Posts tagged as:

Photos

{ Photoshop Tip and Photography }

by Lee on June 30, 2008

I am following the Thematic Photography over at Written Inc. This weeks Theme was wood and here is my take on it. Just a fence using shallow DOF.

Fence copy

I just love these two videos, they both use stop motion digital camera images to achieve the effect. I found them on Photojojo.


et cetera from jacattack on Vimeo.

This one I like, especially if you are travelling, I think it’s a great idea, I am also intrigued as to why most of the feet are to the right of the shot? Why do you think that is? Maybe it’s because most people look through the viewfinder with their right eye, which means the camera is moved to the left….?


looking down. from hrrrthrrr on Vimeo.

PHOTOSHOP TIP #3

Wow this is hard, always wondering which tip is most useful!The truth is they all are!

OK, lets talk Blendmodes and another handy shortcut. I use Blendmodes ALL the time, on Photos, Digital Scrapbooking Pages, Papers, lots of different ways. The thing with Blendmodes is that the results can be unexpected and it’s not always easy to predict which blendmode will give you the effect you are after. So the easiest thing to do is to look at each blendmode. This is the easiest way to scroll through and find the blendmode that gives you the effect you are after.

* Click on the word Normal in the Blendmode box (found at the top of the Layers palette next to the Opacity Slider). This will open the dropdown menu. Now just click again. The dropdown menu will close but the word ‘Normal’ will now be highlighted (in Windows it will turn blue, I’m not sure what it does with a Mac).

* Now all you have to do is use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through each blendmode and see the the results live on your image.

I hope you find this helpful. If you do, leave a comment and let me know how you have used it.

If you want specific help, post a comment and I will endeavour to help you out :-)

{ 9 comments }

{ Aussie Scrapbooking }

by Lee on June 14, 2008

My first article has been posted at Aussie Scrapbooking! You can check it out here. If you have any ideas for articles or posts that you would like to see let me know here and I’ll do my very best to accommodate.

Also congratulations to Kate for her new Digiscrapping Design Blog at LazyCow Designs (great name!), head over and check it out, she even has a great freebie there too!

Speaking of Kate, she has some beautiful pictures of one of her daughters dancing on her blog this week, they reminded me of some I took of Quinn earlier in the year, I haven’t posted the layout I did with one of the pictures because I was never sure whether you could tell what it was, (it’s hard to be objective when I took the picture!). Anyway, you be the judge and see for yourself, is it just a blur, or can you see a little girl dancing away?

Twirl Girl

Lastly, I stumbled across these You Suck At Photoshop Video Tutorials on YouTube, at the risk of offending someone, I found these very amusing, and there were a few good tips in there too, if you don’t like, how shall we say, aggressive language, perhaps it’s best not to watch, they are very tongue in cheek, I hope you are not offended. Oh I am worried for you Angela! LOL

I am going to start adding some of my favourite Photoshop/Digiscrapping Tips/Shortcuts to most of my posts (I was going to say all, but don’t want box myself into a corner!), so watch out for more entries. Or better yet, if you have a question let me know :-)

I was supposed to go away with a couple of good friends this weekend for three nights of sloth and relaxation, unfortunately I managed to contract my second case of gastro in the last three weeks, along with Quinn. I still feel miserable and I’m still not over it, so if it doesn’t get better overnight I think I will be off to the doctors in the morning, I am a bit over feeling so queezy and off colour :-(

Also a big hi *waving madly* to some of my past students who I see have joined my mailing list, great to see you guys dropping in, don’t be shy! :-)

Oh and lastly, we spent a night in Melbourne last weekend with some dear friends, we took them to their first Aussie Rules Football match along with some other friends that hadn’t been in years, 6 adults + 6 kids = a great night had by all. And to end a lovely evening we finished it off with another big game of Puerto Rico AND we managed to purchase our own copy! Taught the girls how to play last Monday (Public Holiday), had two games, both of which Bronte won. Thanks to Mandy, Dave, Mallory and Odette for a wonderful weekend.

