Working on scale in my Photoshop class. This definitely didn’t turn out like I wanted it to, but only because of the contrast in the shadows which happened because I accidentally knocked over my flash stand and broke the flash diffuser I was using. I will be attempting this again once my new one arrives…
This week we had to do a panorama image from 10 photographs. I thought the assignment was really easy for me since this is something I have done before, but practice never hurt anyone! This is a view of the deer at the back of base, right across the road from where Dan works. Yes, Robyn, we definitely live in a rural area now! I am just bummed we can’t get the deer to come to our salt block behind the house. Any suggestions????
I was quite bummed though that I could not do this assignment where I wanted but they haven’t plowed all the roads on the base. The second image is one that has a sepia tint and texture overlay on it to make it look aged.
It’s Girl Scout cookie time in our house! Kati picked up the 75 boxes of cookies that she had on order to sell today. This year the girls go out with cookies in hand. They will have cookie sales from now until March 4th. She sold over 80 boxes worth today!!! So needless to say we have ordered more to have on hand for the next month. She is hoping to sell about 60 more. If anyone wants cookies, let us know…
I have spent my day babysitting and working on homework. Cole had so much fun since his best friend, Peter, got to spend the morning hanging out. I peeked in on them when they were quiet and this is what I found. They were just maxed out reading. Too cute!
This is a couple from the herd of deer that live on Minot AFB! They spent the day hanging out at the park. Since the road has never been plowed to get to the park, they are the only ones who can hang out there…
I am working on a new assignment for the week-infrared and solarization images in Photoshop. It is a lot of fun. Here are my conversions…
{Infrared}
{Solarization}
Yes, that is actually a bit of blue sky. The sky here has been white for what seems like weeks on end. I was so thrilled that we got slightly warmer temps and a bit of blue sky.
I am totally procrastinating working on my Art History homework. I am enjoying learning about the art, but the discussion question assignments seem so dry… Anyway, this is another photo I shot for my Photoshop class. I am looking forward to the predicted 30 degree temps the next two days. Both of my next assignments require me to be outside shooting so I am hoping the weather definitely cooperates.
Selenium tone image with distressed edges.
We had more snow fall again last night. Not a lot, but the winds have created some horrible snow drifts. Once again as we pull up from church today our awesome neighbor was out snow blowing our driveway! I swear I need to bake more as “thank you”s for them. No homework due today but a ton of reading. I am also in an art history class and now I am just dying to get to Egypt and Greece. I think one will have to try to get on my agenda for next year!
Here is another photo from my Photoshop class…
Today I am thankful for friends I have made throughout the years. Last night while I was out a package arrived for me from a very dear friend. After staying up till 4am to finish homework this was a wonderful treat to wake up to. Robyn sent me the most beautiful basket and fudge. Yum! I already have a ton of photo ideas for this basket. Now to just get my hands on a newborn baby. :) THANK YOU Robyn!
Since I also love the texture, here is a photo from Robyn and my trip to Oregon, with a basket weave texture added.
Here is the same photo with a texture from the cracked sidewalk that I shot on the same trip.
Got to enjoy a fun evening out on a double date. I am so thankful for other military families. I think we all tend to know what its like to feel misplaced and we band together and help and support each other. We have been very lucky that we have met some wonderful people since moving here who have already become incredible friends.
Today’s picture is one of a series that I have been working on for my Photoshop class. I am really enjoying the fun new techniques I have been learning.
It CAN’T be THAT LOW!!! Yes, it really is! Today our high was a NEGATIVE 17 degrees, with a wind chill factor of –35! That is seriously COLD! At least the furnace got fixed (twice) yesterday and we are keeping toasty warm inside.
Valentine’s Day is still about a month away, but Kati is counting down. While grocery shopping she said we had to get these Valentine’s Day treats and she has been planning for what she wants to give people for the holiday.
YEAH for Trent~ his braces came off today. He has a retainer to wear for a year, and then he is totally done. His first goal was to get some movie theater popcorn! 
Still freezing in Minot. This is a view of one of the roads heading into town. I don’t mind the snow, I don’t like the white sky though, I miss blue skies!
