Week Thirteen, Pet Peeve

Now there is a whole list of Pet Peeves that I have but photographing them isn't as easy as listing them. I would have to say top of the list would be manners. They are something that cost you nothing but can mean a lot. Please and Thank You are good starters but also included are things like opening a gate or door for someone to help them. I could go on and on but well that may well be a Pet Peeve of someone reading this. :D

So the Pet Peeve I ended up going for was "Not being listened to.". It drives me insane how Callum especially won't listen and completely ignores you when you talk to him. It isn't all the time and I know he is at that age but I can't help it. So I've told him, next time he does it he'll end up looking like this. :D ;)

Week Twelve, Something that makes you smile

Rainbows! Of any kind, be it in the sky or in a picture they always make me smile.

Week Eleven, Something you made

One of the benefits of having kids is that you get to have fun and make cool things like this!!!!

I loved the way the light bounced of the bricks and the shadows they made and of course the fun making them with Riley, our little Lego Robots. :D

Week Ten, Black and White

I just love Black and White photos, they have that timeless feel to them. And I was blessed with the perfect opportunity when Riley curled up and went to sleep in one of our new dining chairs in the perfect bit of light. I just love this shot!

And then I had to try out a splash photo, hubby kindly helped with this by dropping coins into a glass of milk that was on a mirror with a bit of black card behind to reflect black in the mirror.

Week Nine - Mischief - Boys!

I think it's pretty obvious with a theme of Mischief what I would be photographing. lol

The mischievioust of all!!!

And the muddiest of them all!!

Week Eight - Silhouettes - Brothers

The theme this week was silhouette, here are my two sons looking at each other through a magnifying glass. I just loved the moment captured and how you can see the smiles on their faces.

 And here is the colour version, I think I much prefer the black and white.

Week Seven - Eyes

I think when you have a theme of Eyes it's pretty obvious what I will photograph, of course it is! Those gorgeous Blue Eyes of my boys.

Of course things don't always go to plan.....

 Riley just refused to look at the camera no matter how hard I tried to get him to and no matter how many bribes I offered. He thought he was extremely funny and was very proud of himself. LOL

And then I got an early birthday present from Hubby and the Boys, a set of extension tubes. Those Big Blues of my boys were crying out to be photographed.


Thankfully Callum was a sort of willing model:

I love how his iris reminds me of a dandelion just before you make a wish and I never ever get tired of looking into these eyes. They always amaze me and not only does he have gorgeous eyes but he has eyelashes to make anyone jealous.

I wish I had been able to get more eye shots but alas this was it. Oh well.

Week Six, Fantasy

This weeks theme was fantasy.

Definition of fantasy (from Oxford Dictionaries online)

noun (plural fantasies)

• 1 [mass noun] the faculty or activity of imagining impossible or improbable things: his researches had moved into the realms of fantasy
• [count noun] a fanciful mental image, typically one on which a person often dwells and which reflects their conscious or unconscious wishes: the notion of being independent is a child’s ultimate fantasy
• [count noun] an idea with no basis in reality: it is a misleading fantasy to suggest that the bill can be implemented
• a genre of imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure, especially in a setting other than the real world.

2 Music a fantasia.

I had some ideas but well those didn't quite work out, someone wasn't in the mood to be a willing and helpful participant.... just see the photo up above, I think Callum's fantasy is that I didn't have a love for photography. Oh well. :D

 

Week Five - Repetition

 

This weeks 52 Week Photo Challenge theme was Repetition. Having had a busy week I hadn't had time to really think about what to photograph and it wasn't until Sunday morning that I realised I hadn't taken a photo for the theme. So I had a quick look around the dining room and came across these straws. We were having a rare bit of sunshine so I tied the straws together and laid them on a white ceramic wall tile by the back door with the sunshine shining through them. I really liked the abstracty feel of this shot and the lightness of it. Editing wise I used some actions that I've recently gotten and been practicing with, in this case I used MCP Actions, CoffeShop Blog and Paint the Moon actions, oh and of course picmonkey, all of these were free and apart from picmonkey used in PSE10. I've really enjoyed using the actions and I'm slowly learning more about editing with these and want to try out some of my own actions. Need a quiet day for that though with no distractions of little feet. lol 