{ 12 comments }

{ Fairies and more… }

by Lee on January 22, 2008

 


Fairy-Quinn2, originally uploaded by leequebee.

I did this of Quinn back in November I think, maybe earlier. I took the picture back in April for her birthday party invitations, she was just sitting on the floor and I think she was about to flick her head back, anyway, I loved the unusual shot and wanted to use it, it only took me 6 months to get around to it! I am not sure what you’d call it, not really a layout…. any ideas?

As you can see I am once again waking from my blog hibernation, but for how long, I do not know, I did half heartedly make “blog more’ a New Years resolution (along with the usual stuff), but we’ll see…doesn’t everyone break their resolutions by February?

I have had a fabulous Christmas break and have got to spend lots of time with the girls. We had a lovely 8 day trip to the magnificent Bright, but it was SO HOT there… we didn’t have one day under 34, most were around 38-39 and two were 41 degrees… thankfully we camped on a creek, which meant hours of fun for the kids and also that we were able to move our chairs in and dangle our feet while we ate, read, chatted away… Some people had tables in the creek and I also saw a guy with a table and chair working away on his laptop…I’m assuming he was working and if he was, it is definatley great working conditions! Pictures of Bright will follow soon….

Ummm….what else…. I listened to lots of Audible Books while I was away, they are great to walk to and when it was really hot, laying down and dozing too, my favourites were 3 books by Chris Grabenstein, just simple detective stories, kind of modern day Agatha Christie, not great works of literature, but very enjoyable, they are called Tilt-A-Whirl, Mad Mouse and Whack-A-Mole, head over to audible.com if you like audible books….

OK surely you must be bored by now so I’ll sign off…. oh before I do, I big hello to Clinton, Jen, Linus and Joey, Clinton, I heard a rumour that you check my blog occassionally… so hello! ;-)

While I was away I thought of a million things I could put on my blog, but my brain has deserted me, so bye for now :-)

{ 7 comments }

{ Where Do I Start? }

by Lee on April 25, 2007

Man, it has been ages, life is busy, but I hate to neglect my blog, it always makes that first post back harder, since I have been too busy to post and yet, really have nothing to tell…. ;-) And to my blog buddeis, I have also been neglecting my blog reading, sorry and I’ll get back to it soon! mwa :)

Work is busy and working 4 days is taking up more of my ‘me’ time than I had hoped. But in saying that I still love it. It’s my 12 month anniversay tomorrow, how freaky is that? It feels like such a short time and I still feel like I am learning everyday.
We went to Bright for Easter, it is truly a little peice of heaven and we can’t wait to get back there, but it will be a while, although we’d love to get there over winter to stay on the cabins that they have there. We camped right on the river, which is sadly lacking in water due to the drought, but it was so pretty and the kids had a ball with all the exciting exploring they had to do. We also had to camp without power for the first time in years, but it was no biggie, didn’t really effect us at all. Good food, good champagne and good company, all in all a great holiday….pics to come soon….
Ummm, what else? Oh it’s Quinn’s birthday this friday. I am having my own little crisis about that. I can’t believe she is turning 10 and it really seems obvious in the last month or so that she is not a little girl anymore. I am not one to worry about my age, it’s just a number, but this is really bothering me. A well meaning friend commented recently that she acts more like she is 12 or 13! That freaked me out too. Anyway, here is a sneak at her party invitations, personal stuff blurred out of course :). I took the pics here at home, and they turned out OK. (CLICK FOR A LARGER VIEW)

Oh and talking about Quinn has reminded me to wish Nic a very happy birthday for the 22nd! Quinn didn’t forget, and wanted to wish you all the best :)

