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Showing posts with label {Friday Photo Bliss}. Show all posts
Showing posts with label {Friday Photo Bliss}. Show all posts

{CoffeeShop Family Flying Circus Adventures} Chapter 7: "Lake Livingston and Scooters!"


My husband Paul's day job is optometry, but he is also a private pilot and his passion is flying. About six months ago we purchased a 1973 Piper 4-seater plane he nicknamed "The Gooney Bird". Our life changed and became filled with EXCITEMENT and ADVENTURE and sometimes TERROR!!! All things that are fun to blog about here on The CoffeeShop Blog.

Interested to read more of the {CoffeeShop Family Flying Circus Adventures}? Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3,  Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Entire series (newest posts first)

A special thanks to my husband Paul who flies the plane and edits all our videos. Please subscribe to his Texas Gooney Bird YouTube channel if you are interested in following our adventures. It would make his day!

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Paul got home from work late Saturday afternoon last week and we decided to bring the Gooney out to Lake Livingston. This is just a short thirty minute scenic flight, perfect for last minute adventures.


Our first amazing view was Lake Conroe and the Woodlands.


Paul was in his element and couldn't stop smiling at me.

Keep your eyes on the road, I mean the air!


Imp took his traditional nap. I documented it this time since he always claims he never sleeps and simply "rests" his eyes.

He rested his eyes (and mouth) for twenty minutes on this trip.


Lake Livingston in all its glory.


The airport is about a mile from the lake. Next time we hope to get there earlier and walk (scooter?) to the water.

Funny story. I was video taping our landing and thought the Allan B. Polunsky prison was the airport... What crazy person builds a prison right next to a tiny unprotected airport?

I really want to visit that island in the photo above. As long as it is not filled with escaped prisoners...


The boys brought their scooters and were zipping all over the tiny airport.

Meanwhile, I was looking for the bathroom, which I found out did not exist.

Desperate times, desperate measures...


There was an adorable little dachshund airport-security dog that followed us everywhere. I wanted to take him home, he was so cute!!!

Thank goodness he was there doing his job of protecting us from escaped convicts.


The sun was going down fast so we packed up the plane with the boys and their scooters and started for home.


I love this view.


On our trip back  Duke took the wheel (oops, I mean yoke) and Paul made sure to let me know.

Thanks Paul.


Duke did a great job and I didn't need my life vest after all.


When we arrived home the boys and I enjoyed watching the ducks on the small airport lake while Paul filled up the Gooney's tanks.


Then boys scootered back to the hanger and I enjoyed the walk and the sunset.


Time to put up the Gooney and head on home.

Life doesn't get much better than spending a beautiful day with the family. :-)

Have a great weekend!!!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures. 

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

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{Friday Photo Bliss}: Ripstik and Snakes


Imp saved up for a Ripstik. Both the boys spent hours learning how to use it. 

Did I mention the only time my husband broke a bone was when he was skateboarding as a kid?  I broke mine riding a horse. We are such an active/clumsy couple.


Skating at the airport is fun!


Yes, he did roll under the wings of this trainer. 

I would have had a picture of it but I was distracted as I ran toward him yelling at the top of my lungs to get away from the plane.


I told him it was ok for him to skate around our plane, as long as he stayed away from the prop. 

I tried to ride his Ripstik and almost killed myself. Paul, my husband, tried to ride it and within 5 minutes was zooming around the driveway.

Sigh. I am the reject of the family...


So in revenge I made everyone go on a 8-mile bike ride with me.

I can stay up on these big wheels. Usually.


We finally had some rain this week and it feels like Autumn!


This morning was cool and sunny so we put off school and went to the park for a three-mile hike through the forest.


Luke asked me if I was worried about snakes and I said not really, they are always around so just be careful.

100 feet from this tree we found a buttermilk racer checking us out next to the path.



But the buttermilk racer was not poisonous so I just appreciated God's creature and we carried on with our hike.

Then a few minutes later Duke reached down to grab a stick and noticed a huge worm by the stick. The huge worm turned out to be a small copperhead snake. Copperheads are poisonous...

And Imp, Piper, and I had walked right by it without a glance.

