Happy Mama's Day

The kiddos were great artists and painted these canvases.  Mary has a pretty yard to take pictures in and they brought their beautiful smiles.

Happy Mothers Day!

Gettin creative

 Because of all the goodies I received from Christmas (photoshop, lenses, filters, books...)  I have really been trying to brush up on my photography skills.  What I have tried to focus on mostly is shooting manually.  Why have a camera like this and not take full advantage, right?

I have really been focusing in the f-stop, which in my words, is a way to focus more on one area, while other areas that are near are blurred.  For example, if I had not changed the f-stop manually, the picture of the paint brushes would be focused on the brushes, water, and cup.

Again (although I need more practice on moving subjects) Jules' ear is blurry while her eye is not because I manually changed the f-stop, or aperture.

And here is just a picture I painted.  The background is a two-tone type of technique I tried.  First, I painted purple on the blank canvas.  On top of the purple, I painted green.  Then, I laid a paper towel with a neat texture on top of the canvas, and then pulled it off which exposed the purple underneath with the neat pattern intact.   Although it is much easier to see the texture in real life, it looks very neat.  Enjoy!

Painting, painting, painting...

This is a painting I did for mom  for Mother's Day.  I took the colors from her bedroom and bathroom to make her a nice piece of art for her room. 

On the subject of painting, we went to the Painted Clay Studio to paint pottery for Maggie's birthday.  It was so much fun and a great way to just hang out.  You pick a piece of pottery from a variety of choices and paint it any way you like.  I chose a dog treat jar, Maggie chose a turtle, Joanna chose a dragon, Mika chose small triangles to make necklaces out of, and mom's is a secret until Christmas.  

The colors will look different after it has been fired in the kiln, so you choose paint from pieces that have already been fired.  The pieces are numbered and then you go grab the bottles of paint that correspond.  

 

Freddy the dragon and Franklin the turtle.

A treat jar for Angel and Jules

I'm sure we will go back, especially after mom found out you can bring your own wine!