Hannah & Rhino Ranger hit the Streets

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Hannah & Rhino Ranger hit the Streets

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Top Ten Uses Of A Leaf Blower

10) Clean out your dryer vent
9) Snow blower
8) Clean out your car
7) Use as a hair dryer for your dog
6) Clean the inside of your chimney (FYI - aim up not down)
5) Dry your car after washing it
4) Spread paint on a wall
3) Blow dog poop back over to the neighbor's lawn
2) Play balloon volleyball (yes, you'll need two)
1) Clean your kid's bedroom
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Moving Day

Yes, it's that time - time to pack up the tropicals at my customer's houses and keep what is worth wintering in a nearby greenhouse. This is a mix of items from one customer's house: ficus trees (3), adonidia palm, spindle palm, phoenix roebelinii, passion flower vine, citrus trees (3) and landscape bromeliads (4 here, but 9 total). This is just the first load.

It's always sad to pull them out and tuck them away for a long winter's rest :-(
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Andrew & Savannah @ Sugar Grove Nature Center

Hannah Montana Reward

She did it - Savannah kept her room completely clean and picked up for 21 straight days, so today she received her reward: Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds Concert DVD. She's soooooo happy right now!!!

This is the movie that Laurie took Savannah to see a few months ago not realizing that because it was 3-D it was more expensive - between the movie and snacks I think it was more expensive than a very nice night out for Laurie and I... Ok, maybe not.
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Bromeliads

I'm amazed how good this and several other bromeliads still look at a customer's house, even though it's October 20th. I have a ridiculous number of bromeliads to winter over at my "secret greenhouse location" this year - hopefully they'll do well, but doubt I'll get blooms from the new growth - that takes a lot of special care that I won't be able to give to them over the next few months.
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Determination

What a determined kid...
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Andrew & Savannah Bobbing for Apples

Fun at the in-law's fall family gathering - kids are bobbing for apples.
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Hannah Montana arrives in the mail

Savannah received her Hannah Montana costume for Halloween yesterday… she was SOOO excited!!! It’s going to be very hard for her NOT to touch it for two weeks until Halloween. After that she can wear it anytime she wants (which will probably be quite often through November).

"Harvest Time" Remake

"Harvest Time" Remake, originally uploaded by M A S Photography.

Well, here's the remake of "Harvest Time." Still not "perfect," but... like I've said before, I'm learning as I go. Still a faint "hand of God" (as a friend of mine defined for me) can be seen at the horizon, but not like the first one. I need to move on to other "learning projects" so enough for this one. I'll have to call it "done" for Harvest Time.

Rhino Ranger

Andrew as Rhino Ranger for Halloween - he was so excited to try it on when he saw the boxes on our front porch when we got home today :-)
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Cool Sky

Took it with my phone thru my car's window, but still very cool.
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Mmmmmmm - My Hometown Pizza

Ordered my hometown pizza tonight - Italian Village (IV to us townies). Soooo good and greasy!!! Nothing beats this pizza!
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"Harvest Time" remake coming

Ok, so I've received a few compliments on the Harvest Time picture, but... I should have asked someone how I could "fix it" before I posted it. Most aren't seeing anything wrong with it, but... along the horizon there is that white area... YUCK. Shouldn't be there. So... it's in the in-process-of-being-re-done state right now. Hopefully I'll get it done tonight. Hopefully I'll remember everything I did to the first one (No, I didn't write it down or name the file with the "recipe" as the file name as I usually do or save the PSD file before I finalized the picture).

I'm learning as I go...

Harvest Time

Harvest Time, originally uploaded by M A S Photography.

Cornfield Landscape Pictures

I spent some time out in the country for a bit this afternoon taking a few pictures of cornfields. I know, it doesn’t sound very exciting, but I wanted to practice some Photoshop techniques I learned last week (dodging and burning). #1 – I wish I would have noticed some tiny spots on my lens (I always get them when I take pictures at a particular customer’s house I was at earlier in the day from a tree I park under… Grrr!!!). The spots are in the sky of the picture. I thought I had gotten rid of them by using the “spot healing tool”, until I got further along in the darkening process of the sky and the spots became more highlighted (Yes, I immediately cleaned my lens, or rather the ultraviolet lens filter that covers the lens. Better late than never). #2 – doing this type of work really tests my patience. #3 – I’ve got a long way to go in Photoshop!!!

It’s fun, though… I don’t spend a lot of time doing this type of stuff with pictures, but it’s something different. I’m not doing it to sell it or try to impress anyone… just for my own learning and personal satisfaction of trying to learn something new.

I’m not sure which of the black and whites I like better… one is without grain and the other with grain. Opinions? I asked Andrew and he chose the boring color one (because he said the black and white pictures make the sky look like they have storm clouds… he HATES storms).

I took some pictures of a friend at a nearby horse stable yesterday and while there I took several still life pictures of “horse equipment” (I don’t know what to call them… you know – bits, saddles and things like that). I’m going to work on several of them in black and white and sepia. Not sure when that will be, but hopefully in the next few evenings. They’re to go along with the pictures of my friend with the horses. I’m not sure she’ll give the ok for me to share the pictures of her… she’s being a little shy about it J I also took some pictures at the edge of a nearby forest. I’m pleased with how they turned out… just need to sit down and edit them for her.

I got courageous and started taking almost all of my pictures in RAW (I have no idea what it stands for, so don’t ask)… all I can say is WOW!!! What a difference when doing editing of the pictures. The best I can explain the difference is this… when you’re working with JPG files you’re just working with the exterior of the picture… like you’re using makeup on the picture. When you’re working with RAW files it’s like you’re doing surgery and working from the inside out… like you’re working with a true negative of the picture. Ok, so I didn’t explain that very well… I think I was writing that for my own sake more than anyone else’s that might read this. Actually, I have a feeling that if anyone is reading this post they didn’t get this far anyway. BLAH BLAH BLAH … BLAH BLAH BLAH … BLAH BLAH BLAH. A couple of photography friends are shaking their heads right now if they got this far… Sorry, guys, I know I should have stopped a paragraph ago.

Ok, I’ll stop now. Need to clear up the kitchen before the girls get home from BSF. Oh, and do some laundry. I just LOVE doing domestic chores around the house… my absolute favorite thing to do with my evenings J But, it makes the mommy happy. And a happy mommy makes for a happy home.

Nightly Family Bible Study

Here's my girls during our nightly Bible study time. We use Savannah's daily BSF studies for the kid's nightly Bible time. They both really enjoy digging into the scriptures and give awesome answers at times (and some pretty funny ones other times). BSF this year is studying Moses' life and is currently in the book of Exodus.
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Silly Dog

Yes, I'm sending another pic of Mister Tumnus sleeping "weirdly" - I don't know why it's so entertaining to me AND why I like to take pictures of it AND share the pictures on my blog. Maybe I should just change my blog title to "The 101 Sleeping Positions of Mister Tumnus."
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