Photo Humor and The Great (Canine) Dental Adventure of 2012

Let's start with a card, shall we?

I made this for my photo teacher because one of the concepts we learned was "center tendency."  (Essentially, when you photograph things like a mug shot, LOL).  I used Lawn Fawn stamps (although the tree is from the Penny Black stamp set).  I used my copics to color the images.  The holly and berries are from a Marta Stewart punch.

And here is the inside of the card, using a Lawn Fawn stamp and sentiment (and Glossy Accents).

Amuse-bouche:  Colt doesn't have the nicest looking teeth. It's not just the tarter.  He's got jack-o-lantern-mouth syndrome.  Short story... he had his teeth cleaned.  While he was at the doctor's, Sammy and I did errands and went to Fashion Island (in Newport Beach, CA).  Here's his adventure... (followed by Colt's post-recovery photo (with CONE)).

They have a lovely KOI pond area to eat lunch by.... Here is Sam.

Fabulous tree...  Do you see Sammy, sitting at the base of the tree on the sidewalk? LOL

The story behind this photo is that we were waiting to see Colt (to pick him up after his dental).  Sammy was panting and nervous because he thought he was going to be examined.   

I snapped this photo as the vet was just about to open the door to enter the room.  Sam was  staring at the door, waiting with trepidation.

And here is Colt... who has already damaged his e-collar.  Note: He also had a small mass removed from his left leg so he has stitches.  

Girlfriends' Night Out--- to see Adam Carolla and Dennis Miller!

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving and had time to have fun, get some shopping done, eat great food.... and enjoy the holiday.

You know how I adore Penny Black's farm animals!!! The sentiment came from Paper Smooches, the coloring is Copics.  The ribbon was from Michaels and adhered with Glossy Accents.

This is the inside of the card.  I used a Hero Arts sentiment and butterfly stamp from their clear "Friends" set.

Amuse-bouche:
And here is our night out at the Grove.  We had fabulous seats!!!

We had great seats however, this was taken with my Zoom and Flash.

Adam Carolla comes to the Improv... oh, and a Happy Birthday card...

Hello!!!

    I made this little square card with Lawn Fawn stamps and Copics markers..., followed by a Hero Arts sentiment that was embossed inside.   I used the clear glitter gel pen on the sentiment.

The pink paper was embossed already.

Amuse-bouche

I was elated to hear that Adam was coming to my town to do his podcast.  

Here's my photos from that night. As you can see, I was BEYOND excited to be there. 

Me and Producer Gary (who also does Lynette Carolla's podcast "For Crying out Loud" and other shows on the channel)

Me and Producer Mike Lynch 

Chris Maxipada showcasing Adam's Mangria!!! (wine and Vodka).

Adam, Alison Rosen, Comedian Greg Fitzsimmons and Bald Bryan!!!

Adam with a glass of Mangria (His new drink that you can buy now).  It's essentially wine and vodka.

Stay tuned for my photos from the next night-- Adam and Dennis Miller....

Happy Fall Y'all... and some photos from our Photo Class (night) field trip

Here's a card I made using my Copics Coloring skills.... LOL.
It's my Fall Card!  (Probably my only one this season...).
I used my La-La Land stamps and Copics markers.... I'm trying to get this coloring technique down. AGH.
"Harvest Blessing" came from CardzTV's Stamp Set.

This card was sent to my dear friend Tammy, of Tammy's Spot... who I've never met but who I consider a wonderful friend here in this blogging community. Besides being an avid dog lover, she makes the most amazing cards- she uses so many techniques and infuses humor in her posts and cards.
She's an inspiration!

Sentiment is from Hero Arts.  Die cut is from Paper Trey Ink

Isn't this sweet?  I picked it up at a dog bakery on Bainbridge Island when I was up in Seattle.

Amuse-Bouche:

Tonight was our night field trip for my photo class.  It was a lot of fun.  I'll share some of the photos and techniques below however you may already know how to do this stuff....   For those of you who didn't know your cameras do these things... check out below.

I used 2 cameras tonight:  a SLR Canon camera as well as a fabulous little 'point and click' Panasonic that I bought at Costco.  If you have a SLR or you have a Point and Click--- you CAN do this.

Photo 1:

Here was are, in Newport Beach, looking at the Balboa Pavilion.  No flash.... 

Exercise #1

Now I am taking a photo of the same area (USING A TRIPOD)  but I put the camera setting on  F/stop 8, ISO 200 and taking a shutter speed of 4 seconds ( The next few photos are the same settings but the photos are taken at 8 seconds, 10 seconds, and 15 seconds). The captions will explain what the photo was taken at...

 Same settings, except now a shutter speed of 4 seconds (notice, more light in the photo)

 Same settings, except now a shutter speed of 8 seconds (much more light in photo, lighting up the scene)
*Sorry, despite using tripod, a little blurry.

 Same settings, except now a shutter speed of 10 seconds (much more light)... Still no flash.

