Winter...Ashley's Entry...

We never ever get SNOW here in South Arkansas.. just Ice mainly sooo this year we got SNOW!!
I love how pretty it is on the ground and the fact that your yard and your neighbors yard look the same... lol!

Creative or post processed - an opportunity to show off editing skills-Ashley's Entry

So i played and played and played with this picture... it was actually an accident when i tok it i was just playing with my night time setting and he was soo very cute on the swing so... then i played with my editing skills... and by accident came up with this and i loved how it turned out!!

Big Photo Challenge ....Food

FOOD!!!

 Roast... Before.. I thought this was such a good looking roast.. SO pretty.....

Brownin the meat before the Crock Pot......

The finished product which tasted AH-Mazing!!!

Food

This week's theme in the Big Photo Challenge is "food"

Here is my entry into the food category. I'm quite aware it's not going to win any prizes LOL.

I got a new compact camera for Christmas (a Panasonic Lumix TZ8). I got it because when I went on a recent holiday, my DSLR was bit of a pain. It was great for arty-farty shots, but what I really needed was something pocket sized and something which could handle a wide range of focal lengths without me having to change lenses. I've been somewhat of a miser when it comes to camera lenses and have restricted myself to basically the kit lens, mostly because of cost implications, but also for a challenge. On holiday though it was a pain as the lens wasn't wide angle enough to squeeze in everything I wanted to capture. Sure, I could do a montage, but sometimes you just want everything in one pic, right? Hubby has the same compact camera and his holiday pics were sooooo much better than mine, simply because he had a wider angle lens. I've been trying this camera out over Christmas and whilst I do think it's a great compact camera, it doesn't beat my DSLR for my beloved macro shots. I knew it wouldn't, but I thought it might come a little closer.

I'm not too disappointed as now I have 2 cameras which (between them) give me basically everything I need. I'll still continue playing with both of them and getting the best out of them that I can.

Oh and why the orange juice? It's for the vitamins as I've been really run down and sick lately. I'm trying to eat my way out of it LOL.

Big Photo Challenge...Orange

I just love this photo! it was so an accident but i love how it turned out once i got home and played with the lighting and made that bright orange pumpkin pop!!

Big Photo Challenge...Shadows

i took this pic a few months ago and i think her little shadow behind her is too cute!!

Big Photo Challenge...Words

I'm suprise this turned out like i planned i was playing with the manual settings on my camera hoping to blur out part and i did!! i am so excited!! i figured something out!!

Big Photo Challenge....Numbers

This is my calculator adding machine at work. I thought this was a good one for numbers!! Sorry the qaulity is not that great i took it with my iPhone.. but i looked at my adding machine and thought  NUMBERS! So i snapped a few pics.

Big Photo Challenge...Fall

i had full intentions of taking another photo like above, but.. since we have not had rain in 28 days here!! There are no leaves turning into that pretty orange, yellow, or red, that i look forward to every yeat so i used a picture my friedn Ashlee & I ( i cant remember which one of us took this one) took 2 years ago around this time. It was one of those awesome days where all you needed was a short sleeve shirt during the day and a light weight jacket at night!! Perfect time of year in my opnion!! I love the leaves changing at hate i didnt get to take this picture (now that i have a 10xs better) camer this year!!

Fall - My entry

I took these on our Saturday morning walk today. Autumn isn't so well advanced here yet, so apart from a few maples which have turned, everything else is still green...as you can see :)

Expressions

This is why I love my hubby so much, because he still does silly childish things like poking his head through holes even though he's nearly 40 LOL.

Doorways

Here's my entry for "doorways".

I took this at the conservatory at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I think it is a Victorian building, beautifully weathered and with some interesting textures.

Big Photo Challenge...Red

Sorry it's a tab bit late!!!

 I took this a few months back. And feel in love with taking pictures of peoples feet!! I know its crazy but i love it!! So now when i take pics.. i love to capture feet, i know its crazy!!

Big Photo Challenge .... Black & White-my entry

I took this maternity photo for  friend!! i loved the black and white picture the best!!!
Sorrry i just forgot to post it..its... atad late!!!

Signs

This week's challenge photo is "signs". That was a real head-scratcher, but at lunch time today I was suddenly aware of all the signs around me at work. I work in a metallurgy lab and so we have signs EVERYWHERE! Here is a very small selection of some of our signs.

Big Photo Challenge - Back to school

This week's photo challenge was "back to school" and this had me in a real rut. I don't go to school and I have no kiddos...so of course I was having to think outside the box a little. So this is what I came up with...this is what I was doing on the weekend that everyone else was getting ready to go back to school. I'd love to see what everyone else comes up with :)

The view is taken from the hills surrounding the town where I live. I took lots of pictures and put them together into a collage/panorama.

Big Photo Challenge - Green

Another late one I'm afraid...will try harder!

 I took this photo on a beach near where my sister lives - I was amazed at all the seaweed, which just made the entire beach look green!

Big Photo Challenge - Special

This is a little late due to my computer troubles, but better late than never right?

This photo was taken in Scarborough, a place which always seems to rain when we get there LOL. This place hold a special place in my heart because Andy and I used to spend a lot of our time there when we first started dating....aaaaahhhhhh :)

Big Photo Challenge - Small

This week's theme in the Big Photo Challenge is "small"

As we all know, I don't like to be normal...normal is just...well....normal. So, this week I decided to do something a little different. I'm still constraining myself by using the sub-theme of macros, but I've taken the image one step further by using it to create a graphic for my design blog. Read on to see what I did...

 I am making a new digital scrapbooking kit and had Melanie from Whimsical Creations make me some embellishments to go in the kit. I was super-pleased with them and decided that I really, really needed to post a teaser on my design blog. So, that's what I'm going to use this image for.

I learned a couple of new things doing this, one being that some cheap white card makes, not only a great background, but it can also be used as a reflector too. I had strong shadows and used a second piece of card to reduce them to something more like what I wanted. I also learned that by composing the shot so that the "subject" is off centre, I can add some text and turn the image into something more magazine-style.

I know this kind of editing isn't for everyone, but for me, photography is also about being functional and useful, whilst trying to push the boundaries a little...oh and having a little fun too. I am loving playing about with macros by the way. I'm so glad I chose to constrain myself in this way :)

Big Photo Challenge - New

This week's theme in the Big Photo Challenge is "new".

My phone contract came to an end about a month ago and this week I finally got round to renewing it...who needs phone? Right? I selected this phone based on the fact it was supposed to have a decent camera at 8.1MP and with no serious contrast issues. I have yet to find out if it does in fact just give me 8.1MP of rubbish, after all, it doesn't matter how many MP you have if it doesn't take a good photo!

I struggled with this one I have to admit - the shiny buttons kept glaring at me no matter what I did, so I ended up moving somewhere shady and trying again. I liked this one because the logo on the front (which is actually white metal coloured) reflected and gave me a lovely pink/purple glow...thus brightening an otherwise dull photo :)

I've decided to try and carry on with the macro thing because I thought that by constraining myself in some way, it would force me to get more inventive.