Sweet Texture Shot Tuesday

Today I am going to combine two memes.  Everyone is doing it!  Since many of the same blogs appear to participate in both of these, also, it seems like this will make it easier for some.  I find myself a little overwhelmed when I go to someone's post and it is linking to like 10 different memes, but two or three does make it easier to give the gift of a comment (I did create a flickr account!) once and not travel to their blog several times in one day.  If you have a preference, please do let me know.

So I will start with a little bit of Texture Tuesday found over at Kim Klassen's Cafe.

This was the stage at my church last Sunday.  I have a layer of Silence in soft light blending mode and one layer of Sweettart*.  I didn't want to add pink to this photo so I added a hue adjustment to the Sweettart layer and slid things around until it was more of a teal color.  Then I changed the blending mode of the Sweettart layer to Linear Light (well, a whole bunch of different ones, but I landed on Linear Light).  I masked the Sweettart layer off of the cross.

Now for my Sweet Shot--I limited myself to one, but then I couldn't decide between my edits!  This is my clean edit with a color pop vignette.

Then just for fun I tried the textures from Texture Tuesdays to see if it would work better than with the cross:

Silence with softlight blending mode and Sweettart in overlay blending mode.  Then since it made it softer colors anyway I ran a Coffee Shop Pink Glow action with some adjustments.

I hope you have a terrific Tuesday!  Thank you so much for visiting my blog.  Every visit and comment thrills me to pieces!  (I love follower's too, but I don't usually follow blogs.  Like flickr I will probably join the crowd eventually to make my blog reading easier, but I have commitment issues.  I don't like google reader telling me I'm behind in reading--then I feel like I have to read them all and I cannot.  But if it makes it easier for you to leave me comments and not miss out on anything important, go ahead and make my day!)

*I was about to post when I realized I'd made a mistake.  We were supposed to use Sweettreat not Sweettart.  So here is my real Tuesday Texture.  The rest are just happy bonuses, right?

One layer of Silence and one layer of SWEETTREAT--both at 100% opacity soft light blending.

Monday Rewind April 19

I went back through last weeks photos to figure out which of my favorite pictures I didn't have chance to share so I can link up with Chic Homeschool Mama and her blog hop Monday Rewind.  Turns out except for a few shots of flowers, they are all photos of my Sunflower.  I guess by the time the boys got home from school I was all camera-ed out.  Definitely a pro in the homeschool column.

So to not bore you completely, I did play with some actions.  But my first one is just a simple edit.  I love this photo because she still looks like my baby in this shot and not the big, little girl she is becoming:

Here she is earlier this day when she is yelling "Take a picture of me, NOW!":

Here she is playing after childcare at the church for my Acts Bible Study class:

That same day at a birthday party at McDonalds (before she peed on this same platform):

Back to a simple edit on one of my absolute favorites.  I opened the door to let some light in for the photos and she is peering to see why the door is open; what's out there, mama?:

Have a wonderful Monday and be sure to hop on over to Chic Homeschool Mama for more photos!

Week 15 good to WOW SOOC Easter

All week I thought I wouldn't have anything to share for this weeks prompt--after all how do I take pictures that represent Easter the week before Easter?  I had already used a cross last week.  Easter is one of my favorite holidays, but we don't do a lot of the traditional holiday things.  We don't do Easter baskets or even resurrection eggs (not on principle, but out of laziness).  My sister-in-law decorates eggs with the kids, but that isn't happening until Tuesday.  I know other people who love Easter who really get into it all, whether the resurrection side or the bunny side.   So I thought and thought about why I say Easter is my favorite holiday when some years it can pass without being much different than other Sundays and I came up with two reasons.

One is because it is the most important point of the life of Jesus and my faith in Him.  If God did not have the power and did not raise Jesus from the dead than Jesus would just be another good teacher whose life lessons I could take or leave as it fitted my belief system.  But Jesus did raise from the dead.  Without the empty cross I would have no religion, but with it I have new life and a powerful God--the powerful God--walking by my side.

1/40   f/5.6   ISO 1600   62mm

So while Easter and the empty tomb is a critical component to what I believe, it is important every day not just on the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon date each year.

The other reason I love Easter is that it was my mom's favorite holiday.  She died when I was 15 but it was clear she loved Easter (including the Easter baskets) and we always spent it at church and with family.  The few family shots I have from my childhood were taken on Easter Sunday.

This is not my SOOC since I am the girl in yellow.

So my family has coordinating Easter outfits and when we are with family next Sunday they will be taking some pictures for me.  Since I don't have a tripod and I wanted to have some pictures for you, yesterday I dressed the kids up in their outfits and took them outside for pictures.  Not a single one turned out exactly as I envisioned it (it was really bright out so my oldest glasses gleamed; my middle child was apparently chewing on various flowers through out the time or wearing his sister's hat; and my daughter didn't appear to notice there was a camera to look towards.)  So since none of them are perfect, I'm having trouble deciding on which one to share.  Decisions, decisions!  Not going to make one so here are 423 okay shots of my children.  (They told our friends we were out there for 24 hours, but it was 45 minutes tops.)

1/640   f/5.6     ISO 100    55mm

He actually took a small bite of this flower.   It must not be too poisonous.  You'd think it was the 2 year old we had to worry about.  This photo clearly shows the mistake of shooting with your subjects facing into the sun with nothing shading their eyes (the trick of having them close their eyes and open on 3 would not yet work with them--not that I thought about it then; there is a lot to think about still for me.)

1/160   f/5.6   55mm   ISO 100

My oldest and my favorite shot of him, though it is too crooked to straighten.

1/250   f/5.6   ISO 200   86mm

We moved into the shade.  They aren't looking at me, but at least they are all looking the same direction!

1/800   f/5.6   ISO 400    160mm

My middle child.  Sunflower had taken her hat back.

1/1600    f/5.6   ISO 400   70mm  (flaked and forgot ISO was up in the shade so changed shutter instead of lowering ISO)

I don't know why they are squinting here; the sun is behind them.  Sunflower ran circles around the two boys and paused for this shot for maybe 2 seconds.  Thank goodness for continuous shooting mode.  It is fun to scroll through the shots quickly in iPhoto and see her circling them while they sit there.

I'll end with one of my favorite shots of Sunflower from the day:

1/800   f/5.6  ISO 400   145mm

Okay, I was just kidding about the 423 and I promise not to have a horrendously long post on Thursday.   

Have a blessed Easter week and don't forget to check out some more SOOC shots over at Jill's blog.