Fun With Pix

Hi Everyone, here is my entry for the Photojournalism contest. This is a shot of Rich Kosak, one of the members of the very talented Kiss tribute band, Mr. Speed. I was fortunate enough to capture this concert at Akron, Ohio’s Lock 3 Live. This was shot this summer. I love this shot because it’s sooo in the moment. Rich is giving and receiving from the crowd.  A moment is happening here, and I was able to capture it.

Rich Kosak of Mr. Speed plays to the crowd at Lock 3 Live

Thanks for stopping by.

I Heart Faces

Hi all, it’s been a long time!

I just got back from Myrtle Beach, and I have to share some fun Beach Pics!

What’s better than fun, surf and sand? Thanks to my favorite little sandy models!

This Friday, I had the challenge of working on this already great photo. Here it is-

I used Lightroom this time to try to come up with a different view.  I am still learning Lightroom, so it was fun. I cropped it, and set the pic on a different angle. Then I tweaked around, and used the

Pretty Presets Lightroom collection, the Pretty Presets Brown.

Here is my edit-

very fun, and took about  10 minutes to do! Ya gotta love those Lightroom Presets!

For more edits, please visit,

www.Iheartfaces.com

Okay… trying this on more time!

Here is my entry for the I heart Faces Photo contest of the week,  Smiles!

These entries are a great way to think about your photos,  your content, and how to share them. Anyone can join! I have had a lot of fun with this site.

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This is one of my favorite smile shots of my girlies and my God Daughters! The photo is mine, the editing from PhotoWow.com

My entry for the Smile contest this week! Enjoy !

Here is another fun challenge from I Heart Faces photography website.

It’s called Fix it Friday.

Here is the original photo of a cute little snow Girl.

Pretty cute, I just wanted to try to amp it up, and make the colors pop. I used my favorite online editing place. www.picknic.com (again). It is so fun to use, and I just love all the choices. Here is  my edit. The snowflakes in front of her face were a challenge.

You can check out other submissions here, and try it yourself! It’s fun practice

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Last week,  My family and I were having the perfect day photographing, when we were held up with a gun and our car and gear was stolen. We are all perfectly fine now, one week later. I wanted to share my experience with you. Please take something away from it, and keep safe when you are out shooting photos!

By Karen Menyhart

14 Apr 2010

We live in a bubble, we feel safe, thinking nothing can go wrong…

It was my big idea to go there.

Last Sunday was a beautiful sunny day in Cleveland. The weather here changes hourly, so if an opportunity arises with perfect weather, you go for a photo outing. Late afternoon, I persuaded my husband to go on a shoot with our girls after he finished mowing the grass.

The destination, Lake View Cemetery , nestled in the middle of the city. It’s beautiful and picturesque, a photographer’s mecca.

The grounds are gorgeous, the graves old, featuring weeping angels, lakes, and a chapel with windows designed by Louis Tiffany. President Garfield is buried there in a gothic tomb and monument.

Every year, a special hill in the cemetery blooms for as wide as the eye can see with daffodils. I have brought my girls there before. Excited, I packed my camera bags to the gills for the trip. Wide angles, macros, Lens Baby, Portrait, telephoto… all ready to go. I was prepared. It was a beautiful trip, the grounds covered with families and photographers snapping away the spring beauty. My girls gathered acorns to bring home to plant. They ran care-free down the hills.

We were growing hungry, so we packed up to head to our favorite bakery. On the way out, we stopped at the Garfield monument. It was closed, so I snapped shots of the girls running up and down the steps, my husband smiling while sliding down a railing. Gathering up the family we headed back to the car. A man appeared and asked to use my husband’s phone. I thought he was a groundskeeper, so I went back for a few more shots of the magnolia blossoms. My husband told him the phone was dead, and the next thing I hear is the man demanding money. He had a gun in his waistband. He warned us, “Don’t make me use this”.

It is like the movies, when this actually plays out in front of you, everything is in slow motion. People are still driving on the pathways. I hear a baby cry in the distance. I am thinking, “this is not happening to me”,” Where are my girls” and please God, don’t let him hurt us or take my camera. It is a Canon 7D, just days old. ( I am ashamed to say my camera was forefront in my mind)

I move in between the man and my girls, telling them to follow me, leaving my husband alone with him. The girls know something is wrong by our faces. I hide my camera behind my back, making bargains for anything and everything with the Big Guy Upstairs. The man turns back to my husband, and threatens the gun one more time. My husband, slowly opens his wallet, gives him 40 bucks, all the while with his eyes on us. Then, the man asks for the keys. He hands them over as pleasant as he can. The man tells us to walk away, don’t look back, and “don’t you dare take any pictures of me”.

