So, this image makes me think of the quote from Ecclesiastes 1: Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. Of course, that’s mostly because of the brand name (which is fabulous brand, so don’t get me wrong).  : )  Anyway, I was loving the shadows on this image.. and then, of course, as always, the nice little bits of texture. : )

It’s getting closer & closer to Christmas.  Chris and I set up the Christmas tree yesterday & wrapped presents. We went shopping together for each other’s presents this year, which we haven’t done before.  It felt a little like cheating, but it was fun because I actually managed to drag him to a store with me. : )

Well, more Christmas shopping to do today. I hope everyone’s a little further in their Christmas planning than me, haha.

Happy Tuesday!

Squares.  I like square images.  : )  I’m so used to shooting rectangles (exactly 4×6) that its nice to sit down & look at a picture in different proportions.

I felt like playing with Textures a little bit this morning, too.  : )  Although not Thanksgiving-related, I think prickly pears are pretty awesome (in fact, I like most kinds of cactus as long as they keep their distance).  And, if the Pilgrims had landed in Texas instead of Massachusetts, we’d probably have a traditional dish of Prickly Pear Jelly instead of Cranberry Sauce.  ; )

This afternoon, I’m going to make my second attempt at Pumpkin Cheesecake (from scratch).  The first one was a bit undercooked & my husband & I ate around the edges where it was cheesecake-y but the middle was still too raw & with un-cooked eggs, I went ahead & threw it away.  But I’m doing it a second time & will up the cook time (I’ve started to wonder if my oven is a little colder than other peoples?  Most recipes need me to add cook time or the center is a little gooey).  Otherwise, all the other Thanksgiving cooking is going to be managed by my sweet sister-in-law who is much braver than me, since I’m still a bit too afraid of my kitchen to take on an entire Thanksgiving meal!  : )

I won’t be posting anything else this week, since I’ll be with family.  Hopefully, you’ll be busy too & wouldn’t be able to check it anyway!  : )

I hope everyone has a yummy Thanksgiving!  : )

Okay, I’m going to brave it. Though I adore self-portraits, I’ve yet to get very good a them since I got an actual tripod for the first time less than a year ago. And I maybe just a little too used to being able to see the shot I’m composing. But it should be fun all the same. A wonderful challenge at least. : )

I just couldn’t avoid texturing the image up a bit.  I’m way too fond of it.

I hope you have a lovely Tuesday.  I made pot roast (in the crock pot) last night & the smell is permeating the house.  So I’m pretty happy this morning.  : )  I hope everyone else’s Tuesdays shape up as lovely as mine is.

The word “rubbish” makes me laugh.  I always hear it said in a British accent in my mind.  Weird, yeah?  I’ve never told my blog, but I love accents… they’re so fun… which makes me very happy to have a good solid Texan accent, but I digress.  We’re here for the final & oh-so-grungy vintage Tuesday.

I’m not announcing the next set,  yet, so throw your votes in before you loose your chance to have as close to instant gratification as it gets (on my blog).  : )  It’s sure not a microwave over here…   My point is that if you haven’t given your vote for the next 4 Tuesdays’ set, leave me a comment & I’ll be taking a tally.  Of course, I won’t lie, the deciding factor will be my whimsy, but I’ll choose between those options listed in the comments.  You can even repeat someone else and try to sway me by a quantity of votes (of course, quantities of votes aren’t very big here, yet, but we’re growing!)

Now for Image time!

I hope you readers have enjoyed this set of 4 as much as I have.  I love textures & used them heavily in my interpretation of “Vintage.”  : ) If you want to get some lovely textures to experiment, check out NinianLif on flickr, StruckDumb on DeviantArt, or go to my list of Freebies & check the sites I’ve listed.  All include free textures. And free textures are beautiful, beautiful things.

As always, check back on Friday or Saturday.  I’ll have Kat’s Senior Session up (finally, right?) and it’s just so unbelievably fabulous!  I get excited just thinking about getting to share it!  : )

Have a lovely Tuesday!

Oh, PS, if you want to get a sneak-peek of Kat’s pictures, take a look at my flickr account.  There’s a helpful little button on the sidebar to the right that will link you right up.

It’s been a good week.  I had a photo shoot for funsies on Saturday (as always, more on that in another post) and even though it was *cold* my model was so very cooperative.  Otherwise, I’ve done a lot of editing on my Senior’s sessions and I’ve been getting ready for this week.

In fact, when this posts, I’ll actually be at a school, doing fall pictures.  : )  If all goes well (for the pictures & for this post going up on time… I think I’ve got that fixed, not that I expected anyone to notice since I’ve never determined an actual time for these to post – still it was acting funky last Tuesday).

So, this image definitely made me think of the nursery rhyme from childhood.  Anybody else familiar with it’s supposed historic meaning?  Ever since I heard this, it’s ruined the nursery rhyme for me a little… but that’s okay.  I was always more fond of the dish running away with the spoon anyway. : )

Yes, the vintage is a little different this week.  Like it?

Enjoy your Tuesday!  I’ll be getting up very early & drinking some coffee!

