Challenge 7

Okay it's time once again for the Photo Challenge 7. This time our subjects were pictures below the waist, our favorite things, and black and white. So right now I have one picture of one of my favorite things, and that's my birthday cake. Not because it's my birthday, but the type of cake. Carrot Cake yummy. No I did not turn 8 ;) it was the only candle we had in the house that could go on the cake. I'll have to add some more later, but most of my favorite things are food.

Now these photos are for the waist down photos. These are actually pictures from my daughter's walk a thon. I'm not sure why they call it a walk a thon, because the kids always run. Anyway. There is one of one of the students getting their lap marked off by the teacher.

The next one is a group of our 4th graders after the event. My daughter is the one in the orange shorts. She's got long legs like mommy, although hers are cuter. Anyway they ran hard, and we just found out took the Golden Shoe award, for

raising the most money per student.

No black and white photos at this time. Sorry just haven't been out and about and was consumed with making a costume for my daughter. So I didn't get out much.

I don't have any real tips, I'm still trying to figure out how my camera works. Thanks for stopping by.

Carol

Photo Hunt Challenge 6

This Challenge was a photo hunt some of these photos will also be loaded in my gallery at Scrapbooks.com so if you want to see more of my other scrapbook pages and stuff you can head over there.

I was able to get some of the items but not all. First up is a perfume bottle. I'm actually pretty excited about this shot. It's my Vera Wang Princess perfume, and I caught the light coming through the cool cut bottle one morning while getting ready for work. I know I know, why are you late Carol, well I had to get the picture of my perfume bottle for my blog. (Luckily I wasn't late.)Next up was fall leaves or leaves on the ground. Well here in the San Francisco Bay where it's Hotober instead of October we don't usually get those beautiful change of seasons. If we do it'll last for about a day. But here are some pretty fall reddish brown leaves on a bush in front of my Mother-in-laws house.
Pumpkins was on the list because we know you got to have a pumpkin picture in the fall. Actually I had planned to go to the store and take pictures of the traditional pumpkins, but my mother-in-law gave me this really different one. So I used it.

Fruit. Yep this is my apple from my lunch sitting in the window at work. Not much else to say about that one. Oh except it was rather tasty. I actually took my camera to work, thinking I might get a picture of a bird, cool bug, or even a squirrel, but I was actually busy that day.

Okay this one is for cozy. Yep that's my dear hubby Brett and our beautiful daughter Brinn, cuddling in dad's recliner to watch the debut of the Star Wars cartoon. They weren't impressed with the cartoon, but Brinn loves her cuddle time with daddy. What could be more cozy.

I'm not sure what kind of door knobs you have in your house, but mine are pretty uninteresting, so for the first time I just played around in PSE6 to see what I could do with it. Still weird, but it is a door knob.
Favorite Book. So if you read my "about me" on my blog, or ventured over to my other blog then it really should come as no surprise that the Bible is my favorite book. But this is one of my favorite books in the Bible Ephesians. The flowers are actually my silk bouquet from my wedding. And my husband always tells me he wants to be an Ephesians 5 husband.

This is another picture of my Bible. It's also special to me because it was given to me by my sister, when I first gave my life to Jesus. I've had it for 9 years, and it's getting worn, but I don't want a new one. Dr. Charles Stanley says the dirtier the pages of your Bible the cleaner your heart is. This is a combo shot. The book is actually next to a picture yep of me. The book is the current Bible Study I'm working on and it's been really challenging to me, it's all on my other blog. The picture of me is a lifetime ago when I modeled in my early 20's. But I thought they went well together.
Okay last but not least was the call for something with more than 2 legs. And this is yep you guessed it our Dog. Nakita the Amazing Wiener Pit. This is how she greets me each morning when I come out of the shower to get dressed. "Time for my tummy rubs."

And this is Nikita or Niksie as we call her as she watches me get ready for work every morning. She's my bud. "Mom do you have to go to work, can't we just stay home and have you rub my tummy?"That's it that's all I got for this challenge. One tip, when doing a photo hunt, it helps if you actually leave your house to get shots of things like wild birds and bridges. Oh well not bad for a home body.

Challenge 5

Challenge 5 was to have a macro shot, time photo, and personal space photos. Well I combined my time photo with some my macro shots. My husband brought me flowers so I used them. This first one is not the time shots. But I really like the way it came out. The time photos are okay not exactly what I was hoping for. I wanted to do something in PSE6, but didn't have the opportunity to sit and play. Anyway this flower came home partially opened and I took a photo of it every morning at 10 am for 4 days. Unfortunately the one when it was barely opened didn't come out at all, and the third day was barely changed. So here is time passing in a flower on day 2 and day 4.

Next is personal space. This one I think I'll turn into a scrap page. This is my laptop and where I spend most of my computer time. My laptop is all about my scrapping, photography, and blogging stuff. I also read books, my Bible in this spot, help Brinn with her homework even the occasional TV show. (Being sick lately I'm limited in activity so this has been my little world.) Here is the same spot from a distance. I love that part of my couch reclines. Recliners may not be popular for interior designers, but they are comfy. And as Brinn says this one is girl size.