And here is another shot I got later in the day... once that sunshine had gone. Here in the UK we are having one of the wettest summers on record. It's been ridiculous really and we are all thoroughly fed up with the rain now, we need some sunshine, some warmth! It's the school summer holidays and the boys should be out in the garden from early to late but alas our garden is a mud bath and so they can't make the most of it. Even a rare day out for us and we had non-stop rain, which didn't stop us or spoil our day out but it made it hard to make the most of where we went (which was Tropical Wings Zoo). So Mother Nature please can you get your act in gear and give us a proper summer, pretty please. With all this rain it's crazy to think that only a few months ago hose-pipe bans were in place, maybe we should blame the water companies. ;) Well here's hoping for some sunshine.

Week Four - Love - Brothers

 

You are my World

When I saw that the weeks theme was LOVE I knew exactly what I wanted to get a photo of. Actually getting that photo though would be easier said than done.

These are my two sons, my Handsome Monkey Monster Callum and my Gorgeous Lil Devil Riley. They are like any typical siblings with their love/hate relationship but they share such a very special bond.They are my world but they are also each others worlds.

I know some people know the story about Callum and him making a wish but I haven't mentioned it here on this blog. So it seems fitting that I should do so now.



Wishes DO come true

 

For a while Callum had said to hubby and I how he wished he had a brother and he was lonely. After the trauma of Callum's birth we had sort of said that we were happy just to have him but over the years the thought of having another child crept into our heads and the worry and concern of Callum being an only child also did. You know how you have some children who are quite suitable to being an only child? Well Callum isn't one of those, he would have been at home with 10 siblings probably. So there we are hubby and I with these thoughts so we think "Why not, lets give it a try and see how it goes.". We didn't tell anyone and especially not Callum that we were trying for another child. Fast forward in time and in Jul;y 2009 we find out I am pregnant. It's only early days but we aren't ones to keep a secret so we tell both our parents and we're met from my MIL with a little tale from a few months before about Callum and a wishing well. Now if this had come from the mouth of anyone else I would have thought they were making it up but not my MIL, it just isn't her. So go back in time a few months and Hubby, Callum and I are out with my in-laws at a place called Crews Hill, it's a huge garden centre area. In one of the shops we visit they have a wishing well so Callum asks my MIL if he can have a coin to make a wish. She gives him the coin, Callum makes the wish. Then he turns to her and says "Nanny I'm going to tell you my wish as I know it won't come true. I wished for a baby brother but wishes don't come true."

Nothing more was thought of it and Hubby and I were never even told about it.

That was until we phoned up to tell my in-laws I was pregnant. Turns out that wish was made around the time I fell pregnant with Riley.

When we told Callum we had some news to tell him later the same day we had told our parents about the pregnancy and before we managed to tell him what the news was he said "I know what it is, I'm getting a baby brother, Mummy has a baby in her belly."

So now Callum believes that wishes come true and how can you deny his thinking heck even I believe it now. I think it's the best thing in the world and what a story to tell Riley when he older, Your brother made a wish for you and it came true!! What an amazing bond.

And now to get Callum to make a wish to win the lottery. lol. ;)

Sorry about the long rambling story but I hope you all now believe that wishes can come true and why for this weeks theme there was no other photo and story I should have. 

 

 

Of course me being me though I did take other photos, here are some of the other photo which show how much I love summertime. 

 

 

Week Three - Childhood Memories

This weeks 52 Week Photo Challenge subject was Childhood Memories. It's funny the little things we keep as objects from our childhood and the memories we keep and those traditions of childhood that we pass on to our own kids.

Last year I did the 365 Project, for those that don't know this is where you take a photo a day for a whole year. It might not sound that hard but boy it is, it's challenging, very very very challengin and some days when you are rushed off your feet it's hard to find that time to get that shot and it's so easy to just think; "No more, I give up!". But I didn't, I perserveered and I completed it. And I'm proud. Very proud.

