YOU CAPTURE - STILL LIFE

I went to play today in the land of the fairies.

The fairies weren't home, but they left their lights on!

I tried the other neighbourhood...

...but all I found was a land of giants!

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Just two more... :)

I'm not too sure if these count as still life, but I took them today and they are 'still' and they are 'life' - and I did love them, so I wanted to show them off!! :D

Now it's time to see everyone else's take on this week's theme over at Beth's You Capture - have fun!! And to check out everyone's best shots visit Loli :D

To see a few more of my best shots this week hop on over to my 365inpictures blog :D

I ♥ Faces - Week 40 - "Excited!"

This is DD - just waiting for that riff in the Crazy Frog tune where is it goes a bit crazy!! I loved the look on his face. It's not the world's most technically perfect shot, and probably not a winner, but it is a moment captured - which is amazing considering the number of moments I missed tonight whilst trying to work out how to get the best of my in-built flash.

With a little PP it's not too blown out at least (you can see the original HERE).

It's going to be a challenge this winter to get good indoor shots with my Canon S3 - it is not very happy in low lighting and I have grown to dislike flash photography. Maybe one day, when I have some nice equipment it might grow on me again, but meantime I am going to have to learn how to use what I have the best that I can!

For some more wonderful faces full of excitement head on over to I ♥ Faces and see what everyone else has posted there :D

Fix-It-Friday No.31 - Gorgeous Grin!

Original (submitted by Kim of My family Circus);

This shot was beautiful to start with, but here's what I did (if I can remember!)

Edit One;

• I blemished fixed the messes on his little face and dodged out the shadows on the right side of his face to make his face more even.
• I sharpened a little and brightened the eyes (using faded eye-bright) & enhanced his eyelashes just a touch (seriously weak mascara).
• I air-brushed all his skin and then faded it right out (this was just to even up the skin tones a little more).
• I added vibrance effect and erased it from the background and his skin & hair (just leaving it on his T-shirt and eyes) and adjusted to taste!
• Rotated very slightly to bring him closer.

This was my basic fix. :D

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Edit two

Carrying on from edit one;

• I adjusted the exposure to +7, the overall contrast to +7 & the local contrast to +20
• I further sharpened using unsharp - +2.2 with strength to match @ 68%
• I adjusted the levels using curves - a slight S and then faded it out until I liked it

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Edit three.

Carrying on from Edit two;

• I applied a faded daguerreotype curve and faded it out quite significantly (also removed from his eyes). I like the tone this gives to the skin.
• adjusted the levels with another faded S curve
• applied the text (faded multiply)
• applied a very slight white matt vignette
• framed to match a blue in his eyes!

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Edit Four.

Just because there has to be a B&W!!

• I continued from edit four (after removing the vignette and the frame);
• Applied a B&W effect then fiddled with it in curves. I made a fairly steep S curve & then faded it out to suite my liking.
• reapplied the matte vignette
• Reapplied the frame - only this time in black.

I'm pleased with 3 & 4 - what do you think?

PS - this was all done using Picnik Premium - I love it!! It is so quick and simple. I can't wait till they add a layers feature and then I think it will be just about perfect! As it is now you just need to know how to get the best out of it - and I am learning :D

Now I shall need to go and check out how everyone else edited this lovely capture this week, over at I ♥ Faces' Fix it Friday - C U there!!

Best Shot - Brothers!

Although technically this is definitely not my best shot this week (taken on the fly, blurry, noisy and not brilliant composition or anything else for that matter!), it is my favourite I think! It says so much my boys (Taz 11 & DD 4), who they are and their relationship :D With a little editing it might be ok - maybe I'll give that a go and post the edit up later :D

What's your Best Shot this week? Go post a link over on Loli's Better In Bulk blog and she and I will come visit you (or at least Loli will and I'll try!)

POST SCRIPT - here's my edit :D

YOU CAPTURE - RED

These are red - right? Actually I forgot the theme was 'red' this week, but I captured these last Sunday in my friends garden and I thought I could just about get away with them as being red! I was annoyed I just missed the focus on the bud on that last one, but like it anyway :D

Now I need to go and see all the rest of this weeks lovely 'red' captures over with Beth @ I should be folding laundry .

Please pray for Beth and her family as they await the unknown.

Best Shot - Pretending!

This is SOOC except for a tiny increase of contrast.

This was taken in my friend's garden, which is very successfully pretending it is still summer!!

You can see the rest of my favourite shots this week in my other posts;
HERE , HERE & HERE - I love this time of year!! The light, the colours... it's just so shouting out to 'get that shot'!!

Now it's time to go and see everyone else's Best shots this week over on Loli's 'Better in Bulk' blog :D.

SOOC Saturday - Pretending..!

My Friend's garden is pretending it's still summer!!

But it was cold today - and to prove it really IS autumn here - this was the sky tonight...

SOOC Saturday/Sunday is usually hosted by Melody of Slurping Life, but she is taking some time out atm - I'm posting anyway!

YOU CAPTURE - FEELING OF FALL/AUTUMN

This weeks topic is supposed to give you the 'feeling' of fall (here we call it Autumn), but that's tough now as everywhere I look it is already very autumnal. It is cold at night here now and not so warm in the day as it was just a week ago even. The nights are drawing in and everywhere there are just the last glimpses of summer...

...the Damson plums that never got picked are becoming prunes on the trees,

...the leaves that are holding on, but their resistance is weak,

...there are buds that never quite made it in time,

...and those early evening sunsets.
These are my sign of Autumn. We don't do Halloween in our house, and I don't cook apples because no-one here likes them (I hate them with a passion). Really autumn for me is all about what I see outside my window. I tried to capture our resident robin who is about more and more these days on Taz's bird feeder, but he is painfully camera shy :(

(BTW these are all SOOC :D )

No go and have a look at makes all my fellow bloggers over at You Capture feel 'fall'y :D

I ♥ Faces - Week 38 - "Blue"

As we are making the most of these remaining few days of summery weather here in the UK, I have taken the opportunity to take the smaller children to the park a few times :D Here is my DD attempting and mastering the fireman's pole solo for the first time - he was a bit chuffed with himself, can you tell? - I think he is saying "yeah!! I did it!!"

This week's challenge over at I ♥ Faces is to capture a shot with blue as predominant colour. I actually found I really did not have that many blue shots, but I was pleased that the climbing frame was mainly blue in this one (that I only took 10 days ago). To emphasis DD and pull out the blue I did some selective B&W editing - hope you like! :D

Now, I know there are some amazing 'blue' entries this week - so when you have left me a comment (hint, hint) go and take a look for yourself, over at I ♥ Faces - have fun!!

SOOC Saturday - Victorian - Autumn

The first shot has had a little contrast adjustment, other than that it is SOOC. I took loads of Autumn shots yesterday (Saturday) and if you want to see some of the others PLEASE visit my 365inpictures blog :D

Today was our town's annual food fayre in the town centre. It always has a bit of an authentic market town feel and it seems this year it took on a Victorian flavour too. Here are some of my own, and other church-family, children at the 'Victorian Sunday school' :D The setting was obviously unavoidable, so I did my best to not include it...not easy!

These are totally SOOC as I've not had time to touch them yet!! Can't wait to see how they turn out with a little PP ageing :D

Time to go 'slurping life' from everyone else's SOOC shots this weekend, over at Melody's blog :D