Friday Photo

I've really dropped the ball again with posting. I have taken a number of photos but not as many as I had planned on when I got the new camera. Life just keeps getting in the way. Anyway, just in case anyone happens by, here are a couple of new pictures I decided to use for Friday Photo.

This picture is actually from last week. I took some photos of my granddaughter, Sarah Grace, before she left for school the morning after we celebrated her 16th birthday. I loved her shoes, specifically the color and took this shot of them. I did do a slight color boost but that's the only edit made.

And just so you can see how lovely Sarah is, here is one of the photos I took of her.

This one is unedited.

Guess Who I Found?

I am at my daughter's home and found an old friend here this morning. I am sure he has been here all along but I just realized this morning who it was in the background when I'm here that seems so familiar. It turns out to be someone who used to live at my house but went missing shortly after all of my children moved out and I became an empty-nester. My former tenant is alive and well, living at my daughter Dee's home in Bossier City and still goes by the moniker Nobody.

Yes, indeed, Nobody is alive and well and is found every time Dee wants to know who left the milk out... or who forgot to empty the dishwasher... or who left the cabinet doors open... or who left the mess on the bathroom counter... or any one of a myriad of questions involving responsibility for one task or another. One, or two or all three girls are quick to let her know that it wasn't them so apparently my old buddy Nobody was responsible for it, right?

You know what? That little sucker hasn't changed a bit!

About Me and Getting Back to Graphics

I've been in a low place for some time and unable to make myself do many of the things that I enjoy, which only serves to contribute to the problem. It is a diagnosed condition and has a name. It's called dysthymia, which is simply a mild, long lasting form of depression. Sometimes I can get the best of it, but often as not, it gets the best of me. Most of this past year has been a win for dysthymia. I hate it. I seldom use medication, but have seriously considered it this time around. I think I may be on the verge of overcoming it so I am going to hold off for a while to see what happens. I wish I had not let it get this far along and have made a promise to myself that I won't let it go this long again without getting a script for a mild anti-depressant.

My point here is that when I start getting more active with the things I enjoy, I know that I am on the mend. I've done a few things in my favorite graphics program recently and thought I would post one of my little projects here. Since I've also let my interest in photography drift, I went back to my interview with Sarah stash of photos to do a little project that I came up with from viewing the works of others.

Here is the SOOC photo that I started with. It is okay, but nothing earth shattering beyond the fact that any picture of Sarah is terrific in her Mimi's opinion.



I cropped out the portion of the photo that I wanted to display and used Paint Shop's internal one step photo fix on the new image. Instant improvement without having to go through a lot of individual steps to get pretty much the same results. After that, I added a contrast adjustment layer to boost the contrast and merged down. I then used the dodge tool to brighten the whites of her eyes (on a duplicate layer) then flattened the image and burned the outside edges with the burn tool to add interest to the photo. The last step, before saving the cropped image, was to sharpen the image with the unsharp mask. I did resize both versions before uploading to keep the size and load time down. Here's the finished product.



I think this version really pops and lets others see the bright and beautiful Sarah that I see in person. My camera and my photo skills just can't seem to do that without help. The adjustments were minor with dramatic results in my opinion. I hope you like it!

My granddaughter's birth has made me want to create things she will love. ~Billy Crystal

The reason grandchildren and grandparents get along so well is that they have a common enemy. ~Sam Levenson

Happy Birthday!

To my mother, who is 85 years young today and to my granddaughter, Sarah Grace who turns 12 today, I wish you both the most wonderful day.

I had hoped to find a photo of the two of them together on Sarah's first birthday that I dearly love somewhere in my collection of photographs, whether a print copy or a digital copy but alas, it has proven to be illusive.

I know I have it somewhere but it wasn't with the other photos from their joint birthday celebration here at my house from 11 years ago. I'm sure I did something with it or intended to do something with it and it's in the nether world of all those things in this house that I have had great plans for. :::sigh:::

I'm hoping to leave for mom's on Sunday and I know she has a copy there that I can scan. I will have to wait until I can get that done to post the picture.

I love you both and wish only the best for you today and always!

Happy Birthday mom and Sarah!

