Waiting Game.....

I have now completed my requirements for Sphere 1 in the Arcanum!!!

Hooray!!!!

At least my Army Man is happy!! My work/study has used up several of my evenings and he misses me!!!
Some of you may have no idea what I am talking about when I say, "Arcanum"!! Let me encourage you to check it out!!! It is a new way of online learning based on an "Master/Apprentice" technique!!! It has been invaluable to me!!! The time spent in  my Cohort has increased my skill and knowledge to a level I never thought possible and the friendships I have made will last a lifetime!!

Here is the link to their website >>>Information that can change your life!!<<<

If you have any desire to learn more, increase your skills or become a Master and teach others this is a great way to do these things!!!

Trey Ratcliff is a co-founder of the Arcanum and has wonderful information on his own website >>>stuckincustoms<<< He is an avid supporter of the art of photography and finding your niche and sticking with it!!!

I am still finding my niche.....

I think I shall have to refer to myself as a "Fine Art Photographer".

Here is my Level 19 Critique session with my Master Bob Young...>>>Bretta's Critique<<<

It will give you a taste of what I like to do as a photographer.
Sometimes I like to make a photo look like a painting. It is a fun process in Photoshop!!
I do not like to photograph people in a posed position.... I do not mind candid shots, but mostly I only do that of my children and believe me it's all I can do to get those done!!!
Portrait photographers have my complete sympathy and respect!!!
I could never do what they do!!!

These are the photos I had in my Level 19 Critique....

Well, that's that!!

What's next??

I'm so glad you asked, because I'd like to know too!!! ;-)

When you complete Sphere 1 in the Arcanum you are placed in a "Lounge" where you wait for a Sphere 2 Master to find you and pick you to go into the Sphere 2 experience of their making!!! 

That's where I am for the time being!!! =)   

Waiting to be found!!   

One of the concerns I have about Sphere 2 is there doesn't seem to be too many Fine Art type of Cohorts... There are several landscape and portrait Masters....

My Master (Bob) has assured me that I will be chosen and have a lot to offer.... for now I will continue to wait, take more photos, keep learning more about Lightroom and Photoshop, and enjoy evenings with my Army Man with no looming work due!!!!! 

Happiness!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Blessings!!!

A Little Help Never Hurts...Part 2

Same kind of post as yesterday.... going to show you a progression of a photo from the Straight out of camera version to the final edit...

I am learning so much in the Arcanum and I cannot sing it's praises enough!!
Seriously, if you are interested in increasing knowledge and skill in your photogrphy, give some serious thought to joining. You can cancel at any time if you feel it's not a good fit!!

>>> The Arcanum Website <<<

Ok...so here is the flower of today....

This is the photo straight out of my camera..... I really do enjoy getting down in the nitty gritty of flowers and showing the layers and textures!!! God is an amazing designer!! He perfected beauty way before man felt a need to have perfection!!!
I like this photo pretty well here, there are obvious issues. One being the petals on the bottom are cut off.... that is not a problem though!!!


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This is what I presented to my Cohort (July 2015) for Level 8 (where I had to narrow down a selection of my photos from 10 to 3 for a critique!)...  I simply cropped it so all of the sides are evenly proportioned. No biggie... All of the post-processing adjustments for this version were made with Picasa. A FREE editing software offered (and supported) by Google!! It's all I had at the time and I really enjoyed working with it. It is a great way to "get your feet wet" in the world of post processing!!!

Here is the link if your interested  >>> Picasa Website <<<

After I cropped the image, I did a few color adjustments. In Picasa the first thing I always did is darken the shadows... it's a slider bar adjustment that really makes the photo begin to pop a bit.
I did a soft focus on this one too!! =)  I thought it made it look kind of dreamy.... I also added a vignette. Usually vignettes are black. I chose to go lighter on this one and use a grey tone. One of the things I LOVE about Picasa is there is a rainbow selection for vignettes which mean the option of vignette color are pretty much limitless!!!! =) =)   I thought the grey vignette added to the dreaminess of this photo and I really liked it!!!


