Sites

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.

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 :-)

I am very excited to have been asked to become a contributor at AussieScrapbooking.com. My first Introductory Post has been published. This is a great informative site with lots of good information and lovely ladies, head over to check it out.

What I am listening to…

Angus and Julia Stone. Loving this Brother Sister duo, every song is unique check them out here. This is one of their songs Mango Tree, but they are all great, it was hard to pick just one, check out “All Of Me” if you can too….gorgeous.

What I am reading…

The Mortdecai Trilogy by Kyril Bonfiglioli

Certainly it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I am loving it, laugh out loud hilarious, but it may require a certain sense of humour, I don’t consider mine particularly sick, but then who does? I had dog earred several pages to quote here, but really it won’t seem as amusing out of context. As you are reading, imagine a lovable, slightly alcoholic, effeminate English womaniser with a cutting wit, it will give you the right tone. I saw this recommended on First Tuesday Book Club, and I’m glad I bought it. After that I am reading The Confederacy of Dunces, which I am told by Link is one of his favourite books, and he should know, he has a book database and everything!

Did you know you can purchase books from Amazon directly through my website? Check out the link in the navigation menu at the top of the page. And when you think Amazon, come and visit and order through me!

This weekend we had our dear friends Mandy, Dave, Odette and Mallory come and stay, I haven’t been very well at all this week, but it was, as it always is, a delight to see them and spend time with them, I promise to be more fun next time we see you guys! Loved seeing the girls catch up again too. Quinn burst into tears tonight saying how much she misses them and wants them to move back, I so wish they could. We fitted in a few games of Puerto Rico, since we had to give it back, and I am sad to say my 7 game winning streak is well and truly over, in fact I think I came last in two of the games, Dave was the reigning champ, although there was some controversy over his first two wins… but he is so sweet he is forgiven… and I am going to tell John Faine to leave him alone too!

I am thinking the fact that I am unwell contributed to my dismal performance, well that’s my story and I am sticking to it!

Once again, bad timing with my being sick, but we had Quinn’s 11th birthday party (yes, it’s a month late, but I have reasons OK!), anyway, she told me tonight it was the best party she’s ever had (although she did say that last year), I will post some pictures soon of what we organised for the party, I think they all enjoyed it, it was quite fun, headaches and all.

Brian and Bronte went to the footy again today, and saw the mighty Hawks victorious again (just), Bronte received her 3rd (or is it 4th)? football given to her by one of the team members what a lucky girl!

Coming Soon:- I’ve been tagged, watch this space.

~ 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 ~

And did you notice? There is not a spot on these pics….*sigh*…… thank you Mr Camera Fixer Man :)
BFN!

~ LAYOUTS ~
First a couple of layouts, the first one is my baby, Bronte and I used a song by Van Morrison in this one, which I love, called, Into The Mystic. Love the dreamy look on her face in this pic.
Credits: Textured Overlay from Scrap Artist. I also grunged it up a bit more with standard PS brushes.

Next one is my bigger baby Quinn, this is the pic I posted last time, which I just love. The frame is by C Borgfield, but I am not sure where it is from, sorry, also the brushes are just free downloads from somewhere, but I can’t remember where. I wish people would name their brushes so I can give due credit. The background and word art are by me.

~ BREAK ~
Hope you all had a great Australia Day and long weekend. We came back a day early as the weather wasn’t great and was going to get worse. But it was nice while it lasted! Got to finish my audible book and got lots of relaxing in, and a lovely walk along the beach and we also got to sit on the beach, all snuggled up with the girls and watch the comet which was pretty spesh, so we did fit a lot in for the short time we were there!

Also met these lovely people that were camping behind our friends, I was in the van and heard Brian chatting to them, and came out and had a short chat, I thought they mentioned something about lambs and that they were from Thorpdale, so I assumed they were Sheep Farmers, then they went off to cook dinner and we ate ours. During dinner Brian mentioned that they were actually potato farmers, I said that Shez’s parents were from Thorpdale and they probably knew Shez’s family, later on we started chatting again.
I said “I have a friend whose parents are potato farmers in Thorpdale, you might know her family. I can’t remember her maiden name but her married name is Sherryll Ray, do you know them?”
The lady (Joan), said “Sherryll Ray…hmmmm….OH!!!! Sherryll Ray, that’s our daughter!!!!!!!”
ROFL!!!
Then they asked my name, which I said, and before I had a chance to explain how I knew Shez, they both exclaimed “You’re Lee!!! You’re to blame for our daughters’ obsession!”
“That’s me”, I say sheepishly! LOL. What a small, small world we live in! They are just the loveliest people, not that I am surprised, their daughter is very special and a great, true and loyal friend to boot!

We are busy today doing more stuff around the house, painting old pots and clearing a few more boxes from the garage, we are also clearing a spot for one of those slimline sheds in the backyard, mainly to house the lawn mower and maybe the bikes, if they fit. I would dearly love to be able to move in our garage, but it is chock full of CRAP! LOL Then we are going to do a bit of plant shopping tomorrow, severely restrained by our budget, we are also in desperate need of a doorbell, all our friends have taken to ignoring the front door and coming straight round the back as we never hear it!! LOL

~ CAMERA CLUB ~
Shez, Tenille (a friend from Brian’s work), and I all went off to the Coal Country Camera Club meeting on Tuesday night. It was a great night and I look forward to more meetings. They have field trips and weekends away and best of all, families are welcome on the trips! The level of skill there is amazing and more than a little intimidating, but I just know I will learn heaps and best of all the people were lovely!

~ INTERESTING STUFF ~
Well, at least I was interested LOL. First this blog had me in hysterics http://www.thingsmyboyfriendsays.com/ it could be my sense of humour but I hope you get a giggle too, I should mention that there is some ‘colourful’ language going on here, so beware.
Also thought this was pretty groovy too, some interesting effects…http://www.typorganism.com/asciiomatic/ . This is a blog I stumbled across, I have no idea how, but I did http://dooce.com/, the interesting thing I liked on this blog was this series of pics here http://www.3situations.com/BillSullivanWorks/MT4.html loved the candid looks on all the faces, wish I had the courage to set up and take pics of random people like this. I found myself wondering about each persons life and where they are going and where they are now…like I said, interesting, at least to me… ;-)

Have a great day and go spread some happiness ;-)