Vintage is fun! : )

I don’t think I have to say anything more than that, but I will anyway!  I love dandelions.  They always seem so whimsical to me.  Maybe it’s because of that scene in Beauty & the Beast, c’mon girls, you know the one I’m talking about.  I’m always disappointed when I think about these little puff-balls being weeds.  My dad hated it when I played with them as a child because I spread their infection (my words, not his).  But I always thought it was wonderful how the little seeds danced away like ballerinas on the air… yay for dandelions!  I think God made them just for little girls. ; )

Voting is still open for next month on what theme I should do next – it will always be unless I get too much feedback. : )  If you haven’t yet, be sure to leave your favorite idea in the comments.

In case you’re wondering what I have in store for my dear blog-readers: I had 2 lovely seniors to photograph this weekend & those fabulous posts will be coming in the next few weeks!

First Vintage Post!  : )  And I’m glad, because I love vintage.  I always download actions that are labeled vintage.  I search for vintage textures.  Vintage, to me, is a ridiculous amount of fun!  The interpretation, in my opinion, at least, is a bit open & so I have some “arty” leeway.  And I like that.  Plus, when I think vintage I think beautiful golden & grungy images & those are always the ones that stand out to me when I’m previewing someone else’s website, flickr, blog, etc.  So I’m very excited about this 4 week run of Vintage!

Now, with no further babbling from the bloggist (no, that’s not a real word, until now!)

Feel free to give me some feedback in the comments.  Too much text?  Hate borders?  Think the grunge is visually distracting from the image?  Or how about what is that image anyway?  : )  I’ll answer that last one: it’s a dried Yucca pod.  However, I couldn’t figure out what type of Yucca it was, so if you know your Yuccas & can identify it from this image, please, leave me a comment & give me all the details!

Also, if you missed your chance to comment on my new Tuesday theme last week, drop a comment at the bottom of this post & I’ll start a tally for next month.  Same requirements as before: let me know what type of art you’d love to see here.  Diptychs? Self-Portraits? Black & White? Unprocessed images? Nature? Or be creative & share an idea that I haven’t even listed!  : )

I shared the post about other’s Diptychs about a week ago.  Now I’ll admit that it wasn’t totally a self-less effort. : )  I’ve been working on some Diptychs of my own & I thought it was definitely time to share.

For both of these, I took the opportunity to play with my manual focus & manual exposure.  It’s been a while since I’ve done that (I prefer not to typically when shooting for clients for a multitude of reasons) & I really enjoyed it. : )

And, if you’ve been following me since the beginning of my old blog, you’ve seen this one before, but it’s one of my favorites, so I wanted to post it again. It fits in the post & besides, I just ordered a little version of each side so I can hang them in my office (can’t wait for them to come in!)  Yep, I love it.

Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments!  Which of the 2 Green Shoes Diptychs do you prefer?

I LOVE actions & am trying to force myself to avoid the addiction. Yet, I want to spread the action love & I thought I’d post a little list of some of my favorite action download sites. As far as I know, all are free for commercial use & if anyone finds Terms of Use that deviate from that please, please, please let me know!

All of these are for adding pop to Portraits (and maybe landscapes – but I don’t do much work with those, so it’s up to you). I’m not a fan of text actions, so there aren’t any listed, but google can always help you find those resources.

http://totallyradactions.com/ These actions are super sweet but to get the whole pack, you’ll have to pay. However, the link I’ve provided will point you to the “samples” page so you can get a taste of how good these actions are. If you download the samples for both pack 1 & 2, you’ll get 6-7 free actions.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/ There are two sets here and don’t miss the second set (check the left side bar for the link) because it’s my favorite! These actions are lovely & well-worth download (especially when they’re free!)

http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/ This is one of my favorites. I RSS her blog because she comes out with a new action every 2 weeks or so. Some are a little soft for my taste, but others are fantastic – especially the Color Pop sets!

http://night-fate.deviantart.com : A HUGE conglomeration of actions. I still haven’t cracked the surface on downloading them – but I kinda like being able to visit & find new stuff when I’m in the mood for a new set.

http://manicho.deviantart.com/ Another huge set of actions – 50 in one download! However, some of them are a bit overdone for my tastes, but others may like them just fine! Either way, they’re at least fun to check out!

David Ward Photography Actions on Adobe Exchange I just found these today & they look pretty sweet. Though I am partial to the beauty of Black & White – quick, stop me from converting all of my photos! – & Vintage-y effects, still, these look pretty fun. Can’t wait to give them a few good tries & see how it goes! PS, if you don’t have an Adobe Acct & don’t want to make one, they can be found here, here, and here!

http://www.mulletgod.org/photoshopactions/ Click the “download” link at the top to get to the actions – but first, take a look at what others are doing with them! Awesome!

And because it’s always better with a picture, here are some samples with the super fantastic & lovely Kristin:

SOOC – Straight out of Camera
#1 – Totally Rad Actions “Super Fun Happy”
#2 – Coffee Shop’s B&W Actions “Moody”
#3 – Mulletgod’s “Vintage White”
#4 – Night-Fate’s “Set 45 — #5″
#5 – Pioneer Woman, Set 2 “Heartland”

PS Lovely font is Margarosa

PPS If you have no idea what “actions” are and why I’m babbling about them, check out this link or this one, or, hey, even both if you want a thorough introduction.