The Dragonfly

We were eating dinner outside one night, and Daniel caught a dragonfly. I'm not exactly sure how he caught it, since they aren't too easy to catch...

My Siblings

Tiana

Meaning: Princess

Alina

Meaning: Noble, Kind

Daniel

Meaning: God is my Judge

The Raccoon

On the way back from the zoo, (if you didn't see that post, you can find it here), we went driving around the park area. Most of it was foresty, and as we were driving, my dad spotted a raccoon. He wasn't very shy, and just stood and watched us. 

We also spotted another raccoon after traveling down the road a while.

Kelsey, 100 Posts, and 100 Followers!

On the fourth of July, I did a mini-photoshoot with Kelsey. She came up with some great poses and was fun to photograph.

This shot's one of my favorites.

  Doesn't she have beautiful eyes?

This happens to be my 100th post AND yesterday I reached 100 101 followers! Thank you so much for following, everyone! And for all of the lovely comments you all leave. I love reading every single one of them. :D

Welcome to the Zoo!

Last week, our family visited the zoo. It turned out to be really warm, and we all had a good time looking at all the animals!

On the way from the parking lot to the zoo entrance, we spotted this guy:

A family shot, (minus me). I forgot to adjust the polarizer (Most of the time, I forget it's on there.), so the mountain isn't too easy to see...

This zoo also has an aquarium part.

One of the elephants.

One of the little sea horses.

The tiger had just come out of the water, just before we saw him.

 Pretty blue bird!

Alina feeding a beautiful light blue colored one.

These green guys are my favorite!

Also, summer's been keeping me busy, and haven't had the time to edit/post post as much. So, I'll only be posting about two times a week.

Q&A

Photography Blog Related

Q: What photo editing program do you use? Another similar question: I know that you use photoshop for your editing, but what version is it (CS3,
CS4, etc.)?
A: I use Photoshop Elements 7.



Q: How long have you worked with Photoshop Elements? Where can I find out more about the program? ~Jessica
A: I think it's been about four months, so I'm still pretty new at it. But CoffeeShop actions really helped me get used to the program. And there are tons of tutorials also. You can learn more about it here.


Q: How do I get the transparent rectangle that you put the watermark on top of?
A: It's just a long, rectangle that I created with the rectangle tool. I place on top of each photo, and adjust the opacity. I saved that and the watermark text as a .PSD  file,(for Photoshop) then I just drag it on top of each photo, and place the text on top of that.


Q: How do you get inspiration for a photo?
A: Sometimes I just see something, and I instantly have an idea. Other times, I'll remember something cool that I saw online, and I'll use that as inspiration.


Q: How did you get involved with photography? ~Grace
A: Well, I've always loved to take pictures and I've taken photos with point and shoots for a long time. But in January, I started shooting with my parents DSLR, cause I love the pictures I get with it. and I use it all the time! (I'm working on a post about this topic, so be sure to keep an eye out for it!)


Q: What (if any) extra gadgets do you use with your camera...such as other lenses, 
filters, flashes, etc.?  Which is your favorite? ~Hannah
A: I pretty much only shoot with my 50mm. And I use a polarizer, and that's about it... I want
a to get one of those nice flashes, though.

Q: This doesn't have anything to do with your photography, but how did you get the
 cute little font for the post titles on your blog?  Did you have it done somewhere or do
 it yourself?  I love it! ~Hannah
A: Thanks! I did it myself, with a tutorial from Keven and Amanda. There are quite a few steps, 
but it's worth it. :D Heres the link: Custom Font for Header
Q: When you bring out one color in a picture, do you have to do that by hand?
A: Kinda. For most photos, I use the CoffeeShop Vivid Action (for PS and PSE). I tweak with
the layers to get it exactly how I want it.

