Monday, May 3, 2010

Special Shot


I wanted to share a special picture I was able to take last weekend. Up at Island Lake my husband and I were lucky enough to see a Bald Eagle sitting atop her nest. What a stunning creature!


Thursday, February 11, 2010

Photoshop Continued...



Again, a big thanks to my cousin for being my test subject :) Here is a before and after of her and her horse, West. I thought it was a cute moment and wanted to enhance it a bit. After image is on the right - I did a few layers of dodgeing and burning, applied the rule ot thirds to the center of interest (I chose the conection of Katie and West), added a slight pink tone to Katie's cheeks and brightened her face a touch, brightened West's eye, and finally darkened the entire image a little and added a little extra darkening to the edges of the image.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Starting Photoshop!




I am learning some techniques with Photoshop and I thought I would share a cute photo that I took in Hawaii. With Photoshop, my goal is to learn how to enhance the images I take, brighten them or darken them to enhance the center of interest. I am just starting this and wanted to post some photos to see the progress I make over the next couple months.
The image on the left is the original and the image on the right is after Photoshop




Thursday, January 14, 2010

Going from 2009 to 2010

2009 was a big year for me. After almost 8 years together, I got to marry my soulmate and my best friend. I love being married! We honeymooned in Maui and had a great time. I was hoping to get some really good pictures while we were there, however, I didn't get time to take many "quality" pictures. We seemed to have something we wanted to do each day and many of those were not easy to carry a camera on! Snorkeling, hiking, swimming, eating out.... It was a blast!

2009 was also a good year with the horses. Even though I didn't make any huge leaps and bounds, we were able to achieve a few small things that were fun to work with. We (Quick and I) were able to learn how to mount from the neck, become comfortable with standing on the pedestal, backing without reins, started to play stick to me and he has now reached the point I was hoping to get to with trailer loading. It seems each spring I have to take a few minutes with him for the first trailer ride of the season, but after that he does great for all our other trips. Levi also made some small progress. Matt and Levi were able to be successful at mounting from the neck, he is starting to learn how to bow, trailer loading is great, and they became more comfortable while playing with ground work. Our riding with both Levi and Quick went well for the year, excluding some pain / tenderness issues quick started to have in the fall. After some chiropractor appointments and some time off, things seem to be feeling a bit better. After another year I am again thankful for my horses and my amazing relationships with them. I feel so lucky to have horses that meet me at the gate when I arrive, and who want to be with me when I am there. I look forward to reaching new goals with them this year! I will be posting my goals for the new year soon!

Cheers to 2010!!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

For the love of horses
















Here are a few horse pictures from this fall that I haven't put up yet. Lately, I have found myself going through some horse withdrawal. The below zero temps have made time at the barn very difficult... After a few minutes I find my fingers already getting cold and my eyes seem to water with the wind, which always seems to be quite strong. So, for the next few days, posting a few horse pictures will have to get me through. I took these pictures while visiting with my cousin, Katie. A big thank you to her for allowing me to take some pictures!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Winter Solstice


For the last couple days I spent some time at the barn with the horses hoping to get a shot that I would be happy with for the 2009 Winter Solstice International Photo Project. After trying to get some distance shots with no luck (Levi and Quick wouldn't leave my side) I decided that some detail shots would be the best way to go. So, this is the picture that I think I am going to turn in for the project...


Thursday, October 29, 2009

Fall!






















Fall is coming to a close. Most the leaves have fallen and there is that bare feeling to the North Woods. Here are a few images I took over the last few weeks.