Happy 18th Birthday my sweet baby girl! 

Outside my window…Sunday night….end of the weekend….where did the time go?  The weekend was filled with some wild weather, work and relaxing in between learning.  Friday night came upon us with rumbling thunder, wild and wicked lightening, wind and torrential rains.  The weather forecasters had predicted strong storms but I haven’t seen lightening like that in quite some time.  It was lighting up the neighborhood….explosions of light that made me nervous each and every time they popped.   The storms lasted well into the night.  I woke up early Saturday morning to sunshine and warm temperatures.  There was sunshine with a healthy does of humidity until early afternoon when the clouds moved in and we got more rain showers, lighter and less dramatic than the Friday evening storms.  I was unable to get a shot of the super moon this year due to the cloudy skies Saturday night…..oh well, maybe next year.  This morning was cloudy and cool with the sun making another appearance later this afternoon…we reached a high of 72°F today.  Currently at 9:30, it is partly cloudy and 59°F…the powers that be seem to be determined to keep me from getting a moon shot this time. 

I’m thinking about…the images I have to cull through and process from my two photo shoots on Saturday.  I always take one day off before I begin to cull through the images….it seems gives me a better perspective when I have to decide yes or no.  If I look too soon, I can’t decide what to keep and process…and what to let go.

I am glad…I was able to finish the photo shoot with the teething but very happy baby yesterday.  She was perfect yesterday….well, started to get a little worn out at the end but we were wrapping it up by that time.

I am going…to spend some time this week wading through this mountain of information I have accumulated since last weekend.  I’m exploring, researching  and creating several different styles of post processing for my work flow.  I know what I want so I need to create  steps that will help me get it.  I could go into more detail but after explaining what I had been doing to my daughter and my mother and both of them telling me they didn’t know what I was talking about, I’m thinking will just leave it at that. 

I am hearing…the ticking of my many clocks….not hearing the dryer tumbling my clothes ~ guess that means I have some folding to do….the DVD movie No Mercy on the television….an otherwise quiet house.

A recap of last week…saw me realizing my decision not to post every day saved me an evening of grief when my laptop decided one night that it wasn’t going to charge nor was the plug helping.  I discovered the culprit was more than likely the surge protector strip I was using because when I replaced it all was lovely in the world.  On the topics of actually postings, there were only two…..one was the free desktop calendar for the month of May.  There are two of them this month.  I had hoped to add another but that isn’t going to happen this month.  I also posted an image I captured yesterday morning of the James River Bridge.

Plans for the week include…culling and processing the photographs….designing another senior announcement….working from home on Tuesday….squeeze in some work on my sites at some point in time….and finally, celebrate my baby girls 18th birthday this Friday.  Both of them are celebrating milestones this year….my baby will be 18, my oldest will be 21….my how the years flew by.

One of life’s little pleasure…celebrating birthdays with your babies ~ even when they aren’t babies any longer. 

From my camera…a scene from Lion’s Bridge, which is actually a dam….taken yesterday…Conquering the Wild by Anna Hyatt Huntington…

]]> http://www.whispersfromthewoods.com/2012/05/06/outside-my-window-5-6-12/feed/ 2 http://www.whispersfromthewoods.com/2012/05/05/james-river-bridge/ http://www.whispersfromthewoods.com/2012/05/05/james-river-bridge/#comments Sun, 06 May 2012 03:04:08 +0000 Magikal Folk http://www.whispersfromthewoods.com/?p=8152 …on a humid day….

]]> http://www.whispersfromthewoods.com/2012/05/05/james-river-bridge/feed/ 0 http://www.whispersfromthewoods.com/2012/05/02/free-desktop-calendars-for-may-2012/ http://www.whispersfromthewoods.com/2012/05/02/free-desktop-calendars-for-may-2012/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 03:44:22 +0000 Magikal Folk http://www.whispersfromthewoods.com/?p=8142 This month I have two free desktop calendars for May 2012 so far…..

To download a zip file of this calendar, click here.  There are six high resolution images available so you can select the one that best fits your screen.

To download a zip file of this calendar, click here.  There are six high resolution images available so you can select the one that best fits your screen.