I have to confess I became a bit concerned about our safety and the rest of the way we all carefully watched where we were walking. God's creature or not, I am not a fan of snakebites.


The morning hike through the forest was perfect, other than the snakes.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

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{Friday Photo Bliss}: Photographing Boys And Misquoting Scarlett O'Hara

On Friday I like to post some snapshots of my week that make me happy. Or mad. Either one really, I just want to feel some emotion when I look at them. Preferably happiness, but sometimes it is fun to look at those photos taken when you wanted to pack up both your kids and send them away permanently to France or Austin. France if you are really mad because that is pretty far, Austin if you want to visit them during the weekends. ;-)

I wanted to mention I edited a few of these images with the Pretty Film Pastel Lightroom Presets. They are still on sale today for only $39. I love them so be sure to check them out!

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Granny asked for a recent portrait of the boys, so we headed out to a local park with my Nifty Fifty and Piper the Puppy.

Granny is very traditional and prefers "Olan Mills"-type studio portraits with pretty smiles, perfect hair, and church outfits. So let me see what I can do.



Wow, this is the complete opposite of what Granny wants to see hanging on her fridge. I totally forgot to tell the boys to comb their hair, and those t-shirts are really sloppy looking.

And Imp's face... And Duke is not in focus. Olan Mills and creative depth-of-field don't go together.

OK, I can't change everything but I will try this again and shoot for pretty smiles and sharp-focused faces.

"Shoot" for pretty smiles. Funny, right? Just a little bit of photographer humor.


Nice smile Duke. But Imp still looks mean and now HE is out of focus.

Remind me in the future not to try to do a photoshoot of two boys who would rather be playing while holding the leash of an 80-pound puppy who is actively trying to pull me into a muddy creek.

OK, let's try this again. Just one more shot, I promise!


Nice face Imp, really nice.

I know you want to go play, but I just need to get a quick photo for Granny.


Duke, you better not poke out Imp's eye!

Piper, stop kicking mud all over me, you are going to ruin my camera. And don't drink that water, you just peed in it!

Kids, if you don't let me get one nice shot of you for Granny no video games for a year. And I really mean it this time.


Wow, "Dead-Eyed Zombie Imp with Crazy Hair" and "Droopy-Eyed Duke".

Sigh...


I know you are getting tired of this Imp, but I have to get just ONE nice photo.


Great, now I lost Duke too.

OK, I am sick of all of you, Piper included. Just forget it.

I just wanted one nice photo and you are both horrible brats and forget about any video games tonight and you are going to bed early and weeding the flowerbed tomorrow without getting paid for it. And I was going to make banana bread but forget about that. You are getting canned sardines and cooked spinach for dinner.

Oh wait, here is a nice bunch of grass, let me try one more time!

Sit down in front of the grass, but out about a foot or two, and don't sit on that giant fire-ant bed. Get closer. Wait, put your heads together like you love each other. That would make Granny happy.


Seriously Imp, you usually have the cutest smile and this is the best you can give me?

OK, I give up, it is hot and you both are monster kids who don't deserve a day at the park. That's it, we are going. We are heading back to the car and no slides or swings.

Oh wait, sand! I love sand shots!!!

Duke, throw some sand in the air and let me take a photo.


Maybe I should have suggested throwing it out rather than up.

Homeschooled kid apparently doesn't understand gravity...

Duke, this time throw it out so it doesn't get in your face.


I thought I was speaking English but apparently not.

Oh, here are some pretty flowering weeds, let me try one more time to get nice photo of you two together.


Seriously, can't you both stop throwing sand at each other? Only throw sand when I want to take a sand photo of you throwing sand.

I give up. Granny isn't going to get her photo of the boys today, it is obvious. I will just have to do this on a cooler day without the dog.

And with some rental kids. 

Preferably girls.



Mom, look, these purple flowers are really pretty. Do you want to take my photo in front of them?

Pretty smile? Check. Focused?  Check. Hair and clothing? Sweaty and dirty.

Sigh...

Oh well, to misquote the great words of Scarlett O'Hara: 

"Home. I'll go home. And I'll think of some way to get some "Olan Mills"-inspired photos of my boys for Granny. After all... tomorrow is another day."

