mouth closed and the older girls looked bad smiling with their mouths open, so I just went with it. Also, the faces don't line up perfectly, but this has nothing to do with how I photographed it or edited it, its just that a 3 year olds anatomy is very different than a 6 or a 9 year old so there was no way to get them to line up.

Title:

"Three Sisters"

I have been trying to take some other pictures of just regular stuff, but it has been hard to keep up with that and my challenge entries. I did manage to get out and take a few pictures of the beautiful leaves we have had this fall. Here is my favorite:

Title:

"Holding Hands"

Here is a cute one I took of Kaylee at Dinosaur Park, I applied one of the fun free black and white filters I found online.


On the website DPC they also have little forums where you can post pictures that are not involved in challenges. Other people on the site look at your photos and comment on them. A forum I am currently involved in is called layered images. People share photo's they have applied textures or layers to. It has been fun and I have found a ton of new textures to use on my photos . Here are a couple the ones I have been working on.

Titled:

"At the Park"

Titled:

"Clocks"

My turn???

I really don't want to post pictures of myself but that is all I have to show for this last weeks picture taking. My photo challenges for DPC have been taking up all of my picture taking time, and this week happens to be a challenge on self portraits. I am trying to do something a little different. Sort of out of the box. So when Kaylee saw my the picture I am thinking of entering she said "mom that is weird" I think so too. But I am trying to expand my photographic horizons and try something different we will see if the ship sinks or sails.

So I took several pictures of myself by holding the camera at arms length. Then I took the ones that actually turned out, (not many did) and I cropped different parts of my face out. This is my eye. I thought I would include this because I thought the reflection in my eye was sort of cool.

Then I took all those parts and arranged them in an abstract manor, applied some filters to make it kind of blurry or grungy. I really wanted to add an overlay to make it even more grungy, but that is not allowed in a challenge. So this is the best I could come up with, kind of weird I know, but kind of cool if you like that sort of thing, not sure if I do.

Here is another shot, I applied a special filter I found that gave it sort of a high key or blown out look. I liked it because it hides some of the wrinkles I am getting at my old age of 35 and extenuates the half way decent features I still have. It's probably nothing I would hang on my wall but kind of cool anyway.

I know you have seen this one before, but I was playing around with those new filters I found and really liked the way this one turned out. The filters I found were free, and work directly with photoshop, so they are super easy to use. The one I used on me was called trashcan, and the one I used on Brianne is called yearbook. Here is the link in case you are interested http://www.optikvervelabs.com/virtualphotographer.asp

This is one other picture that took up a good share of my picture taking time. It was for a challenge called "Homemade Landscapes" I am doing really well with it. If things keep going the way that they are I should place in the top five, and if I am really lucky I will get a ribbon. Although, I don't think my score is going to be quite good enough for 1st!

"Hidden Valley Ranch"

In case you are wondering, yes I made the whole scene and yes, it was a pain, and way harder than I thought, both to make and to photograph. I made two separate scenes, then photographed them in a way that made them look like one connected photograph. Here is a snapshot I took so you could see what I am talking about:

So even though I did not have a photo for each day this week, I actually took a ton of photo's way past my photo a day quota. Most of them were Halloween snapshots and although very cute not quite good enough to post on this blog. I will leave those to post on my Family blog.