3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

Project 365

Day 152/365: Graduation Party Invitation

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High School Graduation Party

For the next week or so I’m going to be indulgent and celebrate my son’s high school graduation from Elmwood-Murdock High school. Thought I would share the resources I used to make this event special and memorable.

The photography is by my friend Beth who does senior pictures as a hobby, Vivid Image Photography. Yes, David’s favorite was hanging upside down from a barn thirty feet in the air. He had fun, that’s what you look for in a good photographer.

The graduation party invitation created on Mixbooks. I purchased a Groupon (which I love) for $100 of products for only $15.00, what a bargain! Mixbooks has a huge gallery of templates and everything is customizable. Colors, adornments, layout, everything is very easy and I couldn’t beat the price anywhere. Bought a hundred invitations for only 0.15 a piece.

If you haven’t tried Groupon, I’d love it if you followed by link and signed up, I get discounts for future purchases and can really use them this summer.

Graduation parties in rural Nebraska are a big deal, it’s really a big traveling party and a reason to socialize. Since the classes are small everyone is pretty much invited and it’s an open house type of event with parents and friends. My son really graduates on the 14th, but he wanted to have his party the week before so he could go to all his friends parties the next week.

Stay tuned for more party preparation, senior portraits, post production of senior pictures, and why guys can be so hard to photograph.

Day 151/365: Weeping Tulips

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My Spring photography theme is still tulips. There are so many colors and moods of tulips that I can’t help but capture each one in photographs.

Red Tulip Gifts and Decor
Tulips Gently Weeping

This one reminds me of the Beatles song While My Guitar Gently Weeps.  What do you think?

Photography Notes: This was taken on my old Olympus digital camera and I adjusted the overexposure by using Photoshop CS2 curves, used my 365 Action which automatically adds adjustment layers (in case I need to use them) resizes, sharpens and bumps the contrast. Then added the stroke for the outline and the drop shadow

Tulips are one of my favorite flowers because they signal in warm spring weather, sunny days and gardening.

I drive around town searching for as many colors as I can to photograph and my favorite spot is the mass planting of red tulips that remind me of Monet’s painting of flowers.

There are several interesting facts about tulips and did you know they are the third most popular flower? Some say they are the new rose. I know I like them better than roses.

Tulip Flower Arrangements

There is nothing more impressive than tulip flower arangements for Spring and Easter. This flower door hanger below is just one idea.

Tulip flower arrangements and door hangers are perfect for spring decorating and Easter.

Day 149/365: Does Your Goat Wait for You to Come Home?

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Day 149: Your goat awaits (Olympus)

It just looks like this goat is patiently waiting for his owner to come back from work. No leash, no tie out, no pen. It would have easily been a yellow lab dog waiting for his owner. He even had a collar.

Last week I took a shortcut which  took me on gravel roads through Otoe, a very small town in Nebraska which only has a population of 205 people, don’t know if it includes the goat or not. This is the scene on the edge of town this is the scene that greeted me. Thought it was rather whimsical, and the type of photo opp that makes you stop, back up and shoot a few pictures. The goat was unfazed, didn’t even get up.

Photography Notes: I did play around with this in Photoshop Elements, the newest version that came with my new scanner last week, but I don’t remember my post production notes, sorry. There is an artistic filter added

Day 148/365: Red Tulips Look Like a Monet Painting

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Ok, maybe not the famous Monet red poppies, but it’s what I thought of as I crouched down in a neighbors yard to take these red tulips in a neighbors yard. I learned he planted this tulip bed over forty years ago. Daffodils are the first flowers of spring to bloom in my yard, now it’s time for the tulips to shine.In my small town in rural Nebraska people are used to seeing me crouched on the ground with my camera.

This photograph was taken with my old Olympus E-10 camera. It’s only a 4.4 megapixel, but the sensor is better than my Canon Rebel camera and the quality is so much better. I just have to be happy with smaller images.

Red tulips in the garden
These red tulips remind me of Monets Red Poppies (Olympus E-10)

I do love tulips, they are one of my favorite flowers and they are such a welcome sight in the spring after a long winter. Red tulips should be the tradition on Valentines Day instead of roses. I don’t like red roses, so over done. Do a search at the top of the page for more tulip photography. There will be more to come in all colors from red tulips to pink, yellow and the rare variegated tulip hybrids.

Photography Notes: Again, image was originally overexposed, so I played around a bit with the curves layer, added a threshold layer with a low opacity and fill for some dimension to the petals.

More Fun with Tulips

Express your love with red tulips

Hopefully, you followed this ageless custom and expressed your love by giving flowers. This year, rather than giving Rita a bouquet of red roses as I’ve done in the past, on November 3, 2013, I began Plan A — preparing a gift of red tulips. Perhaps …
5000 tulips main attraction at Mughal Gardens this year

President Pranab Mukherjee will declare open the annual ‘Udyanotsav’ at the world-famous Mughal Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan on February 15. The Mughal Gardens will remain open to the public from February 16 to March 16. However, it will be closed …
Tiptoe Through the Tulips in Ottawa

Feedback. <. > Bright red tulips in bloom. (Don MacKinnon/Getty Images). As a token of appreciation for the protection of Queen Juliana and her young family, as well as the liberation of Holland, the Dutch sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Canada.