Bringing Life Back to Life in My Life

Hello All,

I have been totally enjoying the outdoors and being a social butterfly, so I haven’t had the time to really sit and write.  My Photo Club started back up a few weeks ago so that has kept me fairly busy.  One of our ladies is due to have twins at the end of August which has given me a great opportunity to shoot some cool photos of “the baby bump” and the new parents to be.  I am enjoying getting some portrait experience under my belt.

I posted some of my work for the new coloring book this last week too, I hope you got a chance to check that out.

I’ve been diving deep into the editing program I purchased for my photography.  This week I learned how to change the background of a picture…

This handsome guy actually had a chain-link fence and a minivan behind him, but if I hadn’t told you that, would you have been able to tell? (be honest, I can’t get better if I don’t know what needs improvement)  One thing I don’t like is how washed out it looks.  I should have caught that since I’ve been learning more about layers and effects to enhance landscapes like this one…

In this photo I enhanced the green in the grass a little bit and darkened some of the shadows in the clouds. I like the effect it had on the visibility of the rays.

The other thing I experimented with was adding more subjects to a photo, like this one of a bird I saw sitting on a telephone wire…looked lonely so I cloned it…

Can you tell which ones are added?  I also added the background of the sky from the “Sunrays” picture onto this one to create more depth in the sky.

Health has been a lessened battle for now.  I started some new medicines and have been doing well with those.  I began seeing a therapist who specializes in chronic pain and trauma treatment.  He has been helping me learn how to re-route my pain receptors to block more of the daily aches(best way I can describe it anyway).  I didn’t have much faith in it at first but once I gave it a real chance… Well I found it to be a great new tool for me to use.  Being in my busy season helps too, more to do gives me less time to consider how my body is feeling.

The last week I also did some graphic design for a local entrepreneur – some business/postcards for the grocery store and coffee shop boards.  I’ve got two more people waiting for designs.  These have been for experience only but I am holding out hope it will lead to some egg and butter money later down the road.  If nothing else it helps me narrow down my degree field for schooling.  I’m still looking into all of that too.

So all has been pretty good here, I hope the same for you…Wherever you are.

~Pixie