It's been nicknamed The Year I drove The Family Mad, but I hope (and I sort of know) that in a way it's looked upon with a smile and with fondness and I know already that Callum loves the memories of it all, heck he even told me this morning how he missed the project. At the end of the Project I made a little video up of all the shots I got of the boys throughout the year. One day I will get round to getting it put on disc and printing up the photos for them and I hope in years to come they will look at it as childhood memories. Anyway enough about that, that was last year and this is this year and a new project and new photos and new memories!!!

I had (and hopefully will be able to get the photos) so many ideas of what to photograph. I won't mention them at the moment with the hope I'll be able to update this with them in and what they mean to me.

I do however have this shot:

It's of my youngest son, Riley, and his greatest love... CARS!!!! What is it with boys and cars? I bet every grown man can still remember and has plenty of stories to tell about when they were younger and their favourite toy car or train or aeroplane. And I'm sure my boys will be the same. Callum can still remember the day we brought down his big bucket of cars and tipped them out and sorted them into colours and counted them.

What 326 cars look like

He still asks if we can do it again and we have done so but with a two year old now here it isn't so easy. But Callum still talks fondly of that day. And I'm sure there will be a day when I'll do the same thing with Riley, heck as I'm typing this I'm playing cars and aeroplanes with him.

As mentioned I do have other ideas for photos and I'll see if I can get around to taking them but with this week being busy with the last week of school and more important this weekend being Callum's Birthday I've had a lot going on.

Another Childhood Memory... Action Figures!

Week Two - Animals - Dash Dog

Pets have always featued in my life, from the old family cat Worms, to Milligan the Red Setter dog I remember us having when I was a kid and who was forever escaping out of the back garden and heading over to the fields over the road from my parents, to my very own first dog Whiskey. It is the same for my hubby too. So when we lived in our  old flat it seemed very strange not having any animals. Enter Merlin. Actually it's probably best not to mention Merlin. That cat was completely insane and grown men were petrified of him. Sadly a month before my eldest son Callum was born we had to have Merlin put to sleep, he went feral on us and the vet when hubby and I and this huge bump turned up to have him look at Merlin said he couldn't let me go home with him as he wouldn't like to think what the cat would do to a newborn baby. So at only five years old we had to have Merlin put to sleep, not an easy thing to do anytime but even harder when pregnant and for all those years that little animal had been your own sort of little baby.

It was hard after Merlin to think of getting any more pets and we were sworn off cats. And then we had Callum and our life was taken over by our handsome and full of energy little boy. Eventually Callum wanted a pet and he asked for a pet fish. That was the first of many fish but Spider-fish lasted a good length of time for a goldfish. After a while we added to Spiderfish and got two more, these were called Toot and Beep and I have to say I have very very fond memories of those two, I never knew goldfish could have so much personality but those two certainly did. And they lasted us for many years and even moved home with us.

Then in 2008 my parents came home from Ireland with a birthday present for me... and I also learnt a good lesson, never jokingly tell my Mum to bring me a puppy home for my birthday... BECAUSE SHE DID!!!!

Dash Dog

So we had this adorable little puppy and even though shocked and totally not prepared for him we fell in love. It was great too for Callum to have a puppy, I think every little boy needs a best friend Dog. I won't lie and say they are the best of friends, Callum and Dash have a Love Hate relationship but they have had some great memories. And that little puppy has grown up with the same speed (and size!) that Callum has.

The Dash Dog loves to stand/sit on anything and everything. Sometimes though he isn't so good at working out how to get down. lol 

Just like both my boys, Dash Dog also loves toy cars although he find them more tasty than playful. 

Then when it looked like we were settling into the life of two adults, one child, one dog along came our Little Smiley Riley, my youngest son.

"Great! What is this?!?!"

 Now Riley and Dash have a completely different relationship to Callum and Dash Dog. Dash has always seen Callum as competition, the one to try and beat to go up the ladder of important people in the house (yes he is a very silly dog!). But with Riley he doesn't seem to have that, it probably helps that as soon as he could move and do so Riley has always been happy to share everything with Dash Dog. My FIL who does dog training said from the beginning how different the relationships would be and I never doubted him but it's been amazing to see.  I think if anything the Boy and Best Friend role will be between Riley and Dash and I fully expect that in years to come it'll be Riley (because even though he is adorably cute and gorgeous he is a Lil Devil) that will be letting Dash Dog upstairs to sleep in his bedroom with him. I can imagine that the two of them will have many many adventures and I hope too that Callum will be involved. 