I had an interesting and fun assignment to do in my Digital Design class. I needed about 20-30 photos with “traffic” in different locations throughout the image. Then you blend the images to make the people not be in the image. This is a great technique if you are shooting in a popular tourist area and need to get rid of people in an image. My finished images had some ghosting because of file size we had to blend only 5-6 of the images. Still it was a lot of fun.
{Blended image with slight ghosting.}
{Merged images}
{Inverted merged image}
Snow, snow, and more snow….Seriously enough already. My instructor has given me approval to work ahead on the assignments that need to be shot outside so I can try to do them when the weather is clear. So far~no such luck. Every time I look and realize the wind isn’t blowing the snow or new isn’t stuff isn’t falling I have something tying me up where I can’t get out. I swear I am going to be carrying my camera gear everywhere with me! On the upside we got Dan a block heater and automatic car starter for his truck. He was quite thrilled. {My van is in the garage so I don’t need it. :) }
I have been super busy trying to keep up with my school assignments. I really need to take the time on Sunday and schedule them on my calendar so I know to work ahead on some when I have a busy week. Today Cole carried this silly calculator around all day. He kept asking me the numbers and then telling me “No its number …” and he would fill in a different number every time.
I am starting to feel trapped by the weather. Today was suppose to get up to 11 degrees and be sunny. I was so looking forward to getting out to shoot. Instead it is 3 degree with a wind chill of –12 and it is snowing lightly. We have a lot of snow forecasted for tomorrow too. Ugh! I need {want} to get outside to shoot for class.
Anyway~this is the new vase I picked up in town for my table center piece. Need to arrange the flowers better, but for now at least it is something. :)
Dan and I like to grill year round, and always have. This year with him just getting over pneumonia, and it being a high of –5 outside I thought it wouldn’t be a smart idea to do. Instead I picked up a George Foreman grill to make our steaks inside. I grilled the steak and the tomato. I used my micro-steamer to make the lemon-pepper asparagus. The mushrooms and onions were sautéed to add to the top. Dinner was delicious!
Tuesdays are now a day of fun in the house for Cole. Tuesday is preschool day. Two of the moms on our block also have 3 (turning 4) year old boys. They are all within four months in age. We have started a rotating preschool for the three boys. One day a week it is at each of our houses. Kim, Summer, and I got together and created a schedule of lessons including shapes, numbers, letters, and monthly themes. The boys all just love it. This months theme is Oceans and preschool was at our house today. Cole was very creative in making his ocean snack. {Pudding dyed blue, Nilla wafers crushed for the beach sand, and goldfish cookies (honey, cinnamon, and chocolate) all blended well.
I swear the dogs don’t know what to think about the continuing snow and cold. They are use to it, but not for such extended periods of time. Instead they have taken to sitting by the door and wanting in and out all day long. They go out and run around in it for about two minutes then want back in. This repeats every half hour to hour almost all day long. 
Typical Sunday in the house…kids complaining they are bored, but yet will take none of my suggestions of things to do. I did convince Kati and Cole to make cards for their friends for a while.
Since Trent broke our shovel yesterday I had to head to town to get a new one. I decided to go to a small locally owned hardware store. I had been there once before, but never noticed their wall of soda pop. It is all a bunch of old-style brands and bottles. We picked up six different types to try with dinner for the evening. We also got the new shovels that we needed.
This is the awesome hot beverage lens mug that Dan got me for Christmas. He made sure he got me the Canon lens. :) I now get to enjoy one of my favorite drinks, sugar-free apple cider, in my fun new mug! It is one of a few different camera toys that I got for Christmas this year. I think it is a perfect way to keep warm when the temps outside are in the single digits!
Kati got so excited last night and came running downstairs when she was suppose to be going to bed. She had seen eight deer out of her window walking down the road in front of our house. I was setting up to get a photo out front when Trent opened the door and started making noises at them. (So much for catching a great shot, right?!?!} The second shot is of the deer from my bedroom window across the park. This is where they slept last night.
