Project 365 Days 51-57

I have known about, but only recently tried, actions in Photoshop.  Wow!  I'm addicted.  Most of the actions I use do not make a drastic change to the photo but I'm starting to experiment with some of the more dramatic actions.  So, you might see some of those in some coming photos ;-)

Day 51 - February 20

The girls were given beautiful red envelopes to celebrate Chinese New Year from their grandparents' neighbors in California.  They were so decorative and festive I wanted to try and get a picture before the girls ripped them open.

Day 52 - February 21

Another beautiful sunset - I couldn't resist!

Day 53 - February 22

Ava's grade performed a wonderful choral concert.  This age is so great because the vast majority of the kids are very into singing (even the boys) and they sing with gusto!  Look at all those open, singing mouths!  Ava even had a solo and hopefully I'll get that uploaded for the video of the week!

Day 54 - February 23

Well for some reason, the day after Ava's performance, I set my camera down and didn't pick it up for several days!  So I'm filling from previous days...this shot was taken on February 1st, the day that terrible cold storm blew in with all the snow.  Prince was crowding Ruby as they ran into the other pasture so Ruby was giving him a good old warning kick to stay back!  I was playing around with actions (I think this is PW's Heartland) and kind of liked how it brought out the contrast in their coats and with the surroundings. Here's the original:

This one is pretty too (I like the light pinks and blues in the sky) but since the foreground was so bleak due to the snow, I didn't think the Heartland action took much away.  What do you think?  Which one do you prefer?

Day 55 - February 24

This was also taken several days (weeks?) ago but I sort of like the composition of Ava with the brush blurred, as she combs and subsequently braided Tinkerbell's tail before her lesson.

Day 56 - February 25

Again, not taken from February 25th, but a few weeks ago Jason took advantage of the warm afternoon to finish mowing the back pasture down so the new spring grass can come through easier.  Again, because everything was mostly brown and still dead then, I took out most of the color in the picture and just left it isolated on Jason.  I like how it focuses your eye...

Day 57 - February 26

Now we're back to 'real' time - on this day Ava and Amelia had drug some branches Jason had trimmed off some trees and brought them over to another tree to make a crude tee pee around it.  But more interesting and fun to Ava is catching bugs - an annual past time that she keeps up throughout spring and summer.  I think there were some poor ladybugs captured in her jar this time.