Pink Attraction

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I cleaned this shot from Thursday up a bit more and ran the Color Efex Pro Detail Enhancer and then Vignette (white) filters on it.

Both the boys had Little League Baseball games last night.  There teams didn't do so good.  Better luck next time, right?  I was in the dugout for Joey's game trying to help with the batting order and keeping the boys focused on the game during batting.  I didn't take many shots because I was so busy, but here's one of the team getting instructions from Coach Anthony right before the game.  Joey is Number 12 and his number is hidden by Number 1.

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Team pictures this morning for Joey and Robot Rumble for me and the boys at The Museum of Life and Science this afternoon.

Yellow Orchids and Blue

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I tried to get some good shots of my other orchids yesterday.  3 different yellow ones...no speckles, slightly speckled, and lots of speckles!  None as spectacular as the one I photographed on Tuesday, though.  Only 3-4 blooms each and kindof cramped up together which for me made them harder to photograph.  I tried aiming at the kiddie pool for the blues but then ended up not liking the shade and tinkering with it some.  I don't know why, but sooc just didn't do it for me with any of them, so I did a lot of tinkering last night.  These images use the new Vignette tool in Picasa with various shades of blue and green.  I'm not sure if any were for the better or not.  I have more time on my hands because all my boys have been away.  Glad to have the photography to keep me busy but will be glad when my boys are home.

 Original for the daily.

The shot below besides Picasa Vignette also uses the quick select tool and a copy to a new layer in PSE 7 to make sure the front flower is not shaded by the Vignette.  It's a bold color shot...probably too strong for most.

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This butterfly just didn't stick around long enough for me to get a crisp shot of him although I definitely like the light and colors in this one as well as the long 16X10 crop.

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Lomo filter from Picasa on this delicate yellow bearded iris is kindof neat too.  Loved that crazy bokeh!

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And one other birdbath reflection shot for ya!  The red in the water is from azalea blooms.

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Oh, and the female red-breasted woodpecker too!  One of these days I am going to spend some time trying to get a good shot of one of these guys.  They are at my suet feeder off the small back deck on and off all day.  They are very skittish, though.

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Red-Spotted Purple

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I guess I'll post the color version, but I kindof like this B&W one too.  This is a red-spotted purple butterfly. We actually see them a lot around here.  They like to lay their eggs on wild cherry trees and other trees that are common in our area.  The spots are really orange, but hey, I didn't name them.

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Madi's cat Andrew sure was enjoying the warm morning light beneath his favorite window yesterday!

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Some of Madi's dress-up bling:-)

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I was really trying to get a really nice bluebird picture yesterday, but although I got some, I didn't like the noise or clarity of them.

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Madi's dad, Danny, has been working really hard to get their pool ready for the season...  The liner had a hole and Danny was not the original installer, so he decided to fix some issues before putting in the new liner.  We're all excited about that first swim and water volleyball game of the season.

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Orchid

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I don't know how I got so lucky, but this beautiful orchid that I bought last year decided to put out a huge array of blooms again this year.  Here's a picture showing the orchid and the location of the photo shoot.

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I took about 125 shots spinning the orchid around to try close-ups of different blooms.  The nice green background in my daily is the new growth on a Redbud tree off the left side of the deck.  This blue background is a kiddie pool that's sitting on the deck itself.  You know the blue;-)

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I only took 4 shots with the blue background and although I loved the blue none of them seemed like what I wanted to post as a daily.  I might retry.  Maybe I can go clone out that little curl from the flower behind the front flower in this shot.  It's driving me nuts.

For some reason I really like the dangling nature of this shot too.

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Here's a right to left unfocus that I think is kindof neat.

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I tried and tried to get the curve just right...

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Female Cardinal

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I took this female cardinal shot earlier today and pp'ed it.  Here's the original if you're interested.

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I used OnOne's FocalPoint to help me hide the dirty railing and Detail Extractor filter in Color Efex Pro.

White on Red

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My daily picture was taken on a late day walk with Madi, Christine, and Salvo.  Yet another neighbor with some bearded iris in their yard and azaleas providing a back-drop.  I am not entirely happy with the exposure, but I still think it's the best shot to share with you that I took yesterday.

The Easter egg hunt was a lot of fun.  A few of the eggs were marked for quarters, a $1, and a $5 for incentive:-)  It gets pretty competitive, and we wonder if that's a good thing or not, but that's the way the real world is, so...  Johnny gets a bit of extra help since he's the youngest.

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I couldn't help but pull up a picture of the kids from 5 years ago (040807) for comparison.  They grow up so quick!  I'm pretty sure there is a group shot from each year.  I went as far back as was convenient and made sense.

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Here's a pretty shot of some azaleas growing in the Kidd Family garden too.

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Happy Easter

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It's tradition for us to dye Easter eggs at my house on Saturday and then hunt for them at Madi's house on Sunday.  We'll be heading over for a brisk egg hunt in an hour or so.  The kids are excited!

This year we did our usual Paas vinegar colors as well as using some liquid color in the spinner plus we tried something new...Kool-Aid as recommended by my friend Patricia. 

Hard for me to tell you which finished eggs were done with the Paas and which were done with the Kool-Aid.  I do remember that the Kool-Aid ones were turning out just fine, and it's a great alternative to the kits in my opinion.  Red cups in the pics are Kool-Aid and the shorter oval cups were the Paas.  We had out some food color too.  The gel, not liquid and not paste, work nice watered down a bit and put on with a paintbrush.

I did the LOVE egg thinking of Donnie and the warmth in my heart for family and friends. I also did the HOPE egg. Christine did the PEACE egg. A great thought for Easter. Joey made the cool Easter Bunny egg. Madi just off frame at the top had a cool Peter Cottontail egg as well as the Easter egg in the shot just of her holding it. Use a clear wax crayon on the egg before dying. You can't see what you're doing, but it's fun and a good result.

Johnny had his first scrimmage ball game yesterday and got his hat and t-shirt.  Isn't he cute and handsome?!?

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