Goofing off in photoshop - what do you think?

back off holiday and catching up .... missed the photos

Little Jane is very pretty

... small jaw ..... been there! oh when those wisdom teeth came through ... agony and a face like a hamster!

Boomer when you get your web site done I'd love it if you pm'd me a link - I really like your work. I love the way you capture character and personality - standard studio portraits are totally boring to me. Technically you are brilliant as well

I used to watch the girls through the lens when they were doing something I wanted to catch and wait for the moment. Once on holiday I was photographing youngest, aged about ?10 prancing in the waves - then I saw one much larger swell on its way and caught a brilliant photo of it rearing above her head - just about to swamp her - what I didn't think out was where the wave would go next (I was standing in the water at the time a couple of feet deep


wave knocked me off my feet and I bravely held the camera above the water as I went under! - brave as I'm a chicken and don't like my face underwater!

camera safe, me battered and bruised, daughter breathless - great photo!

That sounds like a 'life moment' photo.
I do the same with Bean.
When I am in a picture taking mood , I stuff my pockets with floppys ( that is what my camera uses)
and hang the camera from my neck, and follow..

Im sure by now , Bean thinks I need to be in a sanitarium. I photograph her ' poop face" , her eating, nose picking, etc..

That is a great story, Vivien!

Thank you for your comments!

I'd love to hear what you think of the current photo so I'll post it again for a bit. I have her permission to use it but this is such a public forum that I don't want to leave it up for long.

<snip>


Mo is going through a phase where he hates me to stalk him and isn't too thrilled to have his photo taken at all. Most of the photos I manage to get have a very put upon expression.

I love the expression "holiday" instead of "vacation". It sounds so much more celebratory.

I'm glad that's working for you, soz, so much easier that way, isn't it?

I have a feeling these kids will lock us up in sanitariums when they get older as payback for the photos, shewolf!

Vivien's story reminded me of a "danger boy" photo I took of Mo on a visit to the beach last spring. He was very high and I was screaming bloody murder but had the presence of mind to snap a photo anyway. The look in his eyes in this snapshot always spells trouble.

I know that look!

Wow, that's a really great one.

Thanks soz.

That "Am I going to get away with this?" look makes me weak kneed.

He managed to get much higher on the slippery lava dome with his stupid no traction galoshes on while I considered vomiting up my soul that day. I still get the willies just looking at that picture but keep it as a reminder of how quick Mo can move.

that is a great picture!

how high up was he?

ohhh - 15, 20 feet or so.

You can see the fine gravel and sand spilling off the rock (the blurry stuff at the bottom of the photo that looks kind of like water) which made the dome doubly slippery. When I finally managed to get to the top, I nabbed him by the jacket collar and sat down and cried with relief.

What kind of idiot am I to stop and take a photo?

Maybe I just wanted something to remember him by or something to recall how his head looked while it was still in one piece.....

do you scrap book his behaviors? His dare-devil ness?

When he is an adult , and has kids, he will wonder why they are so strong willed and where it came from.
you can wip out the scrap book and remind HIM

my youngest daughter was like that - always haning off a tree by one hand and saying 'look at me' or standing at the edge of a cliff with her father while I felt faint and nauseous, pleading 'move back'

when she was at her most awkward/strong willed/contrary/dare devil I used to say to her that I hoped she had children just like her so she could suffer too

thanks for the link Boomer - the images are great and you should definitely appeal to people with work like this, it's so much more interesting and really says something about the specific character of a child, rather than the plastic poses of most studio portraits.

I don't scrapbook, shewolf, but poor Mo has a rather massive photo album.

Awkward/strong willed/contrary/dare devil you say, Vivien.

And you survived!

There may be hope for me yet.

And thank you again.

Mo picked tomatos today (again, like the carrots, a wee bit too early) but I got some shots I like for our garden journal.

The others will have to wait till tomorrow for goofing but I liked this one so much that I did it tonight:



What do you think?

Gosh, that's a great picture. Very significant.
You certainly perfect your craft boomerang.

lovely - you do those b&w with hand colouring really well

Thanks CJane and Vivien!

I always hesitate adding color to black and white because it seems that the photo becomes "about" whatever is in color or it becomes a bit too greeting card. This photo seemed to lend itself to a jolt of color though and draws attention to his grubby little hands.

WOW!
again boom, you do beautiful work.
I understand what you mean about the ' greeting card-ish" look. I think you steer SO far from that it isnt funny. When you add color to a b&w you keep it simple and beautiful.

how do you do that?
Paint shop?
MGI?

That's absolutely gorgeous!

Thanks shewolf and soz!

I do it in photoshop, shewolf and it is really, really easy. I'm not familiar with any other photo editing softwear but if you have photoshop I can tell you how to do it.

You need to get that boy to go outside and play more!