What's for today?  Only some practice shots from my camera.

I've been working on taking pictures indoors with no flash.  Ollie loves to sunbathe in the hall which is dark.  But then there is the sun shining in, so it's not easy to get a good result.  I had several that were so overexposed you could not even see Ollie.  This one is still overexposed and I need to make some more adjustments but....

at least I'm shooting in manual mode which is a big leap for me.

Just look at the first shot....

Ollie's favorite position in the sun

Digital Expressions

Susan tuttle has a new class starting for Photoshop.  She's also the author of this new book Digital Expressions.  And guess what?  She's giving away a copy of this book.  To be in the drawing, go to Susan's blog to register.  Her Photoshop/PSE classes are so fun.  They are easy to follow, not overwhelming, and produce results that will excite you.

Becca's Giveaway

Becca's having a really great giveaway.

 Check out her blog and leave a comment.  I love the look of her little pillow and she also has some antique looking lace and assorted other items.  It's her blog's anniversary.  Congrats, Becca.  Your photography is  wonderful!

Purification

At last I had some time to get my fingers into paint again.  I don't usually paint with these colors but today I just let myself be free to experiment.  After reading Seth's column in MMCA Marketplace I realized how many times I have created a painting and before it was truly finished, stopped because I feared making a mistake and ruining my work. Whew, that could probably be considered a run-on sentence.

  
When I started this painting it had lots of circular movement and lighter colors which I liked.  I had that moment of thinking "I better stop now, because I like this, and I don't want to ruin it".  I thought about Seth's comments and decided to throw all caution to the wind.  I ended up with this linear style and really popped up colors.  I know that whatever marks one makes or whatever one paints comes from the subconscious.  I need to remind myself to free the inner critic.  I like it and I hope you do too.

Several Shades of Garden

Takes forever sometimes.....

It took me forever to figure out how to put these photos together for a post.  I'm sure there is some way to do this with Blogger but I don't know what that is, and if it involves HTML then I'm sunk!!  If any of you know an easier way, feel free to comment.  I just get bored with the same format all the time.   

I finally decided to use PSE and put them on a background.  My DH thinks the Mac is a growth on my body or maybe I'm a growth on the computer!  I sure am spending lots and lots of time on it.  Any time leftover goes to photography practice!  

However, it is SOooooooooo much fun.

    

Last week was about aperture settings and results.  Here are some of my results

And

Also examples of aperture and shutter speed practice

And

The bottom photo was taken on a very cloudy Easter morning overlooking the Back Bay.  These people were moving along at a pretty good clip.

Somewere in Time

I've been lost somewhere in time.  Can't believe it's been so long since I posted.  I finished Susan Tuttle's Photoshop class and immediately started another Jessica Sprague class on photography.  I needed to learn how to use my DSLR.  There is so much to learn and practice and never enough time.  The first class was about shutter speed and our assignment was to take a picture of something moving.      Thankfully, my greyhound was happy to oblige me.    She is always happy to oblige as long as food is involved!  Here it's a carrot.  Click on the image and you can see the carrot in the air.  We were asked not to digitally edit our photos, so our instructor could evaluate and give us suggestions to help us be better photographers.   So this is exactly what came out of the camera.   

Street Team Challenge #38

What a fun challenge.....
I had some painted tissue paper left from the collage I did after watching Carrie Burns Brown video.  I glued to my journal.  I don't usually work with this color combination, so it was nice to do something different.

I added some painted corrugated light bulb packaging on either side, a couple rubber stamps and affixed some "hardware" on the right side.

Forgot to take a picture with the red stamps and the dry brush paint, but you get the idea..... I then added my drawing of the two women with Photoshop Elements.  It could have been done just as easily using a transfer or transparency.  I'm just showing off my new skill!!  

You might want to look at lots of great "street team" art on Michelle Ward's blog 
You can find all the entries in the left side bar.

If you like what you see, be sure to join us.  No pressure.  The challenges are monthly and you can choose to play or pass .

Shattered Rose Collage

I started this with a simple photo of a rose shattered.  I darkened the contrast and then added one of my portrait drawings, then some sheet music, then a frame and finally a bit of text and yes, my watermark in the top right corner.  I don't know if the watermark is dark enough or too dark.  I made it into a brush so I can stamp it easily on any image.  Let me know what you think.

Michelle Ward's Street Team Crusade for February

Crusade #37 - XXX's & OOO's - Since February is Valentine's month, our challenge was to do a spread with the letters X and O.  I learned something interesting -- it seems rather obvious, but XXX's and OOO's are not part of everyone's culture.  I finally succombed to spray paints.  I tried not to go wild and purchase in every color.  I only have so much room to store, but it was tempting!!!!