That walk lasted about 1 minute, but felt like and eternity. The girls asking what’s wrong, why are we leaving, why is the man taking our car?

As our car drove away, my daughter turned to me crying, and said, “Mommy, my ipod is in there, can’t we ask for it back?’ ” No honey,keep walking…. Every piece of photo gear I own, my lens, my new tripod, my cases are in the trunk, … keep walking… my purse with my personal information in it, riding shotgun with the thief….. keep walking…

My daughters are in tears, and God help me, I still had my death grip on my Canon 7D, saying over and over in my head,”He didn’t get this… he didn’t get this….”

This whole transaction lasted about 3 minutes, and as he was speed away, a car load of people pulled up. I never thought in my lifetime I would be running up yelling,” He’s got a gun, don’t get out the car!” The kind strangers stayed with us until the police arrived.

Everything else has been surreal, from the polite but impassive response of the police. “I’ll put down in the report that you lost miscellaneous camera stuff”

No , I lost 95% of my equipment, my passion, my creative life.

Time and Time again, the response is “Thank God you are OK, your things can be replaced.” And rightly so. My husband did all the right things, he saved our lives that day by being calm. My girls are unharmed, but some innocence is lost.

We snuggle in my bed at night, holding each other tight. I owe the Big Guy, he was listening to my prayers.

Now that we are safe at home, security installed, locks changed, credit cards cancelled, we can move on.

I still have a big, aching void. I feel violated and robbed of my passion. I know you, my fellow JPG friends understand. My camera is just an extension of my right hand. My lens are another way my eyes look at the world. I watched my gear drive away with a man who will never know it true value .

As I write this, the car is still lost , and now it and my gear are probably gone as well.

Did he crush me that day, I thought so, but he has only hobbled me for now.

He didn’t take away my most precious inspiration for my photography, my muse that is my family

.

Look for more from me in the days ahead, but right now, the world looks a little more distorted through my lens.

The pictures featured in this essay were the ones that I took an hour and minutes before our lives changed. Please look for the beauty in them, for they hold no magic for me, only memories I can’t delete.

I just joined a fun site called I Heart Faces. This week’s challenge was collages. Here is my entry of Vivi and her first communion daffodils.

Collages are a fun way to group family photo outings together. Please see my last post on Family Bowling Night for more Collage ideas.

If you are like me, you bring  your camera with you on family outings. You  might snap a few pics of the kids having fun, then you snap’ em and leave ‘em . If you are really good, you download them when you get home!  Most of us just leave languishing in camera lock down till the next family outing.

You know who you are!  If you ever say to your self ,” Oh look, there’s little Timmy’s first steps, his kindergarten soccer game, senior prom, wedding….. I have got to print these out”….

You need to show off that gorgeous family in a fun and interesting way! Let’s add a little spice to your family  pics, and make them more interesting to all who view your loved ones

This weekend  we went bowling with the family. Now, I was the most reluctant to go, dragging my big(secretly think they were man sized) bowling shoes to the lane. At the end of the game, I was definitely the one who had the most fun! Why? I was the keeper of the camera of course.  I tried to “document” our adventure using a little photo journalism.

What is Photo Journalism you might say? Photo Journalism is a style of photography that creates images that tell a story. These images tell of the family outing using details, sequence, and a narrative, or story line.

Your images should show objectivity- a good representation of the event. (One of my favorite pics of my daughter shows her crying and wet after running through a fountain. She personally hates that pic- but the image for me is “so in the moment”. I know exactly how she felt in that moment).  Using objectivity to tell a story  makes it interesting. How many times have you looked through a family event, only to see everyone basically “cheesing” it for the camera? There is no action! There is no life! What happened at the  party? Where are the action shots of the game? What was the score?

Try not to fall into the trap of “look and me and smile!” Try to capture life as it happens, your kids in the moment. Think like a stranger taking pics of your outing. What is the most interesting stuff going on here?

It’s not the up close “cheese faces” that make the event memorable. ( I do love a good, cheesy photo, but make sure you add more content than those)

Photo Journalism  uses narrative. Combine your images with other elements to make them interesting and relevant  for the viewer. Show that pic of the half eaten corn dog! Get a great shot of the suitcases lined up for your Disney trip. You get the picture…

I will share with you some pics our little Cosmic Bowling adventure, pointing out some fun things to try at home.

For this family outing, I used my point and shoot camera, a Canon PowerShSX200IS.

