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 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 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.

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.