Sunkissed Orchids

Hello there

I know that I normally write about my cardmaking and scrapbooking but today I want to show you what a difference editing your photos make.  I normally am a purist about photography and do minimal editing such as cropping for photos but today I went a little further and I am sold on editing to get a good photo now.  What do you think of the results?

I used to use Memory Manager from Creative Memories, but I bought a new computer and I am now no longer able to use it for editing as the programme is no longer being supported since the demise of CM Australasia.  So I have discovered Picmonkey which is free for basic editing and just $33 per year for the Royale feature.  I have found it great to use to do collages for a website that  I am setting up for Gift Hutt.

For those of you that don’t know, I also have a shop in Lower Hutt called Gift Hutt and sell lots of arts and crafts on behalf of people.  You can check out what I have  in the shop here.  Today when I got to Gift Hutt the sun was shining through the window, onto some polymer clay orchids that I had sitting in the front of the shop and that was creating a lovely reflection.  I took a few photos with my Samsung Note tablet – here is the original image:

As you can see there is quite a lot of background distraction.  I then cropped the photo to focus on the flowers and then using the clone function removed the white mark on the right.  Finally I used the shadow function to remove the background noise from the wall at the back of the photo.  It didn’t take long but I am happy with the result.  Here is the finished photo again:

As you can see the editing has made a huge difference.  I know a lot of people are probably already doing this but it is a revelation to me and I am so pleased with the results that I will be doing more of this to improve the quality of my photos.  I will be exploring the other functions to see what results I come up with – so watch this space…

Happy Crafting

Patricia

Signs of Spring

Cherry blossoms_0011.jpg, a photo by Patricia Manhire on Flickr.

Spring is definitely in the air when the cherry blossoms come out and I was thrilled that this this photo come out well.
I am very busy at the moment with moving into our Make Shift shop this weekend, so haven’t had a lot of time to make cards. My next post will be a cardmaking 101 for the new CTMH consultants who haven’t done a lot of card making with Creative Memories. One day when I get more confident and I can sort out camera angles etc I will look at making some how to videos of my cards. But in the meantime I will stick with what I know and use photos.
I hope you all have a great day.
Happy crafting
Patricia

Black and White Photo Challenge :Texture

Welcome

I have been inspired to join this Black and White Photo Challenge by my friend, Amanda from Unique So Chic.  She has been doing the most amazing things with her photos and photoshop so I thought it was time for me to give it a go.

So here are my efforts:

For this image I chose a photo of rain drops on geraniums and changed it to black and white.  I then used my Memory Manager’s Filters/Stylise function to create a negative embossed effect.

I did the same for the next photo of a daisy and the embossing was a lot stronger on the single flower.  The little raindrops have come up a lot stronger in this image and actually I feel that this has come out a lot better.

For my last effort I have used the Filter/Surface and Frosted Glass function.

This has made the daisy look quite fuzzy, but the raindrops still stand out.

I can see this is going to be challenging which will be good for me to stretch my imagination and do something completely different with my photography.

I hope you enjoy my efforts.

Have a good day and Happy Snapping.

Patricia

http://sonelcorner.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/black-and-white-photo-challenge-texture/

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Golden delight

Golden delight, a photo by Patricia Manhire on Flickr.

I have been saddened to hear off all the incidents around the world – Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Florida. My thoughts go out to everyone that is affected by these tragedies. I hope this photo helps send a little cheer to everyone out there in blogosphere.
I was a little concerned as my daughter is travelling over in Europe at the moment as had been in Italy last time I heard from her. I was really pleased she rang me today to reassure me she was ok.
I hope you all have a good day and Happy Snapping.
Patricia

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Spring ray of sunshine

Spring ray of sunshine, a photo by Patricia Manhire on Flickr.

We have had the most amazing weather over the last few days and the daffodils are starting to come out in the garden which is lovely. It is so heartening to see the bright splashes of colour after all the grey and drab days of winter. Soon there will be more flowers and the days will get warmer and longer and then it is the downward ride towards Christmas and summer.
We have had some more earthquakes but I haven’t felt them, but I know a lot of people are getting quite nervous. We certainly are getting an idea of what the people in Christchurch have been through in the last 3 years.
I hope this photo cheers everyone up and helps them get through the week.
Happy snapping.
Patricia

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Tears of Spring

Tears of Spring, a photo by Patricia Manhire on Flickr.

Welcome
We have had a torrid time of it lately with severe storms and just recently an earthquake on Sunday night. Fortunately, we have been very lucky but it has been a wake up call to remind us that we are living in the Shaky Isles.
However, yesterday I noticed that the daffodils are starting to come and heralding the onset of spring. We still have another month to go before we are officially in spring but it is heartening to see the signs of the seasons changing and that we are heading towards better weather.
I think this jonquil is called Early Cheer and it certainly does cheer us up with their colour and scent.
I hope you all have a great day.
Happy snapping
Patricia

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A solution to the Creative Memories pages and protectors dilemma

Welcome back.

This is a quick post is for all those people out there (like me) who have Creative Memories albums but not enough pages or protectors.  The very resourceful new CTMH Consultants in Australia have discovered a solution to your dilemma.  You can convert the CTMH page protectors to use in your CM albums and save a lot of money instead of trawling through Trade Me or Ebay and paying exorbitant prices.  It looks to be very easy to do and the CTMH pages are really good quality and will protect your photos in many years to come.  I am really hanging out until the time I can sign up as a Close to My Heart Consultant in New Zealand.  Hopefully it will be early next month.

Please check out this YouTube video for further information and details:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5rIJlpQEpY&feature=youtu.be

I hope you find this useful during this transition from Creative Memories to Close to My Heart.

Happy scrapping

Patricia

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Mirror Mirror

Mirror Mirror, a photo by Patricia Manhire on Flickr.

Hello again.
I do apologise that I have been a little remiss in updating my blog lately but I have been very busy making cards for Make Shift and having to work through a lot of fatigue as well.
The weather was lovely today and I took the opportunity to go back to the duck pond for another photography session. I have another camera club competition next week and the theme is ‘reflection’. I have tried several times to capture a duck and a perfect reflection but haven’t been too successful with the sun in the wrong place and too much wind. But the conditions were very pleasant today, despite the ducks being a little spooked by some rowdy children. This photo came out quite well and I will look at entering into the competition with it. It will be interesting getting feedback from a professional photographer about it, so I can develop as a photographer.
I hope you all have a good weekend and Happy snapping.
Patricia

 

Digital Solution for Australia and New Zealand

This is great news

More Sad news

Welcome back.

I was really sad to hear today that Creative Memories in America will be closing down at the end of the month.  My thoughts go out to all the Creative Memories Consultants as I know what they are going through, as we have been through it all down under just a very short time ago.  We are fortunate that we have been given a lifeline by Close to My Heart.  I hope all the Consultants find another door opening for them like it has for us here.

My thoughts also go to the families of the firefighters lost in the wildfires in Arizona, USA, as well.  It is tragic when men, in the prime of their lives, fighting the ferocity of nature lose their lives protecting others.

Patricia