Click the link and choose “save” or “save as”.  Make sure you take note where the file is saved.  After the download is complete, go to your saved zip file, extract the files by right clicking the downloaded file and selecting “extract all”….choose a location or accept the location the computer suggests {make sure you take note where the file was extracted}.  Now you are ready to get your calendar….find the extracted file, open and select the size that will best suit your monitor….right click on image and select “set as desktop background”.

These are free for personal use…and as always, if you have any problems ~ please let me know.

Outside my window…is another Sunday night wrapping up.  We had a nice and fairly gloomy weekend in Hampton Roads this past weekend.  Our next to nothing chance of rain turned in to quite a downpour of some time on Saturday and while Sunday brought little rain, it did bring the gray clouds for the day.  Our temperatures were in the low 60′s with a little wind on Saturday.  It made me grateful that I did a little work in my flower beds Thursday and Friday evenings….would have been a bit damp to do so this weekend.  We went from unbelievably high temperatures to unseasonably cool temperatures in the span of the month.  A very peculiar spring indeed.

I am thinking about…the photo session with a sweet but a teething baby girl yesterday.  As I said above, our weekend with very little chance of rain provided way too much to get outside with her.  We took a few inside photographs and decided to go outside and use a very large covered porch with some amazing furniture that was at their disposal.  We were just getting set up when she decided she had enough and was not going to change her mind.  There were tears and mom did her best to comfort and calm her….she just was too tired and not going to be denied so we had to call it an early day.  I know they were disappointed because while I did get some good shots, I was not able to get the  outside or family photographs.  We were able to make arrangements for me to come again next Saturday. I’m really looking forward to the outside shots….such a beautiful location with so many possibilities.

I am glad…I decided to take the online photography workshop with Jasmine Star this weekend.  This workshop covered how to photograph and submit an editorial wedding to  wedding blogs or wedding magazines for publishing.  While my current goals aren’t necessarily  getting published right at this moment, it was incredibly interesting to see the process and learn the requirements.  It was also beneficial because a lot of what was covered can be applied to other areas as well.  If you had told me a couple of years ago I would be signing up for so many photography workshops I would have laughed at you….I’m so not a person to take a class.  The courses/workshops I have taken in the past year have been amazing.

I am going…to be working on a new Facebook page I am creating specifically for seniors ~ another tip I garnered from Sal Cincotti’s workshop earlier this month.  And of course Facebook keeps tinkering with the way things are laid out (specifically the profile image was increased) so I had to redo my cover image for Magikal Folk Photography’s page.  The increased profile image was covering up a large part of an image that was near it.  I have been working on the pages this evening…can be time consuming.

I am hearing…the ticking of my many clocks….Raider’s of the Lost Ark on television {one of my favorites from the series…snakes, why did it have to be snakes }…my youngest daughter taking a shower.

A recap of last week…saw me following through with my decision to let a few things go to keep me from getting stressed out over the things I need to do….there was no post on  Friday and Saturday.  While I’m disappointed I broke the streak and had a little uncontrollable twitching Friday as the clock struck midnight, I really needed to do this for my sanity.  I was struggling with it this time and I think that now what I post will be better than just putting something, anything on there.  I was also found professing my love for Kevin Kubota and his editing actions….and the huge jasmine bush that is growing right beside my front door, taken at sunset one evening.

Plans for the week include…my continuing saga of slowly but surely cleaning up the files ~ I have also decided this isn’t a do or die project either.  It is a project that needs to be done, but if it takes a while, then so be it.  I will be working from home on Tuesday…..and going to the rescheduled dental appointment that got changed from the 19th….another go at the  4 month old baby photo shoot on Saturday.

One of life’s little pleasures…realizing it is ok to say enough and take care of yourself.  I have often found that I will forgive others without a second thought…but I’m awful hard on myself.  

From my camera…I thought it was interesting that this time last year we were also experiencing some rainy weather.  This is an image I took on the 28th of April showing the end of the storm front as it moved out of our area.

….aromatic….heavenly!

Kevin Kubota that is.  I’ve been testing {well, playing with actually} a trial version of his fully loaded Dashboard 3 Pro for Photoshop.  Beautiful results…creative names…I have to admit ~ I think I’m in love!  Wonder how many images I can edit in 30 days? 

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