Nurture Self 365

365 Self Portrait Challenge: Day Two Hundred Fourty Eight

September 17, 2012 in ma365, Photo Challenge, Photography, Self-Portrait | Tags: 4 year old, ball, energy, net, schooled, Street hockey, young | Leave a comment

“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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365 Self Portrait Challenge: Day Two Hundred Fourty Seven

September 16, 2012 in ma365, Photo Challenge, Photography, Self-Portrait | Tags: Adobe Photoshop, Image Editing, muscle, Nikon D7000, PhotoShop, pumped, triceps, workout regimen | Leave a comment

“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??

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365 Self Portrait Challenge: Day Two Hundred Fourty Six

September 15, 2012 in ma365, Photo Challenge, Photography, Self-Portrait | Tags: 70-200mm VR II, illusion, imagination, Nikon D800E, reflection, shadow | Leave a comment

“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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365 Self Portrait Challenge: Day Two Hundred Fourty Five

September 14, 2012 in ma365, Photo Challenge, Photography, Self-Portrait | Tags: blur, Canada, moose, Nikon D7000, Nikon D800E, Photography, surreal, Topaz Labs | Leave a comment

“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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365 Self Portrait Challenge: Day Two Hundred Fourty Four

September 13, 2012 in ma365, Photo Challenge, Photography, Self-Portrait | Tags: Nikon D7000, Nikon D800E, outdoors, Photography, shadow, together, togetherness, waterfront | 1 comment

“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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365 Self Portrait Challenge: Day Two Hundred Fourty Three

September 12, 2012 in ma365, Photo Challenge, Photography, Self-Portrait | Tags: Anthony Hopkins, Brownie, camera, document, healthy-living, journal, motivated, Nikon D7000, Photography, pumped, ratcliff, Stuck in Customs, treadmill, Trey Ratcliff, workout regimen | Leave a comment

“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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365 Self Portrait Challenge: Day Two Hundred Fourty Two

September 11, 2012 in ma365, Photo Challenge, Photography, Self-Portrait | Tags: Brownie, camera, document, journal, Photography | Leave a comment

“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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365 Self Portrait Challenge: Day Two Hundred Fourty One

September 10, 2012 in ma365, Photo Challenge, Photography, Self-Portrait | Tags: camera, hand held, lens, Nikon, Nikon D800E, Photography | Leave a comment

“In the perspective of every person lies a lens through which we may better understand ourselves.” Ellen J. Langer

I shot this in the bathroom mirror, then processed in Lightroom 4 with Trey Ratcliff’s “HDR in Lightroom: A Surprising Touch”. I then brought it in to Photoshop CS6 where I masked the lens in from the original photo. This is hand-held with the D800E and the 105mm VRII.

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365 Self Portrait Challenge: Day Two Hundred Fourty

September 9, 2012 in ma365, Photo Challenge, Photography, Self-Portrait | Tags: aqua aerobics, goggles, Grandkids, pool, Water, Water Aerobics, water shoes | Leave a comment

“Follow your dreams, work hard, practice and persevere. Make sure you eat a variety of foods, get plenty of exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle.” Sasha Cohen

I love Water Aerobics. There’s just something about not feeling the sweat of your workout because you are already in the water . . . plus it is an amazing all-body workout. Unfortunately, I haven’t been for almost a year. I was gone for most of November and December last year . . . between my Granddaughter’s 1st birthday in California and a 3 week vacation in Hawaii – we arrived home just 3 days before Christmas. The New Year brought several close family situations that consumed me . . . but now it’s time I get back to my healthy lifestyle. It’s so easy to STOP working out . . . and really, really tough to get going again. Why is that? For me, I know it’s all mental . . . I create my own roadblocks. I feel so darn good when I am working out on a regular basis. Intellectually, I know all about the benefits that support working out and staying fit . . . but then it’s just so easy to “get too busy” or “just not get around to it” and then the day is over and I’ve not done what I said I was going to do. One day soon becomes a week, and a week becomes a month. Suddenly almost a year has gone by! So – enough is enough – no more waiting for “tomorrow” or “next week”. And if doing it for myself isn’t good enough then I’ll do it for my Grandkids and (future) Great Grandkids. They deserve to have me around!

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365 Self Portrait Challenge: Day Two Hundred Thirty Nine

September 8, 2012 in ma365, Photo Challenge, Photography, Self-Portrait | Tags: 105mm Macro, camera, closeup, D800E, macro, nature, Nikon, Nikon D7000, outdoors, Photography, Water, water droplets | Leave a comment

“In every drop of water, there is a story of life.” Leena Arif

I’m playing around with my D800E and the 105mm Macro lens. Since the sprinklers were on in the garden it was a prime opportunity to get some cool water drop pics. I have alot to learn to maximize the potential of this lens . . . but I was pretty impressed with what I did get. Can you see my reflection in several of the water droplets? I had to really decrease the size of this for posting purposes. These images tend to start out (in RAW) at around 40 mb. I’m finding I really don’t need to do much post processing other than maybe a tad bit of sharpening. The SOOC quality is quite stunning. Coming from a crop factor camera (the D7000), it’s quite incredible.