Juggling Life

Jenn's Contribution to Jen's Photo Post (with a twist)

Jen on the Edge challenged her readers to take photos of themselves over the holidays. It is important to note that she did NOT say "take photos of the rest of the family so that you never have to be in any photos yourself because you're not as thin/young/beautiful as you'd like to be."

Out of the trio of the above excuses (not thin/young/beautiful enough) for remaining behind the lens, rather than in front of it, the "not thin" one is my bugaboo. I really don't mind (so far) getting older and I actually think I'm pretty (enough), but I haven't been as thin as I'd prefer to be since I was 107 lbs. for a couple of months in 1984; I wasn't really eating then, which is not a successful long-term weight management technique, so those days are long gone.

Somewhere in the recesses of my mind though, has always been the knowledge that someday I would want photographic evidence that I was part of my own life--which means I do have plenty of pictures of me with my kids and my friends--not quite as many with my husband because somebody has to hold the camera, but enough.

One thing most of the pictures of me have in common is that they're pretty flattering. A well-placed child can hide quite a bit and since I have four . . .! I tend to exercise a lot of editorial control and with the advent of digital, well, there's really no reason for a "bad" photo to exist.

Back in July of 2008, I wrote this post (which I would love you to click through to read because it is one of my favorites) about photos and vanity. It's about a photo that was a bit of a life-changer for me.

 On to the holiday photo . . .

I didn't take one.

In my defense, I didn't really take any photos at Christmas. My oldest daughter wasn't home and my husband was sick on Christmas day. My home-from-college sons were gone a lot and time just got away from me.

However . . .

This last weekend my Mr. Fix-it, Social Butterfly and I went down to the beach one afternoon and I took my camera. I made sure I was not just on the shooting end of the camera, but in the viewfinder as well.

The result is two of my favorite photos ever, with two of my favorite people.

I wasn't planning on being in front of a camera when I put on yoga pants and a t-shirt in the morning, and I don't really have the type of hair that is improved by being windblown, but I've learned to relax a little on those things.

I think I might be growing up.

 

 

Another season, done

Mr. Fix-it took this photo last Friday at the CIF Division II Quarter Final game. Scripps Ranch High (the team Danger Boy used to play for and that Social Butterfly has managed for two seasons), the fifth-seeded team, lost in double-overtime to fourth-seeded Torrey Pines. (Our guys are in the white caps successfully preventing a goal from being scored.)

It was one helluva game. (Though the players do NOT want to hear that; the loss is still too raw.)

At the end of last year, when everybody said they'd miss seeing me at the games and I said, "Oh, I'll still be coming to see these guys plays!" I don't think anybody really believed me. I made it to seven games and Mr. Fix-it joined me for a couple.

Danger Boy will likely help coach the club team this summer and the moms of several of the players are good friends of mine, so, for a while at least, I'll be able to keep up with the team.

Mr. Fix-it and I are thinking that it would be pretty awesome to have grandkids that play the sport so we can keep being the Juggling and Juggling team of water polo photographers. Usually he shoots and I edit, though if he's not with me I will shoot. We really love doing it.

I love it when you can see the ball in the net; unless, of course, it's our goalie in the cage--in that case, this is the shot you want:

This shot below? I love it because it is quintessential #13--the hands in the air proclaim (emphatically) that there is no way a foul is happening, and still I don't always believe that (neither do the refs)! I love the passion and heart of this player.

This one captures the nonchalance and preturnatural calm that typifies #7's play--"You don't mind if I take this ball, do you?"


I am sure at least a couple of these guys will go on to play in college and I sure do hope I get a chance to see it!

 

 

 

BeFunky: A Giveaway Post

 

          (Photo Editing Courtesy of Social Butterfly and BeFunky.com)

I like to think that I’m a decent amateur photographer. I have a pretty good camera—a Canon Rebel—and, thanks to my ex-future-son-in-law, Music Man, I have Adobe Photoshop Pro on my laptop. Having Photoshop is definitely an asset when you have a blog where you post a lot of pictures. Or even if your house is decorated in Early American Family Photograph (as mine is).

There’s a big drawback to Photoshop though, and that is the expense. There is no way I could afford the setup I have on my computer. So when I got a query about reviewing a new site that offers a lot of the same tools Photoshop has, I jumped on it.

Especially since they this is what they were offering:

We’d like to work with you to on a review as well as offer two of your readers a chance to win a free BeFunky 1-year subscription ($99.95 value) to help with easy editing and creativity for their photos.BeFunky has a huge selection of photo effects, such as Charcoal, Inkify, Old Photo and Stenciler that can applied with just one click.  Last week, the company added four more amazing effects and “smart enhancement tools” that fix some of the common photo problems such as over or underexposure and fuzziness.

I think your readers would have a lot of fun with BeFunky as it’s fast, easy and can save parents money on having their photos professionally re-touched.

Social Butterfly and I had fun noodling around on the site and I have to say I was very impressed with the intuitiveness of the site. All of these photos started with a Droid cameraphone pic of a flowering vine in my front yard.

This is what I started with

It looks a little bright and blown out—I shot it in bright sunlight. I fixed it up a bit—not a huge difference, but it does look better.

Then I started having fun—and there are at least 100 things you could do just with effects. I love the pencil drawing and cartoonizer effects (top left and bottom right). Plus, with the vintage effect I won’t feel so deprived because I don’t have an iPhone with the hipstamatic effect.

If you think you’ll have as much fun with this as I have, leave me a comment telling me what it is your going to take a photo of and fool around with. I’ll pick two winners next Monday. Good luck!

Thanks to BeFunky.com for giving me the opportunity to do this very cool giveaway.