This is a quick photo I shot of the Papa Murphy’s bread stick pizza that Hank and Erin brought my family for dinner. I didn’t get Dan home until after 6pm from the ER and picking up new meds for the pneumonia. Instead of having to worry about getting together something to feed everyone and get Dan settled in I was able to pop this and a yummy pizza into the oven, and we had a perfect dinner.
THANK YOU HANK and ERIN!!! I seriously feel so blessed with all of the help that has been offered since Dan got sick this weekend. Blake said it best when he called me earlier, he said, “Mom, I think that we have been lucky to meet the nicest people ever since moving to Minot.” I agree with him! It might not be the warmest, prettiest, or easiest place to live, but the people more than make up for it!
Finally have started working on getting the holiday decor taken down. With my trip to Montana and Dan being sick it has gotten delayed a couple of days from what I usually do. It isn’t all down yet because Cole was being overly helpful and I decided to wait until he was in bed for the night to finish.
And another reason that Minot AFB kills moral…
So Dan has had a fever and been sick for three days now. He called to get an appointment so he can get put on quarters (for those who don’t know this is how the military “call in sick” to work~Dr. visit required.) He was informed that the clinic on base doesn’t have appointments for that and he would have to get seen downtown or wait until the next available appointment on base on the 10th!!! Really, waiting for seven days with a constant fever over 100 degrees is a good idea?!?!?
One of the issues with this is that for him to even go downtown to a doctor he has to go to work to get paperwork since he is on PRP. So Dan, with a fever of 102 degrees (this is even while on Tylenol and Motrin) had to go into work to get paperwork before even heading downtown. But that still doesn’t even get him out of having to report to work tomorrow! The base nurse he talked to just said to him. “Well you are a captain, so can’t you just call in and tell them you are sick, so you aren’t coming in.” {Agh, are you kidding me, so the airmen who are sick just get to suffer being sick at work because they aren’t high enough in rank. Um, no, the Air Force doesn’t work that way and it shouldn’t!}
So then, he got to go sit for almost THREE HOURS at the base clinic to wait to get “squeezed in” between appointments to get put on quarters. Talk about a pain in the rear! This is followed up by finding out that the clinic on base doesn’t even carry his prescriptions and we have to go back downtown to get them filled.
Seriously, I am beyond disgusted with the lack of care for the military members at this clinic!!!! I just don’t see how they can’t have same day appointments for the guys who need to get put on quarters when they are sick! We left the house at a little after 10am and I didn’t get Dan back home to rest until after 4:30pm!!! So disgusted! I swear people get sent to this base just to realize how good they truly had it at previous bases!!!
Today definitely did not turn out like expected. I did get to take the road trip to Montana to take Trent’s friend, Shawn, to the halfway point to meet up with his parents. It should have been about a 9 hour road trip and actually was a 12 hour trip due to the weather. I forgot my cameras on my desk from uploading yesterday’s photos since I was in a rush to leave because I slept through my alarm. {This is rare for me, but I had been up half the night with Cole who kept waking and Dan who was sick with a fever.} So today’s photo of the day is brought to you by courtesy of my camera on my phone. This is a first for me, but I think it shows pretty well what my day was like.
Happy New Year 2011!
Believe it or not I started this year out waking up bright and early to get Trent’s friend, Shawn, to the train station to head back home. We ended up bringing him right back home with us because the last snow storm a few days ago in Montana has left over 70 freight trains stuck in various locations on the tracks and Burlington Northern (who owns the tracks) won’t let Amtrak past because there isn’t enough room in places. So we ended up picking up donuts and heading back home. We will try again tomorrow morning and if it is still jammed then we will look into sending him back by bus or us maybe driving back part way and meeting his parents.
The afternoon has been overly laid back. The kids have been just vegging out playing games and watching movies, and I have spent the day reading and watching the guys snow plow our block from the latest snow storm a few days ago.
This is one of their huge snow blower tractors that they use to remove the snow from the streets on base. The first image is to show the machine from the back side as it throws the snow out of the way. The other two are the pair of tractors that work together with the snow blower machine. It definitely makes a white out mess in the process of cleaning the streets.
