happy spring!

okay, so it might not feel very springlike out today here, but look what are peeking through the soil in the gardens across the area.

Boston, Part One

I thought I would take the next few posts to go back in time to an old trip to Boston. I found these pictures today; I took so many pictures on that trip, and I think I've only ever posted a few of them. So, here goes. Today I'll show you the Museum of Science in good ole' Beantown.

Enjoy :)

and in this last one, find the photographer!

reflections

I took this one quite a while ago, and since I have not taken any "artsy" pics this week I thought I would share and "oldie but goodie."

Have an awesome day! It's supposed to be beautiful out there!

let's talk photo shop

I'm an amateur with a passion for capturing the things I see in this big world. I'm a super-amateur in the photo editing world.

But I'm trying to hone my skills. In Photo Shop particularly. When I first started taking pictures, I thought Photo Shop was super boring. Why did people rave about it so much? I wondered. There were too many complicated things about it and the only thing I actually liked about it was the fact that you could add a lens flare.

Well, very very VERY recently I've started using it for a lot more than adding watermarks. I went on a Picasa and Picnik craze for quite a while, and that's what I used, for the most part, to edit my brother's wedding pictures, because, for one, it was super easy to use and it had lots of cool effects (that I thought Photo Shop didn't have).

Then one day, when I was opening a picture to edit in Picnik, I nearly went into a major depression when I saw the notification that Picnik, like Ringo, is going away for good (I still miss Ringo. It was the bomb).

Well, I begrudgingly thought, I'll have to start figuring out how to use this Photo Shop more. There were LOTS of sighs on my end over this. Photo Shop is SO boring, I thought.

Well, they say change is good (still arguing that one), and this time, it's proved to be true. I've started to figure out new tidbits (there are all the same features on Photo Shop and you can play around with the effects even more than Picasa), like how to cross process a picture, blur objects, and, my personal favorite, which I discovered last week, the history brush tool. ITS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

I've drunk the Kool-Aid. I've become an addict. And it's Photo Shop for me from now on.

So today I'm going to show you some befores and afters. I hope you like them.

this is the original, unedited picture.

This is the one that I originally presented my brother with. I added a lens flare because I thought it was "cool"

I figured how to take out the annoying minivan in the background. It wasn't quite finished yet, though.

Behold! the finished product! I absolutely love this picture. (And so does my brother. Which is MOST important)

the city of lights

It's hard to believe it's been one whole year since I took this picture. I wouldn't describe many things as magical, but I would definitely describe this sight as one of them. Breathtaking and dreamlike would be two other words I would describe it as. I wanted to see the Eiffel tower since I was about 14. I would sketch little pictures and pin photos of it around my room, never actually thinking I would actually get to see it. But when I did, I felt like I was walking in a dream. My breath caught, and my heart fluttered a little. Sounds silly. But it's honest.

If you ever get to see the Eiffel tower, I'd recommend seeing it at night. The day time view of it is quite amazing as well, but night is when it truly will catch you. If you get to see it at the top each hour til one a.m. you will see the Eiffel at its best--a flickering tower, which reminded me of thousands of flashbulbs echoing through the night's skyline. Here is the official site of the Eiffel tower (you might have to translate it into English):   http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/tout-savoir-sur-la-tour-eiffel/les-illuminations

It's Friday, Friday, Friday..

Okay, I don't have much time this morning but I had enough time for a quick blog post. It's Friday! Woohoo! Congratulations, you've almost made it through another work week (or, in my case, you still have to work Saturday, so you're just saying this to appease the crowds, or, Friday just has that special "feeling" about it).

And while we're on the subject, well, we weren't really on the subject, but I really need to stop putting my foot in my mouth.

Anyways, enjoy!

I Really Couldn't Help Posting Twice!

Remember that post where I said I don't post as much as I want to? (Anyone, anyone?....)

TODAY I DISCOVERED THE HISTORY BRUSH TOOL ON PHOTOSHOP AND I CAN'T STOP. Don't laugh at me for just realizing it was there. I'm an amateur and I'll be the first to admit it. Anywho. Like I said, I can't stop. I've been thumbing through a bunch of oldies but goodies and history brushing them. TO PERFECTION :) okay, maybe not perfection, but I'm going to sound super conceited when I say this, but this picture kinda took my breath away when I sat back and looked at it.

It's Portland Head Light, and I'm pretty sure I've posted it here before...

Spring Has Sprung, In Which I Call My Favorite Groundhog Wrong This Time Around (All In Good Fun)

this is what happens when you step in the wrong spot in your wilderness walk

They say if you don't  like the weather here, wait a minute. After living here my whole life (yes, I'm boring like that), I believe it. I've seen the weather change drastically.

Though Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on February 2, predicting six more weeks of winter (which incidentally would end today, if my calculations are right, since I am terrible at math), we have been having some beautiful weather the last few weeks! So, unfortunately, though I love the little fellow, I think he was a little off this winter. Yes, we had a freak snowstorm, and probably once I publish this the sky will start powdering the ground with white stuff, but I think spring is actually here. I mean, it smelt like spring the other day, and that in itself should be reason enough :)

So although the calendar says that spring doesn't officially arrive until Tuesday, March 20, I think the trees are thinking otherwise.

That last statement didn't make quite a lot of sense, so I'm going to stop writing and show you some pictures, which is obviously why you came here. So I hope you enjoy them!