Not much news on the layout front, being time challenged at the moment means it has taken a backseat, but here are two more recent ones, that I have done. Click for a larger view
My Digi Scrapping class starts tomorrow night, so I have been madly updating my notes for that. I did just mean to skim over them, but I ended up adding to the first weekes notes, beginning at 5 pages and ending at 15. Now I am only on the second weeks notes, but I’ll get there. Looking forward to beginning classs in a new venue, with new computer and a smaller class. Should be good. Looking forward to it.
The wonderful MAC Karen is heading out to Oz soon, so the MAC girls hope to have another gathering then, very excited to meet this lovely sweet person and maybe pick her brains, knowing what a fabulous photographer Karen is, I couldn’t let that chance slip by, and I think there will be a few more MAC girls wanting to take advantage of that talent!
I kinda feel like I have more to say but not sure what it is….oh I know, I read a great book recently, if you are a working Mum, it is a fabulous and hilarious read, if you’re not, you should enjoy it just as much (although, the non working Mum’s I know that have read it, thought it was a bit of a dig at them). I have to disagree, I thought it was a big dig at working Mum’s and all the antics that some go through to try and keep their lives, families and careers on track. Anyway, enough babbling, the book is called I don’t know how she does it and it’s by Alison Perason.
Click on the title to read an excerpt.
My weekly movies have been put on hold due to my partner in crime getting a job! Although she will only be working Fridays for a couple of months so we can resume after that. It has actually worked out well really, I am not sure I would be able to fit them in at the moment anyway.
Oh and a small one. Shez, Tenille (a friend) and myself all joined a camera club recently. It looks like we are going to learn heaps. They recently had a Car Rally, which we had a list of things (I took the whole family) we had to take photgraphs of, whilst driving and looking for clues etc. It was great fun and I took some pictures I would not normally have taken. Here are a few of my faves, sorry the colours are a little over saturated, gotta get my screen calibrated…. Click for a larger view


{ 13 comments }

{ Dreams and more }

by Lee on February 4, 2007

~ DREAMS ARE ILLUSTRATIONS ~

Had lots of fun making this layout and have always loved that pic of Quinn, I really enjoyed experimenting and what I ended up with, it shows up a little bit light on the compressed version though. I used brushes by Hybrid-Genesis and a mesh brush by Denise Docherty.

Quote Reads: Dreams are Illustrations….from the book your soul is writing about you – Marsha Norman.
CLICK FOR A LARGER VIEW

~ CAMERA ~
Yay I have my camera back!!!! Woohoo, it is perfectly alright with no sign of the muck that was all over the sensor, I am so lucky and feel very very relieved and thankful to have it back….life is good ;-) I took some pics at a pool party that we went to yesterday/last night but haven’t downloaded them yet, must get to that….

~ STRANGER THAN FICTION ~
Went to the movies on Friday with my cousin and my auntie and saw Stranger Than Fiction, I wasn’t overly keen as I really don’t like Will Farrell, not that I have seen him in much, but the sort of movies he is in just aren’t my thing. Thankfully, the movies I had to choose from were narrow as I was time challenged and was going to struggle to get back in time to get the girls from school, so I was kinda forced to see this or nothing. Well what a FABULOUS movie it was, so refreshingly different, sweet, funny and sad all at once. It had some REALLY great actors in it and there was a real potential for Will Farrell to overact, but he didn’t, his performance was beautifully subtle and I think I can safely say, I am a convert. If you get a chance, go see it. Dave, my cousin thought it was the best movie he had seen in the last 5 years, I wasn’t quite there, but was very impressed nonetheless.
ROFL, I just read that back and I sound like I should be on The Movie Show with Margaret Pomerance! hehe!

~ SOME OTHER STUFF ~
Found these links over the last few days, this first one is via a blog link that Lis provided at MAC, not one of those links, but 1 I found via one of those links (boy that was a mouthful, not even sure I know what I mean LOL). Anyway I am addicted, it’s quite fascinating watching all these people tell a stranger about their lives. This man is from England and has decided to meet someone new every day for the next 30 years and ask them 3 questions check out Thirty Year Project.com I’d love to see what you think. It actually reminds me of a show that used to be on SBS a few years back where a guy would just stop people in the street and ask them about their lives. It was amazing how open and honest people were, the name escapes me now and I know it will annoy me for days…if you know the name please put me out of my misery ;-)

Next is a movie poster that was posted at Photoshop Top Secrets.com on the blog there, it is a really great effect on the poster and I am going to try and incorporate something similar in a layout (yeah, sure I am ;-) ). Anyway there is a thumbnail to the left of the poster, you can click for a larger view or go check out the blog.Also found these cute little camera bags on Donna Downey’s website, they are way to small for all my stuff but I thought they were cute anyway. Would be nice to have one for a day trip I guess where you only need 1 lens and no flash.