Before I begin, Cosmic Bowling is awesome! It makes you clothes all groovy and your teeth green. Great potential for groovy family photo ops!

This is my “Say Cheese” pic- it’s ok, it’s cute, but nothing special going on here. You can tell that I called my daughter’s name, she turned around with the photo face on.

These pics are fine to add to our story, but I want to show you something more fun. Note- When shooting children, you can improve your photo by getting down to their level. Most      shots of children are always shot looking down. (The adult using the camera is pointing the camera down). I also used a flash, and that took away all of the Cosmic Day-Glo-ness of the fun. The flash automatically popped up for this one, I forgot to turn it off. Note how the flash washed her out.

For this pic, I got close and focused on her level, and turned off the pop up flash. I was able to capture all of the Day Glo Yumminess in the photo. Play with your flash, shoot some pics with it off and on during your family outing. You might find that there is enough light  to shoot with, allowing you capture a more interesting image. Compare the two images- which on really gives you the  Cosmic Bowling feel?

I loved the funky colors of the carpet, and the way my shoes glowed! It’s not my family, but hey it’s cool- take a pic of it! Later on, the kids remember the cool glowing clothes. I documented it, and it adds  visual interest to my Cosmic Bowling Narrative.

Now take a look at these photos -

I put the camera lens down by the bowling balls to show their cosmic groovy color in the black light. It also gives the viewer an interesting perspective of our adventure. Note- I turned the pop up flash off- it’s easy to do. Go to your menu- choose flash, (looks like a lightning bolt), and turn off. It will turn off your flash for the time you take pictures. Most point and shoot will automatically flash again if you turn your camera off, then back on again.

I took a similar pic again to highlight the fun disco ball. No one knows the groovy disco ball added tons of fun, unless I shoot it!

(note- some editing on picknic.com )

I wanted to include action shots of parents and kids, and parents teaching kids, kids teaching parents, etc.

Don’t forget all of the details that make the night fun! The Bowling pins, our shoes lined up, the disco ball….. When you add pics with details, they add narrative to your story.

Change it up a bit, and have some fun- edit some pics to stand out in black and white- add visual interest. Also include narrative from your children in the info section of your photo program. You will forget the details later.

My daughter added,”The ball comes at you fast down this long track, and whoosh! You could loose your fingers!”

Add some fun to your pics, add some action!

This was a great way to get the bowling alley in the pic. Note- not your normal bowling action shot. It’s a little blurry, but I love it just the same! Now look at the next one, I got down to the floor level, and shot my daughter trying to imitate my husband’s bowling stance. Do you get a good sense of space here? How big the alley is, and how far away the pins are?  In case you haven’t noticed, I like to shoot pics on an angle every once in awhile. Add a little interest…..

Some other fun moments to capture  -  A shot of the final score screen, our snacks we ate, dad’s goofy personalized bowling ball….. the family dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller on the sound system..

All these fun narrative shots will trigger the memories and get the conversations going for years to come.

So  we went on the outing, took fabulous photo journalistic pics, now what? Put them on a family blog with narration! Or how about a book ? Lots of companies offer photo books- Shutterfly,  photo books can print directly from iphoto on iMac, etc.. Print one out of your bowling adventure, it will be a fabulous coffee table book. I am going to make a collage of our Cosmic Bowling on Picknic.com, and print out a copy for each girl for their rooms. The possibilities are endless….

I hope I sparked some new ideas for you to use the next time you go to document your families’ adventures….. Remember- No more “Cheese faces!”

Ready to make some adorable Valentine’s Day pictures and cards with your photos?  Valentine’s Day is only two weeks away, so let’s get started. You can make these photo cards for free, and print them on your  computer, or have an excellent web site print them for you! Let’s get started!

Vivi Sweetie

Today we are going to one of my favorite online editing sites, Picnik. There are lots of photo editing sites on the web, but I love Picnik for it’s simplicity and fun of use. Like most photo  editing sites, you can upload a pic on Picnik, and then sass it up!

Unlike most sites, you can do some fun things to your pics for free! Once you have created you masterpiece, you can print it on your home computer, or use their in house company, Qoop. With Qoop , you could order two sided cards, wrapping paper, mugs, canvases, the sky’s the limit!

Once you play around with Picnik, you might find you become addicted! If that is the case, you can pay a fee to upgrade your membership with Picnik, and gain access to even more photo editing toys.

I find the prices reasonable, but the best thing of all,  you can do some really fun stuff on the site for free! No $, no dinero, no buckeroos!