But I think that first Callum will need to learn not to decorate Dash Dog.......

Dash Dog as The Joker

Oh and I did take another photo for the 52 Week Photo Challenge but thought it more fitting to do this week about Dash Dog, we do have another pet, our cat Rorschach aka Rory but I am sure over the next year I will get to talk aob

Rory Cat

Dead Bug I found.

Clouds

This weekend I've been sorting through all the hundreds of photos I've taken ready to back up to an external harddrive. While doing this I realised just how many photos I have never gotten round to playing around and editing. So I had a quick five/ten minute play around.

This is the completely un-edited photo, just some clouds the other week over our back garden. 

And here it is after my little play around. Not the greatest and I think I'll definetely come back and try it again... one day. But it was a fun five minute job.

The how to is very simple.

1. The first thing I always do before I start editing is to duplicate the background layer, this is so that I can make sure the original layer doesn't get touched and I can always go back to the original photo. A keyboard shortcut for this is ctrlJ.

2. Next go Image - Resize - Image Size. In this area you wan to make sure that the height measurement is the same as the width and that the constrain proportions box is unticked. Once done click ok. This should turn your image into a square one.

3. With this photo I then did some slight adjustment layers, mostly brightness/contrast and I used sponge tool to saturate a little bit, but this is all down to personal taste.

4. Then go to Filter - Distort - Polar Coordinates and click the Rectangular to Polar box and then click ok.  You should end up with an image similar to above but it will have a line from the top tothe middle. There are various ways you can get rid of this line some say to use the clone tool but I prefer the Spot Healing Brush Tool. Do small little areas until you are happy with your result.

5. You can then leave the shot as is or if you want and what I did here you can add a textured layer. I used one that was a free download from Practical Photoshop's website but there are plenty of free textures available on the internet. I clicked on new layer and pasted the copied textured into that layer and then used the move icon to stretch the textured image to fit my image and then click the green tick to say ok. I then added a layer mask and made sure the brush tool was on black and painted back in some of the original cloud image. Remember if you use a layer mask you can uncover or cover up the image that is below the layer with the mask. Black uncovers and white covers. Hope that makes sense.

And that is that. I did do some extra little tweaks in picmonkey mostly the airbrush and wrinkle remover around the edges to make them blur more into the clouds and a play with some of the effects. But again that is just personal choice.

The Polar Coodinates filter is such a fun filter and very much worth experimenting and playing around with. Here is another photo I used it on last year, the original photo was a shot of a sunflower.

If you do read this and try this out (and I hope my instructions make sense) I would love to see your results.

Week One - Self Portrait - Me!

Yesterday I joined a very lovely group of people who are doing a 52 Week Photo Challenge. The first weeks theme was/is Self Portraits. Not a subject I'm really a lover of, I hate my photo being taken. But hey it's a challenge! The person who has started this particular challenge is the wife of an online friend of my husband's and I and you can view her blog here at Jenn's Photoblog and see her entries but also the challenges that will be facing us.

Having been very busy helping out on a fundraising event at my son's school and nursing an ill child I was a little limited in time for getting a shot, plus the last two nights I'd been kept awake nearly the whole time by my youngest son Riley who has been ill. So yesterday when Riley decided at 5pm that he needed cuddles with me and a nap I thought I'd try and get in some shots for the challenge. I quickly realised that this wasn't going to be an easy job, having to hold a great big DSLR camera above your head (flashgun attached too!) is not easy. lol. Then add in to that focusing and making sure you get at least part of you in the shot and not just the sofa and you quickly realise you are maybe being a fool with this idea. But I wanted this shot. Both my boys have always (as every child does) loved cuddling up with me and nothing beats that feeling of your child with their head snuggled in your neck and cuddling you. Those moments are what make motherhood what it is.Before I fell pregnant with my eldest son Callum I was working for a Law Firm in London and was studying to become a Legal Executive. Sure I wanted a family but I also thought it important to have a career.  And then Callum was born and I knew what my "career" was. I've never looked back on the decision I made to stop studying and after my maternity leave was up to not go back to work, one look at my handsome little man and I just couldn't leave his side. I was exactly the same when Riley my youngest son was born. I love being a Mother and yes it is tiring beyond words but it is the best feeling in the world when your child looks at you, calls your name or just gently takes your hand and holds it. Not long after I became a Mum for the first time a good friend of mine at the time asked what motherhood felt like (she wasn't a parent at the time) and I told her you just can't put it into words. A couple years ago she became a Mum for the first time and she told me "I now understand what you meant all those years ago.".