Have a great weekend!!!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

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{Friday Photo Bliss}: Macro Nifty 50

It has been hot as Hades most of the summer, so I haven't been out shooting with my "real" camera much. However, I started to miss her and even though the heat index has reached 100 this week, I decided to pull out my dusty beloved big camera and practice shooting manual.

I remembered this "Nifty Fifty Macro" tutorial I wrote years ago and decided to create some fun macro images.  These images don't have the sharp focus of a real macro lens, but personally I love the tilt-lens artistic vibe coming off them. ;-)

All of the images below were shot in my backyard in hot, humid conditions with a 80-pound puppy following me around everywhere. Try taking a macro photo of a tiny flower when your giant puppy keeps on trying to lick your lens.

I used the new Pretty Presets "Pretty Film Pastels Collection" presets on all of these images. I love these presets, and found they work on so many different types of images, not just portraits.  My favorite for these edits was "Warm Blush". You can still grab them on sale for only $34 this week.

I also used the new gorgeous textures from the Flypaper "Tempest Painterly" Texture set on many of my images below.

If you have a less-than-stellar macro image (because you are shooting with a cheap but amazing 50mm lens that is backwards on your camera!), I use a little editing trick to turn it into something special. Make a copy of the image in Photoshop and apply a high pass filter of 10-20 to that copy, and put the layer in overlay or soft light blending mode. Then add a texture to the image in soft light or overlay blending mode.


 This is my absolutely favorite one of the set.


This was growing on one of our fire-pit logs.


We have a few trees (well, it is actually a bush) that have colorful fall leaves.


I took about 10 shots of this little tiny weed flower and just happened to get a perfect one with my little ant friend.


I have a few roses left on my deer-eaten rosebushes.




This final image was taken with my Nifty 50, but this time I tried the free-lensing technique. I need a lot more practice, but it is so fun playing with my lens!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

More from Rita:
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{Friday Photo Bliss}

It is finally fall and we are once again enjoying the great outdoors!


Piper's underbite just kills me. It is so freaking adorable!

I am such a goofball. When he was a puppy and I brought him to the vet, the vet tech commented on his underbite. I immediately saw dollar signs dance in front of my eyes and asked "Oh no, does he need braces or something?"

The vet tech almost died laughing. "No," she said, "He just looks cute."

I guess I am sensitive because I have already have two boys with crooked teeth and didn't want to add a third set of braces. ;-)


I decided to bring out the "real camera" and practice back button focusing. Works pretty well with this lens. Unfortunately the mosquitoes (female mosquitoes only of course, the boys always remind me the male ones sip on nectar, not humans) were eating us up and we only had time to take a few shots.


We went for a morning walk to the park with my mom and Piper. Fall is here and it is cool and the sky was a deep blue.

Mom had an old film Canon Rebel that she gave to Duke. So he is shooting his first roll of film while learning how to use the camera. He commented that he prefers film because he knows he has to take time on each photo so he won't waste film. Also, we are always behind getting our digital prints printed (we are going to do it, just haven't done it yet!) so this way he will have actual photos for his album.


This is the kind of weather I live for. I love fall!


Pipe had so much fun on our two mile hike.


Now that it has cooled down we can have our fire pit family gatherings once again. The boys are both little pyros and love burning dead bamboo.

We have a very fancy outdoor kitchen. Our rusted-out fire pit and our small charcoal grill.  We used to have an electric smoker but it stopped working and we haven't replaced it yet. We live the high life!!!

See that green umbrella in the background? We can't open it because a bat has moved in. I noticed he became a bit concerned about the fire and flew out and around us a few times to let us know he was annoyed. We need to put up some bat houses in the back yard.


Now that my parents moved into town I can call them up last minute and invite them over for dinner. Well, I can call them, but my dad is the opposite of spontaneous so he wouldn't come with such short notice. But Mom, like our family, loves these last minute dinners. Or walks. Or going out to eat.

We had to sip on sparkling water since we are both doing the Whole30 again and can't drink any alcohol. Three days in, yay!!!


Piper loves Paul and is always giving him air kisses. LOVE!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

More from Rita:
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