Here is the tour of my scrap/craft room. This is my computer station, has my printers, and I bring my laptop in to do any work I may need to print. Or use my wireless mouse with.
This is my creative space. My 2 Ikea tables put together in an L shape. This room is suppose to be a dinning room. But we eat in the kitchen. Formal dinning is over rated.
As you've figured out by now my room is purple and green, my 2 favorite colors. I actually got the color inspiration from a pair of underwear I saw at Target. I bought them and showed hubby these are the colors I want for my room. He laughed and said ok but you can't bring the underwear to Home Depot to match the paint. We'll go pick up samples and you can match them at home.
This is my storage center. Yes I repainted it and modified it. A friend of mine gave it to me when she sold her house. That along with the cabinet on my desk which use to be a bathroom storage cabinet, and the other hutch which was part of an old desk, took me 8 days to paint, and 3 trips to the chiropractor. I'm still working on the organizing of that monster. It takes up a full wall.
The picture above and below are just closer views of my work space. I'm not sure why Yoda is in my pass through to the living room. He's usually on a speaker in the movie room. Oh well he does match.
And to answer the big question, No it's not always this neat. Maybe that's another challenge show us what your workspace "really" looks like.

Thanks for stopping by. I don't have any tips. Except maybe to make sure you have an idea how to use a program before you plan a challenge around it.

Portraits Challenge 4

I didn't get to go out and take to many new portraits or classic type portraits, with my health condition this past month. So I went through and picked out some photos I love. There aren't many because most of my pictures are of my daughter, husband, and daughter's friends, and I wasn't so sure about posting her friends pictures. So the first picture is my husband Brett at my daughters school fun fest with the green monkey she won him at the fun fest






Then my group shot, my daughter and her friend, entertaining the youngest cousin in our family. The baby is my cousins granddaughter. Isn't she precious.
This picture is Brinn and her new hair cut I took it Saturday we all had our haircut that morning. Brinn went with the stylish bob for her new 4th grade look.


Okay here is my one and only semi decent attempt at a self portrait. I have my new haircut, which is really short. I was feeling brave, and wanted all the old crackling dry hair cut off. It's bit blurry but not so bad with out a tripod.

This beautiful woman is my mom on her 80th birthday. I love this picture of my mom, she looks so happy. Mom had a stroke 4 years ago, and is doing amazing. She lives independent, and even though she has trouble with her ability to speak, and she is no longer allowed to drive, she's managed to adjust and enjoy her life as it is now.



Last but not least is Violet. Violet is Brinns oldest and dearest friend. Violet has been to the emergency room for stitches twice and earaches, she's also been to the dentist for 2 extractions, and on almost every vacation and overnight. Thankfully she's washable.

Oddly enough Violet's portrait, I think actually was the only one I was able to get the blurred background effect I wanted. Oh well.


As for a tip. I would say a tripod is essential, and when your are photographing a portrait pay close attention to what's in the background. Most of my photo's backgrounds are very distracting, but Violet is sharp compared to whats behind her. Bonus I even caught the light in her little plastic blue eye.

Tide Pools

These were just some pics I took in Santa Cruz at Natural Bridges. The One on the left is actual tide pool with the crabs and everything moving. The one below is the rocks where the tide pools changed the look of the rock. I just thought the were cool.

The Highway Community Wiener Nationals 2008

For the last 5 years my church The Highway Community has held it's annual Wiener Dog Race. Yes that's right my church races daschunds. All types show up here are just a few. Our race is even listed under Wikpedia under the list of cities that hold daschund races.

They are at the gate and ready to run. The dogs run to one of their other humans usually holding a bribe or a fav toy.


The last heat and the dogs are neck in neck.The winner or the Highway Community Wiener Nationals is Sammy Davis the lightening fast wiener dog. I think it's their aerodynamic bodies.
As you can see below there were a few dogs there. Some piled on top of each other for support and easy carrying.There were many different colors, hair lengths, ages and sizes. Some were tied together.
But all seemed to be okay hanging out together. There were 52 daschunds at the race. You definitely needed to look down when you walked.

As for our family, our dog does officially carry the Daschund blood line, however she also has extreme social issues with other dogs, and she has Chihuahua and Red Nose Pit in her, so even though we know she could womp the competition, we are more afraid of her eating the competition. So alas poor Nikita, will never get to see the winner's circle of the Wiener Nationals.

Challenge 4 Guidelines

Challenge 4:Since we all seem to be so busy right now and doing a lot of visiting, the next challenge is going to be a portrait. We are probably taking photos of family and friends a lot anyway.
Rules for this challenge:1. Upload up to 10 of your fav portraits that you have taken over the summer by August 31st.

1.The same person can only appear twice. You can take new ones, or show off ones that you have already taken this season. We are all busy, but still want to play the game, so let’s have some fun.

2.One of the photos has to have more than 1 person in it.

3.One of the photos has to be a self portrait – not one that someone has taken of you… you have to take it yourself.