SPS

It's Saturday, and that means it's Portrait time!

I love how portraits can take on so many different tones and moods. I think the part of the fun as a photographer is getting the mood of the portrait to match the essence of the person--at least in that moment.

It's also fun to just play for artistic reasons.

This week has been full of playing as I edit the photobooth photos I mentioned in my last post. So many different personalities make up a congregation, so many different poses and moods to capture. It's hard today to choose a favourite, but I finally settled on this one. This brother and sister are so sweet, and I just love the way she's looking at her big brother. You can see the love! I also like the results of using Pioneer Woman's "Heartland" action on this photo for a timeless feel.

Coming up Roses

I forgot to blog yesterday! Yes, the sky has fallen! I cannot believe it!

I've been busy doing online classes and webinars and editing up a storm. (When I'm not melting snow to do dishes or bathe. Still no water!) Our church had Shandee and I do photos at a Valentine's dance as a fundraiser. We took over one of the classrooms, set up two different backdrops, a couple of lamps, and went crazy. Everyone really got into the spirit with fun poses and props, but when we got home--disaster! The room has that slightly yellow-tinted paint and the lights just reflected it. Everyone has this horrible, horrible yellow cast to their skin. Picasa and I could do nothing. I really thought I was going to have to make every single photo black and white or sepia just to have anything.

BUT!

The Photo Editing course opened up at jessicasprague.com and right there in Lesson One was my solution--and then it was made even simpler in Lesson Two. An answer to prayer! Now instead of gross yellow people, we have nice rosy complexions!

Incidently, "rosy" was the HSMSHS prompt for yesterday. It must be a sign!

Today's prompt is "beads". These ones are a keychain the kids made for Hubby last year for Father's Day at church. Funny thing is, they each made one, so he now has 3 different homemade keychains to tell him he's the "Best Dad Ever" (in case he should ever forget!)

Back to the edits! Thanks for playing!

Construct

Construct: To build or erect something by bringing together different elements.

I have a home with 3 small children, so you'd think there'd be no end of construction materials. Here's a secret though: I LOATHE Lego, ken*ex and all the other stuff. Always have, though I had brothers who ADORE it as much as I hate it. Maybe part of the hatred stems from how many times I stepped on something small and sharp on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night?

I did try to be a good mom at first. I bought blocks of all types and descriptions, including that pre-cursor to Lego, the Mega Blocks. I sat on the floor and played with my kids, encouraging them and showing them some ideas for how to use it. They hated it as much as I did. The only thing that really stuck were the wooden blocks, because you can make pretend furniture out of them, and the MegaBlocks characters. (Because TIGGER. Also, PRINCESSES.)

That all changed at Christmas this year though. Santa brought them this super cool and wildly fun marble race game. You can construct different courses with different obstacles and then race your marbles through them. THIS my kids love. Hey, I love it too! I just grabbed the camera as soon as I saw the prompt and snapped a photo of the current construction, a two-tubed course courtesy of Sweetpea (DD2).

Mascot

The prompt today at HSMSHS: Mascot.

For me, it can only be this guy. My son's best friend, blue teddy. Complete with worn off fur and chewed off nose. Since this photo was taken a couple of years ago, he has also lost his ribbon and a lot more fuzz. His nose has been repaired 3 times now. There's no one we love more, no one who represents my son and his childhood better; and by extension our entire family. You kind of have to know him to understand, but Blue Teddy has become our family mascot. We don't go anywhere or do anything without him. I even use this photo as my avatar on MSN and used to use him on discussion boards.

Hold on

Well, we finally seem to be coming out the other side of our flu pandemic and we're enjoying our big blizzard. Hubby is out shovelling while the kids play right now. All would be perfect in the world...if only our water was working. Hopefully the repairman will be out tomorrow. If not I might start knocking on doors in hopes of a shower.

With that being the case, I've been using the camera to distract myself and have a few dozen pictures of the snow. Snow falling, snow blowing, snow piling up, snow being shovelled. I'm sure there are other ways to photograph it, but not from my window, and unlike my family I'm happy here where it's warm. I'm on hot chocolate detail and get to take a few minutes to check out HSMSHS and giggle like a school girl at today's choice of "rubber". It shouldn't be funny but it is. So many choices to photograph too! I'll stick with the usual for around here, the rubberized headbands that all the local girls wear (my girl included):

Piling up

I was so excited to be all caught up with HSMSHS, and then yesterday it got away from me again.

My youngest and oldest are both down with the flu. Middle child had her turn last weekend, so hopefully it will stay confined to the two of them.

The prompt yesterday was piles--and let me tell you--I've got piles! I have laundry piles out the wazoo. We've been having water issues for over a month now (repairman comes next week--fingers crossed!) so laundry has been backing up a bit anyway, but with kids taking turns being sick...well, I've got piles of clean stuff waiting to be folded, piles by the washing machine waiting to to in, and piles stacking up in the laundry baskets. It's not pretty, and I'm not sure how taking a photo is going to help anyone. I'm not sure it's something I want a solid memory of.

So I'm going to be digging out a bit today while nursing my sickies. If I get a chance for relief I might get brave and snap a few photos, even get over to the site to see what today's prompt is, but I'm not making promises.

It's been one of those weeks.

The Daily Grind

Today's prompt at HSMSHS is "daily".

I have to admit that it took me a while to think of what I'd use for daily. Alarm? Nope, I turn it off now and then. Breakfast? I like to mix it up. E-mail? Please not another screen shot.

Then, while I was thinking, I found myself in the bathroom. Ahhhhhh. Daily. Daily toothbrushing, daily grooming, daily laundry, daily, daily, daily. I now have a fun and eclectic series of photos taken in my bathroom this morning. And that's part of why I love HSMSHS. Things I would never think to photograph have now been captured in fun ways. And who knows? Maybe I'll have to scrapbook them!

Anyway, here's what I chose for daily:

Ahhhh, the shower. Sometimes I stumble in as soon as I roll out of bed. It wakes me and readies me for the day. Some days I yearn for it and never seem to get there, until at last it's bedtime and I can stand under the spray, already half asleep and letting the water work out the kinks before bed. (Of course, now that my hair is short, if I do the second than I really must at least soak my head the next morning. Bed head is a new daily occurance too.) I've never been a bath girl, but there's something almost religious about the shower. So good.


As a bonus, here are the other prompts from this week. I was going to post them last evening but should know better by now---I never get anything done in the evenings.