You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2012.
“The rate of interest acts as a link between income-value and capital-value.” Irving Fisher
With interest rates at historically low rates here in Canada, we are at the bank waiting to sign our new blend and extend mortgage. These days, taking advantage of any way to reduce our monthly expenses is a good thing!
Interestingly enough, I did not notice that Las Vegas is in the top left corner of this shot. Guess where we’re going in November? Yup . . . a 365 meetup in Vegas, baby! I’m really looking forward to meeting up with others from this amazing group.
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“Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It’s a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.” Thomas Carlyle
I had this vision ever since my Day 247 muscle flexed photo. I used the liquefy filter in Photoshop CS6, and my Wacom tablet to accomplish this effect. I feel like I have grown so much in my Photography knowledge and skills since starting this 365 Project back in January. It’s been an amazing journey with a group of people who live all over the world, from Australia to Sweden, Finland, England, Canada and the US. We’re a group that started out with about 200 people, but are down to around 30 that are still posting regularly and up to date. The inspiration and encouragement are just amazing. I’ve met one 365’er in person, and look forward to a meetup in Las Vegas in November with 10 or twelve others. Some days have been tough to figure out what to do next . . . but the encouragement is always there . . . the inspiration is endless.
So – thanks MTM 365’ers, and Michael Andrew! Only 115 more days to go!
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“May the Smoothie be with you…Always” Unknown
I’m on a Smoothie kick.
I love coming home from a workout and whipping up a yummy, energy boosting smoothie.
This one is made with delicious Yukon blueberries, delivered by my sister who picked them herself. I threw the fresh blueberries in the blender with non-fat plain greek yogurt, unsweetened almond milk, frozen mango chunks, vanilla whey protein powder, ground flax and hemp hearts. Yummy!
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“Everything we say signifies; everything counts, that we put out into the world. It impacts on kids, it impacts on the zeitgeist of the time.” Meryl Streep
Today I got schooled by a four year old in street hockey! He is so quick, it was all I could do just to figure out where he was, much less stop the ball from entering the net! I didn’t score once as I spent all my time trying to keep him from hitting it in. And he did . . . many times. So funny, with all his little comments from “Nice!” to “Awesome” every time he hit it in . . . I had a blast! You want to stay young? Hang out with a four year old!
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“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” Christopher Reeve
Yeah, well – so I’ve been back to working out lately after about an eight month hiatus. How impressive is this!!! I know, pretty crazy. What’s a 60 year old Grandma to do??
OK, truth is . . . Photoshop is amazing!
It all started with one of the guys in the 365 taking his picture with the Rocky statue in front of the Museum of Art in Philadelphia. The next day, he posted a shot of himself standing in the imprint of Sylvester Stallone’s shoes in the sidewalk. Soon, there appeared a photo of another one of the 365 guys (our resident Photoshop Guru) with super pumped up triceps. Not long after that photo was posted, one of my fellow female 365’ers posted a shot of HER super uber pumped triceps. So I just had to get in on the action. The other’s weren’t wielding a weight so I grabbed a 15lb’er, set up my tri-pod, set aperture, focus and timer and captured this shot.
Well, maybe not exactly this shot.
I processed it using Nik Software Silver Efex Pro in LR4. I then exported it to Photoshop CS6 where I used the Liquify Filter to “enhance” my triceps, and added a photo mask by Liv.eDesigns.
Not much . . . just a bit . . . I mean . . . a girl can dream right??
247-365
“A shadow of a reflection of an image of an illusion.” Chuck Palahniuk, Haunted
What do your eyes see in this photo? What is real . . . what is imagined? I am fascinated that my husband saw something completely different in this shot – as he did not know what I had taken a picture of. I really enjoy taking abstract photos but find myself getting caught up in trying to capture what is real. I am challenging myself to look beyond the literal translation of what I am seeing, and capture something that makes the viewer stop and think about what they are seeing.
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“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” Mark Twain
I came across this fellow today. Kind of a cutie pie eh? This photo is a picture of me and my new best friend. Oh . . . not the Moose silly! The camera! LOL! One of my fellow 365’ers thought that I look kind of drunk . . . I processed this in Photoshop with Topaz Labs Lens Effects filter to blur the background. I guess it gives a bit of a surreal look . . .
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“The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.” William Shakespeare
I grabbed this shot when hubby and I were out and about today. We each had a camera and were just shooting whatever was interesting down by the waterfront. When I brought the photos up in Lightroom, I wondered what it would look like if I masked our shadows with a photo of what we were each shooting. I was fascinated by the sun setting over the fishing boats, while hubby was more interested in the actual pier and water reflections. I love being out and about together like this.
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“I have a punishing workout regimen. Every day I do 3 minutes on a treadmill, then I lie down, drink a glass of vodka and smoke a cigarette.” Anthony Hopkins
Well, I don’t drink, or smoke . . . so I guess that leaves the treadmill and a lie down! Since I’m not great at napping . . . guess I’ll just give this workout a good go of it! I’ve been slack on my workouts of late . . . and it just feels so good to be getting back on track. I’m pumped. I’m motivated.
I guess that’s why it felt right to process this in Lightroom – I put it together in the Print module, then processed the saved jpeg with Trey Ratcliff’s “HDR in Lightroom: On Drugs”. I’m loving his presets!
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“For a long time I was looking for my perfect equilibrium, my mojo. And now I think I’m getting there: I’ve found my customer, my silhouette, my cut.” Alexander McQueen
I decided to play around with spot metering on my D800E. The light coming in from this window was so bright and with the colors of the foliage outside the window – I just thought it was so pretty. I’m surprised at how dark it turned out . . . considering it is bright daylight outside.
I am so loving this discovery process, as I work through different tutorials and learning tools. A few years ago I thought I really wanted to get in to the whole area of digital design and digital scrapbooking. Through this 365 project, I have discovered that my real passion lies in photography. Specifically documenting the lives of my kids and grandkids and other family members, as well as close-up and macro photography.
I clearly remember using my little Brownie film camera when I was in high school. I was in 11th grade, and it was my first experience with photography. The dark room was a bit intimidating, but I was absolutely fascinated! And I remember being fascinated by textures and patterns in close-up photography. I loved the abstract in every day life. But . . . then I graduated, married, had kids . . . life happened and all that was put to the side. Over the years I certainly enjoyed taking candid shots of my family with that little Brownie. Boy, was I excited the first time I lay hands on a digital camera! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I’ve gone through a few of those over the years . . . all the while documenting life but not following my real passion and developing myself as a Photographer. In the last two years, I’ve jumped the great divide from being a Point & Shoot Photographer, to a bonafide Digital SLR Photographer who knows how to shoot in something other than Program Mode. It has been, and continues to be, a huge learning curve . . . and I’m loving every moment of it.
Like the quote says . . . I’ve found my mojo!!
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Nurture Self 365 