August

"August rushes by like desert rainfall,
A flood of frenzied upheaval,
Expected,
But still catching me unprepared.
Like a matchflame
Bursting on the scene,
Heat and haze of crimson sunsets.
Like a dream
Of moon and dark barely recalled,
A moment,
Shadows caught in a blink.
Like a quick kiss;
One wishes for more
But it suddenly turns to leave,
Dragging summer away."
- Elizabeth Maua Taylor

"Let me enjoy
this late-summer day of my heart
while the leaves are still green
and I won't look so close
as to see that first tint
of pale yellow slowly creep in.
I will cease endless running
and then look to the sky
ask the sun to embrace me
and then hope she won't tell
of tomorrows less long than today.
Let me spend just this time
in the slow-cooling glow
of warm afternoon light
and I'd think
I will still have the strength
for just one more
last fling of my heart."
- John Bohrn, Late August

August is a special month to me. My mother was born in August. The year she turned 73, that would be 1996, my fourth granddaughter was born on the very same date. When August 22nd comes in just a few short weeks, mom will be 85 and Sarah Grace, twelve. I have the most marvelous picture of the two of them together from Sarah's first birthday party here at my house. I love that photo. A copy of it sits in a frame at mom's house and has for all these years.

I'll see if I still have a copy on my old computer... why haven't I ever got all those pictures transferred like I planned on when I got the new one years ago ... or if I have a printed copy stored with the other photos in one of the spare bedrooms. I will for sure find a copy in time to put it up for their shared day of celebration.

Interview

Be sure to scroll down for new posts ** one added Friday, July 11th.

Note-- I'm making this a sticky post for the next few days which means all new posts will be published below this one until after July 13th. I think I will do this with all of the future Interview posts as well, set them up to be at the top of the blog for a week before they move.

I decided a while back that it might be fun to do some interviews with members of my family and/or friends for my blog. Like most of you, family and friends are the most important things my life (along with Ginger and Mr. Woody K. Nibs of course). Besides, I think we learn something about ourselves when we concentrate on others and at sixty-one it might be time I get to know myself a little better.

I also wanted this process to be fun. I realized in the middle of this first personal interview experience that I will have to hone my skills as I tend to be stiff and impersonal and look for facts too much instead of digging out those little nuggets of interesting and fun bits of information (all the good secrets) about the people I love. I think that probably comes from conducting too many job interviews while I was working and being restricted from getting too personal.

I chose to start this series of interviews / posts with my granddaughter Sarah. All of my granddaughters are sweet, fun and interesting in their own right but Sarah and I have an easy connection that just made it seem natural to start with her. She is my daughter Dee's youngest child and my next to youngest grandchild. She is smart and funny and very talented. She loves to play games as does our entire family.

I started by sending her a list of questions and told her to answer the ones she wanted and if there was anything else she wanted to say to add it on to the list. She answered most of them but as a typical tween / teen she didn't volunteer too much information. We finished up this past Friday morning with a photo session in a small park across from the middle school that Sarah attends. It was hot and miserable and I have a lot to learn about photography and setting up shots as well, particularly when the sun is scorching down on us.

With all that said, here is my interview with Sarah complete with pictures:

What's your name? Sarah Grace


At the park entrance

Do you like your name? Its ok, I like Madison though.

What's your best quality? Hmm that's tough, I think my best quality is that I'm a good listener.

Sarah chose this setting!

Do you have a boyfriend? Yes, his name is Jordan D. He is tall with dark brown hair.

Are you a good student? I would consider it that. But yes, this year I was in all non-honor classes and next year I'm going to be in English honors and Advanced math!!


I liked this one a lot!

What grade are you going to be in? I will be in 7th grade.


Do you play any instrument? I play the saxophone, out of the entire beginners I made 3rd chair saxophone.

Do you like being the youngest in your family? Its ok at times, but sometimes when we went to theme parks I would be too short to ride some rides since I was younger.

And of course the requisite jump photos

What's your favorite sport? Well, I like playing basketball, but I'm not that great at it. :)

Do you know what you want to study in college? I might want to study business and own my own pet store.

Two of them!

You do know that you can't be serious about a boy until you're 32 don't you? 32!!!! You must be crazy woman lol.


Surfin' on a child's teeter totter and you're calling me crazy?

Tell me something about yourself that I don't know. hmmmm... let the record show that Sarah chose not to answer this question!

Now, tell me something about yourself that your mother doesn't know! hmmmm... guess what... she didn't answer this one either! smart girl!

I liked it so much I am posting it twice!

I want to thank Sarah for her patience with me and for putting up with the intolerable summer heat during our little photo session. It was really hard to narrow down the choices of what to post as there are many good ones that are not displayed here. I'm sorry that I didn't think to get a picture of Jordan. Perhaps I will get to meet him again before he moves with his family to Colorado and will take one of him then.



I love you Goose!

In The Meantime

Sorry for the delay in posting Sarah's interview but I have been fighting a horrible headache all day long. It's after 4pm and I am just now getting on the computer for the first time today which is unheard of at my house. I'm sure it's allergy related, most of my headaches are. Every once in a while one of them will get out of control and zap me for a day or so. Hopefully, this one will not last that long as it finally seems to be ebbing a bit.