Anyway that’s it for me, hope you had a great weekend and if the pics are anything special I’ll come back and add them to this post!

~ PARTY PICS ~
OK So I’m back LOL. These three are my favs. First one is Quinn and then my Bronte Boo and the last is my ‘neice’ Harriet, how striking are those eyes!
And did you notice? There is not a spot on these pics….*sigh*…… thank you Mr Camera Fixer Man :)
BFN!

{ 14 comments }

{ Disaster Strikes }

by Lee on January 19, 2007

~ ROAD TRIP ~

Let’s start with the good stuff first. We had an absolutely wonderful weekend, well Sunday anyway. We went for a drive to Tarra Bulga National Park. First arriving at Bulga and doing one of the beautiful walks across the huge swing bridge, then back in the car and a short drive to Tarra Falls, which is just a scenic stop on the side of the road. All the falls we saw were in a sorry state, but the surrounds were lovely. Then down to Tarra and a lovely stroll into the falls there we we had a yummy picnic on the rocks right in front of the falls. Then we walked out again and started the next leg of our road trip to Agnes Falls which is at Toora. It is a divine place completely hidden in the rolling hills of dairy farms, but when you drive in there is a huge rock gorge with a huge waterfall (just a trickle of water though). It is the highest single span waterfall in Victoria (see top left, not my pic). We can’t wait to go back in winter and see it with lots of water cascading down. We also saw the wind farms there too, quite spectacular up close and more than a little mesmerising. We decided not to have our afternoon tea there as the flies were just awful (another good reason to go back in winter). On we drove to Walkerville Beach where we spread out a picnic blanket on the beach and ate Turkish Bread and Dip. Yummy. And then on to home we went. The girls loved it, because they got to do some hiking and they also got to try out their Christmas present too, the portable 2 screen in car DVD player. So between places it was quite peaceful! The next 3 pics were taken on the day. I really love the B & W one of Quinn, the colour one had a terrible green cast to it because it was taken in the rain forest but in black and white it’s just divine (at least I think so). :) The next two were also taken on the day, the web is slightly blurry because it was quite breezy, but I am pretty happy with it anyway. CLICK ON THE PICS FOR A LARGER VIEW)
~ A WEDDING ~
Saturday, we went and had a peek at my Day Care ladies, daughters’ wedding, (does that make sense). She just looked beautiful. I only got 3 shots of her and I was not in a great spot, but I just love this one. I can’t wait to give it to her Mum on Monday! I hope they like it!
~ LAYOUTS ~
Just realised it must look like I am playing favourites, will have to make some more of Bronte before I get into trouble! The first one (Little Ray Of Sunshine), is made with a Rhonna Farrer frame brush and various free brushes. Background is by me. The next one is Seriously Sweet, Seriously Special, again background made by me using a huge variety of free brushes. The last one, Book Worm, uses a frame from Scrap Artist and the rest is by me.
~DISASTER~
OK, now for the disaster. I think my camera is very very sick. Last night a tried to clean the sensor, as I have done before, with a can of compressed air, only

this time, some sort of residue spurted out before the air came and landed on the sensor, I am beside myself! I took straight down to the camera store today and they have sent it into Nikon, but it will be away for at least 4-6 weeks :( I use it almost everyday, so I am not sure how I will cope without it!

Disaster two is our bloody car. Our car heater has been broken for a few months now, so we finally were able to afford to get it fixed, which is a big job as they have to take the whole dash out. We took it in Tuesday morning, they said they would try and get it back that day, if not Wednesday, inconvenient, but sometimes these things happen. Well now it’s Friday and it was finally ready today. Except when Brian went to pick it up, they said that they had forgotten to attach the hose and would need it back next week, well that was bad enough, but then on the way home Brian also noticed that the speedo isn’t working and nor are the indicators! Man I am ticked!
Not happy Jan!
BBSPF
Oh well, I think next week will be better :). Please tell me it will…..

