Friday, April 29, 2011

Photo Club


I attended my third Photo Club meeting last night
where we learned about shooting
PORTRAITS.

Brad Jenks is a videographer with my former TV station's rival.
He is also a professional portrait photographer.

He brought in all his lights and gadgets for
shooting formal portraits.


He shared all kinds of great pointers like
having the subject spread out their fingers to look
more natural.

And, DON'T cut them off at any joints or
they'll look weird.


We all got to practice shooting portraits with
Brad's immediate expert critiques.


I took this portrait of Beth.

I was so proud of her splayed fingers.

"See how you cut her off at the knee joint," Brad said.

Sorry I made you look stumpy, Beth.
I need a LOT of portrait practice, but it was fun to learn
the techniques.


One of the photo clubbers is not only an awesome photographer,
she's an amazing painter and brought along her artwork.


Jan Knoll first photographs interesting places
and people.

Then she paints the scenes.


The stunning thing is...

She paints them in miniature!

They're no bigger than 3 by 4 inches.



Jan's been painting for twenty years and loved to paint
"small".
She never painted anything bigger than a 16 X 20.

Then she read a magazine article about miniature paintings
and was fascinated.


She flew to Florida where she learned the craft from a
miniature artist.  Well, the artist was normal size, but
the art was teeny.

She uses a magnifying glass and strong light
plus tiny brushes.


The fine details are exquisite on such a tiny canvas.
Each painting takes 30 to 40 hours to complete.


As I have shared in other blogs
I am fascinated with people's talents!


Jan attends miniature art shows and
even competes in miniature contests.

I just HAD to share her vast talent
with you.


Thanks, Jan!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Happy Rain


I told you I joined a local photo club.
Our assignment this month was to shoot
APRIL RAIN.

THAT was an easy subject...it seems like
it has rained all dang month!

The problem was...
I don't like to get wet.

But the month was winding down and
photo club is tomorrow night.

Yesterday, I FORCED myself out into the rain.


I didn't venture too far.
Just out the back door where I found rain pounding
on our red grill.

I thought the red would brighten up
the dark, dreary day.

So with raindrops splashing all over my camera
that I thought was secured in a plastic bag...


I fired off more than 200 shots...


Trying to capture 

SPLASHING RAINDROPS.










After filling my card with photos,
and soaking my jeans to the skin.




I rushed to my computer to see what
I had captured.








Even though the weather was
drab and depressing...

I thought these pictures were

HAPPY!

They made me smile.


I placed a pretty yellow plate out
and it soon filled with rain.

SPLASH!

Looking this close...
it appears

RAIN IS HAPPY!


Now for the not-so-happy news:

All this rain made our roof leak.
Tom, our terrific carpenter
scared me to death climbing onto the roof in
the pouring rain to check it out.

Look at that gray sky! 
UGH!


Rain, rain....
GO AWAY!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter Joy


Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

I was in East Lansing, Michigan
celebrating at my sister-in-law Dorothy's house.

She lives just minutes from my
kiddie's college, so it was
great to see them!






Dorothy lives just an hour or so south of us
and what a difference...
They have started SPRING!

I was so happy to snap some photos
of Lindsay by her favorite flowers
DAFFODILS.








Most of the flowers were still in
the bud stage just waiting to
burst into bloom.






These are the early bloomers:


Sweet scented hyacynth.
















My cuz Kathy sends me the prettiest pictures
cuz she's a great photographer,
so I like to share the beauty.

Here's spring in central Missouri:


Kath has named this beauty
Connie Crab Tree.


Connie glows in PINK!


Meanwhile, this is what's hanging out by
my college friend Debbie's mailbox
in Atlanta.

LOVE THAT!!!


I'm still waiting on ANY bloomers!


Lots of rains though...

just hoping they bring May flowers to ME...

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