For my Level 16 work in the Arcanum I had to reprocess photos presented to my Cohort in any of the Levels of 1 - 8. Just like the first flower I showed you yesterday.... here is the link in case you missed it!! (gasp!!)
(just kidding!!)
>>> A Little Help Never Hurts (Part 1) <<<


I probably should mention here that for almost a month now, I have been using the Free trial of the Creative Cloud Photography plan!!! Here is a link to that....
>>> CC-Lightroom & Photoshop <<<
I will be starting my subscription in September as I don't think I can do without them now!!! Lightroom and Photoshop can do so much more than Picasa, although, I will keep Picasa because it does a few things better!!! =)

Now for the reprocessed ones!!

This version I processed only in Lightroom. Started by cropping (again! because I started back with the original photo!). Did some spot removal because there were a few white spots on the petals (I may have forgotten to mention that previously...) Did a "Vibrance" adjustment. Also adjusted Shadows and Contrast. The photo at that point seemed to have some "noise" going on so I did a "Luminace Smoothing"... it helped!!


Then I went even further.....

I took the photo from Lightroom into Perfect Effects (I have Perfect Effects because my generous Master in the Arcanum saw something in me that would respond to this program!!)
As a military wife, stay-at-home mom I do not have much any extra income. FREE is ALWAYS better for me. I do pay my Arcanum dues ($79 per month)  myself (as to not burden my family with that cost!) with the small amount I get paid to keep the books for my church...

This is the final (and again, best, IMO) version of the image....
In Perfect Effects I did a noise reduction again. I used a filter called "Bleach Bypass" which reduced the saturation quite a bit! and I did a filter called Grunge which gave it a bit of texture and ended with a Vignette. One of the things I like about Perfect Effect's vignette is it is not just a standard dark or light fading.... there are MANY options and I chose the one called "Strong" but it uses the color of the photo, not black, which I really liked!!!! =)


Blessings!!!!

Kid Camping!!!!

Today is a beautiful day here in South Alabama.......Lower 80's. No humidity. Perfect fall day!!

I know our country is in a mess and there is a tropical storm out in the gulf, but here at our house we are getting ready for yard camping!!!!

It's the simple things that keep my kids happy.  They don't care (right now) who is to blame for the mess we are in. They don't care (right now) that our country is broken and things will drastically have to change in order to repair the damage. They don't care (right now) that Republicans and Democrats are so opposed and have such opposite views of where our country should go that their future of freedoms (and the future of all children)  is in jeopardy.

Today, the only thing they care about is that they get to use the "big tent" tonight while they are camping in our yard.

I love that. I love that they hear the news, they know the Government is "shut down", they asked if their daddy (active military) still had a job..... If we would keep our house....Why the commissary in our area is closed.
They are not uninformed, they are innocent. They have faith in our God and in our government to be able to "fix" things.
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My kids have always loved the outdoors. They are camping enthusiast. So why not let them camp in the yard any Friday they want!!The whole point of getting 6.5 acres was to enjoy and use it!!

We home school so I can also make this a lesson in working together, fire building, cooking, nature, weather...the list is endless...
I chose to do homeschooling year around this year so that we could take seemingly random (but planned) days off!!! There is so much more to learning than textbooks. I like to call one of our classes "Life-skills class".
My children will be adults one day. Everything we do now molds them in to the adults they will be!!! I do not want them to only be able to do "book work", I want them to be able to live. I want them to be able to budget, clean, organize , participate, engage, help, learn, volunteer, donate, grow spiritually, repair things....again, the list is endless, but if I don't give them opportunities to do these things as children how will they learn and expect to do them as adults?!?!!!

So today we camp!!! Well, the kids do! I will be inside, snuggling in my comfy bed and staying up late watching a movie with my hubby!!!!!  It may be a "13th Warrior" (one of our favorite movies!!) kind of night!!!! =)


Blessings!!!