Ooh,A butterfly!

A few years ago a butterfly(I'm thinking it was a tiger swallowtail-correct me if I'm wrong) visited our humble home and it stayed for a while! I couldn't help but grab my camera and I ended up with some good ones! Here's just a few of the ones I took:

Ever seen this butterfly? He is considered 'six armed' and charged with 'pretty robbery!(;

Portrait, anyone?

What if you want to take a photo of your favorite friend, pet, or another thing but you just want the persons (or anything) face? Easy! Switch your camera to portrait mode. If you do this you'll get just what you wanted and maybe even a soft (blurry) background which is very beautiful. If you want a good background you can ask the person (if it is Fall) to lay down in a pile of leaves or (anytime) sit on a swing, against a tree, etc.

Try not to get any distracting objects in the way of your 'Photo' like a car, other person and other things. If this happens you will possibly end up with a bad photo. One solution is to leave some excess background above and beside the person for later cropping. Or you can shoot another photo somewhere else. Either one works!


Here is a funny idea you can do: take a photo of a person (or you), crop it down to just the face, open the photo in Photoshop or another photo fixer and leave it there while you draw a picture of someone you would like to be (a dancer, a scientist, a hunter, etc) or just a cartoon character you like. Then (make sure you left a big place in the head for your face) scan the drawing onto your computer, put it on Photoshop and drag your photo onto the drawing. Crop the area around the persons face and put it over the blank spot you left, then, when you have it just the way you want it, lay the drawing flat (you can do this on Photoshop) and print it out! My sister, brother and I did this and we ended up putting Santa Clause, an elf and a super hero on our Fridge! It can be hilarious or serious or a little of both.

Have fun with this artistic idea!Younger children will have fun drawing while you do the rest (It might be hard for you but it will be worth it when the child looks at it and says," Look at what I did!"). You can learn a lot of details with Photoshop (if you are a child you might -just in case- have a parent check the link before you do!) by checking out the link above or buy the book here..... Photoshop Elements for Dummies
Feel free to leave a comment if you like this post or if you have something to say that you would like to add.

Taking in God's creation with a camera

Have you ever been to Rifle Falls in Rifle, Colorado? Well, if you have or haven't it's a great place to take photos! When we made a trip there we hiked up the trail around the falls and we had a great time!

Here are some photos I took while we were there:

If you think these pictures were nice you should see the real thing!
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A great tripod!

It's called the Joby Gorillapod and it is amazing! It is very flexible so (I saw this photo in a book-Digital Photography for Dummies) it can even wrap around tree limbs.

Here is what I read in the book: "You can spend a little or a lot on a tripod, with models available for anywhere from $20 to several hundred dollars.....Take your camera when you shop to see how well the tripod works with it. Set the tripod at its maximum height, push down on the top camera platform,and try turning the tripod head as though it were a doorknob. If the tripod twists easily, or the legs begin to collapse, look for a different model."

This tripod comes in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors to fit with your camera! You can look at it by clicking on the link above.Hope this post is of good info!