365 Project- Niklas

The day before the "official" start of our one year project!

Today Niklas was sitting on Brianna's lap and was in a goofy mood. I just started snapping a number of pictures in quick succession of him. I have edited them to blur out the background a bit and put more focus on him:

365 Project - playing around with edits

Today I was goofing around in the yard with the camara and then did some edits on a few pictures.

This first one is from a flower in the yard.
original:

edit:



This next one is Joshua and his feet. It was inspired by the pictures some of the others in the project have been posting to the theme "feet". I thought it was funny and wanted to try it too:
original:

edit:

And this last one is actually a picture taken yesterday of Brianna in the pool. I love pictures in the sun, but that often causes quite a bit of shadowing on the face. I tried to do an edit to lighten up the shadows in her face a bit.
original:


edit:




Thanks for looking! Any CC is appreciated! :)

365 Project - back home

We made it back home to Germany a few days ago. As we took off from Seattle, we flew over the Cascade Mountains. It was a breathtaking view! Here are a few pictures taken from the plane:


Back home, Niklas got to check out the play tower that his Daddy had built for him in the yard while we were gone:

good-bye for now

I know that this blog isn't "officially" starting until August 1st, but I have been posting unofficial pictures the last few days so I thought I would sign off before disapearing for a few days. Today is packing day. Tomorrow we start our journey back home to Germany. I will miss my family here in Canada like crazy. It's been a wonderful 3 months spent with them.

365 Project- Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mom's birthday so I'm going to post the fantasy picture that I created and printed out for her and am going to be giving her in a couple of hours. The finished picture is created out of 3 main pictures:

the background, taken in a rose garden in Victoria:

a picture of my mom and step-father with Niklas at the park:a picture of Niklas in his car seat on the way to Victoria:
and two ladybug pictures from here: http://sourcow.deviantart.com

I also took a picture of the finished framed picture:


Thanks for looking! :)

365 Project - Mill Lake

We are coming to the end of our holidays and I just had to go take a couple of pictures of Mill Lake. I walk through this park pretty well everyday as I go from my mom to my sister's and vice versa. It's a beautiful walk and I love it on days when you can see Mt. Baker so clearly in the distance!

and although, I do like animals and birds and nature in general, the geese have become a bit of nuisance at Mill Lake. It's hard to take a walk without being careful not to be attacked by a goose or to step in one of their slimey green droppings...

And a bonus picture. This picture was taken the same day as the others (after we had walked through the park to get to the shopping mall). Niklas had a sucker and also stole my ice cream cone and then had one in each hand. I could just see his little mind working "decisions decisions"!
I was goofing around with the edit on this picture. I tried to blur the background a tiny bit to put more focus on him. I duplicated the layer and did that layer in a brown tone and then faded the opacity to let some color shine through. Then erased the brown completely from the sucker and the cone to let them stand out even more. I'm not quite sure if I'm happy with the results for this particular picture. Here is the original:

365 Project- a day at Harrison Lake

(click on the picture to see it much bigger)

I wanted to challenge myself at creating another panoramic view out of a series of normal sized pictures. Today we were at Harrison Lake which offered the perfect beautiful background to do such a picture! The above picture is created out of 6 pictures.

And a few of my sweet little guy enjoying his swim in the lake!

the water was a bit cold and needed some getting used to

and I loved Niklas's eyes in this next picture. It seemed as if he was dreaming of all the fun he was about to have on the way to Harrison Lake. I do admit that I did play with them a bit yet on photoshop:

and to end, just a little reminder of something unpleasant we also had to put up with today. Geese seem to have taken over large areas of the beach and grass at Harrison Lake which made walking around a bit "slippery" and very green (yuck!). I did not take a picture of the "offences" though, just something to remind us!

(sorry for the picture overload today! oops)

Project 365: Friends

A FRIEND
Breena C. Park

A friend is like a flower,
a rose to be exact,
Or maybe like a brand new gate
that never comes unlatched.
A friend is like an owl,
both beautiful and wise.
Or perhaps a friend is like a ghost,
whose spirit never dies.
A friend is like those blades of grass
you can never mow,
standing straight, tall, and proud
in a perfect little row.
A friend is like a heart that goes
strong until the end.
Where would we be in this world
if we didn't have a friend.

365 Project - As Busy As a Bee

As Busy As a Bee

Meaning: Very busy.

Origin: From Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, (the Squire's Tale), 1386-1400:

Ey! Goddes mercy!” sayd our Hoste tho,
Now such a wyf I pray God keep me fro.
Lo, suche sleightes and subtilitees
In wommen be; for ay as busy as bees
Be thay us seely men for to desceyve,
And from a soth ever a lie thay weyve.
And by this Marchaundes tale it proveth wel.

http://www.english-for-students.com/As-Busy-As-1.html

Vancouver Skyline

Another "unofficial" post and pictures in my 365-day Project Blog.

On our walk along the Stanley Park Seawall the other day, I took a number of pictures of the Vancouver skyline. The above picture is an edit putting three pictures together to make a panoramic view.

Here are the three original pictures:

Just a note: clicking on any of the pictures will let you see them bigger!

Thanks for looking!

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a day in the park

Yesterday we spent the day at two parks in Vancouver. I took tons of flower pictures and am really happy with most of them. I usually take nature pictures looking for ideas for new fantasy pictures. For anyone reading who doesn't know me, I create fantasy pictures. Here is a link to samples of my work:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantasiaphotos/sets/72157612363934654/

I couldn't resist adding these next two pictures:




Thanks for looking! :)

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One picture per day for a year...

Starting August 1st 2009, I will be starting a new project together with a group of ladies from a forum that I'm on: Taking one picture per day for a year.

I do have another blog that I update regularly with family news, mainly set up for family and about family. This new project will be done here, on a seperate blog as it will not be focused on my family. My subjects will be anything that looks interesting or is challenging to me right then.

I love taking pictures and editing pictures. I don't have a fancy camara (but I'd sure love one one day!) For now I am using a Casio Exilim Ex-Z 1080 and am relatively happy with the pictures it produces.

On some days I may be adding more than one picture and there may be days that I take pictures but don't have time to post them right aways. If you decide to follow this blog, I hope you have patience with me. I would love any comments or feedback that you care to give me on my pictures!

and a small preview of the type of things to come: