Family Portraits

It was decided that when my brother and his family came to visit we were going to get a big group family portrait done. It's been years since we had one done and we have added a few children since the last one. The question then became where would we go to have it done and who has the patience to deal with this many of us. We decided to use our neighbor across the street. She has a photography studio set up in her home and we could get both indoor pictures taken along with some out by the lake. For those of you here in the area, she is amazing and you should check out her site.

So we got all dressed up and got to her house. We got some of each family taken and then we got some of us as a group.



We then went outside and got some by the lake.


Then she just kind of hung out and got some random ones of everyone.


They turned out great and we were all excited to get them. And the best thing besides getting all these pictures, it wasn't that much of a beating to have done.

Had a Blast

I had a wonderful time this weekend in Austin. My friend and I drove down there in no time at all. Lots of good conversation and a few laughs. We both learned so much from our weekend course. I can't wait to start trying out some of what I learned. I wish I had more time to go into details of all that was taught but even now I'm sure I am forgetting stuff as I sit here. All I can say is that if you ever get a chance to go to any of the courses with RMSP then by all means do it. You will not be disappointed.

Now I really should go off and take care of some of the things that need to be done.

Four Days and Counting

I have four days left until I get to enjoy my last Christmas present from Hubs. And I am getting so excited.

I will head out Friday evening just me and another friend and we will drive our excited selves down to Austin. Where we will both then spend the remainder of the weekend cooped up in a hotel conference room attending one photography class after another. Yes, I know this doesn't sound like fun for some of you. But for me, this is BIG stuff. I'm hoping to come away from these courses with just a little bit better knowledge of what I am capable of doing with my camera. Because at this point it's all user error.

So that gives me four days to work my tail off. so that when I get home after a brief two days, the house won't be falling down around me. I can dream can't I?

Looky What I'm Learning

I'm finally trying to figure out all this photo editing stuff that everyone else seems to know how to do. I'm a bit of a slow learner since if it involves using the computer I will let Hubs figure it out and then explain it to me. That way I don't have to strain my brain or anything serious like that. This is also why my cool digital photo picture frame is still not on my mantle. Maybe I'll tackle that one next. Then again maybe I'll just pay better attention next time he tells me how to do it. But anyways I digress once again. Photo editing... my pictures... oh yeah.

Here is a picture I took this past summer of one of my Purslane flowers. It's a very pretty hot pink which I love.

But I'd wanted to get just the flower part and nothing else. So I spent some time finally playing around. I realized that I could trim the picture. Wow.. what a concept. So I trimmed. Then I added a bit of color saturation. Then I realized I could put text on the pictures. So I did, not that I'm a professional of any sort mind you. But since I figured out how to do it then by gosh I was going to. So now this is the end result.

Tell me what do you think? Are you completely shocked and awed that I am even excited about this bit of photo editing that any third grader can probably do. I mean it really is pretty easy stuff and I don't know why I haven't done it before. And I'm really not sure why I'm so excited about finally doing it now, but I am. Anyways, if nothing else, it gives me another chance to look at my pretty purslane flower this winter.