{ 8 comments }

{ Yumm and Congrats }

by Lee on December 15, 2006

Congrats for the 2nd time within a month to the lovely Judy! Yep Judy is a Mama for the 2nd time to the gorgeous Ella Rose, congrats to Anna and Ross and the rest of the Dr Tax family!

Also a huge Happy 21st Birthday wish too the GORGEOUS (see left) Deb, I hope your special day goes off with a bang and all your wishes come true!! I also hope your party is better than you ever dreamed!

Oooh now I had lots to say, but can’t remember any of it! Let me think… ummm, I am not quite organised for Christmas yet, but getting there slowly, need to pull my finger out and organise all the food for Christmas Day since we are having it here this year, which brings me to the deck…groan…still not finished! Those boys will need to put a few solid days to get it done by Christmas!

I have been in an internet ordering frenzy lately, ordering some gifts via eBay, also ordered a new flash for my camera (woohoo) and a Lightsphere for my flash (double woohoo), which I got on Monday! Now all I have to do is figure out how to use them! (everything crossed ;-) ).

Also ordered some fabulous dressing via email, from the Yumm Dressing Company. Yes dressing, salad dressing. And YUMM is the perfect way to describe it! We bought it early in the year at the Red Hill market on the Mornington Peninsula, if you ever have the opportunity, get down there, it’s very foody, with something for everyone. Anyway, we used up the 500ml bottle we bought in no time, and have been craving it ever since. Finally got around to emailing and asking if we could order some. We now have 4 bottles and have almost had 1 bottle already! Many thanks to Tarryn who got us our fix again!

In regards to my previous post, Angela suggestion about where my emails are going was the following:-

Maybe they started digiscrapping, joined a yahoo group bought a laptop and then couldn’t be bothered going anywhere!

LOL isn’t she FUNNY! (Even funnier than Wayne) ;-). I thought of another good one and laughed when I did, now I forgot! LOL I knew I should have written it down!

Also had a suggestion from Mad Mick, he thinks it’s got stuck in the big Echelon computer (the one that spies on us all) because it has suddenly developed a profound interest in Digiscrapping! LOL

Check out the new MACdigiscrap Blog, a place for all the MAC girls to post their challenge entries too. The current challenge is Christmas pics, so head on over to see some, comments welcome, and if you have some pics to show us, leave the link in your comment, we’d love to see!

Layouts are few and far between at the moment, but I did this one about a week ago, all about the feelings I have being a Mum.

Lastly, to my friend, who has recently suffered a devastating loss, you are in my thoughts, and I am here for you.

Have a great day everyone :)

{ 8 comments }

{ MACdigi Mayhem }

by Lee on November 13, 2006

This is just a quick entry, I am so time challenged at the moment due to my real job, but had to get this up!

We had our MAC conference on the weekend, and I met THE most wonderful, fun, caring, happy, special girls and could not have gotten along with them any better. We all got along like a house on fire and I wasn’t at all suprised, after all, we have been friends for a while now, even though we hadn’t met.
Sadly our good friend Karen was unable to make it (from NZ), but we talked of her often and drank to her more ;)

The pics here were taken on Sunday on Southbank, some at the restaurant and some walking around. Unfortunately these pics don’t include Lis and Ruth as they weren’t there on the Sunday, I will do another one of these from the Saturday night when 8 of us were there. The pics also include our own little MAC digi mascot, the gorgeous Deb and the lovely Dr Tax (AKA David, Judy’s DH). We also got to meet the gorgeous Trent and lovely Matt on Saturday when they dropped Lis off, just wonderful, meeting all these fabulous people! Click for a larger view

All I can say is that I am truly blessed to call ALL of these girls my friends and I know they are always here for me and I will be for them. Cheers MAC girls, you are the BEST!

{ 10 comments }

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