Image: sxc.hu

Sometimes these involved Halloween costumes, perhaps midst colorful leaves.  Other times the photos simply consisted of my daughter, grandchildren or nieces with pumpkins they carved or have ready to decorate.

My nieces sold pumpkins from their garden for several years and had a mound of them near the road in front of their house.  My husband took  lovely photos of the girls midst their pumpkins.

I’ve included some of my pumpkin photos in the book I made, using scrapbooking techniques and my fall poetry.  Those of pumpkins and youngsters definitely added interest.

I’ve mainly used this as a teaching tool in my scrapbooking and poetry classes.  But I’d like to investigate self-publishing it.

During these lovely fall days, take your camera, find some pumpkins and arrange them with your youngsters for a photo opportunity.  The photos definitely will create memories.

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Photos of Youngsters with Pumpkins

Here’s a shot of my tomatoes…

I started my garden early and was all set to go the all-natural GroGood way, but nothing was really happening and my front patio smelled like cow poop. Yuck. Dear neighbors, I am so very sorry.

I broke down and bought the MiracleGro plant food. It always works for me. I have a limited space and there’s only so much you can coax from a container garden. Now we are popping again. It looks like a jungle out there. I’d get a good full-shot, but the boys are outside painting our stair railing and I don’t think they’d appreciate my intruding on their gossip time.

Today, I’m going to make another Caprese Salad with the tomatoes I picked last night. Yum. I’m hooked on that stuff.

Image credit: Michelle Smith

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Wordy Wednesday – My Tomatoes

Recently I found that Photojojo has listed it as one of the 10 online photography magazines we love.  It is listed first, which I’m not sure means it’s the absolute favorite or not.  But guess what…it does mean that there are nine more online magazines for you to check out there.  Plus some runners up!

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Online photography magazines

Megan Lee of Paws and Claws Photography shares some excellent tips and advice in the above video series. (Also be sure to check out her gallery when you a chance!)

She advises having your pet’s favorite toys out and available during the shoot, especially squeak toys for dogs. She also suggests getting your pet either professionally groomed or groom them yourself, exercise them a bit before the shoot since it’ll calm them down, and don’t feed them right before shooting since they’ll respond better to any treats that may be offered.

The rest of the video series includes choosing a location for a pet shoot, choosing the right background, lighting, handling your pet, and positioning your pet.

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How to Photograph Your Pet

Start with a beautiful picture taken on a clear sunny day.

Add a touch of menace.

Why would you want to do this?  I don’t really know, but it’s fun to know how!  With Photoshop, there are always multiple ways to accomplish tasks, but here’s how I did it:

Step by step instructions

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Creating a shadow in Photoshop

You all know that I love Photoshop and am totally devoted to it.  You also know that there are times when you may need to do photo editing away from home.  Then it’s great to know about online editors.

At  Art + Creativity, there are links to ten more online toys tools that you can use to jazz up your pictures.  The list includes Animoto, which I told you about before…a very fun way to turn some shots into a short music video

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Art + Creativity

Warning: Looking through the Despair gallery is one of the biggest time sucks out there!  But it’s worth the trip 

Image: Despair, Inc

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Another (de)motivational poster site

First, I thought that Photojojo’s Photo-opoly game would make a great Christmas gift, using photos and landmarks from around your own home town.  But then I started to think about it: wouldn’t you rather have a game that reminds you of a great vacation that you took?

I think the hardest time you’ll have is culling through the photos and picking only the best of the best…what a hardship that will be 

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Photo-opoly your summer vacation

Well, Big Huge Labs to the rescue!!  Thank heavens, a service that will let you make your own.  You can even buy copies if you want!  Here’s what I did with a recent picture from my daughter’s college graduation.

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(de)Motivational posters

There is a large “gallery” of many of Thomas Allen’s pieces here.  I’m not sure that this is a sanctioned site since the post doesn’t even attribute them or link to him.

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Thomas Allen’s book art photography