More than just dust bunnies and dog hair...

...were found under our bed.

Shiver!!! Thankfully it was not alive!

Not sure what kind of spider it was, but it doesn't look to me like a harmless one. Glad it didn't bite anyone, especially me, since it was under my side of the bed!!

Look at those beady little eyes in the front! Ewwww! Really almost looks as though the spider had extra eyes too. Could it be?

Here's another play on photoshop using the short crosshatched brushstrokes. The spider still grosses me out but the technique is totally cool!

Our little "photo shoot" finally ended when I sucked him up in the vaccuum cleaner! Buh-Bye Now, Creepy Critter!

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Learning How To Create A Watermark...

I needed to find a way to mark my photographs to provide more protection against theft of my images, but at the same time, keep the image as the main focus rather than the company name. So I was off to find out how to do a watermark with my Photoshop Elements 5.0 program.

At first, I tried one tutorial but I don't think it was compatible with the Elements program that I have. So I went back to the drawing board so to speak. Here is the one I practiced with.

In the future, I may find a better way to do it, but for now, it's really not that bad! You just have to adjust the opacity of your text to your liking. I also learned how to include the © sign by holding down the 'alt' button and then typing '0169'. Here is my end result!

Pretty neat! Now I don't have to worry that I'm blocking details in the photo, but at the same time, I'm still protecting my photographs from being stolen and falsely credited as someone else's work.

For those of you that don't have an editing program, there are free editing programs that you can download to you computer, or just the watermark making program such as is found here on one of my favorite freeware sites. Please note that if an ad pops up in another language, click on the word in the upper right hand corner to get rid of it, and then click your refresh button

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

Playing around with Photoshop...

If you have photoshop, try this cool setting. It's under Special Effects to the right of your workspace and then choose "filters" and "brush strokes" and under that you should be given the choice of "crosshatch", then just double click on it and refine the settings to your liking and save.

It may not show up very well here on my blog because of the smaller dimension, but use it as your desktop background, and it looks amazing! It looks like an artist's rendering of your photo! Good times!!

Before...

after...

Unfortunately, in the small size, the textured effect is hard to see here on my blog, so let me crop it a little closer for you to see what I mean. Isn't that nice how her eyelashes look like a painting? Just experiment, you'll have so much fun doing it! I encourage you to keep learning something new everyday!

Have a great weekend!
Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

Just my boys...

I took this on Father's Day weekend appropriately. Can you feel da' luv?

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

First Shots From My Big Girl Camera...

Oh, what fun I'm having! The camera is beautiful! The pictures crispy, and the colours, so vibrant!! I love everything about it!

Look at the difference in just the colours between my old camera, a point and shoot Nikon Coolpix L11...

And now with my DSLR Nikon D80...

Those were both unretouched. It is everything and more than I had hoped for! Can you tell I'm still excited? It was about 3 hours before I could pick up the camera and try it out for the first time without my hands shaking. When I first got it, I put it together, but within minutes of assembling it and looking it over, my hands were shaking too much to hold it, so I had to put it back in the box where I couldn't stop looking at it. Silly woman, eh? I'm still unfamiliar with shooting in manual mode, so for now, the pictures are taken with the auto features. Sometime this week, I hope to start practicing the manual mode maybe in our local park. I can't hardly wait!

Well, here are just a few of the hundred shots that I've taken so far.

The first few, I took outdoors...

Here is a visitor I had in my kitchen on Saturday night. Look at the detail of the dragonfly.

And finally, here is a few from the mini photo shoot I did last night with our children.

I had never noticed until now the cream-colored flecks in our daughter's eyes. Awesome detail picked up by the camera!!

And here are a few of my favorites...

Thanks for looking! And if you're a repeat visitor to my site, thanks for stopping by again! Thanks for following my journey with me as I strive to learn as much as I can, to be the best that I can at what I do.

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

Beyond speechless...

I'm shaking all over with excitement!! There was a big humongous surprise from a very dear loved one in the mail. They sent me a Nikon D80 and an 18/55 lens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can barely pick it up out of the box, I'm so excited...and humbled at the same time by their incredibly tremendous generosity!! Okay, I'm going to go cry happy tears now!

As Always, Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

Snuggle Time, Captured In The Moment...

The Two Men In My Life. I probably should have waited until Father's Day to post this, but I couldn't wait.


In Sepia...

Thanks for stopping by.

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,

Denise