I will show you how to make a fun valentine that is offered for free ! Everything we make today , we will use the free editing software.

1.First, go to www.picnik.com , and register yourself. This costs nothing, just your basic registration info to use the site.

2. Once you have registered, upload a pic from your computer files. This is very easy here, just follow directions. I own the premium membership, so I will log in along with you, using the basic membership. Ready to create something Lovey-Dovey?

Lets go!  I will begin with my uploaded pic, and your page should look like this-

Click on the Upload Photos bar.  You can select a photo from you computer here. With your basic registration, Picnik will keep your last 5 uploads. Note that I already uploaded a pic. The little baby I used to make the two Valentines you can see above. You upload your pic, and I will up load mine- Let’s do it!

After you have uploaded your picture, Picnik will send you to this page, where you can do some basic editing. I love the auto-fix button, use it to “spiff up” the general appearance of your pic. You can also crop it , resize it, fix red eye, etc. Spend some time on this page, and play with the buttons. You can always hit the undo button if you don’t like it. This editing page is free, so go for it! I am going to pick auto-fix, and then move on to the next button, Create. After you pick Create, note the Valentine choices that pop up on the left hand side, which looks like this-

You have tons of choices here! You can add a Love Flair, a Tasty Frame of Hearts , or use the Heart’s Desire choice. If you choose another, you will note that an upgrade button pops up instead of  the Apply button . You need to upgrade your membership to choose these. As for right now, we are working on the freebie side, so choose one of these.  I choose Love Flair.

Free Valentines from picnik.com

Note the  Size , Rotation, and Frame tint buttons. You can control the size of the heart, the way it fits in your pic(rotation), and how bright it is with the Fade slider. Note the Frame tint box. If you click on it, you can use the  eye dropper feature to choose what color your heart you want. I made mine a little brighter red. When you are satisfied with the heart, choose apply. You are ready for the next step! (Note- to get my heart extra shiny and funky, I hit the Love Flair effect twice). Play around with the Valentiene’s Effects and have some fun!

Now we  will move on to the next set of choices, Effects!  It’s the green button next to Valentine’s Effects. Check it out below-

This is another fun page! You can add cool effects to your photo- change it to black and white, use the sepia for the old-fashioned look, make it “glowy”, the possibilities are endless. Take some time and play around on this page. Remember, some effects can only be achieved with the upgrade, but there are lots of fun things to try for free in this playground!

I used Vignette and my all time favorite, Orton-ish. (gives my girlies and the heart a funky glow)

PLEASE NOTE- some effects need to be applied to your pic BEFORE you do the Valentine effects! If you want to convert your pic into a black and white  or sepia or any other color changing version, do that first before you add Valentine Effects to your pic. Its easy to jump back and forth between the  Valentine’s Day and the Effects tab.

All done playing with the Effects? Now it’s time to add text. Go to the Text tab next

Simply type in your text and hit the add button. There are lots of fun choices in the Basic Fonts for you. I used Budmo Jig. When you click on the Add button, a little box will appear on your left. Use this box to control the size and color of the font. If you want to change colors, simply click on the little color rectangle, and use the color dropper to choose the color you want. Your text will appear in the middle of the screen . Use your mouse to place it where you want it. You are almost done!

Next, it is time to save your masterpiece. Go to the Save and Share Button. Your next page will look like this-

Free Valentine's with Picnik.com

From this page, you have all kinds of options! First, name your pic! It is so much easier to find your pic in your computer’s files with a name. I know from experience! I can find Valentine Girlies quick as a wink as opposed to Image 220008!   You can save it onto your computer, wherever you choose-desktop, pictures, documents, etc.

Don’t forget to save it! There you go! You have created an adorable and fun photo Valentine for free!

Note the choices on the top of the page, next to Save to Computer- You can send your pic to Facebook, email it to loved ones, send it to FLickr,etc…

Best of all, you can print your Valentine with your own printer. Choose the Print Photo Button.

After you have saved your Valentine, this page pops up. You can Close the Photo, and a copy will be saved to your history, or you can choose to Continue Editing (If you want to add more, or fix a spelling mistake, etc…)

You can also send your pic to Qoop, to have all kinds of fun merchandize made from your sassy Valentine! The possibilities are endless!

If you would like to create a solid color Valentine like the red baby on top, upload a pic, then choose the collage button. I choose a two pic card, inserted the baby pic from my history, then turned  the other pic a solid red using the color dropper. I clicked Done, then proceed to add the Valentine effects and text.

I hope you had fun making your photo Valentines! Please post a copy so we can be be proud of you!

Comments welcome!