Hello, world!

This week ( read: yesterday) I finally got enough time between everything that I am doing to participate in one of Ashley’s weekly challenges.
The prompts were: Texture, Fog, Button, Beverage, Seventeens. Really ordinary subjects and really challenging at the same time unless you’re content with simply taking a picture of the named items. Of course I am not. There is nothing more boring to me than shooting an item. Just an item without a cool angle, or interesting framing, or great outside-the-box idea.

So this week I decided to do a self-portrait twist on all of the prompts. Seeing as I am currently working on a challenge of my own that is going to be centered on taking self-portraits and will be hosting it on  a new photography focused blog ( coming soon). That means that soon I will have two blogs,  a personal one where I journal all my thoughts, events and our baby journey, and a photo blog where I will host challenges, participate in photo linkys and post anything and everything photography related.

So without further edo, i present to you the self-portrait version of this week’s Scavenger Hunt items ( all photos taken by me and have me in them)

1. TEXTURE

This was probably the most difficult to come up with, since texture is not something that you can turn into a creative selfie, unless you simply want to use texture in the post processing which seemed too easy.
Our driveway has the most amazing (sometimes mildew covered ) texture, worked perfectly.
Linking up with Shadow Shot Sunday

2. FOG

When I saw this item , I thought how on earth are we expected to take a picture of fog. First, I don’t get up nearly early enough; secondly, I live in Florida ( i don’t think I’ve seen much fog over the years, but that could be due to me being a late sleeper). So as I was standing in the shower contemplating this week’s items and how to take them, I saw fog enveloping me ( SCORE!). I ran out naked, cold and dripping, grabbed my camera and jumped back in. The sun shining through the window across from me and the steam rising from the hot shower were PERFECT. I did have to wipe the lens after every shot, but eventually I got enough to pick a winner.

3. BUTTON

Again, a seemingly boring subject. I had to spice it up. I remembered my favorite magnet was stashed away somewhere in the guest room ( our fridge is stainless steel and doesn’t hold magnets)- the PANIC BUTTON! I wish the picture could produce the sound that button makes when pressed.

4. BEVERAGE

I refused to take a picture of a beverage on its own. No! When I was over at my neighbor’s house I saw a pack of Kool-Aid sitting there and remembered reading somewhere that you can clean toilets with Kool-Aid. I don’t drink anything that is not natural ( my drink of choice is water, or tea), so I thought I’d be funny to document the horrible contents of Kool-Aid drink. You can see our tongues really show how “organic and natural” it is. NOT! What won’t I sacrifice for photography? Even my health. LOL

5. SEVENTIES

This was easy! I dug into my archive! About a year ago i did a shot that I named Flower Power. It doesn’t get more 70s than this.

And that’s it for today! Looking forward to the next one, where I will hopefully see you on my new photography oriented blog.

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Please don’t forget to VOTE daily!

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I absolutely adore light! I love flare! I love 5 pm on any given day because of the golden light it produces. I was taking a picture of my new drumset when the sun was just STREAMING through the window. Sun is LOVE and BEAUTY!

Also for the Touch Up Tuesday and Shutter Love, my last year’s Bubbles Photo. Do you know how FREAKING hard it is to shoot bubble self portraits??? It was probably one of the most challenging self-portraits I have ever done and that’s considering I’ve done blowing fans ( that’s tough too), Avatar/Na’vi, jump and clone self portraits. And I still have to say bubbles is a bitch when you’re shooting yourself, because of all the multitasking you have to do with the remote and blowing bubbles at the same time. This was the only accpetable shot out of hundreds. I didn’t help that I look like a moron blowing bubbles. haha!

SOOC
What I did was some split toning in Lightroom ( yellow on highlights and blue on shadows), brightened it up, upped saturation, added some clarity, and touched up the background to look slightly darker with the brush tool.

AFTER

I also loved this shot below so much that I combined the two, and I think it really improves both the photos.

The Final Product. I hate how when I post bigger photos, they go way outside of the area where they have to be. So I am forced to post small ones. I will be redesigning the template even more to fit larger photos, since this is turning into more of a photography blog than I thought.

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Please don’t forget to VOTE daily!

Memories Dreams and Reflections 2010

This is my last photo list post. There have been too many already. I am going to write a lot more from now on. But I just couldn’t miss Ashley’s MDR project. So here we go.

1. Me!
   OK, I have a ton of pictures of myself. Not because I love myself ( not that I don’t). I have  a ton of pictures from the modeling days, but aside from that I used to be sort of a self portraiture “artist”. That’s how I got into photography.  I was my own test subject because…well, we don’t have kids, hubby doesn’t like being photographed and everyone else is just to hard to nail down on short notice. So I’d do 365 Self-portrait projects, and other team projects focused on self portraiture on Flickr, and that kind of stuck. I normally use a tripod and remote and set everything up myself. So for this, I wanted to use a more “normal” photo. Just a mirrored selfie while brushing my teeth LOL.   
2. I Love You - My goofy crazy hubby
   
3. Still Laughing… - My girlfriend and I were hanging out by a bar on Collins Ave in Miami, having fun and laughing when we were approached by a bunch of guys who were having a bachelor party. They wanted us to pose with them for a picture to make their wives/girlfriends jealous. We couldn’t say no! 
4. Winter Wonderland - that’s a toughie. It doesn’t snow in South Florida, so winter wonderland as a concept just doesn’t exist. But I do have a snowman that I put  out every Christmas that is the closest to that description 
5. Birthday - I’m a huge fan of bubble baths. So on an evening of my birthday i had a special rose petal bubble bath worked up for me by the hubby
   
6. Friends - I have A LOT of friends. Or more like a lot of groups of friends. I have friends in Russia, I have friends in Italy, friends all over the US, friends in Turkey, friends in Switzerland, friends in NYC and friends in Miami, friends all over the country. I didn’t have one picture that would contain all those friends. So I decided to post the latest picture I had.   These gorgeous girlies were with me for our New year celebration ( post coming up). 
7. I Was Inspired… - Avatar, the best movie of all times… I think I was actually inspired by one of the people in our Flickr community. Na’vi ROCK! I cannot post the before photo For Touch Up Tuesday since it was taken topless ( I was hoping to cover my boobs with the pattern..didn’t work out, so I drew a bra),  but here’s a tutorial on how to make one of your own. It’ very much time consuming, but well worth it.
    
8. Spring Fever - again no real seasons in Florida, but i think this photo taken at Universal represents Spring. 
9. Travel or Vacation - Ecuador. Our 7th anniversary trip. It was an amazing trip. I had been there twice before, but it was a first time for my husband. We had so much fun there and I am definitely going back with some girlfriends very soon 
10. Summer Days - That’s what they look like for me. 
11. A Day In My Life - This was relatively easy. I had done this photo for a Flick project. I had to take 1 photo every hour for 12 hours. And this is what I got. It pretty much represents most my days when I take it easy: party,brushing teeth, sleeping, waking up, computer time,bathroom (lol),waiting for hubby to get ready ( he’s the slowest person on earth), going to the pool, swimming, getting some work done, studying spanish, and a movie/show
    

      

For I heart Faces Contest

Happy Birthday, America!

This photo was taken for the July 4th celebration of our country’s birthday in 2010. Self portrait, done as all other photos: with tripod and remote.

It probably doesn’t really stand a chance with all those cute kids’ faces (OMG, are all bloggers mother? lol), but I just really want to share this photo with you guys.