Unfortunately, today is also John's birthday and I just don't feel like doing much for him. We did have a cake for him at Dee's on Wednesday night but I still wanted to do something nice for him today. Perhaps I can do something tomorrow.

Here is a picture I took of Sarah yesterday morning after we got back from our photo session in the park where we turned into a couple of sweaty and miserably hot gals very quickly. She's happy in this photo because she is resting in the comfort of air conditioning. I was also smiling behind the lens as well, thankful to be out of the heat even though I was still dripping wet... there's nothing like the deep south in the summer months. It's unbearable sometimes even for those who love the heat.

More Playing With Paint Shop Pro Effects

These files are of two of my favorite subjects.

The first one is a sketch effect I applied to an old photo of Sarah Grace, who is now 11. She was maybe 4 or 5 in this picture. What a girlie girl she was in her feather boa!




The second one was a little more complicated. It is of Emily and started as a black and white shot that I selectively added color to. I added green to her eyes and a sort of soft reddish pink to her lips and a light brush of the same color to her cheeks. I duplicated layers of her photo, created one with a gradient fill to dramatize the original bw then applied blend modes to get the end result. I really just played around until I got tired of messing with it I was happy with the result then added simple line borders to finish it out.


Either way, I seem to be coming out of my creative doldrums a bit. Maybe I'll eventually get more creative with the entries to this blog!

A Busy Week

The past week was busy for me. Just catching up after being gone for three weeks was hectic enough. Laundry, cleaning, clearing away the mail that accumulated.

I also missed my son's 33rd birthday while I was gone. I finally got around to making a birthday dinner for him and his favorite yellow cake with chocolate icing on Wednesday night. We had half of it after dinner and I sent the rest of that home with him so I wouldn't be tempted to eat it myself. I took the other half of the cake with me to Dee's on Thursday night and it was pretty much devoured that evening.

Here's a few photos from my time with my kids last week.

John blowing out the candles on his cake... not very fancy, but it was good!

Dee on the phone, talking to her sister Jamie, my other daughter in Florida.

This is Emily, 13, (a good photo of her other than the finger, which would not clone out easily. I could have cropped it out but would lose part of her chin... oh well.)

This is Erin, 14, taken on the front porch swing. She was sitting with her friend Amy, who I cropped out of the photo. It was a nice shot of them both and I will send the original photo to be shared. They will start high school this year... sigh.

and of course, Sarah Grace, almost 11.
I can't believe she is moving to middle school this year... another sigh!

Meet the Fisher Girls

Erin Elizabeth Fisher
14 years old
One word descriptions: smart; beautiful; talented; loyal
She is: an artist; a musician; a writer; a poet; a daughter; a sister; a granddaughter; a niece; a friend; a computer geek; a teenager; a leader; most like her mama

Erin is my first grandchild. She was the first one who brought tears to my eyes because... well, no other reason... just because. By virtue of being first, she changed my path in life. I was no longer content to go down the same road because now I had a granddaughter; someone with whom I could bake cookies; that I could take shopping; that would sing Beatles songs with me, not caring that I couldn’t sing a lick; a precious, perfect baby to hold and love.

One thing I won’t forget: that she sang Blue Bayou to me on the phone when she was only two years old - the whole song.

Emily Virginia Fisher
12 years old
One word descriptions: smart; beautiful; unique; insightful
She is: an equestrian; an animal lover; a straight A student; a daughter; a sister; a granddaughter; a niece; a friend; most like her daddy; a pre-teen only days away from that magic birthday number 13.

Emily came second and my heart melted completely. How I loved my sweet Emmy. What a perfect baby she was; so sweet and loving. Too often, she played second fiddle to her older sister, not because she had to, because she chose to. She often hesitated to step out on her own; afraid to risk; afraid to try but never afraid to love or to offer a part of herself to others.

One thing I won’t forget: Her Tea Party Birthday

Sarah Grace Fisher
10 years old
One word descriptions: smart; beautiful; funny; charming
She is: the baby of the family; a shopper; a daughter; a sister; a granddaughter; a niece; a friend; a mix of her mama and daddy; the easy going one in her family

Sarah loves being the baby in her family and is well suited to the role. She is open to the world but took the longest in growing close to me. I think she may take the longest time in growing apart from me now that we are close. Gosh, I hope so!

One thing I won’t forget: The scratch on her finger after our accident.

It's hard to believe that over 14 years have passed since I became a grandmother. It was never a role I chose. It was not a position I sought but one that I give thanks for every day.

Thank you God, that it came to me in the form of these three Fisher girls and their cousins, Anna and Kayla.