Photo taken by my wonderful hubby.

I am sort of in the shot, that's my belly Riley is lying on. :D

Click

Sometimes I edit a photo and the next day I forgot what exactly I did editing wise. In most cases I do keep the PSD file as well as a jpeg but this is fast filling up my external harddrive. So I'm going to try and make a note of what editing I did as a reference and so I don't always have to keep the PSD file as well as the original RAW file and the JPEG. So to start off here are some photos I took yesterday of my youngest son Riley out in the garden enjoying the much needed sunshine. Riley has lately become a little attached to my little point and shoot Nikon camera and yesterday while out in the garden he wanted to take a few shots, so it was only natural that I take some of him taking shots of what he wanted. 

Here are the photos unedited:

Nothing (imo) much wrong with the photos I just wanted a little touch up though.


Here is the first one edited:

And here is what I did, the layers run from bottom to top like this:

• Background (no editing done on this layer)

• Ctrl J to duplicate background (you don't have to do this but I like a back up duplicate incase little fingers decide to go editing without me knowing, when you have finished and are happy you are more than welcome to delete this layer or just keep it in)

• Photo Filter (Warming Filter 81) 50% Density, preserve luminosity, 75% opacity

• Colour Fill - colour blue (1a2274), Exclusion blending mode, Opacity to taste but in this case I used 75%

• Ctrl J on original background layer and move to top, 33% but this is down to taste and then you can use this layer for any dodging, burning, sponge to taste.

• Levels Adjustment Layer From right to left 23 - 1.14 - 229 and for  Output 19-255

• I then saved the PSE 10 document and online opened up the JPEG version in the website picmonkey where I used the Burst (vibrant) icon on 14% to add just a little vibrancy to the shot. Then saved at the largest size I could.

 And here is the second photo edited:

It is edited identically to the first apart from the Colour Fill layer where it is 52% opacity.

And that is it, nothing major but to me makes the photos more to my liking.

Sunglasses Smiles

The other week while out shopping I picked up this fab pair of sunglasses (at a bargain price of £1). Not long after coming home I found my youngest son Riley sitting on a chair in our dining room watching his tv shows wearing them happy as larry. Luckily the camera was in the same room and I managed to snap off a couple shots of him in them. I just love the absolutely cheeky cuteness of him here. Also I bought myself a hat which he then saw and pointed to and said photo, who can resist a request like that:

A Sprinkling of Sunshine

As already mentioned in a previous post (http://snwhitephotography.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/lashings-of-lashes.html) I am taking part in an online photoraphy course. For Module 2 we were set the task to take a Head and Shoulders Portrait photo with the suggestion of it being outside and in the shade. Here is my entry. I need to give a big thumbs up to my eldest son Callum who even though we were having a heatwave braved the very cold water of the hose for this shot. More photos can be viewed here.

Zebra Glass

Got this idea from this post on the 365 Project website. This was just a quick attempt and I really want to try it again and experiment with different backgrounds and maybe various liquids in the glass.

Splash!

Lashings of Lashes

A few months ago I started a free online photography course (http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/DSLR-Skills/) and our first homework was to take a Black and White Jpeg image which  we were not allowed to do any form of editing to other than to resize it for the gallery. This was my shot that I entered.

If you would like to see other shots that I took and shots for future modules you can view them here on my PP DSLR Skills 2012 set.