Q: What is your favorite thing to photograph? And another similar question, What is 
your favorite thing to take pictures of?
A: I enjoy photographing just about anything, but food is probably one of my favorites. 
Portraits would be a close second. :)

Other

Q: Do you have any pets?
A: Yes, I do. Our family has two Seal Point Siamese, who are brothers. (Seen here)


Q: I was wondering if you would possibly post the recipe for the banana cake, my 
brothers birthday is soon and he LOVES! bananas!
A: Here's the recipe: https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1KFokAAzuTpT1To3EW64YDB7tXl-SF7_vYWhrkoqPaYQ&hl=en&authkey=CMyfmsEP


Q: How do you make this Google Docs thingy have such a cool background? :)
A: When creating a form, there's a button in the top, left side that says, "Theme: Plain" 
If you click on it, there are many different templates. :D

Q: Have you ever been out of the country? ~ Carlotta
A: Technically, yes. We drove up to Canada once, when I was younger, but I don't really
remember it... I want to visit Europe someday, though!

Keep the questions coming! If I get enough new ones, I'll anwer them in another post.

See You Next Week!

I've been having several computer problems lately, so I've finally decided to reformat my computer. Since I'll be busy reconfiguring my PC, I won't be posting for around a week. I'll still do some commenting on the blogs I follow, though. :) 

Once I get Photoshop Elements back on, I have a bunch of pictures to edit and share. And I'll be sure to post the Q&A's next week!

Cavell and Mercy

Two of my friends train service dogs. On our camping trip, we got to know these two (Along with their poodle, Sarah).

(Made with the Echoes of Asia kit by Jessica Sprague.)

It's Q&A Time!

I often get comments asking me how to do this, or how I did that. So, I thought it would be fun to do some Q&A's, and answer anybody's questions. So, if you have a question about my photography, my blog, editing, ect. just leave it in the box below. In a week or so, I'll answer all of the questions. Oh, and feel free to leave as many questions that you can think of!

 

Fun at the Creek

Last week, my sister had her friend Lauren over. It turned out to be quite a nice day, and they spent some time at the creek in the green belt next to our house. I tagged along, and got some pictures.

If you stood in the right spot, the sun was beaming through a small hole in the canopy of trees.

My almost eight-year-old brother.

The beautiful green leafs fill the trees during the summer.

Lauren, who is five years younger than me, but just as tall (or even taller.) than me. I guess that's cause both of her parents are really tall.

Add one giant rubber band, and you could have a jumbo slingshot!

At first the tree was in my way. But then it ended up lookin' pretty good in the pictures. : )

Tiana, the girl who loves pink.

My Fourth of July

Saturday my family spend the day at our friends, grandma's house. They have a small lake, where the kids rode in boats and had a good time, even though it was cold and windy out.

I made a banana cake with banana frosting to share with everyone. I also made some American flags to add to it.

The "red" turned out more like pink, and the blue wasn't as dark as I was hoping. Oh, well.

Tiana, Alina, and Danielle in the paddle boat.

The beautiful pond in the backyard.

Daniel, already to go out in the boat.

Alina and Danielle rowed over to the island.

And of course, my dad brought his RC stuff. Here is is radio controlled jet ski.

Playing Apples to Apples.

Playing baseball, with a ketchup bottle as a bat, and a plastic lid for a ball.

Kelsey, Me, and Cristina.

Fireworks! We had quite a bit of them...

And last, but not least, FIREWORKS! :D

I Heart Faces - Teens Only

I Heart Faces has been celebrating teen photographers the last several weeks, and for their weekly photo contest this week, only teens are allowed to enter. That also made choosing a picture for this weeks challenger extremely difficult, because their really isn't a theme. All the photo has to have in it is a human face. I decided to enter a photo I just shot Saturday, on the Fourth of July. 

We were invited to our friends grandma's house for the Fourth, and we had a great time. While we were there, Cristina and her cousin Kelsey let me take ton of photos of them. This one is one of my favorites.

Independence Day!

 Have a great 4th, everyone!