This first one was way overexposed when I took it, so I decided to see what I could tweak it with.

this picture, i'm not gonna lie, kind of creeps me out for some reason

My favorite, I think. It reminds me of those cherry blossom branch pictures.

there's a story behind this.

there was a woodpecker way up high in this tree

a mirror image of yourself

i read someone's blog post the other day about how they did a 365 project where they took a picture of themselves every day for a year. I thought that was a pretty interesting idea. I'm not going to bore you all with a 365 project like that (although I thought it would be really cool; watch my blog hits go down to negative numbers), but i did like her idea of mirror image photography. sure, i think everyone has rolled their eyes at those profile pictures people have of themselves vainly smiling or striking a pose in front of a mirror, holding (usually) their cell phone at arm's length (and, although you have rolled your eyes, you have probably at one time or another taken a similar picture of yourself). so i decided to strike a pose and try out mirror image photography, as i like to call it. enjoy the shot. or, be repulsed by my face. but remember, CHOOSE WISELY.

until next time, have a good day!

unexpected wonders

Yesterday I decided to take the morning off and sleep in. I was excited, since this meant staying in my jammies all morning and editing some engagement pictures I had taken the day before for two of my friends. Sounds like a great morning.

At 8:23, my mom came into my bedroom. Here's the conversation:

Mom: "Audrey, sorry to wake you up."

Me: GRUNT. (I hate waking up in the morning)

Mom: (continues unfazed) "Did you make a design in the driveway?"

Me: "What????"

Now I was awake. I didn't really understand what she was saying....what was I supposed to answer with? Yes, Ma, I was in the driveway at midnight making "designs", because that's what I do? Because I don't. I think I answered no, and looked at her like she was crazy.

Mom: "Well, someone drew two hearts in the driveway, and there's not any footprints or anything near them!"

NOW my curiosity was peaked. I sprang up out of bed, pulled on some jeans and grabbed my camera.

Turns out, someone just turned around in the driveway. But look at the results! They are pretty amazing!

the smile jar

I've always considered myself a pretty crafty girl. Just ask my mom. When I was little, I was constantly cutting little things out of paper and getting glue everywhere. I loved, and still do love, making things. I even used to (this is going to sound really quite gross) like the feel of peeling the layers of glue that I would get stuck to my fingertips. I got some weird satisfaction out of it. Like I was accomplishing something. Don't ask me.

Anywho. Last week I read this little article on a jar you could make. I don't remember what they called it, but I shall call mine the smile jar.

The article suggested that you write down every time something makes you really happy and deposit each slip into a big jar, which you then read on New Year's Eve. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't do the whole New Year's Eve thing. So I decided to make my own smile jar. I mean, I don't know about you, but I get down on myself a lot about things. Things I should have done, things I did that I wish I hadn't, and then, of course, the stressing over things in the future. And I thought, I could use a smile jar. I'm going to write down all the little things that make me happy when they happen, and then when I start feeling blue, I'll shake out a few of the colorful papers and read them, until I'm feeling all chipper again (for those of you who know the outer Audrey, you know she's a pretty chipper girl).

That's how I concocted the Smile Jar. I found a big Mason jar from my mother's pantry, one big enough to hold a year's worth of memories, cleaned it up, and thought of a few things over the last few days that have made this girl happy. I figure every time something makes me really laugh, smile, or just plain warm and fuzzy inside, I'll write it down, and the day it happened.

So meet the Smile Jar!

farmers

when i was growing up (shhh, sometimes i refer to myself as a grownup), my family used to help our good friends hay their fields about two or three times a year. those were some of my fondest memories from childhood; being a little girl riding in the back of the hay wagon through the muddy pastures, walking through the dark woods, being scared by the rhyme, "lions and tigers and bears, oh my," tossing bales into the wagon, although i usually ended up dropping them and spewing hay everywhere (BIG surprise there). anyhow. here's today's picture.

different cameras

The other day I told you readers about my first camera. Today I thought I would showcase them all together for you. They are always taking the pictures, so I thought I would take some of their pictures (that sounded a WHOLE lot better in my head).

My first camera, as I think I told you, was a Canon PowerShot a510. My dad bought it for me when I was fourteen, and I thought it was the best. I probably took 10,000 shots on it, mostly duds. I documented one of my brother's weddings, my nephew's day of being born, thousands of him through his little years, crawling, standing, sleeping, eating spaghetti, etc. I took it to France and shot the Eiffel tower. I took it on my senior high school trip to Boston, MA, and it documented the first Polar Bear Club I participated in, three years ago.

My second camera isn't really mine. It's actually on a long-term loan from my father. It's his camera, but he generously let me borrow it. It's another Canon. It's a PowerShot a540. The thing I really like about this camera as opposed to my other PowerShot is the fact that it does color swap and color accent.

Then my third camera is a Canon EOS Rebel t3. I fondly call it "The Rebel." When I talk about true love, I talk about this camera and I. I haven't taken it overseas, YET. This summer I am going on an escapade over to Ireland, Scotland, and England, and this baby is sure going to be slung around my neck. I am going to embrace the stereotypical tourist cliche, to the MAX. You'll be seeing lots and lots of colorful pics, I hope. 

And then we have my phone camera. It's an Atrix, and it takes pretty decent pictures. In fact, that's one of the major reasons why I picked this phone. I've showcased a few of it's pictures here on the blog in the past. 

So there you have it. My cameras through the years. 

And then we have this little guy....

I picked this keychain out in Paris, in a little shop near the Louvre. It actually has a miniature shutter button that makes a snapshot sound when you press it, and the flash goes off! It's a great prank to play, since almost every time I've pointed it at my friends and pressed the button, they've asked if it actually took a picture. Yes, prime stalker material here, folks. 

They say there are Nikon people and Canon people. Though I have picked up my brother's (super nice) Nikon, I think I would definitely peg myself a die-hard Canon person. 

Hope you all have a great day!

Summertime..

Okay, I'll be the first to admit, we haven't had much of a winter here. But I was looking through some shots I took last summer, and I found this one, taken on my phone's camera. A little tweaking, and, voila! Here's today's shot. Hope you have an excellent day!