3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

Small Town Living

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 138/365: Rock the Prom Dress, Break Out the Red Carpet

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Prom season is here and countless high school juniors and seniors will be buying a prom dress and renting tuxedos in preparation to  show off their finery for a night to remember. At Elmwood-Murdock High School being small doesn’t mean we don’t go all out for prom.

Prom 2011

The post prom committee, parents and students spend all year fundraising to have a high class prom. Students wait in the lobby of the school to take their “red carpet” walk to the two chartered buses. Waiting outside are throng of paparazzi (parents with camera) waiting to take a picture of their daughters in their prom dress along with their beaming dates. Ok, some guys don’t beam at the fuss, but many think it’s pretty cool.

Formal dates are not essential, many go as groups, single guys and single girls also have a good time. I also took the “traditional” shots, but wanted to get a little more stylized with my photography and highlight on the gorgeous prom dresses and finery of the formal evening.

This year prom was held at the Lancaster Event Center in Lincoln, with post prom at the one of the Lincoln YMCA’s. I don’t know where they had more fun. Post prom included swimming, a rock wall, “A Minute To Win It” games, and prizes which included Notepad computers (which my son won) GPS trackers and much more.

PhotoShop: Typical layers with an increase in brightness, contrast and touched up the sharpness on the prom dress and added a little burn to emphasis the design. Added a layer stroke, selected the color from the dress, and added a drop shadow. The text is just one text box with the vertical spacing decreased so the two lines would overlap, text color is white and black with decreased opacity to soften the colors. I had fun with this one!

Did You Know, You Can Buy a Prom Dress Online?

Last year my daughter bought a prom dress on line. I learned more and more girls are doing this so they will have the unique dress and not end up wearing the same prom dress from Debs that another classmate bought. The safest place to buy a prom dress is on Amazon as they have a return policy if it doesn’t fit right or look the way you expected.

It is strongly advised to shop early for your prom dress though, not only due to the return policy, but to make sure your date knows what the color so he can order the corsage and tux color.

Below are some of my favorite prom dresses on Amazon.

Women ball gown evening prom dress Women’s bra Fishtail wedding dress- BlueTidetell Elegant Floor Length Bridesmaid Cap Sleeve Prom Evening Dresses BurgundyIDOBRIDAL Tulle Beaded Bridesmaid Evening Party Prom Ball Gown Dress -BlueIDOBRIDAL Tulle Beaded Bridesmaid Evening Party Prom Ball Gown Dress -YellowFavebridal 2015 Women’s Long Formal Evening Prom DressesJAEDEN Girl’s Sweetheart Charming Formal Evening Dresses Long Prom Gown Hot Pink

Day 137/365: Choir Performance Wins Top Score at District Music Contest

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I never get tired of bragging about the students at Elmwood-Murdock High School, especially when my son and daughter are involved. Here our choir performs at the district music contest the song “Things That Never Die”. They received “1’s”  from all three judges receiving the highest score of a 1+ for the second year in a row.   Twelve schools competed and only two schools received the high score.

HIgh School Choir, Things that Never Die
Elmwood-Murdock Choir

For your listening pleasure here is the video from my YouTube Channel.

If you have followed previous articles you know we are a small rural school district from a community of less than a thousand people in Eastern Nebraska. Our high school has a student body population of less than 120 students. That’s approximately thirty students in each graduating class. To have this many students (almost 50%) in choir is simply amazing and the credit has to go to Mrs. Betty Colbert our choir director.

She has made choir “cool” and coaches the students to find their voice. Many students sang solos at districts (including my son) and the girls sang Italian Sonatas earning top scores. The students participate in honor choirs and learn from top vocal practitioners in the field. In 2009 they even were invited and sang at Carnegie Hall, an experience I’ll never forget.

Glee Has Made High School Music Cool

The television show Glee and movie High School Musical and  Pitch Perfect has helped make high school choir and singing cool again. That and American Idol. It doesn’t matter why, but I’m glad. Many people have made fun of Glee and don’t like the mashup covers of popular songs but it has elevated music programs around the country. Glee style show choirs are extremely popular

Glee – The Complete SeriesPitch PerfectPitch PerfectAugust RushHigh School Musical 2High School Musical 1-3

Music in Our Schools

 

Mon Valley schools honored for commitment to music education

“Ensuring that every child has access to music in schools is central to the NAMM Foundation’s work, but a commitment from the entire community, including local music industry leaders, keeps music in schools,” foundation executive director Mary Luehrsen …
CMCSS makes list for Best Community for Music Education

Ensuring that every child has access to music in schools requires commitment by students, teachers, and those who determine school budgets,” said Mary Luehrsen, executive director of the NAMM Foundation. “We commend the districts and schools that …
Why cut music programs that help children with their learning?

However, we know that is shortsighted, as educational research supports music in schools. In performance groups, if not many students are being served or if the quality of performance is lacking, music becomes a target. This is too bad, because music …
Music education helps mould well-rounded students

Music educators from across New York state came to Albany to spend the day meeting with their legislators to advocate for continued support for music in schools and to discuss the current challenges that face education. Music educators from NYSSMA Zone …
Harmony Project Mentors Youth Through the Power Of Music

Unfortunately, many school districts are quick to cut the music programs whenever budget issues arise, but the statistics show that there’s value in keeping music in schools. According to the Arete Music Academy, children who take music lessons are …

 

 

 

 

 

Day 130/365: Spring Elementary Carnival

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Carnival Games: Put your ticket on a color, roll the die. Match you win!

It’s spring time and therefore the annual Elmwood-Murdock Elementary Spring Carnival. Student, parents and relative purchase tickets that can be redeemed for games, food, raffle drawings, jump houses and the very popular cake walk.

Although there is only a little over 200 students in the K-6 school at least twice that many attend the carnival. Kids everywhere, making a “joyful” noise. It makes you appreciate teachers. Thousands of dollars are raised that go back to the classrooms for supplies, trips, and other needed items for the students and teachers.

Although my kids are far removed from elementary school the high school cheerleaders had a fundraising table. Since my daughter was at State FBLA conference I took her place. Just knew my photo of the day would come from the carnival.

I worked in the ticket redemption center where little first graders agonized over prizes worth one ticket a piece, a 6 inch back scratcher or a sticky alien man. Boy, to go back to when those decisions were the only ones I had to make. The grand prizes were large stuffed animals worth 330 tickets, and yes it was normally the 5th or 6th grade boys. Over the years they had figured out the game system. Everyone had fun, I think, it was hard to tell by looking at some of the parents.

Day 127/365: Photographic View of Church

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Today was my day of playing around in Photoshop again. This time with plug-ins from Xero-Graphics. The subject my home church of Trinity Lutheran in Murdock Nebraska. I was driving by ans a friend was taking pictures for our upcoming open house dedicating the new fellowship hall. So I stopped, said “Hi” and took a few myself. Turned out to be a perfect subject for some special effects.

Which one do you like best and why?

#1: Straight out of camera (SOOC)
#2; Xero Tweak w/burn edge
#3 Xero Illustrator w/burn edge
#4: Xero Line Art
#5: Not sure which effect, misname it, but it's a xero effect, I can find it again.

Here is a different photograph, but taken at the same time in black and white. I’ll tell you which is my favorite after the comments and voting is tallied.

#6 Different image, taken at the same time, but an effect I like