Come Out and Play

A friend has invited me to do a photo shoot with her horses. Since I have never photographed a horse, I thought I should get in some practice first. I drive past this field almost every day. There at least six babies in the field with their moms. When I first arrived, four of the babies were laying down - back by the fence. About halfway through the photos you will notice a black pony forcing one of the others to stand. Eventually all six babies are on their feet - to eat and then right back to sleep - lol! Majesty, beauty, power, and brute strength all in one lovely package. Only God could do this.

Fix It Friday at I ♥ Faces

It's Fix It Friday over at I ♥ Faces. They provided a photo, invited us to edit that photograph, and provided a place for us to post our edits. Here is the photo they gave us this week.

I know there are a lot of you who do a better job of editing than I do. I figured this is a way for me to practice and get some input. Here is my edited version:

I made the first adjustments in Photoshop CS3. I cropped the photo to highlight the face, then whitened up the eyes and teeth a bit, brightened the photo a little, and then added a touch of "soft focus" with Picasa 3 which really emphasized her beautiful face. Yeah, I know, I work backwards - lol!

I want to add one more photo. Some nice blog-friends shared how to do a couple tricks in PS-CS3, so I worked on a different edit. Thanks guys! Here it is:

Let me know what you think and what you think I should do to improve it. To check out everyone else's edited version, visit I ♥ Faces.

I ♥ Faces: Silhouette

Yay!!! Owen got my laptop working again just in time to post today's entry on I ♥ Faces. This week's category is silhouettes which reminded me of this cool shot I got of one of America's finest at a 'See You At the Pole' rally a couple months ago. Charlie had just returned from Iraq and we were thrilled he could join us in prayer. The flag flying in the background is a flag that flew over Iraq during his tour of duty there. It helped make our prayer time more special as we remembered not only the leaders here in our nation, states, counties, cities, and schools, but also our soldiers making the sacrifice for us - both home and abroad. If you want to see some more neat silhouette shots just click here. And, thanks again, Owen, for getting me back online!

Dead in the Water

Just a note to let you know I am still dead in the water here, so to speak. The rains have finally left us. The end of our driveway was completely washed away by the continual pounding of the storms this past week. We can't get our cars back in the drive at all and are waiting on the county to come out and remedy the situation.

I also want to tell you to watch out for a pop-up box called WinPC Antivirus. This is actually a virus itself and will shut your computer down in a hurry. I am now without my desktop and my laptop - both of them. I was on Facebook both times, so you won't be seeing me there for awhile. Both computers are with a technician (thank you Owen) who is trying to repair them. Hopefully he will be able to. I am on Mark's laptop now, can't believe he let me use it. Sorry, Pam, I can't work on photos when I don't have a computer. So, I have revamped all our homeschool records in the meantime :O). Kali is not amused. Hope to be back online soon.

You Capture Sweetness

I am having massive problems with my computer this week, making my post extremely late. I didn't think I'd be able to post at all, so now is better than not at all :O). I know the rules are to share a photo, but with my computer issues that isn't an option until Tuesday.

'Sweet' to us is homeschooling our precious daughter. This is our 10th year and we wouldn't have it any other way. I love this cartoon (and had it saved on a CD, so I am posting from a laptop.) For those of you who follow my blog you already know Kali and I have spent many weeks this winter on the road traveling through the southeastern states with her speech and debate conferences and tournaments. One of the things I love best about homeschooling is the freedom to pursue Kali's interests. There is no way she could pursue speech and debate to a national level if she was in public school. At least not in our public school. And not in a totally Christian atmosphere. I love it! I love homeschooling! I love my daughter and the Godly young lady she is becoming! If you want to see some more "sweet" shots, head on over to Beth's page and check them out. If you want to join us, next week's challenge is 'family'.

Fishing the Everglades

Mark and four buddies just returned from a three-day fishing trip in the Florida Everglades. Mark and Mike took all the pictures in this post. While they fished and traveled the channels, they saw many, many alligators like the one above.

Mark fishing off the back of our boat.


I really like the reflection in the water in this shot above.

Along the canals there were iguanas resting in the trees.

Mark driving his boat :O). It looks like a lot of fun and the scenery was beautiful.

George had a fish on his line. This happened a lot. You'll have to read through to the end of the post to find out how many fish they caught in three days :O).

Dan, this is George's son. He's a co-worker of Mark and Mike's.


The scenery was beautiful.






As you can see there were alligators everywhere, including the one swimming towards Mark.

And a fun and adventurous trip comes to an end.

I told you I'd tell you at the end of the post how many fish Mark, Mike, Bill, Dan, and George caught in three days - well they caught roughly 955 fish - and those were the keepers! That doesn't count the ones they had to throw back! All totaled they caught close to 2,000 fish!

Those are some proud fellows right there! Hopefully they will be able to make this trip again next year. Remind me to tell you sometime about the fishing worms we raised in our kitchen for this trip - lol!

iheartfaces Entry

Over at i ♥ faces this week, they are holding a My Favorite Face contest. The winning photos will be going into a new Blurb Photo Book. You are allowed to enter one photo only. I really had a hard time deciding which photo to use, so I had some faithful friends help me decide. Many of you were included in that decision making process. Thank you! I would like to show the selection of five photos that I narrowed it down to, but one of the rules states that only one photograph can be in this blog post - otherwise disqualification. Here is the photograph you helped me pick:

Wish me luck!

I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

Glorious View

I feel like I am failing my blog if I don't post something every couple days - lol! Here is one last shot from the seminary campus in Wake Forest, North Carolina. I shot this from inside the chapel on campus. I am hoping with my black background on this page - the black borders around the window will fade out into the blog page and all you will see is the window. Now to check and see if it worked .....

You Capture Color

This week's You Capture challenge was color. Kali and I were recently in Wake Forest, North Carolina for a speech and debate tournament. The competition was held at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The campus was gorgeous. It was blooming all around with colors - flowers, trees, even the buildings were colorful.

Not sure what kind of tree this was, but the colors were wonderful.


The dogwood trees were in full bloom. Some had pink blooms ...

... and some had white. They were all beautiful.


I just kept on clicking shots :O).


I shot this one through a window and across a street.

These guys must be used to people because he didn't try to fly away.

And this is my last awesome shot :O). Basically SOOC with no editing. One of my facebook friends told me it looks like an eye right behind the steeple of the church. Awesome God!

You can catch other You Capture color photos here. Join in the fun. It's easy!