 Same settings, except now a shutter speed of 15 seconds (look at all the light!)-- still no flash.



Exercise #2

 Using the same area, and no flash, we set our cameras on F/stop : 8 and 8 second exposure.  This means that the camera is taking the photo over 8 seconds. During this time period, my teacher was standing near the boat and flashed a strobe at the boat. He immediately then started shining a flashlight on the boat and the surrounding areas.  The strobe/flashlight lit up the boat and area.  Because the 8 second exposure took in all this, you never see my teacher (as he was moving around, shining the light on the boat and surrounding areas) but you can see the area that he lit up.
Again, no flash on this photo.  The actual scene looks like just photo #1 at the top (darkness) but because he is putting light on the boat, etc... it looks lit up)



In this technique, our teacher, had a fellow student walk across the dark sand (again, no flash used in this photo).  He walked in front of her, shining the flashlight on her-- this lit her up in the photo. (The flashlight wasn't anything big. Just a normal flashlight).  In the meantime, our camera was set on F/stop 8 and a 15 second exposure.  This means the camera was taking the photo over 15 seconds (the camera was on a tripod to keep it steady).  This is the result.
SUPER NEATO!
Again, there was no additional lighting.  The actual beach area was dark, just like photo #1 above.

OK, this is my 8 second exposure that I took on my little Panasonic point and click. I took this photo on an ISO 200, F/stop 8, with a 8 second exposure.  Because my camera wasn't on a tripod for this photo, this is what I got.  Obviously my hand was not steady during the 8 seconds...
I call this my "Electric Light Parade photo." (here comes the Disneyland music). LOL

On this photo, I had the camera on a F/stop 8, ISO 200, and an 8 second exposure (or perhaps it was 15 seconds),.... I was using the SLR and I zoomed the lens in as the 8 seconds passed.
Because the camera lens is open for 8 seconds and the lens is zooming in-- this is the STAR WARS effect we get.

And so concludes my night field trip....

Thank you and Come again....  :)

Happy Bird-Day... and some photos

Here is a birthday gift bag and card that I made for a friend of mine.  The gift bag was cut from the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Cricut cartridge.

For the card, I used a Paper Trey Ink die along with their Birthday Treats stamp set.  I colored the image with Copics.  The purple ink is Hero Arts while the red ink is Jenni Bowlin.  I thought it needed something more so I took my clear glitter gel pen and outlined some of the purple stamped image.

Here is the inside of the card, using a Hero Arts birthday stamp set ( I love this set ).



Here is my envelope stamped using the same Hero Arts stamp set.

Here is the gift bag I made using the Cricut cartridge (Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More).  The little doggie is from a dog button set found at Michael's.



Amuse-bouche:
Today, our photo class went to a farm to take photos.  We had some 'models' dress up.  I took the three photos using my 'auto-bracketing function' which essentially takes 3 photos one after the other but takes it in 3 different exposures.  Hopefully, you can tell the difference.  This gives you the option to use 1 of 3 photos rather than just the 1 photo you took.  I think the last one is the optimal photo.

Here is a doggie, Missie, who is a resident on the farm.   Of course, people were taking photos of the models and I'm chasing down the animals on the farm.

More Copics coloring-- with a La-La Land Stamp

Using my La-la Land image of Boy Wonder, I practiced my Copics coloring.  I seem to do ok with the hair highlights ... and then there are no further highlights. LOL.

The background was made with embossed with a combination of Lawn Fawn and Technique Tuesday images on watercolor paper.  Then, I used my Distress Stains (Faded Jeans, Broken China, and Tumbled Glass) to create the background. I sprayed the cardstock with Pearl Mist.

The image was posted on a Spellbinders Nestabilities die cut.  The earth and planet and stars were colored with Copics and came from a Technique Tuesday stamp set.  I colored the stars with my clear gel sparkle pen.

I added Glossy Accents to the eyes and boots! There is glitter gel pen on the cuffs and the gold star.

Amuse-bouche:
If you have time, watch this very sweet video about this little girl who happens to have autism.
(Get your KLEENEX out now...)

A baby gift card holder.... and some more Dog Halloween photos...

Here is my gift box for a baby girl gift...  (It's very similar to the wedding box I just did)

The Ingredients:
I used embellishments that I purchased from Michaels.  The charm is from the baby section, the brads are from the brad/scrapbooking section and the little duck, letter blocks are buttons that I cut the holes off with wire cutters (on the back of each figure).

The paper is from a DCWV paper pack for "baby girl."

This tag was made with an old Stampin' Up baby image, colored with Copics and white enamel drops.
Spellbinders nestabilities diecut was used to cut out the baby image.


Amuse-bouche:
I took the boys on a walk this weekend and found some Halloween stuff still up.

Here they are:

This is the Halloween costume I got Sam for this year. (Petco).   The problem was keeping it on his head... it kept sliding off...   but it's such a cute costume.

Happy Halloween, 2012 (SamUL and Colt)